June 8. Adoniram Judson. Judson was on a mission from God. Before he showed up in Burma, a Burmese Bible didn’t exist, and there wasn’t a single known Christ-follower.
By 1837, Judson had completed the Burmese Bible, and there were 1,144 baptized converts. In 1880, there were 7,000 Burmese Christians, 63 churches, a publishing house, and multiple schools.
By the 100th anniversary of his death, Burma had 200,000 Christians who would live forever in the presence of the King. On this date in 1824, he was locked in a Burmese prison. Listen to this story.
A sacrifice now can yield success for eternity.
In Burma, Adoniram and Ann Judson faced unrelenting heat, lousy food, and a population who worshiped idols. Pigs and dogs fought over the trash in the streets. Worse, the missionaries were often sick, and their two children died.
But after six hard years, Moung Nau became the first convert, two more soon followed, the Burmese church was born, and the first-ever prayer meeting was held in November.
But five years later, war broke out with the British, and the Emperor accused all English-speaking foreigners of espionage. Officers tied up Judson and threw him into a dark, filthy room. The story of his “sufferings from fever, excruciating heat, hunger, repeated disappointments, and the cruelty of the keepers is one of the most challenging narratives in the history of missions. . . . For almost two years he was incarcerated in a prison too vile to house animals.”
Judson asked God, “Spare me long enough to put Thy saving Word into the hands of a perishing people.” He survived because early in his confinement, Ann, once again pregnant, sneaked him food. With great courage, she also kept his Bible translation work safe by sewing it into a pillow, and she took it to him.
By the time Judson was released, the church had been destroyed. Ann and the baby she had birthed were ill and soon died.
The loss devastated Judson, and it took him a long time to recover. He lived over a year, “in a retreat in the woods, mourning his wife and child. He even dug his own grave and sat beside it.” Later he said, “If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated suffering.”
Judson’s story reflects the words of the Apostle Peter, “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10 ESV).
“There is no success without sacrifice,” Judson once said. “If you succeed without sacrifice, it is because someone has suffered before you. If you sacrifice without success, it is because someone will succeed after.”
What do you care enough about to sacrifice for? A sacrifice now can yield success for eternity.
Hall, J. Mervin. Judson the Pioneer. Pantianos Classics, 1913.
Reese, Ed. “The Life and Ministry of Adoniram Judson.” TruthfulWords.org, 2020. https://www.truthfulwords.org/biography/judsontw.html
Do You Want to Learn More About This Man?
If you’d like to read a children’s adaptation of Judson’s story to your children or grandchildren, check out Imprisoned in the Golden City by Dave and Neta Jackson, http://www.trailblazerbooks.com/Frame-1.html
Once, in 1820, when the Emperor harshly rejected considering one God and harshly ejected Judson from the palace, he struggled and bartered to get safely off the island. As his little team pushed off from the beach, he said, “I could moralize half an hour on the apt resemblance between the state of our feelings and the sandy, barren surface of this miserable beach. But ’tis idle all. Let the beach and our sorrow go together. Something better will turn up tomorrow.”