But she was not able as formerly to resist the effects of such
exposure, and was often weary, and her weariness brought nervousness
and lack of sleep. At times she was afraid of the unknown future
opening out before her, and appalled when she thought of all the
details of labour, supplies, and management that were coming upon her
shoulders. In the dark she would rise and cry, "Calm me, O God, and
keep me calm." Then she would go and look at the sleeping children and
comfort herself with the sight. "Surely," she would say, "I have more
reason to trust God than childhood has after all the way He has led
me."
V. A BUSH FURLOUGH
She at last determined to give up her furlough in Scotland, now drawing
near, and spend the time instead in prospecting in the new country. All
her hopes and aims were expressed in a definite and formal way in the
following document, which she sent to be read at the November meeting
of the Committee--now the Mission Council--at Calabar:
I think it is an open secret that for many years the workers here have
felt that our methods and modes were very far from adequate to overtake
the needs of our immense field, and, as the opportunities multiply and
the needs grow more clamant, the question grows in importance and
gravity. The fact that only by stated consecutive work can a church be
evolved and built up, and a pagan nation be moulded into a Christian
people, cannot be gainsaid, and yet there is an essential need for
something between, something more mobile and flexible than ordinary
congregational work and methods. The scattered broken units into which
our African populations are divided, their various _jujus_ and _mbiams_
and superstitions which segregate even the houses of any common
village, make it necessary for us to do more than merely pay an
occasional visit, even if that visit results in a church or a school
being built.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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