Birth: 12.04.1821
Home Calling: 27.04.1862
Homeland : Africa
Place of Vision: Africa
Mary Moffat was the eldest daughter of Robert and Mary Moffat, the Scottish missionaries who served among the Bechuana people at Kuruman, South Africa. She was raised to be a God-fearing child and always wanted to be a missionary in Africa. She was trained to be a teacher and taught at a school in Kuruman. She was well respected among the local tribes as a skillful teacher and a homemaker.
In 1845, Mary married David Livingstone, a Scottish Medical Missionary, and explorer of Africa. Mary was completely devoted to her husband’s missionary work and became a pillar of support in all his endeavors. She bravely accompanied Livingstone to Mabotsa, a village that was terrorized by lions, to preach the gospel to the natives. Livingstone was an avid explorer and Mary along with her children constantly traveled with him. The journeys were often dangerous with hardships, including days without water. On the first journey, Mary fell seriously ill and their newborn daughter died. The illness following her pregnancies nor the loss of a child ever stopped her from supporting her husband. Though she was pregnant with her fourth child, she accompanied her husband on a journey of around 1500 miles in the Kalahari Desert to save the Makololo people.
Mary was a wise woman who kept her family satisfied despite severe poverty in the initial days of the ministry. For the sake of children’s education, Mary spent four hard years in Britain (1852 1856) tending her children, unknown of husband’s whereabouts who was on missionary exploration. She endured loneliness and innumerable hardships in her marriage, yet she never complained. In 1858 she returned to Africa to accompany Livingstone on the “Zambezi Expedition.” Shortly after the birth of her sixth child, she fell from malaria in the Shupanga camp and died there 3 months later.
