1906 - Roderick MacDonald

1906

Wuzhou, Guangxi

Roderick MacDonald.

Roderick J. MacDonald was a highly respected missionary-doctor who arrived in China with the English Wesleyan Mission in 1884. For the first 13 years of MacDonald’s ministry he was stationed in Guangdong Province, where he laboured tirelessly, dispensing both medicine and the good news to thousands of people. In 1897 MacDonald established the first medical work in the river town of Wuzhou, in neighbouring Guangxi. He was the first missionary from his denomination in the province. Until that time Guangxi had been the sole domain of the Christian & Missionary Alliance. During his nine years in Wuzhou, Roderick MacDonald “laboured incessantly, laying foundations for a large mission station, including hospital, schools, industrial, and leper work.”[1]

The town of Wuzhou was (and still is) a key port in the Pearl River Delta, connecting Guangxi with Hong Kong and the rest of southern China. Numerous foreign vessels docked in Wuzhou in the early 20th century. As MacDonald was the only Western doctor in the area, he was often called on board to treat sick and dying men. In 1906 he was summoned to the S.S. Sainam to treat the wounded captain. While he was on board, pirates attacked the ship, and MacDonald was shot dead.

The years of work MacDonald and his fellow missionaries had invested in Guangxi paid off later, when a vibrant church emerged in the Wuzhou area. The town later witnessed the slaying of another devoted missionary, Bill Wallace, in 1951.