Ralph Leo recently sent an email about Adoniram Judson’s life. Judson was a pioneer missionary to Burma. I quote from the email:

Judson was an ordinary young man who had to make choices, just like all of us. First, he had to make the choice to follow Jesus. He then proceeded to make a series of decisions that changed the world for eternity…

• He decided to turn down one of America’s leading churches in favor of spending his life ministering among a people who had never heard the gospel – something unprecedented in his day.
• He decided to insist on the development of a missions sending agency from the USA, which was another thing unheard of in those days.
• He decided to sail for Asia with the War of 1812 looming.
• He decided to become a Baptist (he came from a Congregational background) while aboard a ship bound for India as he studied the Greek New Testament. Today the Baptists are the largest Protestant missionary force in the world.
• He decided to leave the somewhat stable environment offered by William Carey in India for the very unstable and dangerous shores of Burma.
• He was among the first to decide to fully contextualize the gospel on the field by adopting native culture and himself teaching from a Burmese zayat each day.
• He decided to leave the coastal city of Rangoon and travel inland to approach the emperor, even though it could have meant death.
• He decided to remain in Burma with the threat of war with the British looming there, and was therefore imprisoned for several years in a torturous setting.
• He decided to remain in Burma for his entire life, even in failing health, knowing that in his case an early death in Burma would be better for God’s Kingdom than a full life in the States.