Preface
Preface
Amy Carmichael was born December 16, 1867, in Ireland and died January 18, 1951, in Dohnavur, South India.
A biographer trying to research her life faces two drawbacks: First is the lack of personal information. Amy was so self-effacing she destroyed letters, diaries, ledger books, and even scratched out her picture in photograph albums. She never referred to herself by name in her books, either omitting all references to herself or disguising her presence by saying, “A person who was there.”
The second drawback is the lack of chronological order in the limited information available. Amy’s quicksilver mind and vivid imagination saw spiritual lessons in the commonplace, and she often interrupted the story of a convert to describe some beauty of nature, then forgot to finish the story. Or, while telling of a recent answer to prayer she would be reminded of how God spoke to her years ago, and the final answer to prayer she began to tell would be finished in another book!
Time became hazy to her as she immersed herself body, mind, and soul in the culture of India, becoming truly Indian. Her spirit refused to be bound by clock or calendar. In this book, we don’t see Amy as much as we see through Amy’s eyes. It is to her credit that we often lose sight of her and see, instead, her God and His doings—and the crying need of the vast Undone.