“For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the Lord of hosts; … for the Lord has called you, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,” (Isaiah 54:5,6).
These words would have very special and personal meaning for Christina Forsyth. She would wait until she was forty years old to be married, and then she would be widowed less than a year later. The Lord Himself would be her protector for nearly thirty years as she ministered to the Xolobe people in the very rugged area of Fingoland.
Christina Moir was born in 1844 and lived in Glasgow, Scotland. She had godly, Christian parents. Her mother taught her the Scriptures. Sadly, though, her mother died when Christina was only ten years old. Her father had married late in life and he died when she was only twenty years old.
It seemed that the Lord had directed her to a life of trusting in Him alone right from the beginning. As a young woman, Christina was corresponding with a man, a banker’s son, whom she thought she had an understanding with for marriage. He had gone away to India on business and she was waiting for him. She and her sisters were all writing to him. Soon, her sisters were getting letters, but she was not. She could only suppose that he had lost interest in her. Eventually, even references to her were dropped from her sisters’ letters. She was heartbroken.
Christina decided to deal with this heartbreak in her life by turning to God fully. She wrote a poem about how Christ had suffered for her, and she compared her sufferings to His:
“Here night shuts out the day;
Earth’s fairest flow’rs bloom but fade and die.
And fondest friends forsake. He felt this too.
Cling close to Him; He will not leave in life
Nor yet in death forsake.”
These words would prove very true for her.
For a time, in the late 1870’s, when Christina was in her thirties, she lived with her brother, acting as his hostess, and working in the church where he was the pastor. When he got married, she was no longer needed. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she applied at a Presbyterian mission as an unpaid volunteer. She had inherited some money, and was willing to support herself. The mission was very glad of the help and sent her to Emgwali, to be an assistant to Miss Ogilvie who was teaching South African children. Christina then transferred to the Paterson Mission station to help out when Mrs. Davidson, who was serving with her husband, fell ill. Christina was a tireless worker and applied all of her energy to every task, even though the Zulu wars were going on all around them, and other churches and missions were being burned.
Sometime earlier, when she was living at home, in the mid 1870’s, Christina had met a man named Allan Forsyth. He was impressed with her godly character and proposed marriage to her. She accepted. Allan went off to South America on business. They knew it would be several years before they could be married. It actually turned out to be more like ten years. It was while she was waiting for Allan that Christina served God in South Africa.
Finally in 1884, it was time for Christina to leave for Scotland and marry Allan. Everyone at the Paterson mission was sad to see her go.
During this time, the banker’s son that she had had the understanding with so many years ago had come back to Glasgow and settled down. When he heard that Christina was back in Scotland, he went to see her. He heard that she was about to be married and he traveled to speak with her. He asked her why she had not written to him, and after talking a while they came to realize that their letters to each other had been intercepted by a jealous admirer. The banker’s son had been as heartbroken as Christina when their letters stopped. He had suffered as much as she had from this cruel trick. In spite of this revelation, Christina decided to keep her commitment to Allan. She and the banker’s son parted, but remained friends.
Allan and Christina Forsyth married, but did not remain in Scotland. Allan wanted to go and make his fortune in the Transvaal gold mines in Africa. The newlyweds settled at Lydenburg, South Africa. Less than a year later, in 1885, while Allan was traveling, he slipped from the saddle of his horse as he was trying to cross the Komati River. He was swept away in the raging torrent and drowned. An elder at Christina’s church pressed a slip of paper in her hand. “Thy Maker is thy husband” (Isaiah 54:5). The Lord would comfort her with His presence.
The banker’s son offered her a home with his sisters, but she refused. She wanted to be a missionary again. This time, she would go on the mission field as her own person, instead of just being an aid to someone else. Not only that, but she would go to one of the most difficult places in which to minister. She would go to serve the Xolobe people in Fingoland. There, things were so bad, and the people were so backward, that they were referred to as “wolves” by everyone else. During the time that another missionary worked there, only one Xolobe had become a Christian and kept his faith.
This did not stop Christina, however when she arrived in the rugged area of Xolobe, she 
wondered whether or not she had overcommitted herself. The people were apathetic at best and openly hostile at worst. They spent their time getting drunk and having orgies. Christina wondered whether or not the work would be impossible, but the Lord reassured her, “The heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it” (Ezekiel 36:36).
Christina began by schooling the local children. This work would go on intermittently depending on the attitude and willingness of the parents. Sometimes she taught the children alone, because their parents were gone. They were off drinking and carousing. She fed the children and told them about Jesus. She visited the sick and she brought many orphans to her home.
Often, Christina’s work was dangerous, but the Lord protected her. One night, while walking home, she suddenly decided that she could walk no further and just laid down to sleep until morning. When she awoke, she found that she was so close to a dangerous precipice, that had she gone another step she would have fallen to her death.
Another time, she was accosted by dangerous robbers, but the sudden appearance of a shepherd frightened them away.
The tribal Chief, Mnyila, opposed Christina and forbade his people to attend any of her meetings. She persisted, and eventually a few children became Christians. The first boy who accepted Christ was cruelly tortured by the witch doctors until he renounced the faith.
Amazingly, in spite of all of this, Christina witnessed fifty conversions by 1899. When the people decided to build a church building to hold their meetings, it was burned to the ground. “There is only one thing to do: we must build another,” was Christina’s response.
Year after year, Christina toiled on. She was very lonely most of the time. But she remained cheerful. Finally, her health began to fail. In 1916, it became apparent that she could no longer carry on the heavy work. Her heart was becoming weaker and weaker, and so reluctantly she returned to Scotland.
She said, “I have done very little. I should like to do much more before I die.” She longed to 
see all of China, Africa, even the whole world converted to Christ. She told her biographer that she would give thirty years of her life to the Xolobe people all over again if given the chance. She died in 1918.
Christina’s life is a wonderful example to us of a woman who turned to God when “jilted”. Many women would not be strong enough to rise above abandonment and widowhood, but Christina went on the serve the Lord in extremely hard conditions and to be totally joyful at the end. I pray that I may be like her, and that many women would be inspired by her story to press on knowing that God is with us and helping us.
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