The story of Christianity in Myanmar cannot be complete without telling the story of Adoniram Judson, the first significant American overseas missionary and one of the most brilliant men North America has ever produced. He was born in Malden, Massachusetts on August 9, 1788. He taught the book of Revelation in Sunday School from the original language when he was thirteen. Graduated from Brown University at nineteen. Before his graduation, he said, “Asia with its idolatrous myriads, was the most important field in the world for missionary effort.” He came to Myanmar in 1812, arrived on July 13, 1813 and saw his first convert in 1819 (a single soul in seven years). He learned Burmese twelve hours a day for twelve years. Then he started to translate the Bible from the original languages. He served there for some fourty years. Left around a hundred churches (eight thousand believers). I would encourage you to read his biography from “To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson” written by Courtney Anderson, 1987. I would wonder if a drop of tear from your eyes does not fall on this book as you read page after page. You will never be the same.
Although so many decades passed by, Christianity was not spread as fast as it should be. Yet, few believers stayed faithful to their faith. After a century, there came some missionaries to the North West (Chin State). One of them was Joseph Herbert Cope from German Town, PA. He arrived in my hometown in 1910, learned the language (dialect) and invented a written language for us and printed the first text book in 1913. He translated NT and printed in 1932 (the first NT in Tedim, Chin). During that time, there were some American missionaries to the North (Kachin State). They were primarily missionaries to China, but were driven out of China because of the rise of Communism in China. Whatever was the reason, Christianity had been spread in a good number of places in Myanmar. However, most of them turned to be liberals in a few decades (Most of the missionaries were from American Baptist Churches).
God always keeps ramnants. He brought us a revival in 1970s in Chin State, in 1980s in Kachin State, etc. As a result, the gospel has been spread very fast. There have been more churches founded in the past thirty years than churches founded in the last one hundred and fifty years. God is wonderfully working through his faithful servants though it’s been a closed country. Indeed, God always opens doors in closed countries like Myanmar.
P. S. You can ask me personally if you want to know how closed or open is my Country and where and how the churches are founded.
