Who Knows This McKenzie?

Once there was a sad theme song, Who Knows This Woman? written for a famous Korean radio drama series by Han Woon-Sa in 1960. It reminded me of a time when my husband, Samuel Min and I visited the birthplace of Rev. William John McKenzie in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. We inquired at the Pine Hill Divinity College (Atlantic School of Theology), asking, “Who knows this McKenzie?” He ministered in Korea in 1895.

We were fortunate to meet McKenzie’s cousin’s grandson, Ivan MacKenzie and his cousin’s granddaughter, Beverly MacKenzie who both live in the area. The grandchildren invited us to McKenzie’s beautiful log house on the shore of Bras d’Or Lake. We were introduced to Mr. Sauer, whom Beverly joyfully described as, “my grandfather’s cousin!” She showed us the book her mother gave her as a marriage gift, A Corn of Wheat, or, The Life of Rev. W.J. McKenzie of Korea by Elizabeth McCully, published in 1903.

I could smell the piny fragrance from the Pine Hill Divinity College where McKenzie studied, the pine hill of his birthplace in Bras d’Or Lake, and from the Sorae Church in the pine hill village of Whanghae-Do, Korea, where he offered himself as “a corn of wheat” (a reference to John 12:24).

McKenzie listened, and God’s voice led him to become the first Canadian Presbyterian missionary to Chosun (Korea), an unknown, strange world where he followed God’s will for his life.

He wore Korean clothes, and ate and lived in a small house with Korean villagers. At Christmas, he was sent a box of homemade sweet bread, but he gave it to the poor children. Next spring in 1895, the villagers decided to build Sorae Church while McKenzie started a day school, named McKenzie School. McKenzie directed a church in Korea to be built at his expense.

Around the time of the establishment of the church in Sorae, there was the First Sino-Japanese War and the Donghak Rebellion. McKenzie was in grave danger even though there were many believers.

He fell ill and ended his days as a Christ-like ambassador at age 34. At his graveside lay a Bible and St. George’s flag. A little boy, Sue Byoung-Ho, was present at the funeral and he later became one of the leaders of the Korean independence movement and the elder of Saemoon-Ahn Church.

It is a shame that there is no marking of McKenzie’s birthplace in Cape Breton and his name is not marked on a memorial plaque in the Pine Hill chapel.

My husband, Samuel Min was a Presbyterian elder in Seoul. He has a dream to someday mark “the McKenzie Hill” by planting 34 pine trees there in McKenzie’s hometown of West Bay, in collaboration with the Korean churches in Canada. It would be a much-needed commemoration of McKenzie’s remarkable short life; “a corn of wheat” given to others as a pioneer missionary to Korea.