carey and judson

India & Burma.
1793 & 1813.

English & American.
Serampore & Moulmein (or, more accurately, Srirampur & Mawlamyine).

Baptist & Baptist.
William Carey & Adoniram Judson
(even with plaques next to each other at Carey Baptist Church in Kolkata).

Famous names in our upbringing, especially for Barby, whose brother-in-law (Dale) is a direct descendent of Adoniram’s brother, Jonathan – and her nephew’s name is even Jonathan Judson!

Barby and I had the thrill of visiting both places, for the first time, in December.

Serampore is an hour by car up the river from Kolkata.

The iconic building, looking out through the front gates, across Willam Carey Road, to the River Ganges.
One of the legacies is an undergraduate university, the first in India, still with a few thousand students.
Churches associated with these early years can be found in both Serampore and Kolkata:

We’ll be back here in March, as a close friend is installed as the new pastor of this historic church in Kolkata.

[PS: Henry Martyn is remembered both as the early m-worker in the Islamic world and for his early death (at 31) in Armenia, while traveling. But his first foray into Asia was to Serampore, where he lived in this discarded temple, now being restored, beside the Ganges River.]



Moulmein is six hours by bus across the country from Yangon.

The only surviving building from the original Judson compound. It is now part of a school, locked up for the holidays. In the room, just above my shoulder, is a plaque marking the site of the first printing press in Burma.

[ADDED LATER, when Naw Phaw Lwei, the woman who took us to the school sent us a photo of the plaque – as she promised to do, when school opened again. So kind of her to remember].

A couple of churches from those early years still exist, most notably the First Baptist Church:

The view of the church from the graveyard, where so much of the action took place in those early years.

Great to see the names of the women, the Burmese workers, the medical m-workers – as well as a reference to those whose names remain unknown to us, but known to God.

A highlight was the visit to Amherst/Kyaikkhami (the first capital city for the British, 90mins south of Mawlamyine) and the grave of Judson’s first wife, Ann. A beautiful site, made all the more memorable for me by stepping off the platform down onto a hidden nail, taking this first photo (below) quickly, then removing the nail before making a visit to the Kyaikkhami hospital for some high quality care – and a tetanus shot…

A handful of reflections come into focus for me from these twin visits:

1. Read biographies
A few decades ago this was an annual New Year’s Resolution. ‘Read an inspiring biography of a Christian that leaves me aspiring to be like them in some way.’ But not so much in recent years. Maybe I’ve been drawn into the mood of this generation. Oh, the irony of feasting on superheroes in fantasy-land, while fasting from heroes in reality-land. The saint doesn’t inspire anymore. We won’t engage unless we are guaranteed a cluster of warts. It is a mistake. I devoured this book, Bless God and Take Courage, while in Myanmar. It has helped me to bless God and to take courage as I enter 2020.

2. See beyond the skills 
Carey and Judson were people of extraordinary skills, especially in the area of languages. They were brilliant men. We saw a single page from a couple of dozen different translations of the Bible in the little museum in Serampore. And that wasn’t all of them! However, when all has been said and done, what illuminates a life is the character. Resilience. Perseverance. That old word, steadfastness. At one point Judson wrote home with these words: ‘Choose men with some natural aptitude to acquire a language; men who live near to God; and who are willing to suffer all things for Christ’s sake, without being proud of it.’ Apart from the need for some inclusive language, has much changed? Even today, as of yesteryear, if character is not in place, then gifts/skills tend to be overrated and we must be wary about being allured by their sparkle. The delightful thing about this is that it means we all can contribute to the purposes of God because we all can grow deeper in character.

“If we succeed without suffering it is because those who preceded us suffered without succeeding.” (Adoniram’s son, Edward, speaking at the 1914 Judson Centennial).

3. Spread the heroic around
Carey and Judson may get the attention, but draw a little closer and it quickly becomes apparent that they were part of teams, right from the beginning and all the way through their time in India and Burma. Back home in England, Carey had Andrew Fuller, while Judson had Luther Rice in the US – and the societies that were started to support the work. Alongside them were names like Marshman and Ward and Boardman.

The two stories are littered with tragic and (very) early deaths. So many babies and children! Look closely at the dates in Ann’s family tree. So many drawn into the ‘fellowship of suffering’. Carey and Judson are remembered partly because they survived, in God’s providence, to ages 72 and 62. Carey and his team endured a fire that destroyed 10 years of work. Judson survived 17 months in the cruelest of places, a ‘death prison’. In an extraordinary part of the stories, it was Ann who kept him alive.

4. Honour the wives
Drawing near to Carey and Judson is to draw near to the stories of their wives. They each had three wives, one after the other – not at the same time! In the book above, there is a delighful few pages on ‘The Matchless Mrs Judsons” (336-339).

‘Matchless’ – indeed. For starters, Ann needs a movie on her life. In fact, I urge the director to be bold and visionary and juxtapose the story of Ann next to the story of Dorothy/Dolly, Carey’s first wife. It would be amazing. They did meet each other in Serampore very early on. The movie could open with that encounter… Stories of such piercing suffering. One eager to go, the other not so eager at all. One so resilient and full of purpose, the other so frail and seemingly lost. Dorothy battled mental health issues from the time she lost her first baby (Ann, back in England). She had such a tough life. I do wonder if historians tend to be unkind to her and whether there is a need of some ‘revisionism’, born in a greater empathy?

For example, I was annoyed by these comments from Roberts Liardon, in his 2015 book God’s Generals (seriously, who chose that title? It sure didn’t put me in a great frame of mind when I started reading):

I believe that William Carey married the wrong person. Because he was just a teenager and a new Christian, he married according to youthful passion and convenience instead of waiting for God to send the right person to fulfil his life and ministry … Because Dolly knew little of the Lord before their marriage, he also violated Scripture by being unequally yoked (88).

Really?! On what basis are these assertions made? ‘… to fulfill his life and ministry…’  Excuse me?! What about fulfilling her life? And since when does knowing ‘little of the Lord’ equate to being ‘unequally yoked’? It all seems harsh on Dorothy to me. Sure, Carey himself has a bit of a reputation for being a bit harsh on Dorothy, but let’s leave the historians – and the movie director!! – to do their work on that one. What I can do is include two extracts from the Judson book, one when Adoniram hears that Ann has died – and then his comments, six months later, when little Maria dies.

So tender. Yes, we need a movie. We really do. Ann and Dorothy (or, maybe all six of them, for a kind of missiological Little Women).

5. Prioritise the Word
The consuming passion for both Carey and Judson was to have the Bible translated, to get the living Word of God into the heart language of local people – and then to distribute it widely. Once they have the Word of God, the Work of God gains momentum. It takes me back to creation in Genesis 1, where God created the world by speaking – and that ‘speaking’ did something. It takes me back to the Book of Acts. I am told there are 37 references to the growth of the church in Acts. Six associate the growth with the quality of church life. Seven link it with the presence of signs and wonders … while 24 link it to the various ministries of the Word of God, especially preaching. In the book of Acts – and in the stories of the Careys and the Judsons – the church grew and spread as the Word of God grew and spread.

nice chatting

Paul

PS1: In one place our hosts were P&L. This caused me to ponder Profit & Loss in the purposes of God. I hope we don’t lose this calibre of person. Enduring (twenty years, and counting). Relational. Resilient. Unassuming. Servant-hearted. Is the preference for the short-term m-trip, with its woeful return on investment, causing us to lose our way? Is the priority of the ‘local’ back home, with its immense challenge, causing an eclipse of the ‘global’? That is not the way forward. At this very time of challenge, there is much to profit from the global, humbly learning from the church in the majority world, finding in these friendships and partnerships the inspiration and aspiration to face the rising challenge back home.

PS2: In the other place our hosts were J&D. This caused me to ponder Job Descriptions in the purposes of God. I hope we don’t lose this calibre of person. As far as I’m aware, neither of them are known for their sparkle with those ‘up-front’ gifts so celebrated today – like music, or worship-leading, or public speaking, or PhDs, or transformative leadership. All these have their place in JDs – and J&D are not without skills in these sorts of areas – but there is something else to celebrate here. A visage marked by warm and welcoming hearts – and faces. A capacity to make friends and get on with anyone, literally. A willingness to step into difference (language, culture, food etc) and enjoy it, with a sense of adventure. An ability to take oneself less seriously than those around you. Qualities like these ones don’t often make it into JDs. They should. They give our work within the purposes of God such a good start.


PS3: When I grow up I’d really, really like to be more like P&L and J&D…


PS4: Don’t miss my favourite story from this visit to Myanmar.

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About Me

paul06.16

the art of unpacking

After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.

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4 Comments

  1. Heather on January 7, 2020 at 5:24 pm

    I so appreciate these posts of yours, Paul. I hadn't previously heard of Judson, and know relatively little of Carey. And that plaque right at the top of your post, honouring the missionaries who brought the Word to them, is so moving and humble.

    Slightly horrified by your story of stepping on a nail – a significant fear of mine. I'm allergic to tetanus injections, so such emergency injections aren't an option for me. Instead, I try to make sure I'm always immune: I can have the injections, but it's complicated. Last time it took two injections of 10% the usual strength, given in hospital a year apart, preceded with immune-suppressant drugs. I still had an unpleasant mild reaction to both. I'm always careful with potential puncture wounds, though, and haven't had a nail in the foot since I was about 9…

  2. Peter Anderson on January 8, 2020 at 7:48 am

    Thank you for sharing, Paul. Deeply moving and so full of challenging insights. I read the whole blog to Elizabeth who enjoyed it too.

  3. Paul on January 9, 2020 at 11:17 pm

    Yes, Heather – still plenty to be fearful about out there, made all the worse if you have some allergies, I'm sure. For a few minutes I was overwhelmed by the romantic notion of dying of tetanus in the shadow of Ann Judson's grave, but I quickly got over it. Rabies is another real worry – and what about these 6000 deaths from measles in DR Congo? Difficult to fathom.

    Good to read of you enjoying your bike!
    Take care, Paul

  4. Paul on January 9, 2020 at 11:23 pm

    Thanks, Peter. I hope that you are both keeping well.

    This post reminds me of another worthwhile biography, the one you wrote. Loved it.
    Weapons of Peace. A good one for people to consider!

    https://www.amazon.com/Weapons-Peace-William-Johanna-Anderson-ebook/dp/B01EJHGQSY

    best wishes

    Paul

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