THOMAS CHRISTIE: Presbyterian Pioneer in a Trinidad Mission Field

Rev. Thomas Christie was the third Canadian minister to accept a call to present the Gospel of Jesus to Indentured East Indians in Trinidad W. Indies. The Foreign Mission Board of the Synod of Nova Scotia had already sent Rev. John Morton (1868) and Rev. Kenneth Grant (1870) to that island. Rev. Christie was posted in the third Mission Field in the Couva Ward in the County of Caroni, in 1874. Three estate schools were already built and opened and he served as corresponding Manager to these. As an evangelist he preached to East Indians, white Presbyterians and to emancipated Blacks. At one time he trained teachers in pedagogy. In his second term a Presbyterian church was built. He did ground-breaking work in school management and in evangelism. Although his ministry was short— a little over nine years, yet his faithful works under challenging circumstances are grounds for numbering him as a pioneer Presbyterian. Excerpts from his many letters are quoted and these give readers an understanding of his expected joys and unexpected sorrows.