Robert Grierson (missionary)

Grierson's decision to come to Korea was influenced by William McKenzie (missionary). Grierson aspired to work in Korea when McKenzie asked Grierson to help with his missionary work at Sorrai village during the early 1890s.[6] McKenzie's death in 1895 prompted the Presbyterian Church in Canada to fund and send missionaries to Korea,[7] and Grierson departed for Korea with Duncan MacRae and William Foote in July, 1898 arriving in September, 1898.[5]

During the Council of Missions Holding the Presbyterian Form of Government of 1898, the American Presbyterian Mission Board yielded the Wonsan territory to the Canadian missionaries.[8] Grierson joined Footes and MacRae at Wonsan in 1900, and the three began to expand their mission to Ham-Heung and Sung-jin area.[5]

In the early years, Grierson strived to finish the language instruction before any official medical and mission work by not taking in any patients.[5] However, due to the great number of patients who needed medical attention, he began to care for patients: "We had scarcely time to get into the house we had rented when we were besieged by sick people ... so piteous and persistent were the calls for help that it did not seem humane to refuse; and very reluctantly study was almost entirely laid aside and medical and surgical work undertaken."[9] Grierson also went on mission trips to rural communities lasting two weeks to a month and provided basic medical assistance.

In 1900, Grierson and MacRae headed north to explore newly designated territory. Upon receiving a telegram that stated that the Korean Court has ordered all governors and mayors to execute Christians and missionaries, the two cycled 240 miles in two days back to Wonsan to learn that the telegram had been forged.[10]

In 1899, Sung-jin became a treaty port, and foreigners could buy and own land in the Sung-jin area.[11] Grierson assumed responsibility of carrying out missionary work at Sung-jin while MacRae and Dr. Kate McMillan (Missionary), who joined in early 1901 through the Foreign Mission Committee, took on Ham-heung territory.[4] Grierson set the cornerstone for the missionary work by building a house and the Yongjung church. John Grierson, the father of Robert Grierson and a carpenter, traveled to Korea and helped his son with the construction of the buildings. He sold Bibles and Christian booklets in the library and had rooms where he could treat patients.[11] During the Russo-Japanese war, Grierson took refuge at Wonsan, and Grierson's house was used as a barrack for the Russian officers, and the church as a stable. After the war, Grierson bought land next to the churchyard from a Korean landowner and built Sung-jun Church, Bosin Boys' School, and Sung-jin clinic.[4]

Grierson's missionary work was continuously impeded by the financial crisis of the Scottish church Foreign Mission Committee.[5] In 1912, Grierson expressed his frustration to the board when he wrote the annual report for Sung-jin: "This work [the medical work] can never be conducted satisfactorily while the doctor in charge is so immersed in church, school, administrative, class, theological, and other work; ... until we have a doctor with no other duties, we shall have a medical work only in name; and the medical work unsatisfactory as it is, will but limit the activities of the senior missionary in his other important spheres."[12] In 1914, Grierson received $7,000 from the Board to build a modern hospital at Sung-jin.[13]

In 1917, he renovated the Sung-jin clinic to Jedong Hospital, the most bona fide medical facility of the mission.[13] Eight Korean doctors assisted Grierson at the Jedong Hospital, and among them, four were students of the Bosin Boys' School and executives of Sung-jin Area YMCA.[4] Jedong Hospital had over one hundred inpatients and 1,743 outpatients.[11]

In 1903, Grierson headed to Vladivostok with John Grierson and Alexander F. Robb on a mission trip in response to the request of the National Bible Society of Scotland to spread the Bible.[11] In 1906, Grierson established a chapel at Longjing with Sun-guk Hong (홍순국) who was both a translator and a Korean teacher for Grierson.[14] In 1909, as more Koreans moved to Primorsky, Krai Grierson revisited Vladivostok and served as a teacher for the bible study class. Grierson believed that more mission branches were needed in the northern region; motivating the Presbyterian Church in Canada to establish additional branches at Hoeryong in 1912 and Longjing in 1913. They sent Archibald H. Barker and Donald A. McDonald (Missionary) as missionaries in response to Grierson's request.[11][5]