Maude Cary

Maude Cary (1878–1967) was a Christian American missionary to North Africa, specifically Morocco. She was raised knowing she would one day be a missionary because her parents often housed missionaries as they were passing through. Her parents understood the work they were doing as very important and passed this belief onto their daughter. As soon as she was eighteen, Maude signed herself up for an American missionary training school, Avant Ministries (GMU). After completing this schooling and doing some missions work within American inner cities, Maude was accepted to travel with the GMU to serve alongside a few struggling Christian missionaries in Morocco. For the next fifty years of her life Maude Cary would minister to the rich and poor Muslims within Morocco attempting to bring them the Gospel message her school and parents had taught her. A difficult start made Maude question her effectiveness in Morocco but she trusted that there would eventually be conversions from Islam to Christianity and stayed until she was too ill to serve. Becoming very ill she flew back to America for treatment and as soon as possible returned to continue her life living among the Muslims. Through the difficult start and her illness, Maude Cary became a Christian leader within Morocco for the Gospel Mission Union in charge of translation and Bible schools. She eventually became too sick to continue and returned to the United States. Her hard work in Morocco may not have produced many conversions during her stay there, but there were a few conversions which were seen as a success, and continued the Christian influence within the country long after her life. After fifty years of service Maude returned to the United States because of her illness, and died in 1967.

Family Maude Cary began her life on a Kansas farm in 1878. She was born within a Judeo-Christian family to Jedediah and Sarah Cary Jedediah, is described as a "gentle, quiet man." Maude was crushed with this news and yet would not give up either. Finally convincing the GMU's board she should stay, Maude desired to settle in and not let anything or anyone make her leave Morocco. This was the place she believed God had called her to live and serve as a missionary.

Not only did Maude face attack from within the organization but from the locals as well as Maude was teaching a different belief system than the one they held to. As Maude would share her Gospel message with them, the locals would threaten to take her life. Maude was asking these Muslims to change their whole belief system and this was worthy of death. At one point the political situation created such a dangerous environment that Maude and the other missionaries with her were forced to move to the coast away from the few Muslims that had befriended them. For many years Maude was faithful and witnessed with her Christian gospel to the Muslims around her without seeing any converts to Christianity. She felt very much like a failure as she did not always act as the missions organization asked her to and at times believed that "the mission would have been better off without her." Some Moroccans do not know if they should think of themselves as African or Arab as both appear to be important within their country. The poverty that has plagued the country has not aided in this situation only causing the people to follow or do whatever it takes to stay alive. During Maude Cary's stay in Morocco, conversions from Islam to Christianity were very few and yet "the era for freely and openly proclaiming the gospel in Morocco lasted twelve very fruitful years. It began with a marked rise in interest the year miss Cary retired, and it ended the year she died!" Because this mission organization began close to Maude's home, and her parents were welcoming to missionaries, it would have been an obvious choice for her to attend the school they had started and then to later travel with them to Morocco.