God lets me, I
want to take His Word to those people who have never heard of Him or His
love."

The next year, 1875, Mary offered herself to the Foreign Mission Board of
her church. She asked to be sent to Calabar. Then she waited. Waiting is
hard sometimes. Mary had to wait until the Board had a meeting. Then when
the meeting was over, she had to wait for the secretary of the Board of
Foreign Missions to write her a letter. Early in 1876 the letter came. How
excited Mary was! Her hands shook as she tried to open the letter. Had they
accepted her offer or refused it?

"Mary dear," said her mother, "you are so nervous, you had better let me
open that letter."

"I'll manage, Mother," said Mary. She finally got it open, and she read:

Dear Miss Slessor, I take great pleasure
in informing you that the Board of
Foreign Missions accepts your offer to
serve as a missionary, and you have been
appointed teacher to Calabar. You will
continue your studies for the teaching
profession at Dundee. May God richly
bless you in His service.

"Oh, Mother, I'm accepted! They're going to send me to Calabar!"

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow," said Mother Slessor. "That is
wonderful news indeed. To Calabar! Oh, I'm so happy I could shout for joy!"

In March another letter came. This letter told her that she was to spend
three months at a teachers' college in Edinburgh. All Mary's friends in
Dundee gathered at the train as she got ready to leave for Edinburgh.

"Come, Mary," said Duncan, the tough boy from the slums, who was now a
grown man and a faithful worker at the mission, "give us a speech."

"I can't make a speech," said Mary, "but I'll just ask you this: Pray for
me."

While Mary was at the school in Edinburgh, some of the other girls she met
there tried to talk her out of being a missionary. They did not want her
to go off to Africa where there were wild animals and man-eating heathen,
and all kinds of terrible sicknesses.

"Don't you know that Calabar is the white man's grave?" asked one of her
school friends.

"Yes," answered Mary. "But it is also a post of honor. Since few volunteer
for that section, I wish to go because my Master needs me there."

At last the time had come for Mary to leave for Africa. For fourteen long
years she had worked at the looms in the weaving factory. As she worked,
she had dreamed of Calabar. Now her dream was going to come true. Mary went
to the city of Liverpool. There