She chose a place half-way between Itu and Ikotobong on Enyong
Creek. It was high above the lowlands where most of the sickness was. A
friend sent her a check for $100 and Mary used it as a start for this rest
home. She had the ground cleared and a small English house built.
Although Mary was busy she was not well. During most of 1906 she had been
ailing.
"If you want to keep on with your missionary work," said the government
doctor, "you must go home to Scotland where you can rest up and get the
fever out of your system."
Mary did not want to leave her work. A few days after her talk with the
doctor, when he came to see her again, she was much better.
"It looks as if God wants me to stay. Does that sound like He could not do
without me! I do not mean it so. How little I can do! But I can at least
keep a door open for missionary work so others can come and do more."
The year 1907 came. Mary was much worse. She could walk only a few steps.
When she wanted to go anywhere, she had to be carried. At last she decided
to do as the doctor told her and go to Scotland for a vacation.
"Oh, the dear homeland!" she said with tears in her eyes. "Shall I really
be there and worship in the churches again? How I long for a look at a
winter landscape, to feel the cold wind, and the frost in the cart ruts!
How I want to take a back seat in a church and hear the congregation
singing, without a care of my own! I want to hear how they preach and pray
and rest their souls in the hush and silence of our home churches.
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