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Mary Slessor 5
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mslessor5.1.mp3
The first Mission station that Mary went to was in a place called Duke Town. She met the missionaries who were already there and they worked together to tell the people about Jesus and about God. Every Sunday they had a Church service and many of the native people came along.
Mary told them that they did not need to be afraid of jujus and evil spirits.
Picture of spoon, fork, bowl and cup
She also told them that if a chief died it was wrong to kill other people and that these people would not be his servants in the next world.
At that time it was very common for people to take ill very suddenly. Mary showed them that if they kept their houses clean, cooked their food properly and used clean knives, forks and bowls, this would often stop people becoming ill.
Unfortunately it did not stop all the illness because there are diseases like malaria which attack people in hot countries.
Sometimes Mary became very ill herself but she always recovered.
mslessor5.2.mp3
Mary wanted to tell them that Jesus loved them. Mary prayed to God and asked Him what she should do. After a time she told King Eyo that she would travel up River and meet the Okonyong.
King Eyo and her other friends were very worried because the Okonyong were a very fierce tribe and they thought that if Mary went up river she would be killed.
King Eyo said that if Mary really wanted to go he would send her up river in his own Royal canoe. This was the grandest canoe in that part of Africa and Mary set out in it. There were twenty paddlers.
Picture of people loading canoe by river bank
