Church of Scotland Moderator visits Taiwan and great-aunt's graveside

From "Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>
Date Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:20:22 -0700

> 3061 Edition
>October 25~31, 2010

>General Assembly News

Church of Scotland Moderator visits Taiwan and great-aunt's graveside

>Reported by Chen Yi-hsuan

>Written by Lydia Ma

The Rev. Dr. John Cairns Christie from the Church of Scotland (COS) 

visited Tainan on October 20, 2010 and set aside time to pay 

respects to his great-aunt, Dr. Elisabeth Christie, whose resting 
place 

>is in Tainan Christian Cementery. 

Cairns is the current General Assembly Moderator of the COS. During 

his tour of Taiwan, he stayed in Tainan for 2 evenings, visited PCT 

Headquarters in Taipei, and attended church services in Taipei and 

Changhua area. He also visited Tsou Aborigine reservations in 

Alishan before boarding a plane on October 24, 2010.

Cairns' great-aunt is remembered as the first woman missionary 

doctor. She served diligently as a midwife and died in 1901 at the 
age 

of 37. Also known as the wife of Rev. Duncan Ferguson, Elisabeth 

came to Tainan as a pastor's wife and a doctor. She was devoted to 

studying and learning Taiwanese and spent a lot of time visiting and 

sharing the gospel with women living in rural areas.

Because Taiwanese women were shy and modest at the time and 

refused to call on men doctors when they were ill, churches in 

England began to send women missionaries who were also ObGyn 

>specialists and pediatricians. 

During a trip to Kaohsiung with her 3 children at the end of 1900, 

Elisabeth contracted a disease from which she never recovered. After 

spending 40 days confined to her bed, she passed away on January 

>17, 1901 at the young age of 37.

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