Of the beginning of the Sudan Interior Mission: Long on vision but short on funds, the 1893 pioneer trio reached Nigeria without money to travel inland. The were reduced to selling their watches and surplus clothing. At the moment of their greatest need, as Bingham called it, a gift arrived. It came from a servant named Mary Jones who had been a live-in housekeeper to the same family for 25 years. All she owned was in her one little room. She died there, and was buried from there.

After the funeral, her relatives looked for her will. There was none...only a small account book in which she had entered her monthly wage and her personal expenses. “For native work in China, $50,” was one entry. “For native work in India, $50,” was another. Her relatives knew she had received a legacy. It too was entered. “Received legacy, $300” it read. And opposite it: “Paid out for the Soudan, $300.””Even her last month’s wages had been entered and dispensed,” Bingham wrote. “She needed no executor, no trust company. She had fulfilled her trust. Out of her gift, in a very real sense, came the great harvest which we are seeing today.”

Source unknown