A Missionary Moment

Danny Akin's little book 5 Who Changed the World is a collection of sermons delivered at Southeastern Baptist Theological seminary. It covers 5 influential missionaries by relating their lives to a biblical text.



This morning I read the chapter on Adoniram and Ann Judson. This couple is famous for their work and suffering in Burma. At one point, Adoniram was imprisoned in what was called the "Death Prison." It was a forty by thirty feet room. In it were one hundred persons--both male and female, half naked and marked for death. The floor was covered by dead animals and piles of human waste. Each night their captures placed a bamboo pole between their shackled legs, lifting all but their shoulders off the ground in order to prevent escape.



Ann visited her husband regularly, though she was burdened beyond belief. At one point, she carried her new born child through the streets begging native women to nurse her child, for she was too emaciated to do it herself. She eventually died on the field.



Initially the work was slow. There were 18 converts in the first 10 years of ministry. By the end of his life, however, there were in Burma 7,000 people baptized, 63 congregations, and 163 missionaries. At one point he requested 15 to 20 thousand gospel tracks for a Buddhist festival that proved most fruitful. He described the scene:



[We have distributed] nearly ten thousand tracts, giving to none but those who ask. I presume there have been six thousand applications at the house. Some come two or three months' journey from the borders of Siam and China--'Sir, we hear that there is an eternal hell. We are afraid of it. Do give us a writing that will tell us how to escape it.' Others come from the frontiers of Kathay, an hundred miles north of Ava--'Sir, we have seen a writing that tells about an eternal God. Are you the man that gives away such writings? If so, pray give us one, for we want to know the truth before we die.' Others come from the interior of the country, where the name of Jesus Christ is little known--'Are you Jesus Christ's man? Give us a writing that tells us about Jesus Christ (quoted on pages 33-34).'



What a God He is to triumph over suffering for the glory of His name. What a God He is who takes regular people and makes them "Jesus Christ's man." I hope to be one some day.