 So he was ordained in 1912. On December the 17th of 1912, boarded a ship in the New York Harbor headed to Cairo, Egypt, where he would learn Arabic and study Islam for the sake of winning people to Christ that he had met along the way. And while studying there, not long after arriving there, he developed what became known as spinal meningitis. He began to battle for his life just within months of being there in Cairo, Egypt.