This Week - 1812
Adoniram and Anne Judson
Adoniram Judson, American missionary born in Massachusetts, married Ann Hasseltine. Together Adoniram and Ann (Nancy) Judson became America’s first foreign missionaries to Burma, sent as Congregationalists, but soon became Baptists.
Adoniram Judson (b.1788) and Ann (“Nancy”) Hasseltine were married on February 5, 1812, and sailed thirteen days later to India to join William Carey and his fellow missionaries. Studying the Bible on the ship journey, they decided to take immersion baptism when they arrived in Calcutta. Because of the “anti-missionary” spirit of the British East India Company in charge of Calcutta, the couple were not allowed to stay in India. They settled in Rangoon, Burma, which had been Adoniram’s first choice of destination all along. So, they became America’s first missionaries to Burma. They spent twelve hours a day in language study their first year in Rangoon. They lost their first child at the age of six months. When war broke out between Britain and Burma, all foreigners were suspected to be spies. Adoniram was imprisoned and sentenced to death. After a horrible eighteen months in prison, he was released to be an interpreter for the Burmese in negotiations with the British. Shortly afterward, in 1826, Ann died of tropical fever, followed shortly by their only child, baby Maria who was one year old. Adoniram was so grieved over their loss, he immersed himself in translation work, producing the first Bible in the Burmese language.
Pray for Myanmar (Burma):
1. Pray that the civil war and military rule will soon end, and Burmese can live at peace.
2. Pray that the message of Jesus, first preached there over 200 years ago, will bear fruit for more Burmese to turn away from Buddhism to be followers of Jesus.
3. Pray for the translation of the Bible into the tribal languages of Myanmar (Burma). Bible translators are at work there seeking to finish those tasks.
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