Amy Carmichael

This month, my wife, Sadie, and I found out we are having a baby girl. Lord willing, Piper Kate Roberts will be born December 25th. If there is anyone in Church history I hope she admires, it is the life of Amy Carmichael. She had a singular focus in life and it was Jesus. She once wrote, “The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian”, meaning, a Christian in name only, rather than in heart and lifestyle. Read carefully her prayer to be used by God, “Give me the Love that leads the way, the Faith that nothing can dismay, the Hope no disappointments tire, the Passion that’ll burn like fire. Let me not sink to be a clod. Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.”

She would not allow herself to be attached in this world. Her commitment to follow Christ was fierce. She wrote, “I wish Thy way. And when in me myself should rise, and long for something otherwise, then Lord, take sword and spear and slay.” Have you ever prayed a prayer like that? Can we like that…Is our love for God so focused, so committed, so deep as this?
She once said, “We profess to be strangers and pilgrims, seeking after a country of our own, yet we settle down in the most un-stranger-like fashion, exactly as if we were quite at home and meant to stay as long as we could…”

She arrived in India in 1895. However, her work began long before that. Search for whom God has called in the Scriptures and you will find they were busy when God called them. God does not use lazy people. He uses those who are already about His work…even if they don’t have the full knowing or understanding of where they are going to end up. I often counsel with people who “want” to do something for the Lord but they are not doing anything. There is no excuse for this. There is always something to do to honor and serve God…always.

Amy’s work didn’t begin in India…it began at home in Northern Ireland. Her father owned a mill but passed away when she was 18. She recognized a need among the working girls of the factory. They couldn’t afford expensive hats to wear to Church. The women of the Church would look down upon the girls who couldn’t “dress right” for the “Lord’s house.” Know any churches like that today?
Amy had a heart for such ladies. So, she began a Bible class for the girls working at the factory. It grew so large that she had to find a separate building that could hold 300 plus women!

On January 13, 1892, she felt she heard the Lord say, “Go Ye.” Those are beautiful words to a missionary’s heart! Most of the people in Amy’s life thought she was crazy. She wasn’t healthy enough to be a missionary, especially an overseas missionary. Earlier she had been diagnosed with neuralgia, a disease that wreaks havoc on your nervous system and weakens the entire body, often putting Amy in bed for weeks at a time. Not to mention, she wasn’t married either. She was actually rejected from CIM as a missionary because of her “frailty.” But God chooses what He wants to use, not friends, family, boards or committees.

Her missionary work in India began to change in 1899. She took her first child refugee in and this would lead to her eventually beginning a mission, which would develop into an orphanage and later the Dohnavur Fellowship. In March 1901 she began rescuing orphan children from the Hindu Temples. These abandoned, helpless children were forced to become prostitutes earning money for the wicked priest.

It’s interesting to note that Amy’s mother taught her how to pray at a young age. Well, as a little Irish girl, Amy wanted blue eyes, but God had given her brown eyes. She never understood why. One night, when she was little, she prayed that God would give her blue eyes. She awoke the next morning and ran to look in the mirror just knowing God had answered her prayer. To her sadness, her eyes were still brown.

Now, in 1901, she understood clearly why God had given her brown eyes. With the right head covering, she could disguise herself as a Hindu woman going to the temple. If God had given her blue eyes, she would have never had this ministry of rescuing children. He really does do all things well!

Amy would continue rescuing countless children from sex trafficking within these temples. Only once did she face serious charges for “kidnapping.” She rescued a 5 year old girl named Kohila. Her “guardians” demanded her back. Amy wasn’t about to send this defenseless girl back in harm’s way, so she arranged for the girl to “disappear.” Amy was charged with kidnapping and faced 7 years imprisonment. Suddenly, after much prayer, her case was declared, “dismissed” without any explanation on February 7, 1914. She saw God’s sovereign hand working in her favor!

Amy Carmichael left a lasting legacy in global missions. She left everything to follow Christ and often at great risk to her life. She died, at age 84, on January 18, 1951 in Dohnavur, India and was buried there, yet her impact on India and the Church remains to this day.