For the past year Baptists around the world have been
celebrating the two hundred year Judson legacy.
This anniversary will culminate next week as many flock to Yangon to
join with Baptist friends living in Myanmar.
Central will be represented as ten of us make pilgrimage there. A pilgrimage is a holy pursuit, a spiritual
practice that endeavors to encounter God in a new way through holy places and
graced persons.
We will
visit historic Judson sites as well as participate in the services. One of Central’s create students, Angela Barker Jackson, will make five
presentations on dimensions of the Judson mission as we travel south to
Mawlmyne and Amherst before returning to Yangon.
Over the past seven years Central
has solidified a strong collaboration with Myanmar Institute of Theology. The relationship between our schools dates
back to the 1950’s when MIT offered its degrees under Central’s accredited
aegis. Pastoral elders still proudly
display their Central diplomas.
Presently
Central and MIT share 36 Doctor of Ministry students from all over
Myanmar as the above map shows. This is a mutually transforming
pursuit as we work together to enhance ministry excellence. Somehow I think the Judsons would be
delighted as collaboratively we find ways to help the Gospel take root in the
Myanmar context.
As we
conclude Year C in the lectionary, we look to Psalm 100, a reading for
Thanksgiving Day. It is a psalm for the
thanksgiving offering, and it surely is fitting praise to God for the harvest
of the Judsons.
Enter God’s
gates with thanksgiving
and
the courts with praise!
Give thanks
to God!
Bless
God’s Name!
For Our God
is good;
God’s
steadfast love endures forever,
and God’s
faithfulness
to
all generations (vv. 4-5).
We will journey
with grateful hearts, thanking God for our Baptist forebears and for those who
have sustained Christian witness for these two centuries amidst challenges
Americans Christians can hardly fathom.
The great faith of these sisters and brothers in Christ will encourage
our faith, we trust.
We look
forward to participating in vibrant (and long!) worship services that will give
testimony to God’s faithfulness to the generations that have flowered from
seeds planted by the Judsons. It is
surely a harvest to be celebrated.
Molly T.
Marshall
To learn more about Central’s global mission, continue
visiting our website.
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