The Secret Place of Mary Slessor

Mary Mitchell Slessor was born on December 2, 1848, in Aberdeen, Scotland, the second of seven children in a poor working-class family. Her father, a shoemaker, struggled with alcoholism, leaving the weight of the household upon her mother, a devout Presbyterian who filled the home with Scripture and prayer. At age eleven Mary was already working long hours in the textile mills of Dundee, threading shuttles in a hot and dangerous environment to help support her family. By the time she was fourteen, she was the primary breadwinner. Yet her mother's faith shaped her deeply. Each evening she read missionary journals from Calabar, West Africa, and Mary's imagination was fired with the vision of taking the gospel to those who had never heard.

In her teens she joined the Wishart Church in Dundee, teaching a children's class and evangelizing in the streets and slums. She was bold, fearless, and willing to go where others hesitated. In 1875, after hearing of the death of David Livingstone, she dedicated her life to missions. She applied to the Foreign Mission Board of the United Presbyterian Church, and in 1876 she was sent to Calabar in present-day Nigeria.

The coast of West Africa was called the white man's grave because of malaria, yellow fever, and other tropical diseases that claimed the lives of so many missionaries. Mary nearly died herself in her early years, enduring fever after fever. Yet she pressed on, learning the Efik language and living simply among the people. She was horrified by local customs of infanticide, twin killing, and the sacrifice of women in tribal superstitions. With courage and compassion, she intervened to rescue abandoned infants, to plead for mercy in tribal courts, and to live among the poorest with no thought of her own safety.

Her missionary methods were unusual for her time. She refused the comforts often taken by Europeans and lived as close to the people as possible. She walked barefoot through the forests, shared their food, and slept in their huts. The natives who first mocked her later came to trust her as a "white queen of Okoyong," not because she sought authority, but because her love and courage made her their advocate in times of danger. She was often seen carrying rescued infants on her back while speaking to chiefs about the love of Christ.

Mary Slessor spent nearly forty years in Calabar. She pushed into unreached territories, crossing rivers, trekking through forests, and establishing mission stations in places no white missionary had dared to go. She was often alone, save for the African converts who became her family in Christ. Her life was a continual rhythm of prayer, preaching, rescuing children, settling disputes, and interceding for revival among the tribes. She contracted malaria repeatedly, and her health grew frail, but she refused to return home permanently. On January 13, 1915, she died in Calabar at age sixty-six, honored by Nigerians and Scots alike.