This week in Christian history: Nabeel Qureshi dies; John Calvin returns to Geneva
George Leslie Mackay ordained – Sept. 19, 1871
This week marks the anniversary of when George Leslie Mackay, a Canadian Presbyterian missionary best known for his work in modern day Taiwan, was ordained.
A native of Oxford County, Ontario, and a graduate of Princeton College of Theology in New Jersey, Mackay was ordained by The Presbyterian Church in Canada, specifically the Presbytery of Toronto.
A month later, he sailed for China and ended up in Formosa, a Chinese island that would later become Taiwan, where he founded dozens of churches, several schools and a hospital.
“Mackay ministered to the bodies of the people to whom he preached as well as to their souls,” stated the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity. “He became an expert in extracting diseased teeth, which gained him much favor with Chinese and aborigines of all classes.”
