Joy in the Morning

“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” — from Psalm 30

In 1896 the people of Okoyong moved to new land, and Mary moved with them to a place called Akpap. While a new house was being built, she lived in a shed with two rooms and no floor.

Then a sickness spread through her house, and four of her children died. Soon afterwards a terrible illness called smallpox swept through the land. Mary spent hours every day giving people vaccine to protect them, and turned her old house at Ekenge into a hospital. Almost everyone else ran away.

Then Chief Edem, who had welcomed her eight years before, caught smallpox. Mary nursed him day and night, but he died in the middle of the night. There was no one to help her. So Mary made a coffin with her own hands, dug a grave, and buried her old friend. Then she walked back through the dark, wet forest to Akpap as the sun was coming up.

For a while Mary had no heart for anything. For three years she worked alone, often ill and unable to sleep. “All is dark,” she wrote, “except above. Calvary stands safe and sure.” Calvary is the place where Jesus died for us. Year after year, nobody was baptised. But Mary said, “Christ sent me to preach the Gospel, and He will look after results.”

And at last, the morning came. In August 1903, fifteen years after Mary first walked into Okoyong, seven young people were baptised there. Mary also brought eleven children to be baptised, and six of them were children she had rescued. Then everyone sang Psalm 103 in the Efik language. It praises the God who “redeemeth thy life from destruction,” which means that he saves our lives. Mary had seen many lives taken in Okoyong. Now its people were singing about a God who saves, and her eyes filled with tears.

Sometimes we have to wait a long time to see good things happen. But God is at work even in the dark, and joy comes in the morning.

Dear God, when I have sad days, help me to remember that you are still with me. Thank you that joy comes in the morning. Amen.