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twg_000000046100 | soon send an ordained minister to take over the Akpap station. I must persuade Miss Wright to go with me to Itu. I am sure God will give her courage to come with me. This Enyong creek region will give us all the work for Christ we can handle and more. We must go forward for Christ." Mary made many | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046101 | trips to Akpap, to Itu and Amasu. She stopped at many little villages and lonely huts along Enyong creek to tell the people about the Saviour who had died also for those with black skins. Often she slept on mud floors. She ate yams and native fruits. God blessed the work at Itu and Amasu. The people of Itu built | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046102 | a church and more than three hundred of them attended the services. At Amasu the school pew fast. The natives were learning to read. The natives at Itu started to build a six-room house at Itu for Mary. It was to be one of the finest homes in which the missionary had ever lived. "I am afraid it is too | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046103 | much work for you," said Mary to the natives. "It is too big." "No, it is not too much." said the people of Itu. "Nothing is too much to do for you. We shall do it." Another time a native woman knelt at Mary's feet. She washed Mary's tired feet in warm water. "You are so kind to me," said | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046104 | Mary thanking her. "I have been so afraid, Ma, that you would think us unworthy of a teacher and take her away," said the woman. "I could not live again in darkness. I pray all the time. I lay my basket down and pray on the road." "That is good," said Mary. "Prayer can do anything. I know. I have | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046105 | tested it. Of course, God does not always answer our prayers the way we want them answered, but He does answer them and in the way that is best for us. Trust God always." One day Mary thought of a new plan she wanted to try out. She had been in the jungle for five years. She was due to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046106 | get a year's vacation at home in Scotland. Instead of this she asked for something else. She wrote to the Mission Board: I would like to have leave from the mission station at Akpap for six months. This time I would spend traveling between Okoyong and Amasu. I would visit many places which I do not have time to visit | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046107 | now. Already I have seen a church and a mission house built at Itu, and a school and a couple of rooms at Amasu. I have visited several towns at Enyong and have found good enough places to stay. I shall find my own canoe and crew. I shall stay at any one place just as long as I think | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046108 | wise. The members of my family [she meant the twins and slave children and other unwanted children she had adopted] shall help in teaching the beginners in the schools. I plan to live at Itu as my headquarters. I will look after the small schools I have started at Idot and Eki. I will visit and work for Jesus in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046109 | the towns on both sides of Enyong creek all the way to Amasu. I will live there for a while or travel among the Aros telling them of Jesus. Then I will come back by easy stages to Itu and home. Please send an assistant to help Miss Wright at Akpap, so I will be free to do this new | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046110 | work in the jungle. I would like Miss Wright to help me with some work among the cannibals, in some places, so that I will have more time for pioneer work in the places farther away. Itu should be our main station. We can reach the various tribes best from it. It is the gateway to the Aros and the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046111 | Ibibios and near many other tribes. That is why it became a slave market. It could be reached so easily. It is only a day's journey from the seaport of the ocean steamers, having waterway all the year round and a good beach front. Itu is a natural place for our upriver and downriver work to come together. Mary was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046112 | now fifty-six years old. She had suffered much from sickness and from the lack of many things. Now she wanted to go on a "gypsying tour of the jungle," as she called it. This was hard and difficult work. There were many dangers from wild animals and wild people. These tribes she wanted to visit did not know anything about | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046113 | the Saviour, or God's Word, but they did know how to do many wicked things like killing and eating people. Many a younger and stronger person than Mary would be afraid to tackle the job she had planned to do. Mary was not afraid. God had given her the chance to reach the wild cannibals. She was willing to die | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046114 | trying to bring the Gospel to them. "I am willing to go anywhere," said Mary, "provided it be forward among the cannibals." Mary anxiously waited for the answer from the Mission Board giving her permission to work for six months in the cannibal country. The answer did not come and did not come. At last she decided to go on | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046115 | a short trip through that country to encourage the black workers she had sent there. She went to see the Wilkies and Miss Wright. "I am going on a short trip through the cannibal country," said Mary. "I am inviting you to be my guests on this trip. I want you to see what God is doing among the cannibals. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046116 | Won't you come with me?" "We'll be glad to go with you," said Mr. Wilkie. Mary and her friends first visited Itu, where they met Colonel Montanaro, who had first taken Mary to Itu. Then they went to Akani Obio. Here Chief Onoyom had a big party for them. "Ma, when are you going to come and stay a long | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046117 | time with us?" he asked. "I want you to bring the Gospel to me and to my people." "I hope it will be soon," said Mary. "I am praying every day that the Mission Board will let me work in your country." Mary and her friends now went to Amasu to see the Gospel work that was being done there. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046118 | Then they visited the villages around Arochuku where the Long Juju was. Then they started back to Akpap. They visited many very small villages on the way back. Everywhere the people said to them, "We want to learn book." They meant they wanted someone to teach them to read the Bible. At last they arrived at Akpap. Here there was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046119 | the letter from the Mission Board. Mary's hands shook as she opened the long-awaited letter. Would it give her permission to go to cannibal land or would it tell her to come home and take her furlough in the usual way? You may make the jungle trip that you plan, but you will have to pay your own expenses during | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046120 | this time. We do not have any money for that work. Mary was happy. Mary took the little money she had and bought supplies at Duke Town. Then she got her canoe ready. She took a crew of black rowers to row the canoe and a group of the black children she had adopted. "It seems strange to be starting | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046121 | with a family on a gypsy life in a canoe," wrote Mary, "but God will take care of us. Whether I shall find His place for me upriver or whether I shall come back to my own people again, I do not know. He knows and that is enough." At last Mary and her group of travelers came to Itu, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046122 | which was deep in cannibal land. Mary had started the work here and then left native workers to carry on. Now there were three hundred people in the church. Mary found that the mission house at Itu was not finished. Mary herself mixed the cement for the floor while Janie did the whitewashing. Someone asked Mary how she learned to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046123 | make cement. "I just stir it like oatmeal, then turn it out smooth with a stick and all the time I keep praying, `Lord, here's the cement. If it is to Your glory, set it,' and it has never gone wrong." Every day Mary made calls and helped to solve the problems of the people of Itu. In the evenings | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046124 | she would hold prayer in the yards of many of the people. Always Mary told the people of the Saviour who died for them. The news that Mary the white Ma was in cannibal land soon spread far and wide. The tom-toms calling through the jungle told the different tribes where Mary was. From Ibibio southward, the natives sent messages | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046125 | to Mary. "Please, Ma," they said, "send us a teacher." "It is not `book' I want," said a chief in his message, "I want God." "We have three in hand for a teacher," said Chief Onoyom of Akani Obio. "Some of the boys have already finished the books Mr. Wilkie gave us. We can do no more until you send | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046126 | us help." Mary spent the night praying to God to send more workers to Africa. "O Britain," said Mary, "filled full of ministers and church workers, but tired of Sunday and of church, I wish that you could send over to us what you are throwing away!" ## _Blessings Unnumbered_ God blessed Mary's work in cannibal land and more and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046127 | more people were won for Jesus. Chief Onoyom stayed true to his faith. "Come," he said to his people, "we must build a church here at Akani Obio. Let us go to the jungle and cut down trees for the house of God." Chief Onoyom and his people went to the woods. The chief went to a tree and got | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046128 | ready to cut it down. "Chief," they cried, "you are not going to cut that tree, are you? You know that is the juju tree." "I know it is the juju tree," said Onoyom, "and I am going to chop it down." "The juju will be angry. He will not let us. He will kill us," cried the people. "Ma's | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046129 | God is stronger than our juju," said Chief Onoyom. "Cut it down." The people began to chop. The trunk of the tree was thick. After a while they stopped. "See, we cannot cut it," they said. The heathen natives were glad. "Aha," they said, "our juju is stronger than Ma's God." The next morning Chief Onoyom took some men who | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046130 | wanted to be Christians. Before beginning to chop at the tree they knelt and prayed that the white Ma's God would prove stronger than the juju. Then they got up and began to chop. Soon the tree fell with a mighty crash. Ma's God had won! The juju tree was used for a pulpit and seats in the church building. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046131 | A large group of people came to the dedication services. They were quiet and well-behaved. What a great change the Gospel had made! Only two years before the people were wild savages. Mary had to hold services at Arochuku out-doors, but now the people built a church and a schoolhouse. At other villages along Enyong creek congregations were organized, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046132 | churches and schoolhouses were built. In Mary had to go to the Mission Council meeting at Calabar. During the meeting Mary was called on to tell about her work. "God has done great things in cannibal land. We have congregations at Itu, Arochuku, Oko, Akani Obio, Odot, Amasu, and Asang. In all of these places churches have been built. In | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046133 | many of them we have built schoolhouses too. Many of the cannibals are being won for Christ. But we need more workers. In all this wide country of the Aros, I am the only white missionary. My six months' leave is almost up. Who will take care of these people who are as dear to God as you or I? | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046134 | Now they are being taken care of by native workers, but these have only little training. Send workers to cannibal land to change these man-eaters into Christians." The Council was thrilled by Mary's report. They voted that she could spend six more months in cannibal land, but again they said she would have to pay her own expenses. This did | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046135 | not bother Mary. She had never been paid, much salary. In the first years she sent most of it back home to take care of her mother and sister. After they had died she used me most of it for her colored Christians. She had adopted many black children whose parents had thrown them out. But money never bothered Mary. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046136 | She had a little bit saved up. She was happy that she could go to cannibal, land and win souls for Christ. "But where shall I work now?" Mary asked herself. "Shall I keep on working on upper Enyong creek or shall I go south to the Ibibios? The Ibibios are the worst heathen in this part of Africa. The | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046137 | worse the people are, the more they need help. I should go to the Ibibios." Meanwhile the Mission committee in Scotland decided to build a hospital at Itu. Dr. Robertson was to be the head of it. The Mission committee chose a name for the hospital. They named it, "The Mary Slessor Mission Hospital." The people in Scotland gave the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046138 | money so the hospital could be built. "It seems like a fairy tale," said Mary when she was told about it, "and I don't know just what to say. I can just look up into the blue sky and say, 'Even so, Father; let me live and be worthy of it all.' It is a grand gift and I am | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046139 | so glad for my people." Now that Itu was taken care of, Mary had all the more reason to go south to the Ibibios. In their country the government was building roads and setting up courts. The government people wanted Mary to come to that country too, because she knew so much more about the people and customs in cannibal | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046140 | land. "Get a bicycle, Ma," said one of the government men. "Here is the road. Come as far as you can. And we'll soon have a motorcar for you." Mary started out. She took along one of the boys she had adopted. It was twelve-year-old Etim. He could read and she needed his help. Once more Mary was beginning mission | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046141 | work in a new part of the country where Christians had never been. Mary and Etim went to Ibibio-land. Mary started a school and a small congregation. Etim was made the teacher of the school. He proved to be a very good teacher. Soon he had a class of fifty children. "It is my hope," said Mary, "that Ikotobong will | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046142 | be the first of a chain of stations stretching across the country." Mary went to visit the old chief of Ikotobong. "What do you think of our work here?" "It is good," said the chief. "I am happy you came. There are many things that are strange to me and my people. We do not understand them. I am glad | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046143 | for the light. We will give Etim food as pay for teaching. We will help build a schoolhouse and a church." Mary was happy that the people were willing and anxious to learn. But she wanted to go to a new part of the country and start more places. The government officer at Ikot Expene gave Mary a bicycle. "I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046144 | think it's God's will that I learn to ride this bicycle. Think of an old lady like me on a bicycle!" said Mary. "The new road makes it easy to ride, and I'm running up and down and taking a new work in a village two miles off. It has done me all the good in the world, and I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046145 | will soon be able to do even more work." The treatment of the women in Ibibio was very bad. They were treated worse than slaves. The men could do whatever they wanted to do with them. They were often beaten. They were bought and sold like cattle. Mary wanted to help the poor women. "I want to build a home | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046146 | for girls, orphans, twins and their mothers, and those who have run away from harems," said Mary. "I also want to start a school where trades and skills can be taught. All the women know how to farm. They know how to weave baskets and make simple sandals. But I want them to know many more things so that they | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046147 | can take care of themselves. I am going to look for a place with good land and pure water near the roads and the markets. Then I will write to my friends and to the Mission Board for help." Mary's furlough had first been for six months and then was made six months longer. In April, , it came to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046148 | an end. She was supposed to go back to Akpap, because the Mission Council expected her to settle down in one place and work there. They appointed her to work at Akpap and that is where they expected her to work. "I do not want to settle in one place," said Mary. "God gives me different gifts; I think my | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046149 | gift is to explore and start new congregations. Others are better fitted to take care of them after they are started than I am. God is pushing me onward. I don't dare look backward. Even if my dear church turns against me and will not have me as its missionary, I must go forward. I can find food for myself | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046150 | and the children. That is all I need. God will help me." Mary thought and prayed much over this matter. She thought of starting a store or taking a government job so she could earn money to take care of the missionary work. She wrote a long letter to the Mission Board. She told how God had blessed the work | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046151 | at Itu and the villages on Enyong creek. Then she wrote: In all this how plainly God has been leading me. I did not think of doing these things in my lifetime, but God has led me on. First Itu, and then the Creek, then back from Aro, where I had set my heart, to a lonely, spooky, wilderness. There | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046152 | no one ever went, but now miles of roads are being built. The Board says I am to go back to Akpap in April. I love no other place on earth so well. But I dare not think of leaving the crowds of untamed, unwashed, unlovely savages, and take away the little sunlight that has begun to flicker out over | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046153 | its darkness. I know that I am pretty old for this kind of work. But God will help. Whether the church permits or not, I feel that I must stay here. I must even go farther as the roads are made. I cannot walk now and I must be careful of my health. But I can get four wheels made | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046154 | and set a box on them and the children can pull me. I dare not go back. If the Board insists, I will risk finding some other way to support myself and my family. As April drew closer day by day, Mary anxiously waited for the Mission Board's answer. The Mission Board wrote to Mary: We are sending John Rankin | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046155 | to look over the field where you have been working. After he has made his report we will decide what you should do. Mr. Rankin visited the different places in cannibal land where Mary had started congregations. He talked with the chiefs and the people. One chief talking about Mary and the other women missionaries said, "Them women be the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046156 | best men for the mission." He wrote to the Board: Close to Arochuku, within a circle of less than three miles in diameter, there are nineteen large towns. I visited sixteen of these. Each of them is larger than Creek Town. Most of the people are anxious to help. Already many of them have begun to live in God's way. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046157 | Even the head chief of all the Aros wants us to do mission work in his country. He told the other chiefs he is going to rule according to God's way. He wants missionaries to be sent to his people. He offers to build a house at Arochuku for any missionary who will come. The Mission Board was thrilled when | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046158 | they read this report. They agreed to give the money for the work which Mary had planned. They appointed Rankin to take charge of the stations at Itu and Arochuku. They agreed to let Mary go into the new territory. She did not have to go back to Akpap. This made Mary very happy. Now she could work full time | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046159 | among the Ibibios. She offered to pay for the building of a mission station among the Ibibios if there was no money in the homeland treasury. In May the government appointed Mary to take charge of the courts in the Ibibio district as she had done in Okoyong. It paid her for this work so now she had money to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046160 | carry on her mission work whether the Board paid her or not. Court was held at Ikotobong. Three chiefs and a jury helped Mary in trying the cases, but Mary's word was law. Mary was fair and kind, but at the same time she saw to it that those who did bad things were punished. In a letter to a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046161 | friend she wrote: God help those poor helpless women. They are treated worse than animals. Today I had a crowd of people. How wicked they were! I have had a murder, a poison bean case, a suicide, a man branding his slave wife all over her face and body, a man with a gun who shot four people. It is | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046162 | all horrible. But her work as judge did not stop her from doing her mission work. Everywhere she went she told the natives of Jesus' death for them. She opened schools and churches for natives. She also was thinking about the other missionaries. She planned a place for them where they could spend weekends or where they could rest when | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046163 | they were getting over sickness. She chose a place half-way between Itu and Ikotobong on Enyong Creek. It was high above the lowlands where most of the sickness was. A friend sent her a check for $ and Mary used it as a start for this rest home. She had the ground cleared and a small English house built. Although | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046164 | Mary was busy she was not well. During most of she had been ailing. "If you want to keep on with your missionary work," said the government doctor, "you must go home to Scotland where you can rest up and get the fever out of your system." Mary did not want to leave her work. A few days after her | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046165 | talk with the doctor, when he came to see her again, she was much better. "It looks as if God wants me to stay. Does that sound like He could not do without me! I do not mean it so. How little I can do! But I can at least keep a door open for missionary work so others can | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046166 | come and do more." The year came. Mary was much worse. She could walk only a few steps. When she wanted to go anywhere, she had to be carried. At last she decided to do as the doctor told her and go to Scotland for a vacation. "Oh, the dear homeland!" she said with tears in her eyes. "Shall I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046167 | really be there and worship in the churches again? How I long for a look at a winter landscape, to feel the cold wind, and the frost in the cart ruts! How I want to take a back seat in a church and hear the congregation singing, without a care of my own! I want to hear how they preach | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046168 | and pray and rest their souls in the hush and silence of our home churches." Mary took her six-year-old Dan, one of the many children she had adopted. The government officers were kind and helpful to her in getting ready for her trip. "God must repay these men," said Mary, "because I cannot. He will not forget that they did | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046169 | it to a child of His, unworthy though she is." Mary was now a wrinkled, shining-eyed old lady, almost sixty years old. She was carried on board the ship that would take her to Scotland. Her friends, both white and native, cried and wondered if she would ever come back to Africa again. ## _Journey's End_ "Send us workers for | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046170 | dark Africa," said Mary. "If I can get the Board to send us one or more workers, I will give half my salary to add to theirs. I will give the house for them to live in and find the servants. You who have so much, won't you do something for these poor people of Africa?" Mary was speaking in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046171 | the churches of Scotland telling about her work in Africa. After she had returned to Scotland, she felt much better. The air and climate was much better than in the steaming jungles of Africa. As soon as she was strong enough, she began to go about telling about her work. She urged the people to give money and to send | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046172 | workers to Africa. Above all, she wanted to get money to support the industrial home for women which she had planned. From May until October she went among the churches telling about the "African sheep" whom the Good Shepherd Jesus wanted brought in. In October Mary asked to be sent back to Africa. She wanted to carry on her work | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046173 | there. "I am foolish, I know," said Mary, "but I just feel homeless without any relatives here in Scotland. I am a poor, lonesome soul with only memories." Back in Africa Mary was busier than ever, holding court, looking after her home, and doing missionary work. On Sundays she held a half-dozen or more services in the nearby villages in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046174 | which lived the people with whom she worked during the week. On some of these trips she brought back orphan children to join her already "overstuffed" household. But all this work was too much for her. She became sick again and very weak. Now her eyes began to get weak, so that she could not see as well. But nothing | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046175 | could stop her. She started the building of the industrial home for women and girls. She planted fruit trees there and planned to raise rubber and cocoa and cattle. Mary wanted to move again. Some natives had come from Ikpe to see her before she went on her vacation to Scotland. They asked her to bring the Gospel to them. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046176 | Now they came again. "We have heard of the great white Mother and we want to learn to be God's men," they said. Mary made a two-day canoe trip to their town. Ikpe was a large town with many people in it. But the people were very wicked. They did all the wicked heathen things that were against God's commandments. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046177 | But there were people in it who wanted to become Christians. They had begun to build a small church building to which they had added two rooms for the missionary. Mary held a service in the church. Many people had gathered to hear for the first time the news of how Jesus saves us. After the end of the service | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046178 | Mary decided that it was God's will for her to move to Ikpe. But she had to arrange for someone to take care of her other work first. When she came home from this trip she was sick again. As soon as she was a little better she busied herself with the women's home. She wanted to get that running | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046179 | well before she left for Ikpe. The natives of Ikpe sent some more of their people to visit her and beg her to come to Ikpe. Whenever she could, she made trips to that village. Often she took other missionaries with her. In November, , she resigned from her court work. The government did not like to lose her because | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046180 | she knew so much about the natives and their customs. But the government knew that Mary's first love was her missionary work. They let her give up her court work and thanked her for all she had done. "Just a few more things to take care of," said Mary, "and I will be ready to start for Ikpe. Those faithful | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046181 | people deserve a worker. They are holding services even though they know very little of Christianity. I must go there. I know God wants it." It was the year and Mary was sure that now she could begin her work in the new territory that looked so promising. Suddenly Mary became very, very ill. The government sent its official automobile | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046182 | to take her to the Mary Slessor Hospital at Itu. Did God want Mary to work at Ikpe? Or would someone else preach the Gospel there? For many weeks Mary lay sick in the hospital at Itu. At last she was much better. "You must go to Duke Town for a longer rest," said the doctor. "But, Doctor," said Mary, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046183 | "I have my work to do, I cannot spend my time lying in bed." "If you are unwilling to rest at Duke Town, I shall have to send you to Scotland on a long vacation." "Very well," sighed Mary, "I will go to Duke Town." The next day the government sent its boat, the "Maple Leaf," to take Mary down | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046184 | the river to Duke Town. Here she spent many weeks resting and gaining her strength. At last the doctor agreed that she could go back to her work at Ikotobong. Once more the government sent its boat to take her back to her mission station. "I want to go to Ikpe soon," said Mary, "but first I want to establish | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046185 | a station at Ikot Expene and at other places along the way." Whenever she felt strong enough, she rode her bicycle through the jungle to Ikot Expene choosing places for schools and churches along the way, talking to chiefs, and getting the things ready for more places where the Gospel could be preached. The people at Ikpe were holding services | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046186 | even though they knew very little about Christianity. "Soon the white Ma will come," they said. "She will tell us more about Jesus." A native teacher from another station, who had received training from Mary, taught the people what he knew about the Gospel. "Oh, why cannot the church send two workers to Ikpe?" said Mary. "Why don't they use | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046187 | the money on hand for that? If there isn't enough money left after two years, let them take my salary. I shall be only too glad to live on native food with my children." Mary was busy collecting building materials and other things for the church of Ikpe. At last the time came. God wanted Mary at Ikpe. How happy | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046188 | Mary was! How happy were the faithful people at Ikpe who had waited so long! Mary at once was busy with much work. She quieted mobs, she calmed quarreling chiefs, she held meetings with the crowds, and on Sundays conducted services. One day the smallpox broke out. The government sent down men to vaccinate the natives so the sickness would | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046189 | not spread. Mary heard shouting and yelling in the streets. She looked out of her house. The natives were yelling and shouting and waving guns and swords. Mary went up to the crowd. "What is this?" asked Mary. The crowd kept yelling. "Be quiet," shouted Mary and held out her hands. "Let your chief speak." "Ma," said the chief, "my | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046190 | people are afraid of the white man's juju. It makes the people sick." He meant the vaccination. "The vaccination may make a little sickness, but it keeps you from getting the big sickness," said Mary. Then she told them how vaccination had helped other tribes. She showed them her vaccination. After a long talk with the chiefs and the people | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046191 | the matter was peaceably settled. Mary wanted to keep in touch with her former headquarters at Ikotobong. She made many canoe trips back and forth. These trips were very hard on her and she did not rest well. Many people wondered how Mary could keep on working, but she trusted God who made her strong to carry on. During a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046192 | tornado struck Mary's house at Use, one of the stations. She fixed the house herself. During this she strained herself and had a heart attack which was followed by a severe fever. Sometimes the fever was so great she was delirious. But still she would not stop working. She continued to teach school and hold worship services on Sunday. Dr. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046193 | Hitchcock of the Slessor Hospital came to see her every week. "You must not go to Ikpe again," he said. "You must not ride your bicycle. You must spend more time resting." But Mary disobeyed the doctor and held services the following Sunday. It was too much for her. She almost fainted before the service was over. "You must stay | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046194 | in bed," said Dr. Hitchcock, "until you are well enough to get up." "All right, doctor," said Mary. "And you must eat meat twice a day," said the doctor. "But I'm not a meat-eater," answered Mary. "You're going to be, or I will send you to Duke Town for a long rest." Mary laughed. "I've all my plans made and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046195 | I must not draw a salary without doing something for it." At last the doctor sent her to the Slessor Hospital for a rest. Because of her hard work, she had a bad fever sickness. Now Mary saw that she was foolish in not listening to the doctor. "Life is hardly worth living," she said, "but I am doing what | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046196 | I can to help the doctor to help me, so I can be fit again for another spell of work." The Christians at Ikpe sent some men to see Mary to ask her when she would be back. "Seven weeks," said Dr. Hitchcock. "I may run up sooner than that," said Mary. "I'm very well if the doctor would only | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046197 | believe it." Near the end of Mary was allowed to leave the hospital. She hurried to her friends at Ikpe. But Mary still was not very strong. Her friends in Calabar and in Scotland urged her to take a long-earned furlough. While thinking about this, Mary decided to have a box on wheels made so that she could get around | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046198 | since the doctor would not let her use her bicycle. Some friends heard about this and they sent her a light cart which could be wheeled by two boys or girls. "Now I don't need a furlough," said Mary. "Instead of going home as I had planned, I shall stay here and enjoy going over ground in my cart that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000046199 | I couldn't get over otherwise." A new government road was being built between Ikpe and Ikot Expene. Mary wanted to start schools and churches all along this road. But she was not strong enough to carry out her idea. Her heart was very weak now and she had to rest often. If there had been someone to take her place, | 60 | gutenberg |
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