Below is the story of Ann Judson. She is one of my heroes of the faith. I have the privilege of knowing a lot of great young ladies that are married to my missionary friends.

I send this out for you ladies. 198 years ago this young couple got married and stepped out to do what all of you are doing. It was worth for them and it will be for you. God bless you and we love you here at Vision.

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What would make a twenty-one-year-old, single Massachusetts girl want to travel half-way around the world to live in a society that had no knowledge of God?

After accepting Christ as her Savior at the age of sixteen, Ann Hasseltine experienced the New England religious revival of 1806, prompting her to dedicate her life to God. By the age of twenty-one (1810), she knew she wanted to be a missionary in a foreign land. While attending a missionary meeting hosted by her father, she heard four young students from Andover Theological Seminary petition to be sent as foreign missionaries. One of them was Adoniram Judson, who was invited to the Hasseltine home for dinner. They were soon engaged.

On February 5, 1812, they were married. The next day they started on a four-month ocean journey for Calcutta, India, with six other missionaries. At the time, both the government of India and the East India Company were opposed to missions. Soon the missionaries were ordered to leave the country.

So on July 13, 1813, they began their work in a land that had never heard the gospel, the seaport of Rangoon, Burma (located between India and China).

After learning Burmese, they began translating the Scriptures, but ran up against roadblocks. How do you explain a God who is eternal to a people who have never heard such a concept, and have no words in their language to accurately describe God, Heaven, and eternity?

As they worked among the people, they hoped that their lives would convince the Burmese people of their need for Christ. But after nine years, they had only eighteen converts.

Ann became part of the culture, adopting Burmese traditional dress, and forming a society of Burmese women who met together to pray and read the Scriptures. In her own way, she sought to overcome a society that didn’t allow women many rights, education, or say in who they were to marry.

In 1822 bad health drove Ann back to America. She used this time to write a history of the Burmese mission, American Baptist Mission to the Burman Empire, which inspired many to become missionaries, especially women.

The year 1823 brought Ann back to her home in Rangoon, and also war between Britain and Burma. The Burmese associated Americans with the British, and thus threw Adoniram into prison, assuming he was a spy. They also detained Ann, who was pregnant, making her a prisoner in her own home. She was able to secretly provide Adoniram and other prisoners with supplies and food, and dedicated her time trying to influence the governor to free her husband.

Three months after their daughter was born, Adoniram caught a tropical fever. Ann cared for him until the guards secretly moved him to another prison eight miles away. Ann followed, but became seriously ill with smallpox and spotted fever.

When the war ended, Adoniram was freed and joined his wife and daughter after being imprisoned for eighteen months. But because of the weakness brought on by the illnesses, Ann died of a fever at the age of thirty-seven. Her daughter died six months later.

Was their sacrifice worth it? After twenty-four years, Adoniram had translated the entire Bible into Burmese. By the time of his death in 1850, Burma had sixty-three churches with 163 missionaries and native church leaders to carry on his mission.

Arequipa, February 1st, 2010

Vision Baptist Church
ATLANTA.-

Dear brothers, it is always a blessing to address you knowing about our love and service to the Lord.

We started and fulfilled last month with classes for pastors where we shared information about Church-growth and Homiletics. These classes lasted 4 days, making a total of 16 hours. We gathered pastors from different places, approximately 25 per day.

The Second week of January we had the V Ladies’ Congress, event which happened in the Baptist College Macedonia, and which in its best day, it had an attendance of 270 people. We gathered sisters from different cities of our country. It was taught by pastors’ and missionaries’ wives, one more demonstration of what we, as a team, can do together.

Moreover, we had a special day on Sunday 17th, a dedication from children in Smyrna and Hunter Churches, 55 in total. We covered the topic of “how to improve as parents, and how to improve our relationships with our children

This February we will emphasize the topic of spiritual growth at Smyrna. A quite big group of people will attend the Conference of Evangelistic Fire which will take part in Efata – Lima on February 2nd and 3rd.

At Hunter Baptist Church we will talk about “Your Faith and Your Money”, and each Sunday we will have our SBS (Summer Biblical School), where we hope to have a great group of children and parents. On Monday 22nd we will start classes at the Christian School. A lot of students continue subscribing and we have our list of teachers who are brothers and sisters dedicated to this ministry.

Both churches participate in the Youth Camp which will occur between all the Macedonia Pastoral Churches Team, it will be done from February 8th to the 12th in Ite – Ilo. Beside, both churches will have the Vows Renovation for married couples, on Sunday February 14th, a quite moving event.

A group of churches will have a retrieving gathering at Ilave – Puno, on the second week of the month, and we have coordinated the participation of Pastor Pablo Villegas, together with two youngsters of his church, for him to teach and preach there. Another group of young brothers and sisters will have a campaign at La Paz – Bolivia, and seven brothers, (between students and former students of our College), will be supporting this event from February 15th to the 28th. The Pastor of the group of youngsters from Hunter Church, Pastor Alfredo Pari, will direct the team work.

I ask your prayers for:

- Sister Victoria de Navarro, mother of the co-pastor of Hunter Church. She has been detected cancer at the cervical vertebrates, and she will start chemotherapy right after surgery.
- The incomes from the Christian School , so as to cover all the expenses.
- The events which will be happening at Smyrna and Hunter
- The starting of classes at Macedonia Baptist College, Tuesday, March 16th.

Blessings,

Miguel Murillo