1905-Present
Judson Baptist Christian Church
Aungbinle/Mandalay Burma/Myanmar
Adoniram was arrested by the Burmese emperor, Bagidaw, on 8 June 1824 and originally imprisoned in Ava at Let Ma Yoon (Hand Not Shrink) death prison. As the first Anglo-Burmese war progressed, victories mounted for the Europeans and the white prisoners were suddenly moved in May 1825 to a rural prison at Aungbinle. Ann worked feverishly to keep her husband alive while in prison plus attending to baby Maria who was born 26 January 1825. I choose to lean on a 1929 account of that imprisonment written in short sentences by Lutheran pastor Otto Albert Geiseman to enrich the story of this Judson Church:
At once Mrs. Judson with her babe, her foster-daughters, and her Bengali cook entered a boat, went as far by water as she could, and then, in a rumbling ox-cart, made her way to the place where her husband was. Now she was at Oung-pen-la (Aungbinle), but had no home. The jailer had one; it had two rooms. One was occupied by himself and his family. The other was used for storing grain. She could have the storeroom if she would. She took it. The children developed smallpox. She became afflicted with the same disease. The children recovered. She learned to vaccinate. The children in the community came to her. She vaccinated them. The natives became indebted to her. She won their hearts, also the jailer’s. Now and then Judson was granted hours, yes, even days of freedom when he could go to his wife and child and comfort them…. Mrs. Judson became so weakened that she contracted a disease which made her helpless…. Maria wanted food. There was no milk to be had. Her mother could not nurse her. Judson carried her from door to door and pleaded with nursing mothers to let his child nestle and nurse at their breasts to satisfy the cravings of an infant’s hunger. Six months of this Oung-pen-la. The cup of suffering was full. God’s children stood their test. An official order came that Judson was to be released and returned to Ava.[1]
Because Ann Judson had saved Aungbinle from the smallpox plague, the village, in turn, had saved her baby by supplying milk for the infant. The church in Aungbinle stands in honor of missionary Adoniram Judson and the sacrifices of his wife, Ann Judson.
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[1]Otto A. Geiseman, Consuming Love: An Account of the Life and Work of Adoniram Judson, Missionary to Burma (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1929), pp. 127-128.