Tha Byu was a scoundrel. He was, at a minimum, a robber and a murderer.
When Adoniram Judson was in Burma (Myanmar) in the 1820s, a fellow Christian who had tried to work with Tha Byu turned him over to the great missionary as a difficult case. Tha Byu had become indentured to him when the Christian paid off a debt of his, but he had become unmanageable.
Tha Byu was of the Karen tribe in Burma, a persecuted and lower-class segment of society most native Burmese had little time for. Under Judson’s teaching he came to faith, and after over a year of learning to control his violent temper, the church in Burma agreed to baptize him in 1828. Three additional Karen tribesmen witnessed the baptism and asked Tha Byu what had happened. He excitedly told them, and a hunger for evangelism was born. Tha Byu traveled to Karen villages wherever he could find them to share the Gospel. At first only a few became converts, but soon his witness, and those who followed him, became so effective that eventually crowds of hundreds and even thousands thronged to hear him speak.
Because Tha Byu was poorly educated and was older, he felt unequipped to teach the deeper doctrines of the Christian faith. Instead, missionaries trained those he won and Tha Byu focused his efforts on reaching the thousands of his fellow Karen tribesmen scattered throughout Burma, casting a wide net wherever he could. He is remembered fondly today as “The Karen Apostle.” Today, there are hundreds of thousands of Christians in Myanmar, most of them among the Karen tribes.
Tha Byu’s ministry only lasted 12 years before he died form a lung infection. His biographer wrote: From the day of his baptism to his death, he never intermitted his labors in preaching Christ, where the Saviour had not so much as been named, from Tavoy to Siam; from Martaban to the borders of Zimmay; and from Rangoon to Arracan. And though he was the first of his nation to go down into the baptismal waters, he lived to see hundreds and hundreds follow his steps, in whose conversion he held a distinguished part. We cannot err in honoring those whom God honors; and it therefore seems proper, that the name of Ko Thah-byu should be rescued from oblivion, and inscribed among the worthies of the church; that the rising generation may learn what “very ordinary abilities,” when wholly consecrated to God, may accomplish.
Tha Byu’s commitment to his fellow countrymen and his zeal for the spread of the Gospel show us that a person of ‘ordinary’ skills can have a great impact for Christ.
Christian History e-mail: 09 Sept 2022.
