A Twelve-Year-Old Missionary

Years ago when Robert Moffat was in Africa, he traveled far into the interior. One day he came to a tree upon which a board was fixed, saying that a Christian school was to be found in a village not far away.

He was amazed, for he believed himself to be the first white man in that part. Making his way toward the village, he met a little native girl about twelve years of age, to whom he said: “I saw a board fastened to a tree saying that there was a Christian school held in the village; would you be so good to lead me to the teacher?”

The little girl hung her head shyly and made no reply.

Do you know the teacher?” he asked. She replied this time with a nod.

“Well who is the teacher? He persisted. Looking up into his face now, but still shyly, she answered, “I am the teacher.”

Mr. Moffat discovered that the little girl had once been taken to a distant tribe, where she heard a missionary tell the people of the love of Jesus; and she had now become the first missionary to her own people.