A Moving Missionary Letter
Adoniram Judson was one of the first American missionaries ever sent to foreign soil. He and his new wife Ann set sail for the mission field in 1812 … arriving in Burma in May of the following year. But before they left, Adoniram, Ann, and their families contemplated the seriousness of the missionary call that I am urging our congregation (and you blog readers!) to during this Missions Week. They considered the cost of actually going. As part of his letter asking for Ann’s hand in marriage, Adoniram Judson wrote these moving words to her father:
"I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure for a heathen land, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with a crown of righteousness, brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Saviour from the heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?" (see Sharon James, My Heart in His Hands, Darlington, UK: Evangelical Press, 1998, pp.34-35).
Would you be willing to give up what Ann and Adoniram gave up to get the name of Jesus to Burma? Would you be willing, like Ann Hasseltine’s father and mother, to let your child go? Are you willing to say ‘yes’ to Jesus? O, how I pray that the Lord would raise up some who reads these lines who will be willing to take the gospel to “the heathen lands”; to endure “every kind of want and distress”; to give yourself to “the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life” … “for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home and died for you”; and knowing that heaven will reveal that it was worth it!
Is it you that God is calling to go? Is it your son or daughter? And will you say ‘yes’ to Jesus?
There is really just one important question:
“How will they hear without a preacher?” Romans 10.14
It’s that simple, really. We can give until the missions board has money coming out of its ears (and we should!). But someone has to be willing to go! We can busy God, like the persistent widow, with our requests that He send out laborers into His harvest. But we ought, also, to be willing to be God’s answers to our prayers. Someone has to count the cost and be willing to go – hardship and all. It’s that simple. Is it you that God is calling?
