PICTOU – Members of the United church in Pictou learned a little about a Pictou County missionary from the early 1900’s yesterday.
Sarina Bayer came from her home in Ontario to speak about her mother, Dr. Mina MacKenzie, who dedicated her life to working with people in India.
Bayer said that her mother practised medicine throughout all of India while educating young people and acting as a Christian missionary.
She spent her first 20 years in India in the Northern Province, encompassing three or four cities. It was often very crowded and cholera outbreaks were not at all uncommon.
She also opened a drug dispensary in the area, in memory of her mother called the Ann-Murray Dispensary
MacKenzie adopted 44 children over her time in India and took three back to Canada with her, one was Bayer, who was born in Srinagar in Kashmir and lost her parents when she was just three.
Bayer passed on what she learned with her mother to her children. Her son Mike also travelled to India, to see first hand some of the conditions that people have to cope with.
“As a child I experienced the poverty and suffering,” he said.
The Bayer’s have a trust fund set up to help with educating children in India.
The Dr. Mina Mackenzie Trust Fund provides funding to help educate young people.
Through the fund, the United Church in Pictou supports two students.
Pictou United has had a long-standing connection with Dr. Mina,” said Rev. Mary Beth Moriarity.
Moriarity was very pleased that Bayer could make the trip east so that she could talk to people about her month.
“Less and less people knew about her legacy,” said Moriarity.
Bayer says that Pictou is like a home to her because this is where her mother was at a time.
Anyone wishing to donate to the Dr. Mina MacKenzie Trust Fund can do so by visiting http://minatrustfund.wordpress.com or by contacting the United Church in Pictou.
