Adoniram Judson
Just finished reading aloud the life of Adoniram Judson. Wow!
His three wives, Anne, Sarah, and Emilie were awesome, each one giving her life to Christ and her husband in that order and that order of marriage and death. They all including Judson, endured grief, sickness, death and privations and tribulations almost beyond human reason! Anne was driven to the brink of insanity as was Adoniram at her death. Yet they plodded on fearlessly day by day for many years.
Here is a man who forsook the comforts of New England high society to go to a people no white man had ever visited—at least none from America. His first wife Anne was the first woman to leave the shores of America for a foreign field for Christ and Adoniram her husband, the very first missionary sent from the states around 1812 or so.
He was even willing to go with the British backing as America denied his request to be sent as a missionary but alas relented and supported his venture saying, “Anything the Britts can do, we can do better.”
For twenty-four years he labored in translating the scripture from Hebrew and Greek into the difficult Burmese language! He arrived not knowing one syllable of Burmese or anything of their culture and not one soul, save the son of William Carey with whom he stayed briefly. He had intended to go to India, but was refused by the British as they did not want the American teaching social equality through the Gospel of Christ—their wealth was borne on the backs of slave and a caste system of operation with the Britts at the top.
So for one and a half years he floated from place to place seeking his place, losing a child (his first) at sea with the search for his mission field until the only open door seemed Rangoon, Burma. So he sailed as a “foreign devil” into a strange people of a superstitious religion attempting to topple Buddha and establish the kingdom of Christ not only on her shores but deep in her heart.
This was the Karin’s first contact with a white man, much like David Livingstone in Africa. His lasting legacy like Robert Morrison in Chinese—an English-Burmese dictionary and the entire Bible in Burmese, both forever changing that people, foremost the scriptures and later the dictionary!
Why did Adoniram translate the Scriptures into Burmese? He realized at that time there was not another man on earth that had the ability to do so. He knew the languages as none other—the Hebrew and Greek and he had mastered Burmese to the point where he thought in Burmese!
When he did return for a visit to the US after losing two wives to that field and several children, he could put no more than 3 sentences together in English at a time without difficulty. When he visited churches in 1846 in to 1849 (?), he could barely speak above a whisper and had to have a Burmese-English interpreter to be understood. He truly was one with his mission field!
I remember when I actually began to think and dream in French. It was quite a fulfilling experience, but did not last but a few years as I was off to Italy or Arabia learning a new language!
What can we take from Judson’s life?
First: Willingness and Sacrifice!
-- Untold hardships cannot deter the man and woman of faith. A godly dedicated Christian couple can do wonders together! What a team they can and should be! Mt 19:29; Mk 10:29-30
--Be bold and courageous even in the face of death. Fear of death did not deter him.
--Surely the seed of God will bear fruit if you keep sowing and don’t quit! He was six years laboring before receiving his first convert.
--The scriptures in the language of the people are very powerful to effect change. Make that a priority!
--Do only those things none others can do. Discuss what that is and decide to pursue it. Make it a goal a little at a time.
--Lean that way constantly. Whenever you can run that way.
Lord grant us your wisdom and power and patience to see your will done in us and those to whom we minister and shall yet minister to—generations from now! Amen
Stephen (May 2015)
His three wives, Anne, Sarah, and Emilie were awesome, each one giving her life to Christ and her husband in that order and that order of marriage and death. They all including Judson, endured grief, sickness, death and privations and tribulations almost beyond human reason! Anne was driven to the brink of insanity as was Adoniram at her death. Yet they plodded on fearlessly day by day for many years.
Here is a man who forsook the comforts of New England high society to go to a people no white man had ever visited—at least none from America. His first wife Anne was the first woman to leave the shores of America for a foreign field for Christ and Adoniram her husband, the very first missionary sent from the states around 1812 or so.
He was even willing to go with the British backing as America denied his request to be sent as a missionary but alas relented and supported his venture saying, “Anything the Britts can do, we can do better.”
For twenty-four years he labored in translating the scripture from Hebrew and Greek into the difficult Burmese language! He arrived not knowing one syllable of Burmese or anything of their culture and not one soul, save the son of William Carey with whom he stayed briefly. He had intended to go to India, but was refused by the British as they did not want the American teaching social equality through the Gospel of Christ—their wealth was borne on the backs of slave and a caste system of operation with the Britts at the top.
So for one and a half years he floated from place to place seeking his place, losing a child (his first) at sea with the search for his mission field until the only open door seemed Rangoon, Burma. So he sailed as a “foreign devil” into a strange people of a superstitious religion attempting to topple Buddha and establish the kingdom of Christ not only on her shores but deep in her heart.
This was the Karin’s first contact with a white man, much like David Livingstone in Africa. His lasting legacy like Robert Morrison in Chinese—an English-Burmese dictionary and the entire Bible in Burmese, both forever changing that people, foremost the scriptures and later the dictionary!
Why did Adoniram translate the Scriptures into Burmese? He realized at that time there was not another man on earth that had the ability to do so. He knew the languages as none other—the Hebrew and Greek and he had mastered Burmese to the point where he thought in Burmese!
When he did return for a visit to the US after losing two wives to that field and several children, he could put no more than 3 sentences together in English at a time without difficulty. When he visited churches in 1846 in to 1849 (?), he could barely speak above a whisper and had to have a Burmese-English interpreter to be understood. He truly was one with his mission field!
I remember when I actually began to think and dream in French. It was quite a fulfilling experience, but did not last but a few years as I was off to Italy or Arabia learning a new language!
What can we take from Judson’s life?
First: Willingness and Sacrifice!
-- Untold hardships cannot deter the man and woman of faith. A godly dedicated Christian couple can do wonders together! What a team they can and should be! Mt 19:29; Mk 10:29-30
--Be bold and courageous even in the face of death. Fear of death did not deter him.
--Surely the seed of God will bear fruit if you keep sowing and don’t quit! He was six years laboring before receiving his first convert.
--The scriptures in the language of the people are very powerful to effect change. Make that a priority!
--Do only those things none others can do. Discuss what that is and decide to pursue it. Make it a goal a little at a time.
--Lean that way constantly. Whenever you can run that way.
Lord grant us your wisdom and power and patience to see your will done in us and those to whom we minister and shall yet minister to—generations from now! Amen
Stephen (May 2015)