A message of missionary work had sunk "down into [Judson's] heart, as lead goes down into the ocean... and led him to abandon home, country, and all the joys of civilized life, for chains, and dungeons and torture." Adoniram Judson was on his way to Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar) to preach the Gospel of Christ to a 'heathen' nation. He left as a Congregational theologian and arrived to Calcutta as a Baptist convert because he tried to use scripture to prove the baptists wrong and when he realized his belief was mistaken he had the humility to change even though rejecting his own organization meant the loss of funding and support for his 40 year long mission. He is a hero to me.
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'The Departure' of Rev. Adoniram Judson, D.D.
(found in BYU Library 'Judson Offering' 1847)
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200 years later I was leaving Thailand and the Thai language behind as one of the first twenty missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to serve in Myanmar and I thought few could understand my position. I felt like I was starting from scratch until I began to learn of the man who was the reason behind the Burmese Bible which I now held.
