Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: TRAIL (05/13/21)
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TITLE: Norma's Long Trail to Grandpa | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mariane Holbrook
05/19/21 -
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Norma reflected on her life, the many answers to prayer including her miraculous healing of abdominal cancer. Now her loving God had provided this "icing on the cake" by permitting her to find the answers she needed to end this journey.
Before Norma was born, her parents were so moved by a missionary's sermon at church that Norma's mother, with her husband's approval, tenderly placed her wedding ring in the collection plate to be used for the missionary's work in Sierra Leone, West Africa. It was during the Great Depression and they had nothing else of value to contribute.
Not long after, Norma was born. During her dedication service at church, her mother silently prayed that, if God willed, she would be pleased if God would call Norma to Sierra Leone as a missionary. Wisely, she kept this dedication to herself for many years, not wanting to influence Norma when she was old enough to make her own life choices.
One day, while still in high school, she told her parents she believed God's will for her was to attend Bible College to prepare for missionary service in Africa. Overjoyed, they supported her decision but her mother still kept her secret prayer to herself.
Norma graduated from Bible College, married another student who had a similar calling to be a missionary and they served God in the African country of Guinea. Later, they were transferred to a mission station in neighboring Sierra Leone. It was only then that Norma's mother revealed her long-held secret to her daughter.
One day, Norma wrote to a distant cousin in America asking for any information she could share about Norma's father. She knew so little about his family because his parents both died when he was a young man and not much was known.
Her cousin sent her a copy of a page in a tattered family Bible listing known relatives from as far back as 1770. Her great-great-grandfather, Anson Carter, had been a missionary in Sierra Leone in 1848!
Then, to Norma's surprise and excitement, she located a book in a Sierra Leone library written by a friend and former student of her great-grandfather's life as a missionary there. An entire section recorded his association with Grandfather Anson Carter. The author, George Thompson, wrote that Anson had been teaching at a missionary college in Chicago when George (a former student) informed Anson that he was going to Sierra Leone because the missionaries there were very ill from Malaria. The area was referred to as the "White Man's Graveyard." George invited Anson to join him as a missionary.
George Thompson revealed that he had been imprisoned in Missouri for 12 years in the mid-1880s for aiding a runaway slave from the South in an attempt to escape. While in prison, George vowed that he would spend the rest of his life helping Africans.
Excited over George's invitation, Anson's wife and young daughter agreed to join him in Africa once he was settled.
After buying a printing press and other necessary items, George and Anson embarked on their long voyage, ending up in Freetown, a port city and capital of Sierra Leone.
Anson became very ill on the seas and after being in Freetown only a few days, contracted Malaria. They preached in the small churches which the English missionaries had begun in Freetown and made additional purchases, then after two months, they took separate launches to the inland town of Komende where their mission station was located.
Anson's Malaria worsened. He reasoned, "I only arrived here a short time ago. This was surely God's timing and His will. This couldn't be the end of my work here!" As his illness progressed, he asked God to send someone to replace him in case his time was up. However, he soon passed into the presence of his Lord.
Anson had arrived at the mission station several days before George. When George arrived, he learned that his beloved co-missionary and friend had succumbed to the ravages of Malaria and his first act was to bury Anson Carter.
Norma had thought her search was over but it hadn't ended yet. Years later, Norma entered God's presence and finally met her now beloved Grandfather Carter face-to-face. Her trail had ended.
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Psalm 145:4: "One generation shall declare thy works to another.."KJV
True story. Norma was my sister.
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Excellent job!
Blessings~