The Emergence of a Pioneer Missionary for Myanmar

Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice, who were missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, became Baptists in India in late 1812. Later, they were not allowed to remain in India due to a government prohibition. Therefore, Luther Rice returned to the United States, organized the Baptist Church, and founded the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions in 1814.[1] On the other hand, Adoniram Judson and his wife first decided to go to Penang, Malaysia. But there was no single ship to Penang during the rainy season. As they do not have a permit to remain in India, they rushed to find a ship to leave India. Finally, they could find only the Georgiana ship, which would sail to Burma (Myanmar). Judson and his wife embarked on June 22, 1813. Burma opened her door just wide enough for them to stay in. On July 13, 1813, they arrived in the country where they spent the rest of their lives. On the day that they arrived in Yangon, Judson said, “God closes other doors, but He opens the door He wants.”[2]

Judson worked hard for the gospel to take root in Burmese soil and tried to work on the mission with perseverance and tolerance amid difficulties. After his firstborn son passed away in 1816, Judson studied hard Burmese language and translation work 18 hours a day. Judson printed two tracts in the Burmese language to engage the gospel to the Buddhists. On July 12, 1823, he completed the translation of the New Testament from Greek. His translation of the entire text of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew was finished on October 24, 1840.[3] He wrote one poem during his Bible translation;
 
In Joy or pain,
our course is onward still;
We sow on Burma’s barren plain,
We reap on Zion Hill.            

Judson’s mission strategies included Zayat preaching and the distribution of Christian tracts. These tracts had served two purposes; they reached people interested in the new religious teacher and brought many people to the Zayat to hear more. The whole basis of Judson’s approach was person-to-person teaching in an informal atmosphere in which the visitors were perfectly free to express their views as well as to hear his. After six years of diligent missionary work, Judson experienced Maung Nau as the first Burmese Buddhist convert.[4]

During the First Anglo-Burmese War, Judson was arrested in 1824 for the suspicion of being a British spy because the Burmese could not distinguish Americans from the British. He was released to help interpret peace negotiations with the British after nearly one and a half years of prison confinement. Rev Moo Taw[5] said that “Judson suffered a headache disease for the rest of his life as he was thrown upside down in prison at night. But he did not stop his bible translation work in prison.” After the war, lower Myanmar was dominated by British colonials in 1826. Judson moved there with his family and continued mission work.[6] From that point, Myanmar Baptist Mission has been successful.  Judson’s impact on Myanmar and the effectiveness of his strategy are undeniable.  At the time of his death in 1850, there were 7940 believers, 6 churches, and 163 ministers. The Myanmar Baptist Mission, started by Judson, continued to spread into other ethnic groups before British colonization in 1885.[7]

Conclusion
The Second Great Awakening in the United States called for the spiritual renewal of the people, and as a result, they formed the first foreign mission board. God also prepared an atheist man, Adoniram Judson, to experience spiritual renewal and to obey a call to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to the other side of the world.  Therefore, the mission movement can emerge only from the result of personal or corporate spiritual renewal. Historically, mission movements have not originated at the center of the institutional church. Mission was typically the personal efforts of devoted Christians who had experienced spiritual renewal. The spiritual renewal Christians no longer thought that the mission and evangelism were the responsibility of the state or the church to propagate the Christian faith. Christians assert that the whole church is called to the mission, but many Christian churches do not recognize and support those who are enthusiastically involved in the mission. Normally, mission structures and spiritual renewal personnel have been used to take the gospel to new cultures and places because true spiritual awakening produces true spiritual renewal personnel to work on His Great Commission.
    
   [1] Joseph Tracy, American Board, 37-38.
   [2] Shwe Wa and Sowards, Burma Baptist Chronicle (Rangoon: University Press, 1963), 3-4.
   [3] Simon Pau Khan En, Baptist Faith & Mission Opinion (Yangon: Myanmar Baptist Convention,  literature & Publication Department,2003), 118.
   [4] Shwe Wa and Sowards, Burma Baptist Chronicle, 39-40. Zayat was the building, a verandah thatched with Dani leaves and open to the road, where Judson would sit and receive all occasional visitors and inquirers. 
   [5] Rev Moo Taw is Pastor of Amherst Baptist Church which was established on December 2, 1827. He is a researcher about Adoniram Judson and building the museum in his church compound where the tomb of Ann Hasseltine Judson is situated.
   [6] Cung Lian Hup, “A Faithful Servant of the lord,” in  Missio Dei, Journal of Mission &Evangelism (Yangon: Myanmar Institute of Theology, Department of Historical Studies, 2009), 177-182.
   [7] Simon Pau Khan En, Baptist Faith & Mission Opinion, 119-121.