Chief Edem wanted that too. He felt that the church schoolhouse
in Ifako quite outshone the little two-room house in Ekenge. Mary wanted
doors and windows in the new house. She could not make them. The natives
could not. They had never seen any.
Mary wrote to the Mission Board about it. The Mission Board put a notice
in the magazine they published asking for a practical carpenter who was
willing to go to Calabar. Mr. Charles Ovens saw the notice.
"This is God's call to me," he said. "I have wanted to be a missionary ever
since I was a little boy. I could not study to be a minister. I learned to
be a carpenter. Now I can be a carpenter for God. I can build mission
houses and churches and while I build I can tell the people about my
Saviour."
It was in May, 1889, that Mr. Ovens started for Calabar. In Duke Town he
found a native helper and the two of them went to Ekenge. Mary was very
glad to have him come. He was a very jolly man. He sang at his
work. Everyone liked him and the natives gladly helped him in building the
houses.
For a long time Mary had been trying to get the chiefs of Okoyong to trade
with the traders on the coast. They would not listen. Now she invited them
to her new house. She showed them the things she had and how useful they
were. The chiefs looked at the door and windows. They liked them. The women
looked at the clothes and at the sewing machine.
Pages:
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86