The Ref family is, as in most other countries of the Arabian Gulf, one among several confessional denominations included under an umbrella church structure named the National Evangelical Church of Bahrain. The actual number of Ref members is very small, because the NEC is an interdenominational church composed of congr. with seven different languages. Only the pastors of the English and Arabic congr come from Ref backgrounds. The total number of Ref members is estimated at some 200. A division occurred in the Arabic congregation in 1990, and the church remains in a very weakened condition. The main English service is on Sunday evenings and is mostly attended by Asians. Arabic services are on Saturday evening. In addition to supplying a pastor for the English-language congregation of the NEC, the Refomed Church in America (RCA) also has mission personnel working in the American Mission Hospital and Al Raja School. The NEC sponsors a youth worker supplied by Youth for Christand a Bible resource center manager supplied by the Bible Societies in the Levant. The American Mission Hospital is the oldest hospital in the Arabian Gulf and the whole of southeastern Arabia. Its origin dates from 1902 when it was established as a result of Samuel Zwemer�s entry onto the island ten years earlier. The hospital chaplaincy is filled by a member of the Ref community. In addition to the American Mission Hospital, the RCA founded a girls school and an orphanage. The orphanage work was taken over by the government; the school, Al Raja (meaning �hope�), became coed in the late 1960s and today has an entirely new facility with a student body numbering 1,000 boys and girls. The headmaster of Al Raja School is supplied by the RCA. The school is no longer under the mission, but has ties to the NEC. Bahrain is overrun with �tent-makers� from a variety of independent mission groups based in Europe, America, and Korea. In addition to the 7 different language congr of the NEC, 33 other congr exist in Bahrain. These represent charismatic, evangelical, Jacobite, Coptic, Roman Catholic, Syrian Orthodox, and Anglican/Episcopal church groups.
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