40. Amy Carmichael (1867–1951)
Let me describe some of the things she did, and then allow you to answer the question: “If she were a missionary from your church, would you support Amy Carmichael?”
She spent nearly sixty years in the field and never once came home to report to her board or to the people who supported her. While she went to the field under the authority of one board, she pretty much did her own thing and eventually started an organization of her own.
She went to the field to carry on one kind of ministry, but within a few years was carrying on an entirely different ministry that often got her into trouble with the law. At one time, she was in danger of serving seven years in prison for “assisting in the kidnapping of a child.”
The reports that she sent out were often not believed by the people who read them. “Such things simply can’t be!” they argued, but they were—and she proved it.
She did not ask for financial support, yet she saw every need met right on time. When people offered to sponsor part of her ministry, she suggested they support a different mission.
During the last twenty years of her ministry, she was practically an invalid, directing the work from her room.
My guess is that the average church would never have supported this kind of a missionary. She was too unpredictable and too independent. And perhaps the average mission board would have dropped her from their ranks after her first term. We like ministry work to be carried out in such a predictable way that there can be no surprises, no changes, no unexpected decisions that pioneer new territory for the gospel. It might upset the donors.
But Amy Carmichael was not put together that way. She simply did not fit into our modern world of interchangeable parts, because she was unique. She knew what God wanted her to do, and she did it. She was not a rebel; her board and co-laborers were full partners in the ministry. But she was one of the Lord’s special servants, and he used her to accomplish a miracle ministry in southern India.
Amy Carmichael was born on December 16, 1867, in County Down, Northern Ireland. Her father, along with her uncle, owned and managed several flour mills, so the family was fairly comfortable. They came from Covenanter stock and took the things of the Lord seriously. Amy had a happy childhood, and, while a student at a Wesleyan Methodist school in 1883, she trusted Christ.
Changes in the milling business forced the family to move to Belfast. Amy’s father died in 1885, and this greatly altered both the finances and the future of the family. Mrs. Carmichael was a woman of strong faith; in fact, much of her “apostolic spirit” rubbed off on her daughter. One particular incident illustrates this.
It was Sunday morning, and Mrs. Carmichael and the children were returning home from church. They met “a poor pathetic old woman” who was burdened with a heavy bundle. Instantly, Amy and her two brothers relieved the woman of her bundle, took her arms, and helped her along. At first the icy stares of the “proper Presbyterians” embarrassed them, but then the Lord moved in and the whole scene changed.
Into Amy’s mind flashed Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 3 about “gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; . . . the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is” (vv. 12, 13). In later years Amy wrote, “We went on. I said nothing to anyone, but I knew that something had happened that had changed life’s values. Nothing could ever matter again but the things that were eternal.”
In September 1886, some friends invited Amy to Glasgow, where she attended meetings along the lines of the Keswick Convention. For many months, she had been struggling with the problem of how to live a holy life, and she found the answer at the Glasgow meetings. It was not the message of the two speakers that got through to her but the closing prayer of the chairman. He paraphrased Jude 1:24: “O Lord, we know that Thou art able to keep us from falling!” Those words brought light into the darkness, and Amy Carmichael entered into a life of faith and victory.
But holy living was not a luxury to her: it meant sacrifice and ministry. She had no time for Christians who went from meeting to meeting and soaked up Bible truth but never reached out to share Christ with others. Amy was burdened for the girls who worked in the mills, and she had already started a ministry for them at one of the local churches. But the work was growing and in some ways interfering with the church’s program (Amy always was one to raise dust).
She decided that, if God wanted her to start a special work, he alone could provide the funds and the laborers; so she began to pray. Little did she realize that this experience with The Welcome (the hall that she built) would prepare her for years of ministry by faith alone. God did provide the funds, and a building was put up just for ministry to the girls at the mills. Many came to know Christ, and many were protected from lives of sin because of the influence of the ministry. This would be Amy Carmichael’s emphasis for the rest of her life—to reach out to the downcast and rejected, to love them, win them to Christ, and build them up to help others.
In later years, Amy said that there were three crises in her early life: her conversion, her entrance into the life of faith, and her call to be a missionary. That third crisis took place on January 13, 1892, not in some dramatic way, but simply as she waited quietly before the Lord. He made it clear to her that she was to give her life to him as a missionary and permit him to direct her just as he pleased.
There were obstacles, not the least of which was her commitment to help care for elderly Robert Wilson, an old friend of the family and the chairman of the British Keswick movement. She shared these concerns with her mother and Mr. Wilson, and step by step, the Lord began to open the way. On March 3, 1893, she sailed for Japan, the first missionary sent out by the Keswick Convention.
She had some remarkable experiences in Japan, ministering through an interpreter; but Japan was not to be her permanent field. A serious illness forced her to go to China for rest, and then to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Can you imagine a church foreign missions committee discussing her situation and wondering if she could be trusted? By the end of 1894, she was back in England; but a year later, on November 9, 1895, she landed in India, and there she remained until her death on January 18, 1951.
Amy was under the authority of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, so she entered into their ministry with zeal. But she noted that many of the missionaries reported no converts—in fact, expected none. She also noticed that the missionary community was separated in every way from the people they were trying to reach.
While in Japan, Amy had adopted native dress (as Hudson Taylor did in China) and had sought to identify with the people. But she had not come to India to create problems; so she went on with her work, always seeking the mind of Christ in her decisions.
Then something happened that dramatically changed Amy Carmichael’s life and ministry. On March 6, 1901, little Preena, a seven-year-old girl, fled from one of the temples into the mission compound and begged to be protected. It was then that Amy uncovered one of the ugliest hidden sores on “Mother India’s” body, the secret traffic in temple girls. She learned how fathers and mothers sold their daughters to different gods, turning the precious girls into temple prostitutes.
Infuriated by what Satan was doing to these dear girls, Amy declared war. How many battles she fought on her knees, wresthng for the bodies and souls of these helpless children! How many times she and her associates risked their lives, and faced arrest and imprisonment, in order to snatch some pleading child from the jaws of defilement and destruction. One by one, other girls found their way to Amma (the Tamil word for “mother”), and she courageously protected them. By 1904 there were seventeen children under her care, and then the Lord opened the way for her to receive and minister to babies. In 1918 they opened the boy’s work, for the money-hungry idolaters sold boys to the temple gods just as they sold girls.
If you want to enter into the excitement of pioneer missions, then read Amy Carmichael’s Gold Cord, the story of the Dohnavur Fellowship. Frank Houghton’s excellent biography, Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur, contains many of the exciting stories that grew out of the new ministry of saving temple children. Both books have been reprinted by Christian Literature Crusade; in fact, many of Amy Carmichael’s books are available from that publisher.
Amma greatly admired the work of the China Inland Mission, and, in many ways, patterned herself after Hudson Taylor. She did not solicit funds. When people asked to have the privilege of sponsoring a child, she refused their help. All funds went into the mission account to be dispensed as the Lord directed. The many workers God brought to her side were not paid salaries, and the mission never borrowed money or went into debt. While Amy did not criticize ministries that had other policies, she preferred to work as the Lord had led her.
She was especially careful about selecting workers. That was one reason for the no-salary policy. Many Indians would have gladly been baptized and worked for the mission in order to make a living. “Guard your gate” was one of her favorite warnings, and she heeded it herself. Some of her friends and supporters often were surprised when she rejected applicants who, to them, seemed ideally suited for the ministry; but later events always proved her right. She prayed men and women into places of service, trusting the Lord to prepare them, provide for them, and protect them.
Protection was especially important, not only because of the Indian climate and unsanitary conditions, but even more because of the idolatry and demonism. Satan and his armies attacked the people and the ministry at Dohnavur in ways that make these experiences read like events from the book of Acts. The secret of victory? The Word of God and prayer!
Amma and her associates practiced John 15:7, trusting God to guide them by the Word and provide for their needs one day at a time. I think it would be good for some of us to get acquainted with Amy Carmichael’s principles for prayer:
(1) We don’t need to explain to our Father things that are known to him.
(2) We don’t need to press him, as if we had to deal with an unwilling God.
(3) We don’t need to suggest to him what to do, for he himself knows what to do.
If all of us took these principles to heart, think of the religious speeches that would be silenced in many prayer meetings.
Amy Carmichael cautioned her helpers to “leave a margin” in their lives. We have all been reminded to “beware of the barrenness of a busy life.” As I read Amy Carmichael’s books, I am amazed at the broad scope of her reading, not only in many translations of the Bible, but in the mystics, the church fathers, even the Greek philosophers. To her, reading was an enriching experience, a time for relaxation and renewal and not just escape.
On October 24, 1931, Amy Carmichael suffered a serious fall. Other complications set in, and she had to end her usual activity. She was physically limited to her room and an occasional veranda stroll, but that did not limit her ministry. In the next twenty years she wrote thirteen books and many letters, and she directed the work of the mission through her capable associates.
In 1948 she experienced a second fall, and from then until her Homegoing she was confined to her bed. But she was constantly at the throne of grace, and God answered her prayers. God is still answering those prayers, for the Dohnavur Fellowship continues to minister effectively in southern India.
Amy Carmichael wrote thirty-five books of various kinds—the story of the Fellowship, poems, stories about the children who were rescued, devotionals, and messages for those who suffer. Many of them have been republished by Christian Literature Crusade and should be available in your local Christian bookstore. Not everyone takes to Miss Carmichael’s writing; in fact, I must confess that it took me many years to learn to appreciate her style and message (I was the one who had to grow.).
His Thoughts Said . . . His Father Said is excellent for times of meditative pondering. Thou Givest . . . They Gather is another fine devotional book, compiled from her writings after her death. Two encouraging books for suffering people are Candles in the Dark and Rose from Brier. When God’s Missionary was published, it upset many people because of its emphasis on devotion and personal discipline. It still upsets readers—but perhaps they need to be upset. Books about Indian women reached through the Dohnavur ministry include Mimosa, Ponnammal, Kohila, and Ploughed Under. Edges of His Ways is a daily devotional book that is intellectually stimulating and spiritually rewarding.
“We were committed to things that we must not expect everyone to understand” was the way Amma explained her ministry and was also the reason why some devout evangelicals kept at a distance. “The work will never go deeper than we have gone ourselves” was her explanation of why some workers did not remain and why others refused to come. She did not try to please everybody or solicit anybody’s support. The work was God’s work, and he alone could prosper it. No high-powered machinery, no Madison Avenue promotion, no attempts to compete with other ministries either for funds or personnel.
Amy Carmichael depended on God for day-by-day and hour-by-hour direction. God spoke to her through the Word, through the pages of her dogeared Daily Light, through the impulses of the heart; yes, on occasion, even through dreams. Seminary professors who write learned books about how to interpret the Bible would probably call her use of Bible texts or parts of texts superstitious, but they would have to confess that she was a woman led by God and blessed by God. She exercised a simple-hearted faith in God, nurtured by a wholehearted love for God, and her Father saw to it that she was cared for.
Here is a “Confession of Love” that she drew up for a group of Indian girls who banded together to serve Christ. Perhaps it best says to us just what Amy Carmichael believed about Christian life and service.
My Vow: Whatsoever Thou sayest unto me, by Thy grace I will do it.
My Constraint: Thy love, O Christ, my Lord.
My Confidence: Thou art able to keep that which I have committed unto thee.
My Joy: To do Thy will, O God.
My Discipline: That which I would not choose, but which Thy love appoints.
My Prayer: Conform my will to Thine.
My Motto: Love to live—live to love.
My Portion: The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance.
With that kind of devotion and dedication, is it any wonder that Amy Carmichael was misunderstood by believers, persecuted by unbelievers, attacked by Satan, and blessed by the Lord?
Unpredictable? Yes—but not unblessable! We could use a few more like her in Christian service today.