The first missionary commissioned by the Canadian Presbyterian Church was George Leslie Mackay who died of throat cancer on June 2, 1901. He spent his life in Taiwan (at that time called Formosa) and wanted to show the Chinese people how much he loved them and how much God loves them that he married a Chinese woman which was NOT typical. They had three children and established a university in addition to the other mission work they accomplished. In 2008 the Taiwanese government invested in the first Taiwanese/English opera based on Mackay and his wife called: Mackay: The Black Bearded Bible Man. This is a statue of him in Taiwan.
