Letters and Articles 33–46

My dear, dear friend

What a Xmas message!! It is worth coming down for! I have had a heap of mails brought down this morning by my dear sister from Ikot Obidi – Miss Amess. Among them all, Yours has come closest to my heart, & tho *I have not been washed for 2 days*, & have not had my food, I cant let one half hour pass without sending my loving thanks, & I wish you knew - do you know ? – God may be telling you through some one of His Messengers – that I am praying for you & yours, & asking that your Xmas may be a Holy & a Happy One. Thank you very dear friend for your sweet & helpful words. May such be given with Compound interest back to you. And thank you for a peep into your home circle. I have no home here now in that sense, all my home circle are waiting Up Yonder for me, & it is so precious thus to be taken into the sacred things of another home. May the Blessed Saviour’s felt Presence be ever with you there, in fuller measure than (even?) Bethany had it. Christ wants sympathy, & He still loves to be loved & trusted & entertained by His Children in the sacred enclosures where life & character find their springs & growth.

I left Ikpe yest. morning at 6/30. a.m. We were in the canoe all night & reached the beach here at 5.50 a.m. this – Xmas morning. Mary & Alice & David were there, as they are living at the beach in the Garage, & they heard the canoe boys singing & the drum, & ran down to help us to get off. We have a new baby, whose mother died of small pox this month up at Abariba, so we were burdened, but God made this provision for us, & Alice came up with the baby, & Mary took our kit, & we got up early. But the first news I got was of the death of one of our members, who was at Church last Sabbath, a dear old lady, & her house has been bereaved once & again of late, so I could not venture to go to take service at the Church & sent up to tell Miss Amess to come & take it, as she has been doing all the time I have been away. The dear girl came & so I have had a rest & the good news, that the lady was buried quietly in Xtian(Note 1) fashion, & Miss Amess was sent for to the funeral, & the faith of the members of the family is not shaken. But now, I feel releived a little by this wee talk with you, & I must get my subject ready for afternoon, so tata. Your letter will help me immensely. Thank you once more.

*Wednesday*

Letters must be finished today. Sabbath had afternoon service, left the meeting evening to the members, as I was too tired even to speak to the children at prayers. Monday the girls made a thorough cleaning out of the Hall. Mary & David & baby were here, & then the whole Ikot Obon Membership came in, with my own best men. They had all been at breakfast at a candidates place at the Beach. I went up with them to call on Miss McFadyen, as they said she had not been able to be at Church the day before. Found them all three well. We have some dear Xtian lassies here!! & these 3 are among the cream. Spent a sweet hour or two with them, & came back in the cool. They all came down & had tea here yest., & all my bairns, Annie & all were down spending the day at Marys. The babies & all, but they laid the fire & put the kettle & everything ready just at the door, so we had no trouble, & dear Miss Amess laid the table. I had a turn out of Mission box stuff, to get it aired, & to see what wd. be suitable to take as gifts for the new place, & for callers who might be remembered at this season. So the writing pad has been untouched, & my occupations have been very prosaic, such as the hemming of curtains for the window as these are dirty & shabby in the extreme. This is market day, & I shall have the babies, & I have an order for building material to write out & send, & to try to get men to go to Itu to carry the Bowden Box(Note 2) over, that means writing a native, & writing to the Dr. & etc., etc. Not much evangel there? Eh? Well! It is all for His Dear Sake, as I am His, & all my work is His. Now I must tell you that the new house at Ikpe is nearly finished as far as native work is concerned. Only the mudding & that wd. have been done, but our iron(Note 3) has failed to get up. Transport is difficult. The people have worked with such a will, & the material & the workmanship is the finest, by a long stroke of any I ever had. Of course it is a huge town, & non Xtian has worked with Xtian, & vied with with them in their eagerness. In a fortnight the whole thing has been done, Leveling, stumping, building. & they have found all the material themselves. Only my carpenter failed- as he got sick & had to go for medicine to Eniyon. He did not get a canoe to come back for a week, so every thing was at a stand still. The 2 bedrooms are raised 5 1/2 feet, so there will be a boxroom & a room for the babies underneath, & a little more privacy from the 2 or 3 steps up off the Hall. That means the extra price of boards for the floor, but if any newer body is put up there, it will make it more cosy & homelike for them, & will give the extra 2 rooms below. It is the best house I have yet built, & it will be the most expensive, as verandahs are covered with Iron, & the mat roof for coolness under, instead of the single roof, but you see it is far out of the way, so every comfort that can minimize the loneliness & conserve the health & nervous calm, is good. I do not think it will cost altogether over £40 “ ” & there will be accomodation for visitors. The people are not all desirous of the Gospel. They want to have my help in other ways, & the security & safety of having me there, & they want their children to learn English in order to compete with the other tribes who are going in for Government service, & by that means, pushing themselves up, & others under. But it can be the means to an end, & by this open door, we can get in the Gospel wedge, which *alone* can help or lift up any people. Then the Xtians themselves are a great asset. They are not well grounded in the Faith, & they have adopted outward things which infant congregations with inadequate supervision have adopted or created, but they have *grit* & they are in dead earnest, & have borne persecution, & several are soundly converted, & among them are the best human material there is in the place. So it is a fine sphere, but will need our wisest & strongest help for some time to come. I am sorry to say, they are not desirous of any other European, as they are only acquainted with certain sides of the White Mans life & ways, but when our Missionaries visit them, this will pass away. Pray for workers! I shall just need to lock up this place, for I shall need Jean to teach - she was teaching at Nkana, a village 4 miles on, while we were up, & I need the others for the babies & house & station work, & I shall need Annies husband for a new school 12 miles out from this place, & another lad for the school here at Use. & the members will have to work away themselves with the help & supervision of Ikot Obon ladies. O that the Spirit wd decend in Power on the Home Church! & thrust out labourers into the Harvest. I endorse & plus, all you say about Miss Affie Young. She is a woman among a 1000, in *every* *sense*. It wd be far too good to be true that she came here. O how I long for such an one, or one like Miss Amess, to be at my back, for my strength is precarious now, & a helpless helper, only adds to the burden. The Nkana Church was opened by Mr McGregor 2 years ago, & yet not a creature has been found to go there, & not one knows A.B.C. This place *I* *must* supply while at Ikpe. I have promised to divide my time equally between them & Use, & the Dist. Comr.(Note 4) has said he will help me to make a cycling road to Nkana from Ikpe, so that I may be better able to take it on. My little Whitie has a brother a very good scholar, but he is small, & I am not sure that he is a converted boy, at Okoyon. I am thinking of sending for him to teach in the school at Ikpe & then myself & Janie can teach English. I could not undertake the school there alone, as there is a constant run of people from all round seeking advice & having palavers(Note 5) settled, & tho’ this is a most important work, creating public opinion, & establishing just laws, & protecting the poor, & getting a hold on the people, it is not a work I like. I only wish some one could come & take it up. Small pox is rampant all over the Abariba & Unene districts & I fear for Ikpe as the big market is there. The Govt.(Note 6) doctors are doing all in their power to get the people vaccinated but your experience of India will tell you how they fear any foreign interference with old fashions & methods. I need not say pray for us, I know you will. Pray that all my bairns be *converted*. Born again. More & more I am feeling that nothing short of this is much good. On our arrival at the Beach Mary told me that “Ekereke said I was to tell you that his mother *was* *asleep* ”. That is the first of our members to go up Higher. Was it not lovely of him to put it like that? How soon the Power of Jesus transforms not only the habits, but the very thought & language of a people! She is laid in our new God’s Acre(Note 7). Her little grandchild was the first to be buried in Xtian fashion, & she was there that day, sitting by me, little thinking she wd be next. It was cancer. She was a very superior woman, & very loveable, & most sincere. Her son sent for Miss Amess to conduct the funeral service, & sent for the principal Church Members at Ikot Obon to come, & Miss Amess says, it was a most orderly, quiet & solemn service. I dared not speak of it, but have been trying to translate the Hymn “Sleep on Beloved” since, as an outlet to my own feelings. To this add, that this morning one of our best men, father of a large family has been asking when next Communion will take place, as he wishes to prepare for it. He is prepared in the essentials. It is the women of the house, & the civil side that has been the barrier. So the faith has not failed, when they see the ills of this life come upon Gods People. I have set a time when we can have a long talk with him & his wife, & his sons, who are candidates on their own profession will be asked about taking the vows on themselves. So quietly & surely He is making a people for Himself among us. Now Im ashamed always at the sort of letter I make, But dear lassie, will you look between the lines ? & if you don’t see the love shining, aye blazing - its the fault of this horrid ink. Oh, & to think that I once thought of you as a soulless official !!! You darling. God bless you, & make you more & more a blessing, & a help to His Children, a pronounced Imperialist for Christ’s Kingdom. You have come into your own in Calabar. You are dearly loved among the sisters here, & those who are near me, & who were told yest of your letter, send their loving regards. I have a letter from Miss Chalmers, who says she is quite better, & that Miss Ramsay is well & enjoying the new work. Now tata. Every blessing be yours, & much consciousness of the Presence of Our King &

Lord. I am affectionately yours in Him

M M Slessor