Walking in the Judsons' Footsteps

After visiting several Judson sites in the old city of Yangon on Monday (12/9) including the place at which they came ashore, very early Tuesday morning (12/10) we boarded a plane for Myanmar's second largest city: Mandalay.  There is much to see of traditional Burmese culture, arts and crafts, and religion (Buddhism) in Myanmar's second city. It is a region of great beauty and charm.  And, we saw several of traditional sites that draw tourists from around the globe.

The primary purpose of our visit to Mandalay was to see two sites related to Adoniram Judson's imprisonment during the First Anglo-Burmese War. The Burmese king suspected Judson and other American and British foreigners of being spies for his enemies, the British.  So, the English-speaking men were rounded up and thrown in prison.

Adoniram Judson

Ann Judson

Our first visit was to the site of the Le Ma Yoon (Hand Fail Me Not) Prison in the shadow of the royal palace at Ava.  All that remains of the palace is a leaning guard tower that in Judson's day overlooked the prison.  At one time a large boulder with a memorial inscription marked the spot of Judson's imprisonment. However, the Burmese government a couple decades ago declared that a marker honoring a Christian missionary is inappropriate to a national archaeological site. The government attempt to remove the stone. However, its great size and weight defeated the government's efforts. Instead, the memorial boulder was buried.  So, in a field beside a banana grove, we stood on the ground above the Judson memorial and offered prayers of thanksgiving for his life, suffering and witness.

Our tour guide, Rachael Htwe Htwe Hla (a Karen Baptist) explains some of the
history of the Let Ma Yoon prison site.

Replica of the buried Judson Memorial Stone at the  Let Ma Yoon Prison
(at the MBC history display on the Pwo Karen Baptist Compound)

Replica of the engraved face of the Judson Memorial Stone at the  Let Ma Yoon Prison
(at the MBC history display on the Pwo Karen Baptist Compound)

Depiction of conditions at the  Let Ma Yoon Prison
(at the MBC history display on the Pwo Karen Baptist Compound)

Late Tuesday afternoon we visited the Judson Church at Aungpinle. Today Aungpinle is a Mandalay neighborhood.  This humble Baptist meetinghouse sits on the site of Judson's second prison.  Judson was marched the ten miles or so from Let Ma Yoon to this site.  Later, Ann Judson would open a school for girls on the site.  Eventually, it became a Baptist compound and houses an active Baptist congregation today.

New Memorial to the Judsons outside Judson Baptist Church - Aungpinle.

These visits to the two places in which Adoniram Judson was imprisoned caused me to reflect on the significance of a human life.  The Let Ma Yoon prison has vanished, as has much of the royal city of Ava. There are several abandoned stupas and pagodas nearby, as well as archaeological sites waiting to be explored. There are few formal monuments to the Adoniram and Ann Judson to be found in Myanmar today. The Judson Church in Yangon and the Judson Church in Aungpinle bear their name. One can visit Ann's grave site in a relatively obscure town outside Moulmein (as we will do soon).  But, Adoniram's grave is unknown and inaccessible as he died while aboard ship was buried at sea.

Pastor of Judson Baptist - Aungpinle, Rev. Seelah (Silas) and his wife bid
their American Baptist visitors, "goodbye."

Most monuments weather with time and eventually crumble.  Great empires collapse and are covered by the sands of time.  The powerful and famous are quickly forgotten. The monument to the Judsons' sacrificial witness is not etched in stone, but in human hearts and lives.  The enduring value of their ministry can be found two hundred years after their arrival in Burma in a growing Baptist movement across Myanmar.  The significance of what they accomplished by God's grace has not yet been fully measured.  The seeds they planted continue to produce good fruit now in the third century since they first stepped upon the Golden Shore.