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Adoniram Judson, one of the earliest American foreign missionaries, lived a life marked by sacrifice, perseverance, and deep conviction. His death and burial at sea in 1850 stand as a solemn and fitting conclusion to a life spent in tireless service far from his homeland. The circumstances surrounding his passing reflect both the hardships of missionary life in the nineteenth Read more...
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Adoniram Judson is closely associated with one of the most severe episodes of his early missionary life: his imprisonment in the royal capital of Burma, then known as Ava (now Inwa, near Mandalay). Although often described in missionary literature as a “death prison,” the site was not a formal named institution so much as a series of harsh detention locations Read more...
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First Baptist Church in Mawlamyine, Myanmar, stands as one of the earliest and most historically significant Baptist congregations in Southeast Asia. Its story is closely tied to the expansion of Baptist missionary work in the nineteenth century and the broader development of Christianity among the Karen and other ethnic groups in the region. Mawlamyine, formerly known as Moulmein, is located Read more...
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Before you leave Plymouth, head on up to Burial Hill. It’s a steep climb, but there are steps. Inside a white fence is not a grave, but a cenotaph, “a monument to someone buried elsewhere.” Adoniram Judson was the son of a Congregational minister in Plymouth, but he fell in with the wrong friends. While at Brown University, he was Read more...
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At Williams College (Congregational), a twelve-foot-high marble monument, called the Haystack Prayer Meeting Memorial, commemorates “The Birthplace of American Foreign Missions 1806,” out of which came Baptists Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice. See the section, “Haystack Prayer Meeting at Williams College (1806),” in Chapter 17. Copyrighted and used by permission from David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Read more...
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Luther Rice (1783–1836) was a pivotal figure in the early development of Baptist missions and institutions in the United States. Though less widely known than some of his contemporaries, his influence was profound, particularly in organizing support for global missions and in helping to establish what would become one of the leading Baptist universities in America. Rice was born in Read more...
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In 1801, the Church of the Pilgrimage broke off from the First Parish Church in Plymouth in the Unitarian Controversy. The Congregationalists formed this church, which later became part of the United Church of Christ. On the front of the church is this plaque: This tablet is inscribed in grateful memory of the Pilgrims and of their successors who Read more...
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I left Wisconsin for a visit to Myanmar (ancient Burma), where throughout the entire country the legacy of Adoniram Judson (see Plymouth, MA) is visible. During my trip, I read the biography of Judson, To The Golden Shore. When it mentioned an individual with ties to Wisconsin, I had to learn more, and started digging thru the archives. Over a Read more...
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From Judson, the Pioneer: “HI, boys, there goes the Bell Rock alarm! Come on !” The boys of Maiden, Massachusetts, in the old Colonial days were always listening for the Bell Rock alarm. It was a church bell, but it wasn’t in a church tower. It was swung in a wooden frame on a rounding ledge of rock, where now Read more...