America's first foreign missionaries were Adenaarm and Ann Judson, missionaries to Burma, to the Golden Shore. And Adenaarm and Ann Judson had the great distinction of being America's first foreign missionaries. And interestingly enough, you'll notice that they landed in the mission field in July 1813, which means that July this year will be the 200th anniversary of them reaching their field, the first foreign missionaries from the United States. Adoniram Judson was the son of an austere congregational minister, and Adoniram learned to read by age three, which has got to be a record, and from the beginning it was clear he was destined for an exceptional life. In fact, his father would bring him puzzles and more mathematical puzzles and puzzles designed for school leavers and in primary school he was solving them. He had a mathematical genius mind and that of course was preparing him for Bible translation into Burmese letter. But when he entered Brown University on Rhode Island he became enchanted with deism and unbelief and he slipped into restless life. Deism basically believed there was a God but like a clockmaker who had made the clock and left it to do its run its own, God wasn't interested in what was going on in this world. So Deus, he accepted creation, but didn't believe God was listening to our prayers, involved in our lives, or answering prayers, or that he needed to be saved. So it was almost like atheism. After graduation he wrote for the stage in New York. He got in a bad crowd there, had to skip some places because they hadn't paid their bills. Then he chose to head out head west to the frontier, no doubt to escape predators after him for their debts. But en route they stopped at an inn, and he listened all night to a man dying in the next room. In fact it was worse than that, because they didn't exactly have wooden walls between the rooms, they had curtains between the walls. So the next room was actually just behind a curtain. And he heard this man dying all night, and in the morning When he asked what happened to that man in the room last night, you know, he was making this terrible noise at about four and then I heard nothing. He said, I don't know, he died at four. And they mentioned where he came from. He said, but that's where I come from. Who was this man? They mentioned his name and he was shocked. It was his best friend from college. The man who got him involved in deism. The man who started him on his backsliding and away. So he knew that he didn't know the Lord. In fact he knew because he'd also heard the cries of fear and the terror of this man. He was not prepared for death. But he didn't know it as his friend until the morning as he learnt at the desk and he was so shocked. He as an outspoken unbeliever who had vehemently opposed the gospel of Christ. Adonai knew that Jacob Ames was lost but he also recognised the same was true of himself. If it had been me dying in that room he knew I would have been just as terrified and unprepared. So suddenly the West lost its allure. He turned his horse around, he went back home, and he enrolled at the Theological Seminary. And he wasn't saved when he entered the seminary, and they specifically made allowance for that. He said, look, I'm not right with God, but I want to go to seminary. And because he had such a brilliant mind, they accepted him in there, knowing this man doesn't know the Lord, he doesn't have a conversion test, which the Theological College normally required. But he got converted there in 1808. The conviction grew that he was called to be a missionary to Burma. Summer Burma, the golden shore, grew in his mind and heart. He read about Burma. He was fascinated by Burma, a Buddhist country, where there were no missionary societies. But there were not only no missionaries in Burma, there were no missionary societies in America. America had not sent out a missionary yet. So Adnaran travelled to England to consult with the London Missionary Society because England had produced some missionaries, of course William Carey had gone out from the Baptist, and the London Missionary Society was the congregational group, and so the Congregationals in America were going to consult with the Congregationals in Britain, how do you do it, how does one go about sending out a missionary. In fact, what he wanted was, he wanted the London Missionary Society in England to basically finance and send them out for America. They said, your churches must organise your own missionary society. We're sending out English missionaries. His voyage by sea involved being captured by a French warship and imprisoned in France. Remember this was during the Napoleonic Wars. And so, French warships were on the ocean, and Ad Narem showed the kind of ingenuity which was to characterize his whole life, because he escaped from this French prison, very boldly, and he made his way back to America, working his way by ship. He first got to England, then he got on another ship, worked his way across. Eight months after he left, he got back home. Of course he'd failed, because the English Missionary Society was laughing at the audacity of these Americans, who expected them to pay for their... You know, America's big enough to pay for your own missionaries to go up the field. Don't you understand Congregational Church Government principles? So, he was told, you know, decentralisation is away, London is not going to organise this for you. And, despite the opposition from his family and his friends, he lost no time in making preparations. Now his father had hoped he'd join him into the ministry, and he's quite aghast at this youthful rebellion that he wants to go to missions instead. What a harebrained scheme is that? Well, Adoniram at this time courted Anne Hazeltine, who is generally accepted as the most beautiful girl in Bradford, Massachusetts. And his let-off proposal to the father is a classic. I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter, whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land, in the subjection to the hardships and suffering of a missionary life. Will you consent to her exposure to the dangers of ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climates of India, to every kind of wanton distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death? How's that for a proposal letter? And that letter's in existence. I've actually got it, the original letter. And John Hazeltine, a deacon in the Congregational Church, amazingly consented, and Adnara married Anne Hazeltine. They were consecrated for missionary service the day after their wedding, and within two weeks they were sailing for India, sent out by the newly formed American Board of Commission for Foreign Missionaries. And it was a most extraordinary event. They actually had five missionaries lined up and all being sent out, although, as it so happened, only two of them managed to get out into the field in time. And the reason for this rush was Britain and America were going to war. This is 1812, and the 1812 war is blowing up. Not only is Britain at war with France, but now Britain's at war with America. And so they knew before the British blockade our ports, we have got to get out of here fast. And so they had to find a ship and get out of Boston Harbour very, very fast. And Adenauer and Ann Judson, so within two weeks of their marriage and commissioning, they were on the high seas, heading out trying to avoid British warships that were coming in at that very moment to blockade Boston Harbour. It was a wild, wild rush. And they spent most of their honeymoon arguing about baptism. Now, you would have expected them to stop in Cape Town like William Carey did, but they didn't. And the reason for that is because Cape Town was run by the British, and America was now an enemy of Britain, And so an American ship couldn't even, they had to avoid French ships, they had to avoid British ships. And they were eating rotten food and stale water because they couldn't stop in at any of the ports. America didn't have any friendly ports. Everything was British or French run. Either of which had been bad. And so basically they were in deep trouble and they had to go on the ocean for so long and they had to avoid Cape Town so they couldn't even see Cape Town. Because otherwise they could have gotten attacked by British warships. And by the time they reached Kolkata, they had also come to agree with the Baptist position that they should be baptised by immersion, as believers, and so the central resignation letter back to the mission board that had just sent them out. That has got to have been one of the most unbelievable anti-climaxes. Can you imagine this poor missions board that just sent out their first missionaries and had resigned before they reached the field? Which, by the way, cuts off their support base. They then convinced the Baptists to adopt them with the formation of the American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. They sent letters to Baptist churches they'd never met, never been to, who didn't know them, to start a mission society to support them. Can you imagine? That's a kind of weird deputation. En route to Burma, the Judson's stopped in to visit William Carey in India. Of course, he's the father of modern missions. It's his example that's inspired this. And there they were baptised by immersion by Carey's co-worker William Ward. And en route by ship to Rangoon, their first child was stillborn during the voyage. Can you imagine the heartache? But can you also imagine the unhealthiness of living on a ship in those cramped conditions, those long journeys? This was rough, and they were in a horrible climate. In July 1813, 13th of July 1813, the Judsons reached Rangoon, and the heart sank at the sights and the smells of the place. Burma was a resistant Buddhist nation and a cruel, despotic king who viciously opposed their work. By the way, each Buddhist king would move to a new place and have a new capital built. Couldn't have the same capital as their father. Keep moving and building a new capital. Which is why you will see ruins of what used to be their temples because they suddenly just up and moved to another place. I can't be king in the same place my father was king. Can you imagine the mentality? The judge's seven-month-old son then died. Adnaram was struck with fever, which left him close to death. He went on one missionary excursion by ship, which ended up as a seven-month nightmare. They never reached anything they were meant to reach. They didn't manage to achieve anything. He just got sick on the ship, and the ship was buffeted in storms, and it got absolutely nowhere, and after seven months came back to port, and they hadn't even arrived anywhere. They just couldn't make headway in the storms that were off the coast at that time. And while Adnan Judson was having his worst mission ever, back in Rangoon Anne was subjected to severe harassment and she withstood a devastating plague of cholera which swept the city, wiping out many thousands of people. The Judson's then used a Zayat, that's a shelter to provide rest for travellers where discussions took place. So they built a Zayat like this which was common for travellers to stop in and you could get some refreshments and tea and you could discuss things and religious discussions were quite acceptable. So they'd sit cross-legged on the floor having tea and they would discuss religious matters. And it was at this Zayat in June 1819 that the Judson's were blessed with their first convert. After seven years of labour, imagine they worked for seven years before the first Burmese responded to the Gospel. What were you doing seven years ago? Can you imagine if in the last seven years you'd achieved nothing in terms of converts? And you're away from home and you're in a horrible climate, I mean that's got to be discouraging. And this is Myeong-nao, the first Burmese convert. At one point Adoniram Judson sought an audience with the Emperor and he presented the Gospel to him and his attempt was abruptly dismissed by the Emperor who threw the scroll into the fire. Understandably the Judson's battled discouragement and ill health. The climate was horrible. Later Anne had to be sent back to America to recover from a debilitating fever. But she was quite a writer, she was the one who kept the newsletters going, she kept the support base going, she was the one who encouraged people with the communications back home, and she returned with more missionary volunteers. But in 1824 war broke out between Great Britain and Burma. Now, although Judson was an American, do you think that Asians can tell the difference between an American white and an English white? It doesn't matter, he's a British spy, so they incarcerated him in death prison. That's what they cheerfully called it. For 18 months, Adnarum was mistreated and tortured by the Burmese, confined with 50 others in the most atrocious conditions, filth and squalor. At night, their feet were tied to bamboo pole which was raised above his head so they were forced to sleep if he could sleep at all, with only head and shoulders resting on the ground. Can you imagine the excruciating backache you would suffer from that? This is the kind of torture that they suffered nightly for 18 months. On the first occasion that Anne was allowed to visit her husband, eight months after the arrest, she carried her newborn daughter Maria, who he of course had not seen. Anne was shocked that a normally fastidious, neat, very presentable husband was in such a degrading state. He had to crawl towards her in a condition she was not even able to describe. He couldn't even walk, his back was in such agony. When the British were finally able to defeat the Burmese and therefore free Adnam Judson and all the other foreigners who had been locked up in death prison, he was hit with another devastating blow. His beloved wife Anna died while he was in prison. Six months later their two year old daughter Maria was buried alongside the mother. She just couldn't survive in that very horrible, inhospitable, tropical climate. Adoniram sank into extreme depression and for a time the work of the Gospel in Burmese came to a halt. But inspired by the steadfastness of the Judges, primarily because of the writings of Anne Judson, new mysteries for America began arriving. And more and more Burmese were converted to Christ in one year, 200 converts were baptised. In 1832 Judson's translation of the New Testament was completed followed in 1834 by the Old Testament. And this is a page from John's Gospel from the Judson Translation. It looks like squiggles, different types of circles, but you see this is where you can see as a child, his loving mathematics and mathematical problems and puzzles and puzzle pages, and he would solve all those. To him, this is just like a puzzle to solve. And he managed to translate the Bible into Burmese Adenaarim then married Sarah Boardman and she was the widow of a Mishmi colleague and worked at revising his translation of the Bible, because of course once you've brought it up then some people say, oh but this could be better this and that, and then, oh no, actually this would be a better translation. So then you've got to revise the Bible once the translation has been preached. Well, she helped him and alongside instructing native preachers and native evangelists, here you can see actually a picture of Adnan baptising one of the Burmese and his missionary colleague who's dying in a bed, it's his wife Sarah Boardman, who after he died, because they're both widow and widower now, that they married and continued the task of bringing up his surviving children. When his work on the Bible was finally done, he turned his attention to the Burmese dictionary. And here's the New Testament in Burmese. And this is the lovely picture of Adonam Judson kneeling at his desk, thanking the Lord as he completed the last page of the Bible in Burmese. As Sarah's health deteriorated, Adonam accompanied her by sea back to America for recuperation. This is the thing they called these places the White Man's Graveyard. And Micheline died like flies out there. The conditions were horrific. But she died en route and she's buried on the island of St Helena, August 1845. One can see her grave in St Helena today. Then the news reached him that their one and a half year old son, Charles, had died a month before his mother, back in Burma. By now he could barely whisper. Large crowds gathered to hear him speak in America. Here you can see a First American Baptist Foreign Missionary arrived in Burma July 13, 1813 at an Iron Judson Medal. Judson Missionary Associations set up and people would subscribe to Missionary Societies and that's what would normally make the Missionary Societies able to function. If people would subscribe then they would get a certificate here that they're a life member of the Missionary Association because of a certain amount of support or be an annual member. So subscriptions are what basically kept Missionary Societies going in the early days. and he had large crowds hearing him speak, or should we say rasp and croak, because he was not in good health. But, when he returned to Burma, he took his third wife, Emily Chubbuck, with him. And Emily generated some controversy, as she was half his age and a writer of popular stories. Not just a Christian writer, she was a writer of popular novels and fiction. Nevertheless, there's no doubt that she was a dedicated Christian and she was devoted to the mission. By 1849 the English Burmese Dictionary had been completed, so he translated the Bible to Burmese, which is used to this day, and the dictionary, English Burmese Dictionary, which is still the basis for what is used to this day. You can notice here how the British came from India and took a good section of the sea of the coast of Burma, but they left an independent Burma on the inside. And basically In time they had to take all of Burma, but at this stage they were still an independent Burma. By the time Adnan died in 1850, he had established 63 churches in one lifetime. And amongst the Karin tribe, over 100,000 Karin people had been baptised in his lifetime. Today there are millions of Karin Christians. And they still stand as an island of Christianity and a sea of Buddhism. And it's quite an extraordinary story actually. Before he died, Adoniram declared, when Christ calls me home, I shall go away with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school. Most boys don't like schoolwork, so when it's all schools over, they're just happy to get out there to the sports field or home or wherever they want to get to. And he says that's the way he looks at it. The world is where we work. God calls us home. It won't be something you'll be anything but eager to go away to. And someone said about Evan Owen Judson how few there are that die so hard. He was one of the first people I spoke about being a diehard because nothing could seem to kill him. He just kept He would get sick, he would get imprisoned, he went through French prison, went through Burmese death prison, he survived all this, he could keep going. There's a book out called The Three Mrs. Judson's, and it's about the three wives, but of course, it sounds wrong for a missionary to have three wives, but William Carey went through three wives too, dying in the field. In a Baptist meeting house in Malden, Massachusetts, a traveller found a marble tablet bearing this inscription. Reverend Adoniram Jefferson, born 9 August 1788, died April 12, 1850. Muldan is birthplace. The ocean is sepulchre. He is buried at sea. Converted Burmese on the Burmese Bible is monument. His record is on high. That's quite an epitaph for someone. All of Jefferson's five surviving children grew up to distinguish themselves in Christian service. It needs to be said, he had ten children. Five died in the field. Five children. Can you imagine? A man who's got to bury five children and two wives. I mean, that's got to be enough to break anyone. But he persevered. And there are some great books out there on Adonai Judson. Recently the Americans were able to celebrate the bicentennial of their pioneer missionary. Anne Judson's got more books out because she actually did a lot of the writing and she was the one who really made this mission a success and recruited the other missionaries. My Heart in His Hands, how's that for a lovely summary of her life. And there's memoirs of Anne Judson and Christian History magazine has had a full edition on the Judsons. Here's a map from his memoirs, you can see the kind of maps that are there and how they spelled Burma with an H at the end at that time. Now, you can go to Burma and you will find a whole lot of Buddhist temples in ruins, in the jungle. That's quite symbolic. And not only will you see these Buddhist temples in ruins, but you'll see a lot of the Karen people, who are still steadfast Christians today. Notice the practice. the Easterners seem to be happy to sit cross-legged on the ground. These are some of the Karin people, very colourful in their clothing, very colourful in their outfits. The Karin people are the ones targeted by the Buddhist military dictatorship right now. Notice how they lift their houses off the ground because one of the problems is flooding in the rainy season. When it rains, it's monsoon rain. serious flooding. And here a congregation of Karin people meeting in the outdoors and you can see they're still building the church. Here's a Karin church today. You can see it's strong. But this is after decades of vicious persecution by the Buddhas. This is the Judson Memorial Congregational Church in Rangoon. And these are other congregational churches in Burma to this day. And you can see Christianity is well and solidly established in Burma, although it is officially a Buddhist country. But you can see this kind of bold Christian stand. Now I've put a chapter on the Judges in the Greatest Century of Missionaries because they were one of the greatest missionaries of that great century. But what about today? Burma today is known as Muanmar. Muanmar is what the Buddhist military dictatorship call it, but Burma is what the people on the ground, like the current people, should call it. So you can tell if you speak about Burma, or whether you speak about Myanmar, it shows whether you are on the one side or the other side. Sort of similar to how it was with South West Africa and Namibia. But Burma today is one of the worst countries in the world for persecution of the Christians. This is their flag. a missionary to Burma gave us one of these flags at one of our devotions after he gave us a report back. You can still see the Buddhist temples, of course, prominently, and the Buddhist idols. Very idolatrous nation. A lot of Buddhist monks, of course. And the military dictatorship. Burma is a Buddhist military dictatorship. They are really brutal. And if you want an idea of how brutal, you can see Rambo IV. a very harsh film, but in no way an exaggeration on the kind of persecution that Christians are enduring and what missionaries have to go through to smuggle in Bibles and assist the people in the Karen tribes. This is the dictator and that's a bunch of KGB who, applying their merciless form of oppression upon the people. You can see the police vehicles have these shields inside, those are shields for the police to hold. And there you can see the kind of police coming off, and notice the red scars, that's a sign of the government. Here's a Christian church burning in Burma, and you can see again the red scars that shows the government, and a whole refugee camp near Thailand being burned out by the Buddhist military dictatorship, another church being set alight. You see the police sign on the back here. And again, burning the homes of Christians. Here's a beautiful church that's obviously been gutted. by the persecution. But this speaks about the stone laying on Saint Michael and all angels. It's no doubt an Anglican church because they speak about the Archdeacon of Rangoon. And you can see a Judson in the name. And Lord protect our handiwork. And this is a church that's been burned by the Buddhists. A lot of churches damaged and destroyed in Burma. And you can see, still, the Buddhist idols and the military, but there's something disturbing about this picture. And the one thing that you notice is the weapons that these men are carrying are not just AK-47s, but Colt AR-15s and M-16s. Those are American-made weapons. What is the Western providing bloodthirsty mass murderers like these with any kind of weapons at all? You can see the old flag that the socialist regime adopted, but they've apparently now got a new flag, according to their 2006 constitution. What's happening in Burma is, they now call it Myanmar, but of course the people there who love freedom still want to call it Burma. You would have heard of this lady who is the champion of democracy in Burma, and she's been very popular and peaceful in her protest and they had her under house arrest for decades. But at the moment I think she's got a little bit more freedom because they're trying to get more trade and there's been a lot more pressure. So there was an attempt to say no to the sham elections that the military dictatorship put up. They were trying to do a sort of Robert Dalby stunt. Here's a Christian church that's been destroyed and the Karen people are rebuilding the church where it has been burned down. Often the people just are meeting in little houses like this. You can imagine very, very hot conditions. And here are Karen tribespeople going out to sow in their fields. So this is the picture, free Burma. So much destruction. Here you've got a Buddhist idle with a church in the foreground destroyed and people fleeing the country, especially fleeing to Thailand and some of the protests in the streets. This here shows some of the old colonial structures that the British built, but this gives you a bit of a feel for what you're dealing with in Burma. America's first foreign mission field, Burma. And there is a Buddhist military dictatorship that is butchering Christians to this day. And the Christians are standing firm. The fact that they are standing firm, 200 years after Admiral Judson first arrived there, is a great tribute to the fruit that endures. And they have stood firm under horrible conditions. But that this can be tolerated. Do you know, to think of the extraordinary international pressure that was brought to bear on Malaysia and South Africa to give in to communist dictators, when our countries were magnets for people pouring across the border, coming in from all over, wanting to come because Rhodesia and South Africa offered higher standard of living and better freedom and better living standards and human rights than they could get in free countries like Mozambique and Zambia and Angola. And yet South Africa and Rhodesia were banned from the Olympics, banned from even the Parapolitics Olympics, boycotts of all sorts, sanctions, all kinds of pressures brought to bear. Every university it seemed in the whole of the Western world was demonstrating against South African religion at that time, back in the 70s and 80s. And yet, what is being done for the Christians in Burma? What is being done for the Christians in the Nuba Mountains? Or for the Christians in Northern Nigeria? Or for the Christians in Egypt who are being persecuted to this day? What is it about the world's media that they can ignore something like this, which is one of the worst regimes in the world, and some of the most courageous Christians in the world? And it's not just that the secular world is ignoring them. How much have you seen of this in the Christian media? I mean, how many churches or radio stations even mention Burma? And yet, every man and his dog seems to know about Rhodesia in the 70s, and about South African stuff in the 80s. I mean, what was it? It just shows that the world is not concerned about justice. If they were concerned about justice, then thugs like this would not be coming to the United Nations in order to make their speeches. And this character here would be an abducted war criminal. And if you think that's an exaggeration, if you think you've got the stomach for it, you can watch the Rambo 4 film. It's a very hard film, but it's quite a surprising story. Christopher Sloane apparently had a conversion experience and he made that film in order to show the great work that missionaries are doing in Burma and the terrible persecution that Christians are suffering at the hands of the Buddhist military dictatorship. That's just quite a brave and bold attempt to someone who has not been known for making Christian films. But he apparently has a very strong conversion testimony. But that just depicts a little bit. I know some missionary friends who have been to Burma. So it's absolutely hideous. If anyone's got a picture of the Buddhists being these peaceful, tolerant, nice, cross-legged, you know, having this Buddhist statue, I could never look at a Buddhist statue the same after what I learned about going on in Burma. And by the way, you might recall some years ago, we had a whole lot of these Peace Poles being set up around Cape Town. Anyone remember the Peace Poles? These were Buddhist monks coming to Cape Town and they tried to put one of these Peace Poles up in Rondebosch Park. Of course we've had a few about that and I wrote a letter to the Tablet at the time it was published saying if it doesn't work at home don't export it. There's no peace in Burma. What right does a Buddhist from Burma have to come to Cape Town to put a peace pole up in Vondermost, when they've got one of the worst regimes in the world, and one of the worst human rights records in the world, let the Buddhists bring peace to Burma first, when they've got about 90% of the population of Buddhists. Then they put a peace pole up on top of Tad Mountain. I don't know if you remember that. They put another one on St George's Mall. Well, as it so happens, this is shortly after Frontline Fellowship had begun, one of our Actually, Joe van Alpenroos, he was part of the original three of us that started the Frontline Fellowship prayer meeting in the Army Base back in 1979. He went and he tore down these poles. He's actually a carpenter, I'm afraid. So Joe took down these poles and he took them down to the police station that we marched past on the way to Parliament. That one in, what is it, is it Quentin County Street? So he went to the police station near the one that's right next to Mavericks and he laid the peace pole on the table says I want to report that I've demolished these peace poles and if you want to charge me here at all. And the policeman behind the desk said oh I don't know that these have got any onus, I'm not sure there are any crimes taking place, you're welcome to go. So the police had no time for this either. Joe told me that inside these peace poles, and by the way since then he's gone on, when the Berlin Wall came down he went off to Germany they reclaimed their old lands behind Leinkirchen and they've established a church and they're doing missionary work in the east of Germany today. I met them just recently. So doing very well and a strong family and all that. But Joseph, inside these peace poles, and the peace poles had on the side of them written in English, Russian, some other language, some eastern language. Well on the inside, they're all kinds of little, it was hollow. It looked like some obelisk thing, but on the inside there was all kinds of little talismans, and it looked like mooty witch doctor stuff. It was occultic, and in fact the way that the Buddhists explained it is, this is acupuncture, and Cape Town is one of the key points on the globe, where you need to do this acupuncture, and Table Mountain was a very important source of spiritual energy for the New Age forces, and so by putting it in St George's Mall and putting it up on Table Mountain, and by trying to in Rhondda Bosch Park, praise God there was enough opposition that got rid of it. They put these up and we took them down. And they never got put up again. And at the time I knew that something bad was going on in Burma. But I didn't have a clue how bad it was. Not then. It's just the point that the hypocrisy of these people. They've got to bring peace to South Africa and they've got to bring a Peace Pole here. So we actually asked them at the time, how many Peace Poles have you put up in Burma? And they said 500. I said, well it's not working. Don't export it. Anyway, any comments or questions? I have a question about the language. Yes. Well, the police signs are English signs. That's interesting. But that's not the Burmese language, is it? No. That's true. They must have gotten these vehicles from somewhere. Who provides vehicles like that? Anyone recognise the type of vehicle? This looks like squiggles over here. What's it about? Does it have to be about what's there? I don't immediately recognise the vehicle. But you saw the police wearing those police sort of bulletproof jackets. Where did they come from? How many countries in the world write police in English? Exactly. Blue. UN. But why are they being given these things free? and have you ever heard any boycott Burma or demos against Burma or what? I'm just stunned that there's such hypocrisy in the world and there was such euphoria over wanting to bring South Africa into the communist camp and there's no concern for people suffering a thousand times worse than anything that ever happened in South Africa. In fact, with hindsight, the worst of what ever happened on the aquatic in reaction to all the terrorism and attacks It pales in significance when you look at a place like Burma, or Saudi Arabia, or any of these countries that are what's going on today in Egypt, or Northern Nigeria. It's just incredible hypocrisy that the only thing the world could ever unite on in recent years was to condemn South African religion. And our countries were actually paradises. And certainly compared to what they became and what these other places were. When I was in the US in 1998, we were in Marmara, 20 kilometers out, and a woman, she was entitled to pure gold. The actual gold? Pure gold. And yet, she kept it in a good set of food. There was an orphanage where you'd have to plant some trees, but the trees were repotted and you just rewired it later. There wasn't much to get education in the future. But we were only there for a week though. Did you see much spiritual life? Some strong churches over there? No. The people we were at, the children, as long as they were in a club, they were given toys. Yeah. You must have seen a lot of evidence of Buddhism. Yeah. We can make a new piece. Well, I'm glad that Owen managed to get in at that stage. So, would this be made of actual gold? Yeah. I mean, are you coming, there's this obelisk of jewels, the size of a brick, that you come in. They worship the wealth instead of using it. They worship magic. Well, The best book on Adonam Judgment I read years ago is called The Golden Shore because Burma is called the Golden Shore and the kings sat on the golden throne. You went to the golden feats and so gold seemed to symbolise the whole thing of their idolatry and had these golden idols and golden statues and golden domes. So would that be gold? Yes. In some of it is overlaid gold. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. Some of the Buddhist statutes, like in China as well, remember the time that the Parliament of Rotary came into effect in 1999? December 1999. There was one erected in China that was something like 22 metres high, 22-25 metres high, and that thing was sort of dropped. Well, this is just a story. We don't specialize in Asia and we don't do any work in Asia, but it's just important for us to know what's going on in other parts of the world. I thought Adonai Judson's testimony is great, but to think that the battle is still going on. He started the battle for the spiritual liberation of people in Berber. There is fruit there. I mean, the great-great-great-great-grandchildren of the first converts are still there. And they're under attack. And I don't know of American churches who even know about Burma. I go to America and I speak to them about Adnan Judson and about the Burmese and they're... Huh? Who? Where? But they're all new about apartheid in South Africa but they know nothing about the Karen being murdered in Burma which just is shocking. But also again, when you have people talking about Myanmar I'm told by Burmese Christians only the Buddhist military dictatorship referred to Myanmar. The rest of us call it Burma. It's also a term. If you go to Londonderry in Northern Ireland the Catholics will call it Derry and the Protestants will call it Londonderry. It's just again a different way of... You can immediately tell which side the person is on by what they say. Sometimes it's the shibboleth But if anyone wants to tell you Buddhism is a peaceful religion, ask them, what about Burma? I would like to know, you mentioned the woman who was under half the rates now, we've all seen her on TV and in the crowd. Sorry, her name again? Aung San Yung. Aung San Yung, yes. It's a military dictatorship that has allowed some sham elections in 2006 and she's got some freedom but the military is still taking control. I think it's analogous to Zimbabwe. where the same criminals are still running the show but they've had to, for the purposes of international trade, allow an apparent openness. But while she's allowed to walk around, she's got no power. She's just come back from America now. She's been to England and all sorts of various places and she's just come back. And when she was released from her solitary confinement and all this after 18 years, America called in aid to Burma. Called in aid to Burma? To Burma. So some of the things we've seen might have come from America as a result of that. But she's not the leader of the country. The military is still running the show. It was eye-washing, like what they did with Zimbabwe, to just basically keep the regime afloat. They had to do a certain amount of cosmetics, and so I presume life improved a bit in Burma, but the same criminals are running it. Oh yes, but it's an interest in Zimbabwe where you've got the MDC and you've got Morgan Tsvangirai but he doesn't control the country. He must just try and bring in more investments into the country. It's an economic move. But I think China for example is another example of where they are allowing more economic freedom to get more investment but they're still not allowing political freedom. So the communists are learning how to harness western free enterprise without relinquishing their political control. Yes, she'd obviously win the vote if there was a true open election. She's massively popular. But the Christians While there are Christians in other groups, the Karin people are the most solidly Christian of all the Burmese. Most Burmese are Buddhists, but the Karin are mostly Christian. And so, when you speak about persecution of Christians or war against the Karin, it becomes the same thing. Because a Karin is considered Christian, and a Christian is considered Karin almost. They call it a civil war, but it's more persecution of the church. I'd see this as a straightforward Buddhist versus Christian battle. Although they'll try and say it's a civil war. Not really. Not really get to understand the roots of it. This dictatorship is solidly Buddhist, and they've got no patience for dissents, they've got no patience for Christians. So it comes down to the same thing. But in Rangoon, the capital, there will be a certain amount of freedom allowed, especially for the foreigners. Then if one thinks of the Buddhists in Thailand, isn't there some particular Buddhist area where the Buddhists are rising in rebellion and have been put down by... That sounds like Burma. Because the support base... Many of the Buddhists are very hostile to this military dictatorship, yes. The military dictatorship will say they've been true Buddhists, and other Buddhists will say no they're not, so obviously there's divisions amongst them as well, just like you get different types of Muslims or Christians either. Still, if it doesn't work at home, don't export it, and Buddhism doesn't work in Burma, it hasn't produced good food ever. You could just see how they treated people like Adnan al-Jaz in their prison. So, people who can treat foreign missionaries coming to help them in that way, in such abominable conditions, must we respect their religion? That is something that is important for us too, because while we may fight, we will never treat our enemies in the same way that they treat us. There are standards that Christians adhere to. It doesn't matter how bad the person is, we will still be gracious, because we cannot allow hate in our hearts, not even for those who hate us. But if you can treat people like that, it's just unbelievable. So I trust that we will not only be inspired by Adonai Judson, but also to pray for the Karen people and see what, wherever one can, speak up for them.