After her internship, the 27-year-old Murray left her hometown and rode a transcontinental train to Vancouver with her heart filled with dedication to saving humanity in a faraway land called Joseon. As a missionary, Murray boarded a trans-Pacific steamship bound for the Port of Busan. Upon arriving at Busan on August 21, 1921, she embarked on yet another 12-hour train trip to Seoul. Dim lights were illuminating the dark streets when she arrived. She spent her first night in Seoul at a nurses' dormitory maintained by Severance Hospital across from Seoul Station. The next morning, she boarded a Gyeongwon Line train and arrived at Hamhung in the evening. It was here, in Hamhung, where she began her missionary journey in Joseon.

Murray stayed in Hamhung, learning Korean and performing her duties as a missionary. Before long, she received a message from Longjing, Manchuria, asking her to come to Longjing and take over the clinic there, which had been closed since Dr. Stanley H. Martin (1890–1941) became ill. She traveled to Chongjin and Hoeryong, and crossed the Tumen River on a cold winter night, braving cold winds that cut like razors. She arrived in Longjing three days before Christmas Eve. At the time, there were many Koreans and Chinese in Longjing who had come to the area to escape difficulties at home and find a patch of land on which to settle. With the help of her predecessor, Dr. Martin, she treated and operated on patients with tuberculosis and other diseases, saving numerous lives. At the time, Longjing was politically and socially unstable. Thus, when Dr. Kate McMillan (1867–1922), who had been the head of the Jehye Hospital in Hamhung, passed away and with the hospital facing a possible shutdown, Murray returned to be its head.

After becoming the director of the Jehye Hospital, Dr. Murray remodeled the building, creating two wards and removing partitions between three small rooms to create a large patient room capable of accommodating up to eight patients at a time. She also had a separate ward built for patients with tuberculosis, which was rampant at the time. There was no cure for tuberculosis then; all the doctors could do was to provide rest, fresh air, and sufficient nutrients. Dr. Murray also started a nursing school and graduated the first group of nurses in 1932. Imperial Japan occupied the Korean Peninsula when she was still serving as a doctor and a missionary at the Hamhung Jehye Hospital, and the political situation on the peninsula went from bad to worse. When World War II began in 1939, consuls in Korea urged people from their own countries to leave Korea. In June 1942, Canadian missionaries were returned to Canada in exchange for Japanese prisoners of war in the United States and Canada. The missionaries were not allowed to bring books, photographs, maps, or any printed materials back to their home country. Dr. Murray left Hamhung, where she had devoted her heart for two decades, with only two suitcases.

On August 15, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender to the Allied Forces, and the Korean Peninsula slowly began to recover from colonization. In July 1945, Dr. Murray returned to Korea at the Port of Incheon via San Francisco, answering an invitation from Helen Kim (1899–1970), the president of Ewha Womans University.3 However, she could not visit Hamhung because the Peninsula had been divided into two Koreas with different ideologies. She helped Dr. Kim restore Ewha Womans University Hospital in Dongdaemun and medical education at the university, and then served as the vice director of Severance Hospital. Post-war Korea suffered from a shortage of resources and various epidemics, and hospitals were always busy tending to the medical problems of disadvantaged people. On June 25, 1950, after a morning round at the hospital, Dr. Murray heard news of North Korean forces attacking South Korea. Most people from other countries had to evacuate the country, and Dr. Murray and her fellow missionaries rushed to the Port of Incheon carrying only their most essential items. They boarded a cargo ship to Fukuoka, Japan, from whence they went back to Canada.

On September 8, 1951, in the midst of the Korean War, Dr. Murray got on a ship once again bound for Korea, travelling from in Vancouver to Busan via the Port of Kobe. Busan was filled with refugees, people who had lost their families, orphans, and people wounded during battles. Hospital ships and relief supplies from other countries were the only proper source of medical services. Dr. Murray secured supplies travelling between Busan and Geoje Island, which she used for her restoration projects after the war. Then, she went to Seoul and busied herself with restoring Severance Hospital, which had been destroyed, teaching students, helping war orphans, and fighting diseases including tuberculosis.

In post-war Korea, Gangwon-do was one of the most underdeveloped areas. It was in Gangwon-do where some of the fiercest battles had been fought, which left most of the buildings in the area in ruins. The Missionary Department of the Presbyterian Church in Canada suggested that Dr. Murray launch a medical service project in the province. Dr. Murray visited Chuncheon, Hongcheon, and Wonju in person to look for a hospital site. In Wonju, the United States Methodist Church had erected the Swedish Methodist Hospital (Seomigam Hospital) in 1913.45 The building had been razed during the Korean War, but the building site remained. The Canadian Missionary Department could not purchase the land, as the Korean Government banned foreigners from purchasing land in Korea. The Missionary Department of the United States Methodist Church provided the site for the new hospital, and the Canadian Missionary Department provided the funding for the construction project. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in 1957, and the Wonju United Christian Hospital was opened on November 7, 1959 with 50 beds (Figs. 2 and 3).6 The hospital served the most medically disadvantaged region at the time, which comprised Gangwon-do, Chungcheongbuk-do, and the eastern and northern parts of Gyeonggi-do.

Dr. Murray was 65 years old at the time. She had experienced the explosion in Halifax and Spanish flu, treated patients at the Longjing Mission Hospital, the Hamhung Jehye Hospital, and the Ewha Womans University Hospital in Dongdaemun, and served as the vice director of Severance Hospital, which made her one of the best candidates to lead the new hospital. She was also passionate about treating patients with Hansen's disease in areas near Wonju and began a mobile clinic for Gyeongcheonwon, which housed many patients with Hansen's disease. She later built a medical office and made significant contributions to fighting Hansen's disease. Dr. Murray devoted her life to helping Koreans in need as a medical practitioner. She worked with the Reverend Carl Wesley Judy (1918–2008) to erect the Wonju United Christian Hospital, which provided the foundation for the Yonsei University Wonju Campus. Dr. Murray retired in July 1961 and returned to Canada. She passed away at her home in Pictou Landing on April 14, 1975. She was 81 at the time. Her spirit has accompanied the history of the Yonsei University and will guide its path in the coming years.