14. A Growing Band of Believers
Chapter 14
A Growing Band of Believers
By the time Adoniram and James Colman returned to Rangoon on February 18, 1820, Adoniram was convinced of what he should do. He and Ann would leave Burma as soon as possible and set up a mission station somewhere else. He thought Chittagong might be a suitable location, especially since the lone missionary to the Burmese people living there had been murdered. The fledgling church the missionary had started there was now without a leader. Of course, Adoniram would be sad to leave Rangoon, but he knew it was the best thing to do for the sake of the three Burmese converts. Now that King Bagyidaw had turned his back on Christianity, anyone who had contact with the missionaries would be putting his life in jeopardy.
Several days after returning from Ava, Adoniram laid out his plan to the tiny group of Burmese Christians. He expected them to be relieved that they would no longer have to associate with foreigners during this period of the king’s displeasure, but the opposite was the case.
“Don’t leave us yet,” begged Maung Byaay.
“But it’s useless for me to stay,” Adoniram replied sadly, thinking about how he had taught Maung Byaay to read and write, and about how much Maung Byaay loved to study the Bible with Adoniram. “We cannot open the zayat. No Burmese person will want to inquire about Christianity now that people know that the king is displeased with us. It’s better for Ann and me to go and come back when circumstances change and you are no longer in danger because of your association with us.”
“No, no,” insisted Maung Byaay. “Stay with us until there are eight or ten Christians here. Then you can train one of us to be the leader and you can leave. We will not be worried then, because even if you left the country, the religion you preach would spread itself. Why, even the king could not stop it. But if you go now, what would happen if someone wants to join our religion? I could not baptize him. What would we do?”
Although Adoniram was very moved by the argument, he was not persuaded. After all, he had just been to Ava and had seen firsthand the king and the power he exerted over people. But he could not dismiss what Maung Byaay had said without promising to give the matter some consideration.
While Adoniram was considering what to do, the three Burmese Christians were acting. They talked to everyone they could think of about their faith, and on the following Sunday, each of them brought to church one man who was “willing to consider” the religion of the foreigners.
Although none of the men became converts, Adoniram was greatly encouraged by their presence. The men had dared to enter the mission house for a church service, and they had asked some searching questions during the service. Their presence had the desired effect. Adoniram and Ann decided it would be wrong of them to leave the struggling little church in Rangoon, even if their going meant that the local Christians would be safer from reprisals by government officials.
Yet the small group of Burmese Christians in Chittagong needed a leader, and so it was decided that James Colman and his wife should move there. In Chittagong they could help the struggling church and maintain a safe haven for the Judsons and the Burmese Christians to flee to if things turned really ugly in Rangoon.
By the end of March, Adoniram and Ann were once again the only missionaries in Rangoon. This time, though, they had three local converts for company. And these new Christians kept active. Soon two wealthy Burmese men had also become Christians and asked to be baptized. A third man, Maung Shway-gnong, was also very close to accepting the gospel. However, he hung back, afraid. Maung Shway-gnong was a well-respected Buddhist scholar, and his conversion would stun the religious leaders in Rangoon. There was little doubt in Adoniram’s mind that if Maung Shway-gnong were to become a Christian he would be put to death immediately.
The growing group of converts and interested people was all a surprise to Adoniram. Although Adoniram had arrived back from Ava convinced that his missionary work in Burma was over, now it was thriving. He couldn’t have been more pleased, except for one thing. Ann’s health was getting worse by the day. Adoniram knew that Ann needed to see a doctor, but there wasn’t one in Rangoon. The closest place with a good doctor was Calcutta, India. So Adoniram booked passage for himself and Ann on the first ship leaving Rangoon for Calcutta. He was reluctant to leave his missionary work, especially now that things were going so well, but Ann was too ill to travel alone.
Before he and Ann left, Adoniram baptized the two newest converts, Maung Shway-gnong, the Buddhist scholar, and Mah Men-lay, the first woman convert. The baptisms were held at dusk in a quiet pool just outside the mission house gates. As he baptized Maung Shway-gnong, Adoniram wondered whether he would see him alive again. He supposed the religious and government leaders would conspire to have Maung Shway-gnong killed lest other Burmese people follow his example.
On July 19, 1820, Adoniram and Ann Judson set sail from Rangoon. It was the first time Ann had been outside of Burma since arriving there seven years before. In that time, both she and Adoniram had worked hard, and now as they left, ten Burmese Christian converts lined the dock to bid them farewell. Adoniram did not know what lay ahead for these Christians, but he prayed that Maung Byaay had been right and that a church with ten members could not be destroyed by the most determined of kings.
In the Bay of Bengal, the winds were favorable, allowing the captain to shave several days off the normal one-month sailing time from Rangoon to Calcutta. Once in Calcutta, Adoniram wasted no time finding the best doctor in the city for Ann. Dr. Chalmers diagnosed Ann’s illness as liver disease and blamed the condition on the heat and poor diet they endured in Rangoon. He recommended Ann return to the United States for a rest, but she would not hear of it. She insisted her place was with her husband in Burma.
After three months in Calcutta, Ann had recovered enough to return to Rangoon. Regrettably, the voyage back was not nearly as pleasant as the trip to Calcutta had been. The ship was infested with scorpions, and it ran into the worst lightning storms Adoniram had ever experienced. It was six grueling weeks before the ship was piloted up the Rangoon River. Adoniram and Ann stood on deck and held hands as the golden spires of the Shwe Dagon pagoda once again loomed above them. For better or worse, they were home.
All of the Judson’s Burmese converts were there to meet them, including Maung Shway-gnong. After the couple had cleared customs, everyone went back to the mission house, where Adoniram and Ann caught up on all the news. The most important piece was that Mya-day-men, the old viceroy of Rangoon, was back, and holding the same position. It was wonderful news, especially for Ann, who had been a good friend of the vicereine. Adoniram and Ann thanked God that once again they had a sympathetic ear in government circles. Indeed, this favor had already proved helpful. News of Maung Shway-gnong’s conversion had been brought to the viceroy’s attention by informants who had hoped the traitor would be put to death as a warning to others who might want to convert to Christianity. Instead of reacting, the viceroy had just shrugged and told the informants he was not interested in hearing any more about the matter. As a result, Maung Shway-gnong was alive and well and more enthusiastic than ever about the new faith he had embraced.
Some news, though, was not so good. King Bagyidaw had decided to declare war on neighboring Siam. Over thirty thousand troops had marched through Rangoon on their way to the border. No one could predict when or how the war would end. Everyone would just have to wait patiently to see what the final outcome would be.
Despite a border war, there was more to do than ever for Adoniram and Ann. With ten church members, there were Bible studies to hold, reading and writing classes to conduct for women and girls, and the ongoing task of translating the Bible into the Burmese language.
Not long after his return from Calcutta, Adoniram received more encouragement. It came in the form of Maung Yah, the first Burmese man he had ever heard speak about the existence of an eternal God. Soon after Maung Yah had visited the mission house, he had been transferred to a government post hundreds of miles away. Now he was back in Rangoon, and he wasted no time in visiting Adoniram. He explained that he had read all the printed material Adoniram had given him until he knew it by heart—and believed it. Now he too wanted to become a part of the church.
Adoniram was overjoyed. The seeds of the gospel he had planted in the hearts of Burmese people were beginning to sprout. It was more important than ever that he carry on with the Bible translation work. In July 1821, he completed translating the four Gospels and the letters from John. He moved on to the Book of Acts, but sickness held him up time after time. First it was a bout of cholera, then a series of other tropical diseases. And Ann, too, was very sick again. So sick, in fact, that Adoniram feared for her life. It was clear she needed to get back to the United States for proper medical help. Adoniram’s younger brother Elnathan was now a surgeon in Boston, and Adoniram wanted Ann to go there so that he could treat her.
Ann agreed this time, and arrangements were made. She caught the first ship out of Rangoon bound for Calcutta, where she transferred to another ship for the voyage to Boston. It broke Adoniram’s heart to see his wife leave. In a letter he described the feeling as being as painful and crippling as having his right arm amputated. He would not see Ann for at least two years, if she was well enough to come back at all.
Adoniram toiled on alone until December 1821, when another missionary family—Jonathan and Hope Price—sent out by the American Baptist mission joined him in Rangoon. Jonathan Price was a doctor, and Adoniram welcomed him with open arms. Dr. Price was a tall, skinny man with a shock of white-blond hair. The Burmese flocked around the mission house for a glimpse of him. Dr. Price was not one bit shy, and he laughed as the local people poked him and tugged at his hair to see whether it was a wig. Within weeks, he was a popular figure in Rangoon, trying to talk Burmese as he tended to the medical needs of people. He was especially fond of cutting out cataracts, the milky white growth that sometimes covers the eyes of older people. No one else in all Burma knew how to remove cataracts, and soon people were coming hundreds of miles to have their eyes operated on by Dr. Price.
Although Jonathan Price flourished in Rangoon, his wife did not. Despite all her husband’s best medical treatment, Hope Price died of dysentery six weeks after arriving in Burma. A second grave was dug under the mango tree in the mission house yard beside the grave of little Roger Judson.
About the same time, the Houghs returned to Rangoon with the printing press. They had met Ann in Calcutta on her way to the United States and as a result had decided to move back to Rangoon to support Adoniram, who was delighted to see them.
Six months later, Dr. Price received a summons to appear before King Bagyidaw in Ava. Adoniram hated to leave Rangoon, but he could see no other option but to go along with him. Jonathan Price did not know enough Burmese to appear alone before the king. One slip of his tongue and his head could be ordered cut off.
In early October the two missionaries finally made it to Ava and found themselves bowing before King Bagyidaw. All went well. The king wanted to know all about Jonathan Price’s cataract operations. Adoniram served as interpreter. When the king had finally exhausted all his questions, he ordered, “Stay in Ava. I might require your services.”
Adoniram’s heart sank. There was no way they could return to Rangoon against a direct order from the king. Who knew how long they might be in Ava? The only thing Adoniram could be thankful for was that the Houghs were in Rangoon looking after the band of new Christians.
Adoniram tried to make the most of his extended visit to Ava. He found it a little unnerving being right under King Bagyidaw’s nose, but he spoke privately with many Burmese people, including the king’s brother, Prince Mong, about Christianity. The prince had somehow survived the slaughter that occurred when his brother ascended to the throne. To Adoniram’s surprise, some members of the royal family encouraged him in his missionary work. Princess Sarawady, the king’s youngest sister, even hinted that King Bagyidaw was considering giving him land on which to build a kyoung, the Burmese word for a holy house.
All of this was cause for excitement. Ava was an important city with 700,000 people living in and around it. If the king finally recognized him as a holy man, Adoniram would have free access to preach and teach in Ava and anywhere else in the country.
In the meantime, Dr. Price was furthering his reputation as an excellent surgeon. Cataract surgery could be risky, however, and on one particular occasion, his knife slipped during an operation, causing his female patient to become blind. Dr. Price felt so sorry for her that he married her on the spot so that he could take care of her.
Adoniram was horrified. His missionary partner had just married a Buddhist woman without so much as discussing the matter with him. To make things worse, Adoniram had just learned that James Colman, who had left Rangoon to work among the Burmese living in Chittagong, had died of disease. And if that weren’t enough, he hadn’t heard anything from Ann in over eight months.
Adoniram longed to get back to the little church in Rangoon, but he could not leave Ava without royal permission. He just hoped that permission wasn’t too long in coming.