Martha Wall

Martha Alma Wall (March 22, 1910 – August 2, 2000) was an American Christian medical missionary, philosopher, nurse, and author who is best known for her humanitarian work providing health care to lepers in British Nigeria during the 1930s and 1940s with the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM). She was born in Hillsboro, Kansas to a traditional Christian family and was a devout member of both the non-denominational Salina Bible Church and the Baptist Women's Union. She became a registered nurse and studied theology at Tabor College before leaving for a medical mission in British Nigeria in 1938. After returning to America, Wall worked as a Clinical Supervisor of Vocational Nurses for Kern General Hospital during the 1950s and as an instructor and director of nursing services for Bakersfield College during the 1960s. Throughout her adult life, she was a dedicated member of the California State Licensed Vocational Nurses Association. Wall is noted as the founder of the Children's Welfare Center at the Katsina Leper Settlement. She documented her missionary work in Sub-Saharan Africa in the book she authored Splinters from an African Log, which was published in 1960.

Early life Martha Wall was born in the rural town of Hillsboro, Kansas. She had a younger sister, Mabel, who moved to California with her husband to be a homemaker before Wall began her missionary work. Wall's father threatened to disown her when she decided to join a German Mennonite church and expressed her dedication to Christianity, but she eventually convinced him to also believe in the religion. Wall's mother supported her missionary work and passion for medicine.

Education After becoming a registered nurse, Wall attended the Christian Tabor College, where she took courses primarily focused on biblical studies. She chose to attend Tabor because she could attend classes there while still cheaply living at her parents' home in Hillsboro, which was very close to the school. As required by her curriculum, Wall additionally acted as a Sunday school teacher to a class of high school girls. In addition, Wall wrote for the Tabor Spectator (present: The View) and attended the school's evangelistic Bible conference services. She was initially uninterested in the school's Mission Band club, only beginning to attend meetings after hearing an inspiring sermon about missionary work by a Tabor alumna. Throughout her adult life, she was a dedicated member of the California State Licensed Vocational Nurses Association, chairing fundraising events and giving tours of her hospital to other nurses.

Mission

Call When Wall was eighteen, she decided to "accep the challenge of Sheldon's book, In His Steps, to begin to do everything 'as Jesus would do'... willing to give up all pleasures, [her] home--or anything-- to please God."

Wushishi Compound (Wushishi, Nigeria) Wall spent her first few months in the Wushishi Compound taking care of orphans and learning Hausa until she gained a strong mastery of the local language. After learning Hausa, Wall taught a basic mathematics and finance class to orphans and adults who requested it. Wall also taught Bible services and reading classes using a Bible translated into Hausa to non-Christian Nigerians with the intention of converting them.

Jega Compound (Jega, Nigeria) Wall dedicated much of her time at Jega to promoting Christianity among local Muslims, primarily by teaching children Christian hymns. After she had gained their interest, she was permitted to enter their homes and speak with their mothers. Wall believed Islam oppressed women, many of whose husbands she observed treating them as property. She believed Christianity could help Muslim women gain autonomy. Wall's notes on her time at Jega, recorded in Splinters from an African Log, repeatedly express a disgust for the practice of marrying girls without their consent.

Return Wall officially returned to America from Nigeria in the early 1950s. She worked as a Clinical Supervisor of Vocational Nurses for Kern General Hospital during the late 1950s and as an instructor and director of nursing services for Bakersfield College during the 1960s.

Philosophy

SIM values and conversion Wall agreed with the SIM Christian conversion strategy that it was beneficial to first treat her patients medically and then treat them spiritually by encouraging them toward Christianity. Wall believed that this tactic was particularly important in the devoutly Muslim communities of northern Nigeria, such as Jega. In these regions, doctors and nurses who explicitly promoted Christianity were denied access to patients.

Children's welfare Wall believed it was her duty as a missionary to act as a caretaker to the children of her patients and to do everything in her power to protect them from infection. She did, however, disagree with SIM’s policy accepting coercion as a means to separate children from parents diagnosed with leprosy, Wall dedicated more time to supporting such children than the SIM missionaries who proceeded her. She explained this philosophy, regarding the opening of the Children's Welfare Center at the Katsina Leper Settlement, in Splinters from an African Log:

By kindness and patience we must win the mothers' confidence. In the meantime we could at least begin to show them that we are kind to babies and children, and that they would be happy with us. If they would bring their babies to us for a few hours a day, we would be able to keep an eye on their general physical condition, checking their weight, treating childhood ailments before they became serious—and we would still be giving these lovely little children a chance to go through life without contracting the disease. p.99

American consumerism After her missions, Wall sought to make Americans aware of their excessive consumerism and the value they placed on superfluous things. She explained this philosophy in Splinters from an African Log:

I have come to see that buying toys or ice cream or dog food is not sin. The sin lies in permitting Christians to remain victims of a warped sense of values that is impoverishing their own lives and robbing them of a great inheritance [in Heaven]... It is sin to allow earnest young Christians to plan mediocre lives around a materialistic ideal without challenging them to battle. We sin if we do not offer to lead the charge! God has sent us [missionaries] into a stirring conflict, one that should stir response in the blood of every Christian...God holds us responsible for advance! p.134-135

Marketing missionary work Wall was hesitant to simplify or glorify her experiences to attract attention to her cause. In Splinters from an African Log, Wall describes the difficulty of choosing whether to write about an emotional but straightforward experience she had curing a patient or accurately describe the conditions lepers endured and the complex decisions she was forced to make. Wall struggled with how to best to convey the realities she faced while still describing her experiences in a way that would encourage donations and raise interest in missionary work. She explained this philosophy in Splinters from an African Log:

Are we missionaries... partly to blame for this complete oblivion to the worth of a lost soul? Perhaps because we see people so occupied with tangibles, we hesitate to present the real purpose of missions—of our own work—for fear we will offend. People want to be entertained. If we learn how to achieve this art, the contributions toward our work are quite gratifying. So we polish up our best stories. p.133

Legacy Wall created the first Children's Welfare Center at the Katsina Leper Settlement so that the babies and toddlers of parents with leprosy could live near their parents without risk of contracting the disease and would be taken care of regardless of their parents' health. Although SIM had attempted to create similar Centers before, Wall's was the first successful, sustainable program. She encouraged mothers to allow their children to be treated in this center by hosting weekly banquets where she provided families with food, donated new clothes for their toddlers, and gave baths to their babies.