Who Was Amy Carmichael?

Who was Amy Carmichael and why is it important for us to know?

Amy Carmichael

Amy Wilson Carmichael (1867-1951) was an Irish missionary to India who was born into a very small town in Ireland in 1867 to devout Presbyterian parents and was the oldest of seven siblings. She began to hear God’s calling to missionary work long before she able to go. Shortly after Amy’s father moved to Belfast, her father died when she was only 16. While there, she founded the Shawlies, a Sunday morning class and from which the name came from the local mill girls who wore shawls instead of hats and they met in the hall of Rosemary Street Presbyterian. It is here that she may have been drawn to a calling for ministering to children. After this group swelled to over 500, they needed another meeting place and were able to receive support to erect the “Welcome Hall” in 1887.

Strength through Weakness

Amy Carmichael may be been the least likely of foreign missionaries because she suffered from neuralgia which is a disease that caused her nerves to wrack her whole body with pain and would put her in bed for weeks at a time. In 1887, she heard and read of Hudson Taylor’s missionary work in China and it lite a fire in her soul for the people of China and so she had planned on taking a missionary trip to Asia but her chronic health issues caused her to postpone her trip but that was part of God’s divine and sovereign plan for her life. Eventually she traveled to Japan for about a year and a half but then her health forced her to return home for a brief period of time. When she returned to her missionary work in Ceylon (Sir Lanka) she traveled to Bangalore, India for health purposes and it was there that she fell in love with the Indian people and was especially drawn to the outcast and orphaned children living there.

Dohnavur Fellowship

Amy Carmichael was finally commissioned by the Church of England and their Zenana Mission and later founded the Dohnavur Fellowship in 1901 for the express purpose of caring for the underprivileged children of India. The Dohnavur Fellowship is a refuge for children who are in moral danger because they were orphaned or unwanted and then sold to the temple but then, the temple would not even accept some of them and having no place to live, they were seen as societal outcasts. After Carmichael saw that some of the young girls were forced into temple prostitution against their will, she took in these children into her care, which included at least a thousand children, and through this, she was able to witness to them for Christ while providing for their physical needs and educating them so that they could break out of the cycle of poverty. Amy was so endeared to these children that she became a mother for them and they called her “Amma.” When children were later asked why the flocked to Amy, they said it was her love that drew them to her and that Amy loved them unconditionally. [1] While caring for these children, she dressed them in traditional Indian dresses so that they would be more accepted by their culture. Carmichael herself dressed in Indian attire as a form or respect for the locals. She even dyed her hair with coffee so that she would look more like India’s natives. She would travel miles on hot, dusty roads to save even one child. She was just that passionate for children’s needs.

Conclusion

By 1913, Carmichael was serving 130 girls and later added a home for young boys, but kept the boys and the girls separate. Amy Carmichael gave her life for Christ. This doesn’t mean she died for Christ but she died to herself and her own self-interests and poured out her life for the work of Christ. Her life of obedience to the Great Commission and a heart for the people of India, particularly children, and left her life’s work as a legacy that is still reverberating today. She was so well known to the children of India that they affectionately and lovingly referred to her as “Amma” and treated her like their own mother would have. This tireless worker labored in the fields of harvest in the nation of India for 53 years…and without ever receiving a furlough. Today this woman’s life stands as a shining example of a model of courage, obedience, and self-sacrifice as this godly woman gave her life as an offering to God who unconditionally served her Master till the very end of her life.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

1. Introduction, by Elisabeth Elliot, The Collected Poems of Amy Carmichael CLC, Fort Washington, USA ISBN 0-87508-790-6