Ann Judson of Burma, Pt. 2

I can’t describe how much it has encouraged my heart in reading about the life of Ann Judson to know how serious she and her husband were about the fruit of repentance and true saving faith.

For example, in April 1819, after 6 years on the mission field with no conversions, Ann did not settle for a profession of faith lacking evidence, but looked for regeneration. She wrote:

[One woman] said, she believed in Christ, prayed to him daily, and asked what else was necessary to make her a real disciple of Christ. I told her that she must not only say that she believed in Christ, but must believe with all her heart. I told her the manner of life would be changed; but one of the best evidences she could obtain would be when others came to quarrel with her and use abusive language, if, so far from retaliating, she felt a disposition to bear with, to pity, and to pray for them. The Burman women are particularly given to quarreling, and to refrain from it would be a most decided evidence of a change of heart.

Later in April they had their first convert: Mr. Moung Nau. Overjoyed, in June of 1819, Ann wrote in a letter:

Little did I think, when I last wrote, that I should so soon have the joyful intelligence to communicate, that one Burman has embraced the Christian religion, and given good evidence of being a true disciple of the dear Redeemer. This event, this single trophy of victorious grace, has filled our hearts with sensations, hardly to be conceived by Christians in Christian countries.

Mr. Nau was baptized in June, and Ann’s husband, Adoniram, wrote in July:

We have had the pleasure of sitting down, for the first time, at the Lord’s table, with a converted Burman; and it was my privilege,–a privilege to which I have been looking forward with desire for many years,–to administer the Lord’s supper in two languages.

Sharon James, My Heart in His Hands (Durham: Evangelical Press, 2003; originally published 1998), 101-04.

~ by nve on April 22, 2009.