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Mary Slessor Part 3
mslessor3.1.mp3
Mr Logie became a friend to Mary and helped her in every way he could.
Mary was very good at getting the lads to go to the mission service. They did not have alarm clocks so she went round the houses in the morning, knocking up the lads so they would be in time for the service. They really liked her.
At the time, people felt that the Minister was a very important person indeed. If they knew that the Minister was coming they would make the house as clean as they could and be sure to be on their very best behaviour. It was not quite the same as having a very good friend coming to visit. Nowadays people still think that the Minister is an important person because he is the leader of the church but they do see him as a friend.
Now when Mary came to visit she would sit down by the fire and perhaps have a cup of tea. She would sometimes take a child on her lap. She would listen while people told her about what they were doing and sometimes about things that had gone wrong. She would give advice and she would make people more cheerful. Sometimes when people saw what a good Christian she was, they became Christians too.
Now when Mary went to church she heard about the work of missionaries who were working in India, China, the West Indies and in Africa. They often sent letters back to Britain so people learned about what they were doing and what was happening.
Sometimes the missionaries came back to Britain on holiday and the people in the church were able to talk to them.
When Mary thought about Africa she did not think it was a very nice place.She knew that there were often crocodiles swimming in the rivers and these were especially dangerous to African children. African tribes often fought each other with spears.
mslessor3.2.mp3
Picture of crocodile Picture of warrior
There were witch doctors who were very powerful. Sometimes they might make trouble by saying that someone was using witchcraft to make someone else ill. The person who was blamed might be killed.
In 1874 David Livingstone died. He had been a famous missionary to the people of Africa but he had not been able to tell everyone about Jesus and about God. Before he died he said that it was important that other missionaries came to carry on the work he had started. Mary told her mother that she wanted to become a missionary and her mother was very pleased indeed.
In May 1875 Mary wrote a letter to the Foreign Missions Board and said that she wanted to become a missionary. She said she wanted to go to the mission station at Calabar in Africa but she wanted to be a missionary so much that they could send her anywhere.
Now there were already missionaries at Calabar but they wanted more people to help them.
Mary first went to study to learn to be a missionary and then she was sent out to Calabar
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