Mary Slessor

Yeah

... a Yoruba king, but who took the credits for it because she shouted loud? Mary Slessor.

Wow.

You have to-

Yeah

... a Yoruba king, but who took the credits for it because she shouted loud? Mary Slessor.

Wow.

So you have to toot your own horn-

Therefore, listen, in Christ, you are now worthy of all the value that God has intended for you to know, which is God's very image.

Mary Slessor was a Scottish missionary to Nigeria in the 1800s.

Now, in that culture of the area she was in, it was not uncommon for there to be neglected and even abandoned children.

So once she came across a child who had been left alone in the woods and was covered with ants and flies.

The Woman Who Conquered Cannibals.

Mary Slessor.

Dates.

Born in 1848.

But Mary Susser said, I must go.

Then I will send women with you to look after you, and men to protect you, said Chief Edom.

Mary Slessor went back to her house to prepare to start on her long, dangerous journey in the morning.

She could not sleep for wondering whether she was indeed right to risk her life and all her work on the off chance of saving this distant, sick chief.

Now, it's interesting also that oftentimes the chiefs and nobility would go for the clothing first.

Mary Slessor, the women wore a small piece of native cloth made of palm fiber.

Chalmers in New Guinea actually said the women certainly do not wear much, not astonished at it.

They were actually very modest and think themselves respectable and well-clothed.

Who are the names we call today? Malcolm Hicks.

Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Mary Slessor, and all those names.

You can never see a significant name that is not traced to sacrifice.

You see, listen, the fact that it ought is the reason why many people are not doing it.

Yeah.

And as we'll find out with the story that I'm going to share, Mary Slessor, you know, they're not villains by default.

And sometimes the things that they were fighting against were real, right?

Yeah, totally.

Think about what missionaries did in terms of the abolition movement for slavery in Britain.

We're going to talk about Mary Slessor and her campaign against what was known as twin infanticide.

Later missionaries in China, though not necessarily Matteo Ricci, they really had a problem with foot binding.

Now, these customs, these traditions, let's be clear.

We'll be watching it on five Mondays.

September 21st and 28th, and October 5th and 19th and 26th, 7pm to 8.30pm. We'd love for you to join us on any or all of these evenings, meeting in the Mary Slessor, which is a small room within the church.

All are welcome.

The month of September is creation season, a time to focus on how we care for land, air and sea, a time to encourage Christians of all denominations to emerge in prayer together.

Yeah, like, I promise you, I, like a lot of things that have been avoided if only, like, the whites just stayed longer.

Like, if Mary Slessor just lived longer.

If like, like [laughs] I'm sorry, but if these people, who's the person that did that, um, first constitution? The first constitution that we had in Nigeria, if only they just stayed longer, I, i- they could have just helped us to mind warp the people that were there now, because this same traction that we are seeing as things that are happening are things that were happening then.

And then the Mary Slessor people had to like, you know, come and-

The killing of twins

... change some of these things