Single missionary Hattie Gardner discovered that she loved the villages that were far away from towns and cities. She felt happy in the “bush” regions and she loved the people she met there. She was willing to travel miles, even on horseback if necessary, to reach them. She was determined to do what some thought would be impossible for the five-foot woman.

Her responsibilities as a school principal and a church leader in town kept her busy, but she took every opportunity to travel to the bush. When she arrived back home, she was greeted by Mike, the monkey that slept in a tree outside of her house and walked with her hand-in-hand through town. Hattie amazed her coworkers and family back in the U.S. with the way she embraced life in Africa.

After more than a decade in Nigeria, Hattie moved to the bush to live and work among the Batonu people. Living for years in a trailer pulled by her Land Rover, Hattie embraced her life and the chances to share the gospel. She opened a school for the children, taught the Bible from village to village, and planted churches. She adopted the customs of the people group and built relationships over the shared hours of pounding shea nuts to extract oil or while washing clothes in the stream. By the end of her life, the people in more than 50 bush villages called her Iya, which means “mother.”