HISTORY
Adoniram Judson was born in 1778 on the outskirts of Boston. At the age of three he read entire chapters of the Bible to his parents. The desire to minister overseas had always resided in his soul. As a young man, the Lord prepared him and his new wife, Ann Hasseltine, to embark overseas two weeks after getting married.
It took four months by boat to reach Calcutta, India, quite the honeymoon! There was no welcome for them in this country, it was not where God had sent them.
When they finally arrived on the golden shores of Burma, they almost turned around.
Despite their fears, the beginning of a most amazing journey had commenced!
They immediately prepared for ministry by covering the land with Christian tracts and daily evangelism. After six long years, God opened the door for the first Burmese convert. By the end of Adoniram’s life, there were thousands of new Christians. Now over four million believers are in the land!
The flames of revival are being fanned everywhere, and people are hungry for the gospel as never before.
To master the language, Adoniram and Ann studied six days a week, twelve hours a day for three years. He then translated the entire Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Burmese
The Judson Bible is still the most widely used in the country today. It took him over twenty years to complete the translation, enduring unthinkable tumult and turmoil.
All this did not come without suffering, severe persecution and death. He lost his first and second wife to disease, along with six children. He was also arrested and thrown in jail for over a year. Cruel jailers hung the prisoners upside down from a bamboo pole with only their shoulders touching the ground.
Despite this massive amount of adversity, Adoniram persevered in Burma for thirty-seven years, not realizing the fruit that would follow his efforts. He died in 1850 in the bay of Bengal from sickness, and was buried unceremoniously in the ocean. Praise God for what He accomplished through Adoniram Judson!
Having spent a year here now, the experiences have reaffirmed the vision stirring in my heart for years. “His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones,” Jeremiah 20:9.
Being a fifth generation relative of Adoniram Judson, it’s very exciting to follow in his footsteps and help share the Gospel in any way possible. In conversation with the Buddhists of Yangon, his name is still very well known in the land.