In 1888, seven

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

missionaries from the

Presbyterian Church of Canada The Presbyterian Church in Canada (french: Église presbytérienne du Canada) is a Presbyterian denomination, serving in Canada under this name since 1875. The United Church of Canada claimed the right to the name from 1925 to 1939. According to ...

(later merged to form the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...

) established the North

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Mission in the Province of Honan, located in current day

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

, China. The original group included Dr. William McClure, notable for research on

visceral leishmaniasis Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar (Hindi: kālā āzār, "black sickness") or "black fever", is the most severe form of leishmaniasis and, without proper diagnosis and treatment, is associated with high fatality. Leishmaniasis ...

disease, and

Jonathan Goforth Jonathan Goforth (, February 10, 1859 – October 8, 1936) was a Canadian Presbyterian missionary to China with the Canadian Presbyterian Mission, along with his wife, Rosalind (Bell-Smith) Goforth. Jonathan Goforth became the foremost missionar ...

. Dr.

Jean Dow Dr. Jean Isabelle Dow (25 June 1870 – 16 January 1927) was a Canadian medical missionary, who was regarded as a pioneer in women's health care for her work as a member of, and one of the only women in, the Canadian Presbyterian Church Mission i ...

joined the mission in 1895. Medicine was a key tool used by the mission to evangelize the people of the North Honan province. Extensive stays in missionary hospitals, gave medical missionaries plenty of time to preach to and teach patients about the word of God.

Founding

In 1888, Hudson Taylor, the founder of the

China Inland Mission OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded i ...

, warned

of the anti-foreigner sentiments prevalent in the North Honan region. He said:

Brother, if you would enter that Province Honan">nowiki/> Honan you must go forward on your knees.

Taylor's warning proved to be true. The anti-foreign sentiments held by the people in the province of Honan China proved to be an obstacle to missionary work. Eventually, the mission was able to thrive and began to establish hospitals and work with the people in the region. However, this process did not happen immediately.

Female medical providers

In the north Honan province of China during the late 1800s and into the 20th century, due to cultural reasons, male medical missionaries were not allowed to treat female patients. As a result, female medical missionaries became essential to the North China Mission as they were the only ones able to spread religion to female patients and residents of the region. Harriet Sutherland was one of the first seven missionaries to arrive in the North China Mission. She was the first Canadian nurse to work in a Canadian mission in China. From 1888 to around 1950, the Woman's Missionary Society sent twenty-one unmarried nurses to the work in the North China Mission.

Notable Members of the North Honan Mission

References

{{Reflist Presbyterian missionaries in China Canadian Presbyterian missionaries