Adoniram Judson
decided to be a missionary when he was a young man. No one really took him seriously until the
"Haystack Meeting." In August of 1808, five young men were having a serious discussion. These
young students were concerned about the need of heathen people for someone to bring them the
Gospel. A thunderstorm broke and they ran for shelter. While sheltered from the rain in a haystack
they decided to pray. As they realized how important it was to bring the Gospel to other part of the
world they promised each other that they would be missionaries. These young men became
responsible for founding the first mission society. While it was sponsored by the Congregational
Churches it was supported by members of other churches. In 1812, this board sent Adoniram
Judson and his wife Ann to Burma. The Judsons decided to visit William Carey, the Baptist
missionary in India, on their way to Burma. During the long sea voyage Adoniram and Ann kept
themselves busy studying the New Testament. They both made a discovery. They became
convinced that the New Testament taught that baptism was for those who had personally confessed
a belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior. As soon as they arrived in India they were baptized by a
Baptist missionary. One of the other members of the society formed during the Haystack meeting
was Luther Rice. He sailed for Burma separately from the Judsons. Imagine his surprise when he
arrived in India to discover his friends had become Baptists Soon he, too, became a Baptist. Their changed belief
presented a problem. As Baptists they could not in good conscience accept
the financial support of the Congregationalists. They resigned from the
society supported by the  Congregationalists and Luther Rice sailed back to
the United States to ask the Baptists to support the work of the Judsons.
In May of 1814, Luther Rice called for a rally in Philadelphia. The 33
persons in attendance were the leaders among Baptist churches. This group,
led by Rice, organized for the purpose of promoting world wide missions.
They named their new organization "the General Convention of the Baptist
Denomination in the United States for Foreign Missions." Under Rice's
leadership the new convention raised the money needed to keep Judson in
the field and to send other missionaries after him. Later, because the
convention met every three years it became known as the Triennial
Convention. In 1817 it amended its constitution to allow for the support of
Home Missionaries as well as foreign. The Triennial Convention would
oversee both home and foreign missions until 1832 when the American
Baptist Home Mission Society was founded.
Meanwhile, Judson's work in Burma was off to a slow start. Just as it took
William Carey seven years before he saw his first convert in India, so six
years passed before Judson saw a Burmese accept Christ. Then, during a
war between Burma and the British, Judson was thrown into prison because
he spoke English. During his time in prison he worked on translating the
Bible into Burmese. A few weeks after he was released from prison, Ann
and their child died. Judson continued his work alone. He would finish his
translation many years later in 1834.
In America the movement to sponsor foreign missions was not
unopposed, Some Baptists viewed the move to sending missionaries with
alarm. Some were afraid of the shift toward centralized authority they saw
developing in mission societies. there were Baptist who not only opposed
the mission societies but also opposed educated ministers. They did not
approve of such "man made" organizations as Seminaries, Mission Societies
and Sunday School. In their Calvinist view, it was wrong for man to try to
do God's task. There are still some Baptist churches which take these views.
What is called the board of International Ministries of the American
Baptist Churches traces its history to the Triennial Convention. In 1845 it
was renamed the American Baptist Missionary Union. Later it adopted the
name American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. Then in 1972 it received
its current name.
In its mission statement, the Board of International Ministries sets forth
these goals:
1.   To further evangelism, developing effective methods and programs for
     fulfilling the evangelistic task.
2.   To strengthen national churches, giving priority to leader
     development, organizational effectiveness, and programs leading
     toward increased self-support.
3.   To foster world mission consciousness in USA churches.
4.   To assist in the internationalization of mission, promoting joint
     responsibility of churches around the world for the sending and
     receiving of missionary personnel.
5. To meet human need.
Some have criticized missionaries for the changes in other cultures. They
have accused missions of destroying cultures. It is true that changes have
come world wide. But those who condemn missions fail to realize the
changes would have come anyway. The presence of missionaries is only one
factor among many bringing changes to cultures. By the time the
missionaries arrived the explorers and trader were already there. The
commercial concerns came to exploit. The missionaries came to preach the
love of God for all peoples.
At the end of World War 2 the Pacific Islanders asked the servicemen,
"when will the missionaries return?" They had seen the changes which came
through the business world and the politicians. They wanted the kind of
changes the missionaries brought. They saw in the Gospel that solid rock
which would enable them to face the changes that are coming upon all of us
in the modern world.
The Hawaiian pastor of one church said, "yes, indeed we lost a lot, but we
gained more. We gained in Christ the freedom from fear and the joy and
sense of the worth of the individual life which no one else was bringing to
us in the time of destructive change, and which no one in our ancient
culture had ever given to us. These things we would consider priceless
compared to the things we lost." (The American Baptist, Sept. 1974).
Membership in churches overseas related to our BIM has passed Three
million. It has tripled in the last twenty years. In 1994 we had 131 fulltime
foreign missionaries working with 10.000  national Christian leaders. This
year we hope to send sixteen new missionaries to the field which will bring
the total up to 147. The first goal of the BIM is evangelism. Last year,
79,000 people were baptized on their confession of faith in the churches
related to our American Baptist mission work.
And what of Burma, our first mission field. In 1966 the government
ordered all foreign missionaries out. Our missionaries had done such a good
job in training the national workers that they were ready to take complete
control. About half of all Christians in that country, now called Myanmar,
are Baptist. There are now 3,547 organized Baptist churches and 1,620
preaching missions in Myanmar with a total membership of 551,741. Last
year there were 21,000 baptisms. The Myanmar Baptists have recently
dedicated a Baptist Women's Leadership Development Center in Yangoon.
the center was paid for, in part, by donations from American Baptists. In
the past year 10,000 bibles were hand carried into Myanmar. They may not
be printed there because of Buddhist objections to parts of the Bible but
when carried in they are tolerated. The missionaries are gone from
Myanmar but the church still lives. And we, through our BIM are helping
the church in many ways.

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