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Mary Slessor 6
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maryslessor6.1.mp3
Picture of paddlers in canoe
He said that Mary could build a school.
Now Mary found that there were many things happening which were very wrong. She wanted the Okonyong people to know that Jesus loved them and that they should love each other.
One day, Mary saw that the men had painted their bodies and they were dancing round. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"We are going to fight" they said. They began waving their spears in the air. "But why?" she asked. "Another tribe has started hunting on land that is ours," they replied.
Mary said, "That is not the right way to settle this. You must talk to them."Mary sat in the canoe and the men paddled. They slowly went up river. When they came nearer to the land where the Okonyong lived the men became frightened. They probably thought that people of the Okonyong tribe might be hiding in the bushes and that they might suddenly attack. But Mary told them to keep paddling.
God was looking after Mary and they were not attacked. They arrived safely at the first Okonyong village. God helped the village chief to see that Mary was a good person and the chief was friendly. He said that Mary could live there and teach the people.
maryslessor6.2.mp3
Picture of men doing war dance
"It has always been settled like this,"they said. "If anyone hunts on our land it means war." They began yelling what they would do to their enemies. Mary saw that they had been drinking a lot of alcohol and this made it more difficult to talk to them.
When the 2 armies moved towards each other for a battle. Mary did a very brave thing. She walked right on to the ground between them. "Get out of the way!" they shouted, "or you will be killed." Mary would not move.
When they saw this they decided not to fight straight away. Mary talked to them and got them to talk to each other. They talked for a very long time and at last both sides went back home and there was no battle.
Mary did not just stop one battle because there were other times when she saw them getting ready to fight and managed to stop them.
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