James Gale was born in Alma Ontario. During his first year of study in the University of Toronto he heard Dwight L. Moody, the then famous evangelist, preach and was deeply impressed. In 1888, right after graduation from the University of Toronto at the age of 25, he left for Korea as a missionary volunteer with Toronto University YMCA. Thus he became the very first Canadian missionary to Korea.
As a member of the “Board of Official Translators’ of the Korean Bible, he worked with American missionaries Henry Appenzeller, Horace Underwood and William Reynolds. In 1893 he published the first Korean translation of John Bunyan’s novel ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’. His Korean English Dictionary appeared in 1897. In 1922 he published ‘The Cloud Dream of the Nine’, his first English translation of Korean classics. His linguistic skills were essential in the work of Bible translation while his literary and poetic sensitivity gave his writings an added charm. In 1897 he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister at New Albany Presbytery, Indiana. In 1900 he founded ‘Seoul Yondong Church’, where he remained as pastor until he left Korea.

Malcolm Fenwick was born in Markham, Ontario. He accepted God’s call for foreign mission while attending the Niagara Bible Conference and came to Korea in 1889 as a missionary volunteer with Toronto University YMCA. In 1894 he started Corean Itinerant Mission. His ministry was based in Wonsan. In 1901 he merged his work with the Ella Thing Memorial Mission to form the Church of Christ, which was the beginning of Korean Baptist church. Over the years of his missionary work, he gradually evolved into a Baptistic thinker with definite leanings toward the conservative evangelical tradition. In 1936 he passed away in Wonsan.

While a student of the Toronto School of Medicine, he and Oliver Avison cofounded YMCA of their school and he was impressed by the writings in the University newspaper about the work of James Gale. In 1890, after graduation with B. Med. at the age of 25, he moved to Korea as a medical missionary volunteer with Toronto University Medical Student YMCA. He is recognized as the main actor of the Wonsan Revival (1903) and the catalyst for the Great Pyongyang Revival (1907). He was an instrument the Holy Spirit used greatly for the growth of Korean Christian church. He rendered 45 years of medical and evangelical mission service.

Oliver Avison from Canada spent over four decades spreading Western medical knowledge in Korea. He was a medical doctor, physician, humanitarian and professor. Ultimately he was a missionary whose life was manifestation of the Christian spirit. He founded Severance Hospital and Severance Medical College in Seoul, 1904. These two world-renowned institutions are the first mile stones in the development of Korean modern medical science.

William MacKenzie was born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and once for 16 months did mission work in Labrador. After reading a book on Korea, he got interested in working in Korea. Unable to persuade the Presbyterian Church of Canada to send him to Korea, in 1893 he journeyed to Korea under the auspices of friends and relatives. In 1894 he began his work in a small village called Sorai. He devoted himself fully to lead Bible studies, visit homes, preach and do many other services. He lived in a small mud house, wore native dress and ate native food. Due to the poor living together with overwork, he contracted typhoid fever and died of it in June, 1895. Then the residents of Sorai sent a request to P. C. C. for another minister and so, in 1898, P. C. C. dispatched to Korea Rev. Grierson, Rev. Foote and Rev. Duncan.