What do you think these scenes have in common?

· An 11-year-old working at a mill to support her family
· A 42-year-old woman accepting a marriage proposal from a 25-year-old man
· The first woman vice-consul in the history of the British Empire
· A single white woman living among fierce African cannibals

All of these fascinating tidbits, and many more, were generated in the life of one Scottish woman, Mary Slessor. Of her, one biographer wrote, "She is entitled to a place in the front ranks of the heroines of history, and if goodness be counted an essential element of true greatness, if eminence be reckoned by love and self-sacrifice, by years of endurance and suffering, by a life of sustained heroism and purest devotion, it will be found difficult, if not impossible, to name her equal."

Who was this amazing woman -- this single missionary to Calabar (modern Nigeria)? First and foremost, Mary Slessor was a joy-filled ambassador of Jesus Christ, taking the good news of His salvation to the "other sheep, not of this fold" in Western Africa. Her sole desire was to serve Him in that region, a place that had been the focus of her prayers for most of her life. God granted her the desire of her heart.

Mary Slessor's story begins on December 2, 1848, when she was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, to an alcoholic, abusive father and a missionary-minded Christian mother. Through the early years of her life, Mary's family struggled to have enough money for food and rent, since her father rarely worked and often took their meager earnings to get drunk. Eventually, Mary's mother asked her, an 11-year-old longing for school, to help support the family by working at the mill. This heart-rending labor was made endurable by the fact that, for a few years, Mary was allowed to attend school at the factory during the afternoons. When she learned to read, she followed the longings of her heart by poring over stories of David Livingstone, the famous Scottish missionary-adventurer in Africa. Mary saw so many areas which she and Livingstone had in common—both were Scottish, both worked at a mill as children, both felt a call to Africa -- yet, since Mary was a girl rather than a boy, and since she had no skills beyond running a loom in a factory while Livingstone was a doctor, she thought her dreams of going to Africa would probably never be realized.

Where was the source for this hunger for sharing the Gospel in Africa? It was in her mother's reading out loud from the Missionary Record, which recounted the amazing stories of a new mission in West Africa in a land called Calabar. The enthusiastic concern on the mother's heart for this particular mission, which had been opened two years before Mary's birth, was caught by her two eldest children—Robert and Mary. Robert planned to go to Calabar as a missionary, and he promised to take Mary with him as his assistant. After Robert died, Mary tried to encourage her younger brother to take up the calling. She read Livingstone's adventures to him, secretly hoping he would consent to take her along as an assistant. In the meantime, she continued supporting her family through her work at the mill.

One day, an elderly woman invited Mary and a few other girls into her small home. This neighbor presented a vivid illustration about the reality of an eternity without God which shocked Mary into the realization that she needed to know Him and to receive His salvation. She prayed with the old woman and felt the kindling of a fire for sharing Him with others that burned increasingly brighter throughout the years of her life.

Mary's new-found life in Christ gave her a tremendous zest for working in the church. In fact, her long and exhausting hours at the mill were made easier by the joy she found in doing home mission work -- teaching children in the slums of Dundee the joy of knowing Jesus. Though she was a slightly built girl, her trust in the Lord helped her to effectively stand up to bullies who tried to stop her work. She even brought them into her classes, where many actually met Jesus. At one point, a gang member threatened her with a whip if she tried to go in and teach her class. Mary asked him, "Suppose we changed places, what would happen?" He replied, "I would get this whip across my shoulders." In perfect honesty and compassion, Mary told him that she would bear that pain for him "willingly let herself be whipped" if only he would go into the class. Her lack of fear and obvious willingness to suffer for him stunned the young man so much that he dropped the whip and humbly went inside. This incident, along with many others like it, gave Mary the much-needed courage that would be required later in her life.

Mary's ability to relate well to others, to care about being with others in need, to mediate disputes, to negotiate, and to communicate effectively with people came from her Interpersonal Intelligence. People with this intelligence are good with people; in fact, they are "People Smart".

When Mary was 25, her younger brother died. This, along with the death of David Livingstone in Africa, helped Mary to decide that her time had come. She told her mother of her intention to apply as a missionary, expecting that her mother would be reluctant to lose her eldest surviving child and main breadwinner. Instead, her mother was overjoyed that one of her children was going to serve the Lord on the foreign mission field! Mary applied to the Foreign Mission Board of her church and was accepted to go as a teacher to Calabar, the land of her dreams.

On August 5, 1876, this 27-year-old single female Scottish mill worker began her life's work as she boarded the ship for Africa. Her first three years were spent working at the mission in Duke Town, surrounded by other European missionaries, where she was expected, along with her teaching duties, to socialize during afternoon tea, be on time for meals, and ring the bell for morning prayers (which she mistakenly rang on several occasions in the middle of the night when the moon rose!). It was a time of some difficulty for Mary, since she dearly wanted to share the Gospel with unreached people in the interior. It was also a time of some difficulty for the European missionaries, because Mary did such unusual things, like climb every tree worth climbing between Duke Town and Old Town! However, she did become very familiar with the struggles the missionaries faced -- seeing the native people faithfully attend church while still living under the bondage of their superstitions. This produced in Mary a longing to see the people actually set free to live the abundant life promised by Jesus.

When she returned from her first furlough, Mary was assigned to work by herself in Old Town, three miles up the Calabar River from Duke Town. She delighted in the freedom of being closer to the Africans, living in a mud hut, and eating the food of the natives, rather than living the more confined and structured life of the Europeans in Duke Town. This was a much more practical lifestyle for Mary, and it allowed her to send most of her salary back home to her mother and sisters. However, it was not a Garden of Eden by any means; her arrival at Old Town was greeted with a human skull hanging from a pole! This was quite intimidating since it could be taken as a warning of what would occur in this White Man's Grave.

Mary's love of the people and her willingness to help them gave her the name and reputation of "White Ma". Her influence was increasingly felt throughout the area, especially in defending the preciousness and value of each life. Early in her stay at Old Town, a tiny baby was left at her door. She willingly cared for this little one, and many more soon followed. A friend explained to Mary that slave babies were not considered worth the trouble of raising, nor were the babies of mothers who died. Most heartrending of all was the murder of baby twins. The Africans in Calabar believed that, when twins were born, one of them was a demon. Since they didn't know which was which, they killed them both and banished the mother to die in the jungle. As Mary rescued and cared for these children, she prayed that the native people would see that there was nothing demonic about the twins and that God's goodness was sufficient for all their needs. Her native name soon expanded to "the White Ma who loves babies."

Mary not only interfered in the tradition of twin murder, but she also intervened in other tribal customs, such as human sacrifice and the flogging of women. Through God's grace, she was able to gain unprecedented favor with the tribal chiefs, who respectfully listened to her counsel, even when it went against their traditions. A report written by deputies from the Mission Board said of Mary, "Her labors are manifold, but she sustains them cheerfully. She enjoys the unreserved friendship and confidence of the people and has much influence over them."

After her second furlough, Mary returned to Calabar, determined to go to the Okoyong -- a place where no missionary had ever lived. When she received news of the deaths of her mother and last remaining sister, Mary wrote, "Heaven is now nearer to me than Britain, and no one will be anxious about me if I go up-country." Her native friends in Old Town were horrified that Mary was going to the Okoyong and told her that she would certainly die in that place.

Not only did Mary not die in Okoyong, but she ministered powerfully among the people of that region for several years. She taught them the Scriptures, cared for their medical needs, arbitrated their tribal disputes and, most of all, loved them. Her decisive actions often saved lives and even whole villages. Mary's fame as a wise and discerning judge spread throughout the region such that, eventually, tribes from far away would seek her help in settling disputes. In 1892, the British officially appointed Mary Slessor vice-consul for that area of Calabar—the first woman in the British Empire to have that office.

Though Mary worked by herself in the mission of the Okoyong, she occasionally met other missionaries on her trips to Duke Town. On one of these trips, she met a very special young Scotsman, Charles Morrison. Though there was a 17-year difference in their ages, Mary was so youthful in spirit that, when they fell in love, they saw no difficulties in marrying—except that Mary's work in the Okoyong necessitated that Charles move up-country. When the request to marry was submitted to the Mission Board, it was denied. This difficult experience was perhaps for the best, as Mary was a difficult person to live with. A few single women had attempted to stay with Mary, but her haphazard native lifestyle -- which suited the Africans perfectly -- made Europeans crazy.

As a gifted pioneer missionary with years of seeing God work miracles, Mary eventually sought permission from the Mission Board to leave the evangelized Okoyong and go even deeper into the jungle to work among the fiercest cannibals in the entire continent. In 1904, when she was 55 years old, Mary took her seven African children and moved to the region of the Aros clan. Once again, she built a home for her family and began sharing the good news of Jesus with people who had never before heard this message. Her reputation as the "White Ma" preceded her, and the chiefs willingly allowed her to influence their tribal customs.

How did this single Scotswoman have such a dynamic impact on these fierce, cannibalistic tribes that had never known the Gospel? Her secret for remarkable success was prayer: "Prayer is the greatest power God has put into our hands for service. Praying is harder work than doing -- but the dynamic lies that way to advance the kingdom."

In 1915, after 39 years of serving her Lord and her beloved Africans, Mary Slessor died in a mud hut at the age of 66. In the places she had pioneered, churches had spring to life, people were set free from brutal and horrific traditions, and the joy-filled life in Christ was made available to all of the tribes of Calabar.

If you have someone in you home with a strong Interpersonal Intelligence, you can encourage their learning by doing things together, playing games together, inviting others to join you for cooperative learning adventures, interviewing interesting people, and by serving people. The main point to remember, in order to help these learners, is do things together! For more specific information and ideas on how to incorporate this intelligence into your homeschool, please refer to Reaping the Harvest by Diana Waring, Eight Ways of Teaching by David Lazear, or In Their Own Way by Thomas Armstrong (a very secular book).