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9 The Building of Mary Slessor's House
Mary wanted a house and a hall where there could be Church Services. She asked the people to help and they said they would. Now the house was not built in the same way as the house you live in. The houses that we have are usually built of brick or stone. Wood is also used but before the builders get it, it has been dried and cut into planks. Mary's house was built from tree trunks, mud, and mats made from
palm-tree branches.
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Picture of house being built
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They first found four trees which had Y-shaped branches at the top. They cut these down and then drove them into the ground. They laid other tree trunks across them to make the frame of the house.
Pieces of bamboo were woven together and covered with palm mats to make the roof. Sticks and clay were used for the walls. The people of Okonyong thought it was a marvellous house!
There was one problem. it did not have any doors or windows but someone turned up to help.
The people of Scotland wanted to hear what missionary work was going on and they could read about it in a paper called "The Missionary Record."
Advert in Missionary Record March 1889mslessor9.3.mp3
Mary wrote about what she was doing and she said that she needed help to put doors and windows in her house. There was also an advertisement in the paper.
There was a boy called Charles Ovens. He read a lot about Missionaries and he wanted to be a Missionary himself but he thought that all Missionaries had to be Ministers.
He felt he could not be a Minister. Perhaps he thought that he was not clever enough. He liked woodwork so when he grew up he became a Carpenter. One day a friend said, "I have been reading 'The Missionary Record'. It says that Mary Slessor wants someone to help her to finish building her house." He set off on a boat to Calabar.
