Birthdays on October 13

Alexander M. MacKay was born at Rhynie, Scotland. He would live only forty years and spent fourteen of them in Africa as a missionary pioneer. He accomplished amazing things for the Lord. For example, he built two hundred and thirty miles of road in one hundred days to reach Uganda. Then, setting up a mission station, he learned the native dialog, taught the local inhabitants to read and write, and was the first to print gospel portions for them in their own language. In 1882, he baptized his first five converts. King Mtsea who welcomed MacKay was replaced by a wicked son. This man martyred many converts. In 1887, MacKay was expelled south of the lake where he had begun his work. He never returned to this first field, dying in 1890 after a severe attack of malarial fever.