Calista Vinton - Relief Mission To Rangoon

Relief Mission To Rangoon

In 1850, the Vintons returned to Moulmein accompanied by a large contingent of missionaries, including Eugenio Kincaid and Jonathan Wade. They were immediately engaged in their respective mission works. The Vintons had a special affinity to the Karens in the vicinity of Rangoon. On his frequent visits to the then Burmese-controlled Rangoon District, he baptized many Karen converts won over from the seeds sowed by Saw Tha Byu, a disciple of Adoniram Judson. The Karens were illiterate until their language was reduced by Jonathan Wade and Francis Mason into written form using the Burmese script. Some young Karen in the Rangoon district traveled on foot through the forests and mountain ranges from Rangoon to Moulmein to attend the Karen schools established by Mrs. Vinton. On their return, they brought back tracts and copies of the New Testament translated by Jonathan Wade into Sgaw Karen, risking the ire of the intolerant local authorities. They then read in secret to their fellow converts.

On the eve of the Second Anglo-Burmese War, lawlessness prevailed over the Rangoon district, and Karens, in particular, suffered heavily. Seventeen Karen churches in the district asked Rev. Vinton to come to their aid, and he went to Rangoon. Six weeks after the fall of Rangoon to the British, Mrs. Vinton and the family followed suit. They set up an emergency hospital in a vacant monastery, and soon it was overflowing with cases of smallpox, measles, whooping cough, dysentery, cholera, etc. The pestilence was followed by famine, and the Vintons fed multitudes of both Christians and non-Christians with provisions procured on credit from friendly merchants. When they were evicted from the monastery, the Vintons purchased land in Kemmendine (now known as Kyimyintaing), three miles from Rangoon. There they built the mission center, a hospital, and a school. The Baptist Mission Union censured Rev. Vinton for his insubordination and for abandoning his assigned post in Moulmein. The Vintons accepted the offer from Baptist Free Mission Society to act as their agent in collecting donations from friends in America and transmitting the funds.