Adoniram Judson, First Missionary from the United States
This is an electronic version of our Glimpses for Kids children's worship bulletin inserts.
These are designed to present Christian biographies for Children's church, educational or worship ministries.  Adoniram
Judson.
I sat by the fireplace after supper, poking
a long stick into the crackling fire. Mother was clearing the table and
little Mary cooed sweetly in her cradle--a wonderful sound to my ears
after hearing her cry and cough so many nights lately.
Father lit his pipe. "I hear they call you Virgil at school now."
"Yes, Father. They all say I do the lessons too fast!"
"If you train your mind, son, you will become a great man one day,"
Father replied from the nearby rocker. "I'm going to enroll you in
Captain Morton's School of Navigation. What do you think of that?"
 I
could have shouted! Father kept his word and enrolled me in the navigation
school, a short distance from my home near Plymouth, Massachusetts. I
learned how to chart the sun and stars and read marine maps. I dreamed
of sailing to far away places some day.
Turning Away from God
On the evening of September 13, 1796, a knock came to my bedroom door.
It was Father.
"It's Mary," he said. His face was pale as though he'd taken
sick. "She's dead."
I felt as though Father had hit me in the stomach. Immediately I thought
of Father's recent sermons saying that even little babies had to decide
to become a Christian or they'd go to hell. His message didn't sound right
to me then, but now, now it made me mad. I became so angry at father and
his beliefs that I rejected God. I didn't want anything to do with the
God my father described, who could send my innocent baby sister to hell.
Turning to Deism
When I was 16, I enrolled at Rhode Island College, where Jacob Eames became
my best friend. He invited me to go with him to parties filled with rich
and intellectual people. If my father had known, he would have brought
me home and grounded me.
 "Adoniram,
do you really believe that God cares about people?" Jacob asked me
one evening.
"I don't know," I answered honestly.
"I am a Deist," Jacob told me proudly. "I believe that
God is out there somewhere, but he is not interested in us. What do we
have to offer him?"
Many of my classmates in 1806 were Deists, always arguing that God existed,
but didn't really care about us.
"I don't know," I answered. "Let's talk about something
more interesting. What do you think you will become after graduation?"
"I'm going to be a United States senator and maybe even the president!"
exclaimed Jacob. "But first I'm going to New York City to have some
fun."
I laughed, admiring Jacob's love for life. He wasn't afraid to try anything.
As it turned out, I went home to Plymouth to teach after graduating.
The tensions between my parents and me grew and grew. I finally told them
that I had become a Deist. I felt bad about making my mother cry, but
I argued into the night with my father.
Turning to Jesus
Against my parents' wishes, I left for New York City in search of some
fun. I looked for my old friend Jacob, but couldn't find him. No one had
ever heard of him. After a month of sleeping on hard floors and eating
oatmeal three times a day, I'd had enough. I left New York City and rode
my horse from town to town, wondering what had become of Jacob Eames.
One night I stopped at an inn, but was told there was no room. After
begging the innkeeper for lodging of any kind, I was allowed to share
a room with a dying man. The innkeeper had hung a sheet to divide the
room in half, but all through the night I heard the loud groans of the
dying man. He sounded like he was afraid to die.
The next morning, I asked the innkeeper, "How is the man in the
next room?"
"Died early this morning," he replied.
"Who was he?" I asked.
"An intellectual young man, I hear," replied the innkeeper.
"His name was Jacob Eames."
A chill ran down my spine as I gasped aloud. I'd looked all over New
York City for Jacob. How could he die ten feet away from me behind a sheet?
Jacob's death not only made me sad, but it made me think. Was Jacob right?
Was God distant and uncaring?
I knew I needed answers to these questions, so when I returned home
I enrolled in Andover Seminary where I debated the facts of the Bible
with my professors. I finally realized that the Bible was true and that
there is a loving God who cares about people! I committed my life to serving
Him! I still didn't share my father's belief that babies who die would
be doomed, but I began to realize that father and I agreed on most things
in the Bible.
Find out why Adoniram Judson had to go to prison
in part 2 of this "Glimpses for Kids" children's worship bulletin
insert.
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