Amy Carmichael

UESI West Bengal
Apr 21, 2023
4 min read

Amy Carmichael was born in Millisle, County Down, Ireland, on 16 December 1867. Amy was unhappy with her brown eyes and kept asking God to change her eye colour. Every morning she would rush a mirror to be disappointed by seeing the colour of her eyes unchanged. Little did she understand the wisdom of God.

Her family ensured that young Amy was brought up knowing the Lord. She accepted Jesus at the age of 15. Gospel work among children in a deprived area of Belfast now became a leading interest.

She loved all the poor female factory workers who were nicknamed “shawlies”. Because, unable to afford hats, they kept their heads warm by covering them with their shawls. She opposed the disparity between the elite and the poor labourers. Amy made weekly trips to hand out food and gospel booklets to the mill workers who lived in the slums. Amy’s Bible class of ‘shawlies’ grew so large she had a meeting hall built where she could teach them.

After her father’s death, Wilson adopted her as he had lost his daughter of the same age as Amy. Among other things which Wilson gave to Amy was a closer knowledge of overseas missions. In 1887, Amy heard Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission and understood her call for foreign missions. On July 26, 1892, she noted, ‘Definitely given up for service abroad.’

The China Inland Mission accepted her but its doctor rejected her on health grounds when she was ready to sail. Her thoughts then turned to Japan. She began her missionary service in 1893. Amy became the first missionary sent by the Keswick Convention. Following 15 months in Japan, she served a short stint in Sri Lanka. She left both places to recover from illness.

After returning home, she responded to an opening in the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society in India. On October 11, 1895, she left Britain at the age of twenty-seven never to return.

First, she arrived at the Mission Hospital in Bangalore and started learning Tamil. After reaching India Amy learned that her brown eyes served her well and made her fit for service where God had put her.

Amy heard Thomas Walker, at a convention meeting at Ooty. He was working with the Church Missionary Society. Walkers invited her to join them as in Tinnevelly district of Tamilnadu, a better area to study the language. As he promised to coach her, she accepted. This association developed into a lasting relationship.

Walker’s influence on her life and ministry was tremendous. Here are the words of Frank Houghton, who wrote Amy Carmichael’s first biography: “Walker was Amy’s trusted friend and comrade, her Tamil teacher, her guide and adviser, her elder brother…until his death.”

ree — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Carmichael#/media/File:Amy_Carmichael_with_children2.jpg

In March 1901, a little girl Preena, a Devadasi knocked on Amy’s door in a panic. She had been sold for temple prostitution. Because of her earlier two attempts to flee, she was beaten up and her hands were branded with hot irons. Seeing the plight, Amy Carmichael determined to save Preena despite the protests of the local Hindu temple. Amy Carmichael provided her shelter and withstood the threats.

The term Devadasi means ‘a female slave of god,’ and dedicated girls were to serve in the temples by singing and dancing. These girls were also considered as sacred, and sexual relation with them was believed to bring purity. The income they got through ‘sacred prostitution’ went to the temple treasury.

So Amy Carmichael found what was to be her life’s work and founded Dohnavur Fellowship in the same year. For the next fifty years, she gave herself to saving unwanted, abandoned, and abused girls and the babies that were born to the temple prostitutes. Gradually she also opened up the orphanage to little boys. She made it her life’s mission to rescue such children.

Amy Carmichael was the first known missionary to have been burdened by this social evil. She never did by herself, but roped in women converts into the rescue operation. Her mission attracted many parents to give their girl children whom they did not want to raise for various reasons. This indirectly brought down female infanticide in the Dohnavur area during Amy’s lifetime.

In 1931, Amy suffered a fall that injured her back. It slowed her pace, but not her work. For the next 20 years, Amy ran her rescue home from her bedroom and wrote 36 books. Carmichael never returned to England after arriving in India.

In Amy Carmichael’s lifetime, the Dohnavur Fellowship helped 1850 girls, & 670 boys. The facilities grew to include nurseries, schools, boys’ and girls’ housing, a House of Prayer, and a hospital. She also started a school for girls. Some of the girls who grew up in orphanages became university graduates and have serve in government offices.

Amy had a conviction against asking people for money, preferring to rely on prayer: “If we are about our Father’s business, He will take care of ours. There is no want in the fear of the Lord, and it needeth not to seek help.”

ree — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amy_Carmichael_Young_girl.jpg

On 18 January 1951, Carmichael completed her earthly race at Dohnavur. Her headstone is inscribed “Ammai”, a revered mother, which the children called Amy. When the children were asked what drew them to Amy, they most often replied, "It was love. Amma (Tamil for 'mother', referring to Amy) loved us."

Her life has been a source of inspiration to many who have been challenged by her brave determination including Jim & Elisabeth Elliot to pursue missions. Elisabeth Elliot calls Amy as “The Person Who Influenced Me Most”

Amy’s work continues even today in the form of her beloved Donhavur Fellowship. Children continue to be rescued with the orphanage being a haven for many more children.

The below lines from her hymn sing of her life:

“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.”