History of Shan Churches in Burma 1861-2001 - Khamkoo

Baptist mission among the Shan 32
CHAPTER TWO
BAPTIST MISSION TO THE SHAN PEOPLE OF BURMA (MYANMAR)
Baptist mission to Burma was in the beginning not aiming to the hill tribes but to Burmans.
British Missionary Dr. Felix Carey (eldest son of William Carey) had served as missionary
doctor in Burma in 1807 before Adoniram Judson arrived. For Felix life in Rangoon was difficult. Felix
won favor by vaccinating Burmese people, including the Maywoon’s family, but food items were
scarce and it was difficult to learn Burmese. Felix Carey lost both his wife and mother in 1808. 1
In July 1813, when Felix Carey was in Ava, two young Americans, Adoniram Judson and his
wife Ann, tempest-tossed and fleeing before the persecution of the East India Company, found shelter
in the Mission House at Rangoon. Judson was one of a band of divinity students of the Congregational
Church of New England, whose zeal had almost compelled the institution of the American Board of
Foreign Missions. He, his wife, and colleague Rice had become Baptists by conviction on their way to
Serampore, to the brotherhood of which they had been commended. Carey and his colleagues made it
“a point to guard against obtruding on missionary brethren of different sentiments any conversation
relative to baptism;” but Judson himself sent a note to Carey requesting baptism by immersion. Felix
Carey’s medical and linguistic skill so commended him to the king that he was loaded with honors and
sent as Burmese ambassador to the Governor-General in 1814, when he withdrew from the Christian
mission. 2
Pioneer Baptist Missionaries to Burma
Adoniram Judson was born in Massachusetts in 1788. In 1810 Adoniram Judson, with three
others, offered himself for missionary work to the General Association of the Congregational Church.
As a result the American Board for Foreign Missions was founded. After being ordained for the
Congregational Church, on February 19, 1812, young Adoniram Judson, and his bride of seven days,
Ann Haseltine Judson, set sail for India, supported by the first American Board for Foreign Missions.
But on that voyage, Judson saw the teaching of immersion as the mode of baptism in the Bible.
Conscientiously and courageously, he cut off his support under the Congregational board until a Baptist
board could be founded to support him. He and his companions eventually reached Calcutta in 1812,
where soon afterwards he became a Baptist. On September 6, 1812, Judson and his wife were baptized
by Rev. Ward in Calcutta. The East India Company having refused him permission to work in India, he
arrived Rangoon, Burma, on July 13, 1813, where one of the English missionaries, Mr. Carey had
already begun missionary work since 1807. When the American Baptists heard of Judson’s change of
views, they determined to support him and founded the society, which was known as the American
Baptist Missionary Union. The English missionaries in Rangoon then handed over their work to
ABMU.
By 1816 Judson had prepared the Gospel of Matthew in Burmese, following up short tracts
“accommodated to the optics of a Burman.” He finished the translation of Matthew on May 20, 1817
and the whole Bible on January 13, 1834. After nearly six years in Burma, on June 27, 1819, Judson
baptized Moung Naw, his first Burman convert. At the end of seven years Judson had baptized 10
Burmese converts. He died on April 12, 1850 died at sea. That evening in greatest silence, broken only
by the voice of the captain, his body was lowered on the larboard side into the Indian Ocean, even
without a prayer. 3
1 Felix Carey: A Tiger Tamed. published by Hooghly, West Bengal, S. K. Chaterjee, 1991. pp24-25
2 http://www.biblebelievers.com/carey/Carey7.html November 20, 2006
3 http://www.burmesebible.com/b/adoniram_judson_by_fred_barlow.htm November 20, 2006