“Mama” Mary: A Liberian Orphan | Laura T.

Because my blog posts were becoming repetitive, I have decided to switch my topic. Instead of only writing about African countries, my blog is now about people/missionaries who have made an impact on our world for Jesus Christ. Sometimes they have worked/are working in Africa but sometimes in other countries.

From 1989 to 2003, a savage civil war took place in Liberia, West Africa. Rebel soldiers would go through villages and kill anyone of a different people group or anybody who got in their way. The people who survived were left with nothing. The soldiers would completely raid every village they encountered. There was already poverty in Liberia, and then the war.

In the book, Where Little Ones Cry, by Harvey Yoder, a girl named Mary is described (her last name was never mentioned in the story I read about her). She was among the poorer people in Liberia. All through her childhood, she went to the market selling things for her grandmother. One night, she had a vision. In it, a man dressed in white sewed a skirt. Mary remembered how to do it and made a business off of it.

It was during her time as a young adult in the market that Mary heard a missionary calling out the gospel. She then accepted Jesus. This was around the time when the war started. When rebel soldiers were attacking nearby villages, she fled her own village with her two children.

When she was traveling, she passed many orphans. Again one night, she had a vision. A man dressed in white told her to take care of the orphans. When she woke up, she realized that the man in white – in both visions – was Jesus. She began to bring the orphans she saw with her and created a little traveling orphanage. The kids called her “Mama Mary.”

Eventually, after the war was over, Mary bought some land where she built a structure for the orphanage. She taught the children many things, but the most important thing she taught was about Jesus.

I admire Mary for many reasons, but one thing I admire most about her is her faith in God. Even though there wasn’t much food, she had more than 50 kids to take care of, and it was the middle of a war, Mary kept her faith in Jesus alone and pushed through.

Advertisement