Mrs. M’Robert’s £12

When David Livingstone established a mission station at Mabotsa in 1843 among the Bakatla
people, he had only been in Africa for 3 years. He had not yet discovered Victoria Falls, nor
Lake Ngami, nor Lake Nyassa. In fact, he had yet to make any discoveries at all. He had not
yet walked across Africa, from Luanda on the west coast in present day Angola, to Quelimane
on the east coast in present day Mozambique. He had not yet been inspired to penetrate deep
into the “unknown parts” of the African continent to blaze a trail for future missionaries to follow
with the gospel.
When David Livingstone joined the Bakatla villagers one day in 1843 on a hunt for the lions that
had been raiding their herds and attacking some of their people, he had not yet become a
national hero in England and Scotland for his great explorations and his tales of discovery and
adventure. He had not yet made known to the world the horrors of the slave trade in the African
interior that provoked international action to bring it to an end. He had not yet inspired the
generation of missionaries that followed him to Africa with the gospel after his death.
On this day in 1843, Livingstone was unknown to the world.
As the hunt progressed, Livingstone spied one of the lions 30 yards away and “fired both barrels
into it.” The lion was hit and mortally wounded, and disappeared momentarily into the bush.
Then it attacked. Livingstone wrote:
“[L]ooking half round, I saw the lion just in the act of springing upon me…he caught
my shoulder as he sprang, and we both came to the ground below together.
Growling horribly close to my ear, he shook me as a terrier dog does a rat. “
Livingstone’s assistant, Mebalwe, “a most excellent man,” was nearby and came to his aid,
firing both barrels at the lion as it stood with its great paw on Livingstone’s head. The lion
turned from Livingstone and attacked Mebalwe, biting him on the thigh. Before the lion could do
more damage to Mebalwe, the beast succumbed to his wounds and died. Mebalwe had saved
Livingstone.

Mebalwe was a teacher who worked alongside Livingstone at the Mabotsa mission station.
Livingstone had asked the London Missionary Society for permission to hire Mebalwe at an
annual salary of £12. Thousands of miles away in London, a faithful woman, Mrs. M’Robert,
paid the £12 salary, and probably never knew the impact of her small gift.
Somewhere thousands of miles and a world away in a Lusaka slum, there is a young Zambian
boy or girl who has not yet become the doctor the country so dearly needs. Another has not yet
become the teacher that will inspire the next generation of Zambians. There are other children
who have not yet become the Christian leaders that will change the course of their country. All
they need is someone to faithfully provide for their education, a Christian education provided by
Family Legacy’s Legacy Academies.
Like Mrs. M’Robert, we may never know the impact that our work and our gifts have for His
kingdom. Even David Livingstone himself died without ever seeing how God used his labors to
transform the continent of Africa. The monthly costs to sponsor a Zambian orphan at Family
Legacy may seem like a small amount. What difference could sponsoring one orphan child
possibly make? God used Mrs. M’Robert’s £12 to change the course of history. Yours could
make all the difference in the world.

by J.P.Whitney

References
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, David Livingstone, London, 1857.
Personal Life of David Livingstone, William Garden Blaikie, Harper and Brothers, New York,
1880.