By Sarah Levesque (Rated G)
Adoniram Judson, missionary to Burma (Myanmar), was born on August 9, 1788 in Malden, Massachusetts. After a period of skepticism, Judson studied theology at Andover Theological Seminary in his home state, then converted from his Congregational roots to join the Baptist church along with his wife, Ana (called Nancy). In 1814, they helped to form the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. The Judsons originally set out for India, but their mission work was opposed by the powerful East India Company, so they moved to Rangoon, Burma (now called Yangon, Myanmar), where they learned Burmese as well as the religious language Pali.
In 1819, Judson began preaching publicly, then started churches and schools and trained other ministers. He was tortured by the Burmese during the First Burmese War with Britain, but he was eventually released. His wife Nancy spent the nineteen months of his imprisonment begging and bribing his guards to be able to feed her husband, while caring for their baby and two orphaned girls. Not long after Judson was released from prison to serve as translator, both Nancy and baby Maria died. Judson continued working, preaching, creating a Burmese dictionary (published in 1826), and translating the Bible into Burmese (completed in 1834). He also remarried twice.
Adoniram Judson died on April 12, 1850, at sea on the Indian Ocean. Through his efforts, thousands of Burmese people became Christian. May we, too, work to bring those around us closer to Christ.
Sources:
britannica.com/biography/Adoniram-Judson
imb.org/2018/03/27/missionaries-you-should-know-adoniram-judson/
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