I am sitting in the Cinderella Hotel in Mawlamyine (formerly Moulmein, in Myanmar), racing through a biography of Adoniram Judson, and I encounter this paragraph:

Scattered around Moulmein are many Baptist churches and schools. Those schools, built and run by missionaries for more than a hundred years, are now nationalized. The government has taken over Ellen Mitchell Hospital, named for the first missionary doctor, but in large red letters over the portico the words remain: “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister.” (Rosalie Hall Hunt, Bless God and Take Courage: The Judson History and Legacy (Judson Press, 2005) 260).

“What?! Something akin to an obsessive behavioural disorder overwhelms me. I have to find this hospital – and those words. I cannot leave this city until I see those words with my own eyes. Goodness me, I am the son of medical missionaries, ones who loved this verse.

I HAVE TO FIND THIS HOSPITAL.”

It won’t be easy because the tourist information/websites do not seem to appreciate the Christian significance of this city. The English language is scarce. So I race across to my good buddies, googlemaps and wikipedia, and start clicking. There seem to be at least five hospitals in the city. I click through each one, in turn, reading all that I can on their pages. There is not a lot to read. Doubts mingle with excitement. ‘An awful lot has happened in Myanmar since 2005 when the book was written. What if the building has been left to spontaneously deconstruct, as so often happens in this part of the world?’ Oh dear.

And then, feeling the mantle of William Dalrymple himself fall upon me, a glimmer of hope finally emerges. On one of the web pages, among the ‘comments’ from readers, I discover that one of the hospitals was once known as ‘the american hospital’. This must be it. What’s more, it is just a short walk from the old mission compound. Yes, this must be it.

Off we go. Past the First Baptist Church. Through a school. The road takes a sharp left. A gateway to a hospital appears immediately. A massive modern building fills the gaze. My heart sinks. But then beyond the street vendors, with their brightly-coloured products and umbrellas, I sight an old building. Yes, you are right. My pace did quicken. After a gentle turn in the road, this is what greets me:

Could those be red letters in the front of the building, right at the top? Yes, it looks like it. Before I had even checked them out properly, I was racing back to the others. ‘I found it’.

There they are. The words in red letters. Still boldly proclaiming one of the great counter-cultural truths in the gospel. Matt 20.28 & Mark 10.45 in the old KJV or ‘the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve’ in the newer NIV. One more line would have been good: ‘the Son of Man (referring to Jesus), came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’

Then, with a daughter (Bethany) who is specialising in O&G, it is kinda cool to discover that it is now a Women & Children’s Hospital.

nice chatting

Paul

PS: Here is the brand new, yet-to-be-opened hospital out the front. It may obscure the building with the red letters, but nothing can ever obscure the truth which those letters express.