It may be worth mentioning that William Carey, the 'father of missions,' spent nine years (if memory serves) in India before he saw his first convert. During that time his wife went mad and two of his children died, but he remained faithful to his Lord.
'And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart' (Galatians 6:9).
This type of comparison (Carey, Judson, etc.) is often made in such discussions, but I would have been in great error to compare myself to Carey when I went to Japan in 1981, saying, "Well, Carey didn't see anyone saved for X years, so I shouldn't expect much for a few years." Note:
1. Carey had no language school to go to, but had to find nationals willing to teach him, very difficult in that culture in those days. I went to a developed language school where I was trained professionally for two years.
2. Carey had no dictionary and grammar of the language he was ministering in, to the best of my knowledge. I know for certain that Adoniram Judson had to write his own grammar and dictionary of Burmese. However, I had several different Japanese-English, English-Japanese dictionaries and excellent grammars. (Judson's dictionary was so good I found it still in print in a bookstore in Tokyo.)
3. Carey had to translate the Bible he preached from, but I had a Bible ready to go in Japan. Judson also had to translate his own Bible, which took years and 1000s of hours.
4. Carey had to obtain his own printing press and print his own tracts and other literature. Judson had to do the same. Japan had going ministries with tracts, books and Bibles being printed already.
5. Carey (and Judson) were pioneer missionaries, with no one else's work to build on. They had to start with the nationals from the absolute beginning. There was no seed previously planted and ready to germinate.
So, neither Carey nor Judson offer any excuses for a lack of God's working in modern times unless the missionary is in a completely pioneer work such a tribal translation effort. In particular, no modern American can use these great missionaries as an excuse.
Eventually Carey saw a mighty work of God, which is exactly what this thread is about. "By 1818 there were some six hundred baptized converts" (
Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, ed. by A. Scott Moreau, p. 162). Adoniram Judson saw 1000s of Burmese and Karen tribes people come to Christ.
