Adoniram Judson and the Seeds That No One Could See

In 1813, Adoniram Judson stepped off a ship in Rangoon, Burma, with nothing but a calling and a conviction that God had promised a harvest among the Burmese people. For six years, he labored without a single convert. He buried himself in the Burmese language, translating Scripture word by painstaking word, while colleagues died of tropical fevers and friends back home questioned his sanity.

Then came the Anglo-Burmese War. Judson was dragged to Ava prison in 1824, bound in chains, hung upside down at night, starving and ravaged by disease. His wife Ann walked miles daily to bring him scraps of food. She died shortly after his release. So did their infant daughter.

Any reasonable calculation said the mission was finished. The evidence screamed failure. But Judson kept translating. He kept preaching. He kept believing that the God who called him to Burma was the same God who calls into existence things that do not yet exist.

By the time Judson died in 1850, more than seven thousand Burmese believers gathered in churches he had planted. Today, millions of Burmese Christians trace their faith back to one man who hoped against hope.