African Fables books compiled by Eudene can be purchased from Wipf and STOCK Publishers.
When Eudene King was 9 years old, she responded to the nudging of God’s Spirit to be a missionary in Congo, after hearing a returned missionary speak at Flanagan Mennonite Church. When you drive through the miles and miles of cornfields in Central Illinois, you can hardly imagine that such a rural setting would produce a movement that would send so many missionaries and MCCers to Central Africa through what eventually became Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission. These missionaries from Illinois founded a body of Mennonites in Congo that recently celebrated their Centennial, and which continues to grow into one of the largest conferences of Mennonites in the world.
Eudene was set up for a blind date with Levi, 6 years her junior. On their first date she told him that she was going to Africa as a missionary, and if he wasn't interested, they may as well drop the relationship right then and there. Fortunately, Levi, a brand new Christian at the time, thought going to Africa sounded like a great adventure, and quickly got on board with the plan.
Throughout the 1950s when the expectation of women in the US was to be the “Leave it to Beaver” housewife, my mother was having babies in Africa and establishing a medical dispensary for the Bashele people at Banga. This dispensary continues to function under the leadership of the Congolese Mennonite church.
At the end of our 2 year furloughs in the US, I recall watching Mother prepare to go back to Africa with great joy, enthusiasm, and a sense of adventure and calling. Each time we went back to Congo she had a particular plan in mind of how she was going to use her gifts for the coming four year term. Throughout her missionary career, Mom was involved in medical ministry and Bible teaching from five different mission stations in Congo.
My mother taught me and many other children, how to play the piano. Most evenings she would sit down and play the piano while my dad played the violin. Usually during the afternoons she’s have classical music playing on the record player. This formed the roots of my love for music.
Eudene was a friend and colleague of many African men and women. In her later missionary career, she conducted seminars for Mennonite pastors throughout the Kasai province, preparing most of the Bible lesson that were thought. She taught women about the "The sacredness of Marriage, The Christian Family. Shared Parental Responsibility in Child Care, The Right of Wives in a Christian Marriage. When I have returned to Congo for a visit, many of the elderly women tell me of their memories as friends of Mama Ndayi and her influence on them.
As she traveled through the villages over the years, Eudene collected African Fables, and eventually put these stories into three African Fables books, which have been translated into two other languages, and can still be found on Amazon. These stories have been used by many Sunday school teachers over the years.
My mother had a solid quiet faith. She found great comfort in prayer and studying of the scripture, especially reading the Psalms. Each evening before bed time, she would gather us around, and read a Bible story. We’d take turns praying. We would sing a chorus, and work on a memory verse. I owe my grounding in the scripture to this early practice with our mother. She also taught SS to the children wherever we lived. I have vivid memories of her telling of Bible stories to me and my friends with the flannel-graph. If you don’t know what a flannelgraph is, you can look it up on Wikipedia.
Growing up with my mother’s sense of clear purpose instilled in me a desire to be part of something bigger than myself, to seek for myself God’s calling and purpose for my life. I came to understand that we all have a call to have a place in God’s mission in the world, wherever we are and in whatever we do. Our mission relates to all of our life, including the seemingly small things we do in our everyday lives. Our calling relates to how we relate to our families, to our involvements in church, our volunteer time, and our play time. I’m grateful for a mother who had a clear sense of God’s purpose for her life, and who had a quiet influence on many people.