The Prison and the Promise in Burma

In 1813, Adoniram Judson knelt on the deck of a ship bound for Burma, freshly ordained and burning with purpose. He had heard the voice of the Almighty calling him to carry the gospel to a land where no Protestant missionary had ever set foot. The sending churches laid hands on him. The prayers were fervent. The commissioning was real.

Then came the wilderness.

Judson arrived in Rangoon to find a language so difficult it took him three years before he could hold a basic conversation. His first child died. His second child died. The Burmese government threw him into Ava prison, where he spent seventeen months in chains, starving, afflicted with fever, his feet bound to a bamboo pole hoisted toward the ceiling each night. Fellow prisoners died around him in the filth and darkness.

Six years passed before a single Burmese soul professed faith in Christ.