Miss Slessor relives in her imagination a Sabbath School trip with her friends at home, and the singing of psalms at a service. However she describes a typical service at her station (presumably at Use) declaring she would be no-where else.
Presumed to be from the Women's Missionary Magazine of March 1910?
The sun is so brilliantly bright that last time I raised my head I felt quite giddy, so I shut my eyes for a bit, and have gone over all your homes, and the lane up to the Tweed, and the road far out that we went for the Sabbath school trip to Sandyknowe, then up the road towards Newtown, past the church and manse, the houses and shops under the railway bridge, and up by the lovely road, round (by?) the Eildons to Bowden, each farmhouse and each garden standing out separately, and it has been such a blink that it has made a feeling like home- sickness. I wish I could get just a fortnight, or even a week-end to realise it, and to grip each hand, and look into each face, and to hear the dear homeland language, and to have an English service with the congregation singing a psalm, “O Thou, my soul, bless God the Lord;” or “Praise waits for Thee in Sion,Lord;” or “I'll of salvation take the cup.” Just a wee blink of home and a home Sabbath!
But though the tears are coming at the thought, you are not to think, for one moment, that I would take the offer, even though it was given me! A thousand times “No.” I feel too grateful to God for His wonderful condescension in letting me have the privilege of ministering to those around me here, who otherwise would have no one to guide their worship or teach them. It is such a privilege to have a people *waiting* on one's ministrations. I wonder if the ministers at home feel this! To go up and find the church swept and clean; mats and seats laid down, and someone waiting for your appearance to ring the bell; and then, while your head is bowed behind the mud pulpit, to find that they have trooped in, and are coming in as fast as they can, each one, even the small boys and girls, bowing their heads in silent prayer. I tell you, dear friends, I would not, for all the weight of responsibility, and the feeling of my unfitness, change places with the happiest and mightiest on earth.