A Baptist brought Jesus to Burma. His spiritual descendants bought his birthplace.
Christianity Today
October 12, 2026
Share
- X
- Telegram
-
-
-
Photos courtesy of Arthur Chen
Whenever diaspora Burmese Christians gathered in Boston, they would drive up to the 18th-century white colonial-style house on 145 Main Street in Malden, Massachusetts, where Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson was born and lived for the first four and a half years of his life. They’d snap a quick picture in the yard and then get back in their cars and drive off.
The house, known as the Old Parsonage, was built in 1725 (after a previous parsonage burned down) and is considered the oldest structure in Malden. It housed the pastors and families of First Church in Malden, before the Congregationalist parish sold the house in 1845 to abolitionist George H. Wilson, who used it as a stop on the Underground Railroad. The American Baptist Foreign Mission Society later purchased the building to put up missionaries on furlough.
But by 1979, the building had been sold to private owners, preventing visitors from touring the property. Although the city wouldn’t allow the owners to remove the rock that anchored a bronze plaque commemorating the house as Judson’s birthplace, the owners had removed the plaque itself.
Thanks for signing up.
Explore more newsletters—don’t forget to start your free 60-day trial of CT to get full access to all articles in every newsletter.
Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.
Arthur Zawwynn Chen, a Chinese Burmese pastor from Yangon, Myanmar (the modern name for Burma), first moved to Boston in 1993 to study theology at Boston University. For the past three decades, he’s lived within several miles of the house, and he—along with other Burmese Christians—longed to own it.
“Every Burmese Christian [thinks] that Oh, maybe one day, if God open[s] the door for us, we always want to have the property … to tell our faith story,” Chen said. “The [spiritual] father who came to bring Christianity and salvation to Burma was born here.”
When Burmese churches held a conference in the area in 2023, Maung Maung Htwe, pastor of Overseas Burmese Christian Fellowship and Chen’s best friend, called for an offering to raise the money to buy the house. They raised about $3,000. The house wasn’t on the market at the time, but Chen looks back and sees that time as preparation by the Holy Spirit.
A year later, in July 2024, Chen was driving past the house when he spotted a sign in the yard saying it would soon be for sale. Quickly, he called Maung and other leaders. They spread the word to Burmese-diaspora churches around the country and started gathering online to discuss how to purchase the house. That initial group became the core of the Adoniram Judson Heritage Foundation (AJHF).
Churches donated money, and three individuals provided private loans to help cover the down payment for the $875,000 house. In September, more than 230 years after Judson’s birth, a group of Burmese Christians—the spiritual descendants of the missionary’s converts in Burma—owned the building.
“Every time we thought about our salvation [and] our faith, Judson comes in after Jesus,” Maung said. “In Burma, we always remember the day he arrived to Burma. We celebrate Judson Sunday.” Held around July 13, the date Judson first arrived in Yangon, churches celebrate by preaching about his missionary work and holding competitions for songwriting and storytelling.
The son of a Congregationalist pastor, Judson was born on August 9, 1788. He became a skeptic as a student at what is now Brown University, but the death of a close friend prompted him to enter seminary in search of truth. After coming back to Christ at Andover Seminary in Massachusetts, he felt called to missions. In 1812, Judson, his wife Ann, and several others set sail for Calcutta, India, becoming the first formally commissioned American missionaries. During the journey, the Judsons became convicted of Baptist theology and resigned from the Congregationalist mission that sent them.
They arrived in Burma in 1813 and started studying the Burmese language so that Judson could translate the Bible. It took six years before they baptized their first Burmese convert. In 1824, the First Anglo-Burmese War broke out, and the Burmese government imprisoned Judson for 17 months, suspecting him of being a spy. After his release, Ann suddenly died, followed by their toddler Maria. (Two earlier children had also died in infancy.)
Judson finished a draft of the full Burmese Bible in 1834, remarried, and then started working on a Burmese-English dictionary to help future missionaries. In 1845, his second wife, Sarah, got sick and died. Judson went on to marry his third wife, Emily, and spent the rest of his life in Burma. He died on a sea voyage and had an ocean burial. Of his 13 children, only six survived into adulthood.
Yet the fruit of his labors are evident in Myanmar’s religious demographics. About 85 percent of ethnic Chin and 90 percent of ethnic Kachin are Christians. Meanwhile, Baptists are the largest Protestant denomination in the country.
Chen noted that the Burmese church views Judson, Ann, Sarah, and Emily as God’s apostles to them. “Adoniram’s life [was] dedicated until he died. He never thought of giving up. He never thought, Oh, I’m going back, this is too hard,” Chen said. “He wanted to complete what he committed [to], so that dedication is his legacy.”
After AJHF purchased the house, it began restoring the building and creating a museum to honor Judson. Because the first floor had been fully renovated by previous owners, the foundation uses it largely for conferences and meetings as well as housing Burmese theology students.
The foundation converted the rooms on the second floor—which Chen believes retains some of the original details of the house, including the doors and locks— into exhibits about the life and work of Judson and his wives. Chen and others from the foundation hung up maps and paintings on the walls, tacked up museum placards, and put a Burmese Bible on display. In one room called Adoniram Hall, they placed a period-appropriate rocking chair by the room’s fireplace.
Chen noted that when the house was still in Baptist church hands, it displayed some artifacts, including pillows, chairs, and a table used by Judson used during his ministry. They were shipped to the archives of the American Baptist Historical Society when the house fell into private ownership, but Chen is working to get them back.
Since the house’s grand opening on August 9, 2025, many churches—Burmese and otherwise—missionaries, ministries, college fellowships, and individuals have visited the house. Some found it on Google Maps, and others heard about it online or through friends.
“We hope people will learn about it and recommit their life, their faith to God,” Chen said. “Part of it is [the work of] inspiring from generation to generation.”
Beyond remembering the past, the AJHF also helps the people of Myanmar, who continue to reel from the ongoing civil war that started with the 2021 military coup. The foundation raised money to help with recovery after Myanmar’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake in May 2025.
Maung noted that as the war drags on, many Burmese people feel discouraged that the world no longer pays attention to their fight and wonder if God sees their pain and struggle.
“I keep telling them, ‘No, God sees our country, even way, way before social media was invented. God sees us and he sent his disciple Adoniram Judson to save us. During these days, he also noticed us. We just have to do our part.’”
-
-
-
-
Share
- X
- Telegram
-
-
-
Related
### Enduring All Things for the Gospel
Thomas S. Kidd
### The Legacy of Adoniram Judson
Reviewed by Sarah Johnson
### Burma’s Beleaguered Baptists
Lee Williams in Myitkyina
### The Mother of Modern Missions
Dana L. Robert
### Myanmar’s Christians: As Our Churches Burn and People Flee, We Need the US’s Help
Zo Tum Hmung, David Moe, John Indergaard
- Asia
- Missions
##
Our Latest
View All
## 3 Myths About Christian Nationalism
Jesse Smith
Racist theocrats do exist in America. But most conservative Christians—even those who want a “Christian nation”—don’t share their beliefs or goals.
Review
## Review: ‘Christianity at a Crossroads’
The new PBS documentary exaggerates the role of partisan divides in our religious life.
The Russell Moore Show
## The Cornell Seven and the High Cost of Fake Fraternity
From the Moore to the Point newsletter: We ought to look around at places without keg parties or ketamine hits and ask where our own sense of solidarity is real and where it’s just another prelude to a coverup.
The Just Life with Benjamin Watson
## Brian Orme: The Christians We’ve Forgotten
How do we close the distance between comfortable faith and the frontlines of persecution?
News
## New Refugee Cap a Blow to Persecuted Religious Minorities
The Trump administration set a ceiling of 17,500 slots, which are primarily designated for white South Africans.
The Bulletin
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen on her role in The Social Reckoning, and Brad East on Christians quitting social media.
Review
## The Confessions, the Comforter, and ChatGPT
Three books on theology.
Jared Dodson
Usury was roundly condemned for most of Christian history. Today it’s practiced without comment—but the witness of Scripture never changed.