[5]: 278, 497 [6] For six months in late 1890 and early 1891, he served as a physician in the Chaejungwon (Extended Relief House: Royal Hospital) in Seoul.

[5]: 270  On April 14, 1891, he moved to Pusan and was later joined by his wife Margaret and two daughters at his residence which also served as the location of his medical practice.

[5]: 272 When Canadian missionary James Scarth Gale ended his association with his supporters from the University College's YMCA (UC–YMCA) in order join the American Presbyterian Mission, the UC–YMCA lost its only representative in Korea.

[5]: 274–75  In Wŏnsan, Hardie began to emulate Fenwick's methods for self-sufficiency by supplementing his living with farming, "feeding cattle and growing fruit".

[5]: 275, 497  In 1898, Gale moved to Seoul, and Hardie joined the American Methodist Episcopal Church, South,[6] when his contract of support from the CCM ended.

[5]: 275, 278, 497  With the American Methodist mission, he was first tasked with establishing a medical practice in Songdo, Hwanghae Province, in present-day North Korea.

It was in Seoul, on November 11, 1900, that Bishop Alpheus Wilson ordained Hardie as a deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

[5]: 279, 281  In August 1903,[4] at a Bible study with six other missionaries led by Moses Clark White who was visiting from China,[7] Hardie spoke of prayer and the Holy Spirit.

[2][3][4] His expression of the feeling of "humiliation" at his failings in evangelizing people in the Kangwon Province had the paradoxical effect of inspiring a religious awakening that spread throughout the entire nation.

The school initially had no defined physical location as he travelled between Inchŏn, Kongju, Pyongyang, and Seoul to teach several months-long sessions.