Amy Carmichael was born December 16, 1867 in Ireland. She grew up in a Christian home, and learned to pray from babyhood on. At age three she decided that instead of her brown eyes, she wanted blue eyes like her mother’s and like the ocean and the sky. So she prayed a believing bedtime prayer for blue eyes. In the morning she jumped out of bed and hurried to a mirror to see her blue eyes. Only they were still brown.
At that moment she heard in her mind, perhaps an echo of something her mother had said in the past, or perhaps it was God speaking, “Isn’t ‘no’ an answer too?” Amy conceded that she had to be satisfied with ‘no’ as an answer from her parents sometimes, so this could be God’s answer on this matter.
Years later, she went to Japan as a missionary, came home with broken health, and then went out again, but this time to India. There her heart was caught up with the sound of crying children behind the temple walls. Amy looked for ways to investigate. She found that she could dye her skin brown with coffee, and by wearing a sari like the Indian woman she could pass through crowds like one of them. Another missionary pointed out that if she didn’t have such brown eyes, she’d never get away with it.
One day she found a temple door ajar and she glided right inside unnoticed. She looked at the big ugly statue, all chipped and defaced, and marvelled that anyone would pray to such a thing.
Then, in the dark recesses she spied a group of beautiful little boys–. Right then the old priest came and shoved her out.
Another day she followed a parade. In it was a float with an idol surrounded by about a dozen lovely little girls all dressed up in embroidered purple and white with rings of flowers on their heads. Amy followed the float until it went through the doors of a temple, and amid the noise of clashing cymbals and the girls’ frightened shrieks, the big doors slammed shut in Amy’s face.
That was Day 1. Now for a more hasty summary of the rest.
In Day 2, we see how Amy came to make a decision to trust Jesus as her personal Saviour and Lord while singing a song in church.
Flashing forward to her life in India we learned of Preena (meaning pearl eyes), a little girl who was held captive in a temple, but who wanted to escape home. When she did, her mother turned her back over to the temple woman who came after her. Preena was branded in the palms of her hands with a hot iron as punishment, and was threatened that the Child-snatching Missie Amy would get her if she didn’t do as she was told. Preena decided that might be better than her present life, and ran away again at her next opportunity to look for that Missie Amy.
Amy received her lovingly and told her of Jesus, who loved her and had died for her, and was alive again, and able to really hear her prayers.
Day 3 shows us Amy as a young girl, perhaps a teen, racing over the sand hills of Millisle in Ireland on her pony, Fanny. One day she was thrown from the pony and had to lie perfectly still between sandbags until her head and neck were healed. During that time she learned to pray, and that waiting time was never wasted time if used for prayer. She was always eager for spiritual growth and ‘climbing’ as she called it.
One Sunday morning on the way to church, she saw an old woman struggling with a heavy bag. At first she felt better than the old woman and looked down on her, then Amy turned back and went to help the poor woman. Others who watched laughed at Amy, and she was embarrassed. But then 1 Corinthians 3;13 came to mind, and she decided that she would always do that which had eternal value, even if others would laugh at her.
This was certainly the case when she was a missionary in India. Others, including her missionary co-workers, could not understand her burden, her passion to rescue those children from the temples. The more she learned about how they given by their parents, or sold when in poverty, or simply kidnapped because of their good looks, and how they were trained to become temple prostitutes and sometimes burned alive as sacrifices to the idols - the more Amy knew she had to do what was right and of eternal value, no matter what the cost in other’s opinions.
Amy often went in disguise to learn more and to take any opportunity to accept unwanted children, even to paying for them, if it meant the temple would not get the child. Before long she had 16 children!
She needed a larger, and a safe place away from the main thoroughfare, and in more miraculous ways than I dare take time to tell you, God provided for the purchase of a country place called Dohnavur. Girls and women came to her on their own, offering to help by being her servants. They were able to add simple cottages onto their large compound, and to expand with workshops, and a school.
There isn’t space here to tell of Ponnammal, Amy’s most faithful, wise and enduring helper. Nor of Amy’s fund-raising principles, which were rather unique, It is enough to ask the Father, for resources for His work, she often said. Eventually, they got a car and a hospital too for Dohnavur!
Amy trusted God, and it was that unseen protection that kept her safe though her life was often threatened, and she experienced many things. She had an injury which laid her up in bed for years, but those were not wasted either, as she spent them writing several books. Many of us have been grateful for that! Her wisdom was not just restricted to her adopted children, but we, several generations later, can benefit.
Amy Carmichael books are getting to be rare treasures, but if you can get your hands on some, and will read them, I can almost guarantee you will be blessed!
See my review of her book, Gold Cord which is one i happen to have. This daring Christian woman will be an inspiration to you. She is certainly one of my best heroines!
