Chapter 11
Chapter 11
The Starry Cluster
Amy was discouraged. She finally realized that Saral, her friend and helper for more than a year, would not be back. Saral had gone with Amy when she moved from Bangalore to live with the Walkers. She was a wonderful Christian, and together they had been the beginnings of a team of women Amy wanted to form to share the gospel message in the surrounding towns and villages. But that was before Saral had told Amy she needed to visit her aging mother. After a month away, she’d sent word she would be another week, and then another week, and another week after that. Finally, when yet another week passed, Amy knew that Saral wouldn’t be coming back. Now she was faced with finding a replacement. But where was she going to find another woman who was free enough and willing enough to travel with her throughout the countryside sharing the gospel?
In India, most girls were married off by the time they were sixteen years old. Many girls were married much younger than that. No Indian husband would give his wife permission to travel around sharing the gospel message. Most Hindu and Muslim men in India would not even give their wives permission to leave the house, much less their village. Men had total control over their wives. So where was Amy going to find a group of mature women who had the courage to defy custom and travel with her? She wondered if such women even existed. Still, she committed herself to pray about it. She wrote to her friends in England and Ireland, asking them to pray about it as well.
Around this time, Amy finished her basic Tamil language training with Iyer Walker. She was eager to get out and about around Pannaivilai and use her new language skills meeting and talking to people. She remembered how wearing a kimono in Japan had helped her blend in with the people and put them at ease as they talked, so she decided to start wearing a sari as she went about Pannaivilai. Saris were the customary dress of Indian women. However, there was one big difference between Japan and India. India was a British colony, Japan was not. English people in India were supposed to show in all they did that English culture was better than Indian culture. This meant not only being careful to hold a teacup with the little finger sticking out but also wearing clothes that would be fashionable in the motherland, as England was known. If an English person decided to do something the Indian way, that was seen as letting the team down. Amy decided to do something the Indian way, and she soon faced a barrage of criticism from other English people. The only person who offered her any support was Iyer Walker. He could see the advantages for Amy in wearing a sari. No one else could. As Amy began to wear her sari, she became the subject of a lot of gossip and criticism, even from other Christians.
Saris came in every color of the rainbow. Rich women often owned a hundred or more of them, each one made of richly embroidered silk. A poor woman, on the other hand, would have only two or three saris made of plain cotton fabric. The poorest women usually owned only a single white sari. As much as she loved the bright colors and embroidered silk, Amy chose a simple sari made of plain white cotton. As she wrapped herself in the twenty-foot strip of cotton fabric for the first time, she prayed her sari would open doors for her to speak to Hindu women.
There was one woman to whom Amy felt particularly drawn. Her name was Ponnammal, and she was a very attractive, twenty-three-year-old widow. Her father-in-law was a deacon in the local church, but like so many Indian Christians at that time, he still followed many Hindu traditions, such as keeping idols and not breaking caste. But his worst Hindu practice, in Amy’s opinion, was the way he treated Ponnammal. When an Indian woman married, she became the property of her husband, and if he died, she didn’t return to her parents but instead became the property of her father-in-law. Ponnammal’s father-in-law made good use of Ponnammal around the house. She was basically his servant, doing the cleaning, cooking the meals, and carrying the water. She was never allowed to visit her friends or relatives, but she could go to church on Sundays. It was at church that Ponnammal and Mrs. Walker became friends. Mrs. Walker could see that Ponnammal had a lot of abilities that were going unused, so she had her husband put pressure on Ponnammal’s father-in-law to allow her to teach Sunday school.
Ponnammal loved being involved with the Sunday school. She was a born teacher with a strong faith in God. Amy was thrilled to see an Indian woman holding a responsible position in the church, and she began to wonder whether there was any way she and Ponnammal might be able to work more closely together. She mentioned this possibility to Ponnammal, who told Amy she would love to become more involved, but there was no way her father-in-law would agree to it.
Amy talked to the church pastor and Iyer Walker about her working with Ponnammal, and after much persuasion from both men, Ponnammal’s father-in-law felt shamed into letting Ponnammal go. He quickly changed his mind, though, but it was too late! As soon as Ponnammal heard that her father-in-law had given his permission for her to work with Amy, she ran to her and would not go back. Her father-in-law became very angry with Amy. He called her a “musal missie.” Musal is the Tamil word for hare, and Ponnammal’s father-in-law called Amy a hare because she had been so fast in moving Ponnammal out of the house. But like it or not, he had given his permission in front of witnesses for Ponnammal to leave, and he had no legal way to get her back. Still, Amy was a little nervous. She knew she’d gained a wonderful helper in Ponnammal, but she had also gained an enemy in her father-in-law. She didn’t know how or when, but she was certain he would strike back at her and try to take Ponnammal away.
Not long after Ponnammal came to work with Amy, another Indian woman joined the band. Her name was Sellamutthu, and her family was glad to get rid of her. Sellamutthu was useless to them for one simple reason: she had only one arm. She’d lost her right arm in an accident when she was a small child, and now she was worth nothing to her family. A woman with only one arm could never find a husband. Who would want a wife who could not pound corn, spin cotton, or even hold a baby properly? So Sellamutthu’s family had hidden her out of sight in a filthy room at the back of the house. Somehow, Sellamutthu heard about Amy and the band of Christians she hoped to form and asked to be released to join them. Her family willingly let her go, though they were sure it would not be long before she came crawling back. After all, what use would a one-armed worker be to an Englishwoman? To Sellamutthu’s parents’ surprise, Amy gladly welcomed her. She would use any woman God sent her way. It mattered not one bit that she had only one arm.
Soon after, another woman talked to Amy about joining her group. The woman’s name was Marial, and she told Amy that God had called her to share the gospel message. There was just one problem: She was married. At first Amy didn’t want married women in her group; it would be too difficult. But Amy agreed to meet with Marial’s husband, and she was pleasantly surprised when she met him. Although he did not want to preach, he acknowledged that Marial did, and he wanted her to have the opportunity to do so. This was a very unusual attitude for an Indian man to have, and Amy thought it might be another trick of some kind. But as she prayed about it, she felt a peace in her heart. So she invited Marial to join the team. Marial’s husband came along as the group’s cook!
Finally, Amy had gathered a small team of Indian women who wanted to step out of their cultural roles to share the gospel message. The next question was what to call the group. Amy asked the other women, who decided on the name “Starry Cluster.” Amy laughed. It wasn’t quite the name she would have chosen, but it would do fine. Besides, the Bible said that those who lead people to righteousness will shine like stars (Daniel 12:3). Amy and the Starry Cluster prayed that their work would indeed turn people to righteousness throughout the Tirunelveli district with its four thousand Hindu temples.
Around Christmas 1897, the Starry Cluster began their work among the surrounding villages. They traveled on a bandy, a springless cart pulled by two bullocks. The bandy had a curved, woven grass mat for a roof, but no sides. It was even more bone jarring to ride on than a rickshaw. It was also a very exhausting way to travel, especially during the heat of the day. It would have been much more comfortable to travel during the cool of the evening, but they dared not do that. Indian women, even those dressed in plain saris, tended to wear a lot of jewelry. They wore nose rings, toe rings, earrings, bracelets, and anklets, all made from gold. The jewelry was a sign of their family’s wealth and standing in the community. No Tamil woman would think of going out without wearing all of her jewelry. Of course, this made a woman a good target for robbers. When it came to jewelry, the women in Amy’s group were no different from other Tamil women. Traveling at night they would have been an easy target for an ambush and robbery. There were always thieves on the roads between the villages waiting to ambush some unsuspecting person.
Most of the towns and villages in the region were surrounded by city walls. After the bone-jarring trip in the bandy, the Starry Cluster would search out a campsite just outside the wall to pitch their tents. A shaded spot by a stream was always their first choice. From there they approached each village in more or less the same manner. Just after dawn they would walk together through the city gates and go to the marketplace. In the market they would break into pairs and sit in a quiet place, usually under a tree or on the edge of a veranda. It was then a matter of waiting and praying. Often a woman or a small group of women would search them out and ask them questions. At midday, the Starry Cluster returned to camp for lunch and a Bible study. Following the Bible study, they spent time praying for the people they’d talked to in the morning. Then it was back to the village for the rest of the afternoon. The women would hold an open-air meeting and sing and preach in the streets. They used a tiny organ they carried with them to accompany the singing. As expected, only women and children stopped to listen to them. The men were not one bit interested in anything an ignorant woman had to say!
It was hot, hard work, but the women didn’t complain. They were all glad to be doing something useful for God. Amy especially liked those times when Iyer Walker joined them. He had started a similar group for men, and sometimes the two groups would get together and travel to a village in convoy.
The Starry Cluster never knew what to expect when they entered a village. One time Amy was involved in a deep discussion with a woman of high caste. During their conversation, Amy reached out and touched the woman’s arm. The woman began screaming hysterically. Amy instantly realized what she had done. It was not acceptable for a person of lesser or no caste to touch someone of a higher caste. It was no use apologizing; it would do no good. The opportunity to share the gospel message with the woman had been lost.
Another time, a widow named Blessing traveled with the Starry Cluster. Blessing was a new convert whom Amy was teaching about the Christian faith. Amy and Blessing met a woman who stopped to talk with them. As the woman chatted away, Amy was impressed with her knowledge of classical literature. It was clear the woman had a good education, something that was very rare among Indian women at that time. Being a Christian, Blessing felt free to join in the conversation, though from her speech it was easy to tell she was from a lower caste. Under the caste system, she would not have dared talk to this woman. Unfortunately, the woman was very insulted that a peasant woman from a lower caste had spoken to her. She began to insult Blessing, who stood smiling. When the woman finished her ranting, Blessing looked her right in the eyes and said, “I’m a new Christian. I am only one month old in my faith, and what you say is true. I do not know much. But in my heart I have God’s peace and joy. And isn’t joy better than all the learning in the world?”
The woman gathered her sari around her, gave Amy a withering look, and stormed off. After she had gone, Amy asked Blessing why the woman had such a good education. Blessing’s answer would affect Amy the rest of her life. She told Amy the woman was a temple prostitute who would have been given to the Hindu priests when she was very young. The priests would have educated her in exchange for her services throughout the years. Furthermore, Blessing didn’t know of a single temple prostitute who had ever become a Christian. In fact, only the older ones, like the woman they had just talked to, were allowed outside the temple. The younger girls and teenagers were kept as virtual prisoners until they could remember no other life except that of being a temple prostitute.
Amy was discouraged by what she heard from Blessing, but fortunately there were other things to encourage her along the way, such as the Starry Cluster. The women were turning into real missionaries. It was normal to give workers, even Christian workers, a daily allowance, or batta, as it was called. When they all returned home from their first mission journey, Amy paid the women their batta. An hour later they all filed back into the dining room, where Amy sat writing a letter. One by one they placed their batta on the table. Ponnammal spoke up. “We don’t need this money. We can do without it. We would rather you spent it on missionary work.”
Tears came to Amy’s eyes. She thought of the staff get-together back in Bangalore where not one missionary had been able to name a single Indian Christian who would work without pay. But God had given Amy a whole Starry Cluster full of women willing to work for nothing because of their devotion to God.
Another encouraging thing occurred several weeks later. Marial’s husband, the group’s cook, was walking along beside the bandy as the group made their way home after spending several days in a village to the south. He usually didn’t say much, so it was hard to know what he was thinking. But as the group rolled across some rice fields, he turned to Marial riding in the bandy and said, “It’s time to take off your jewelry. Wearing jewelry is not suitable for the life of following Jesus we are living.” Right there in the bandy, Marial stripped off her nose ring, bangles, and toe rings and handed them to her husband. She showed no hint of emotion at getting rid of her jewelry.
Ponnammal and Sellamutthu watched wide-eyed. How could Marial take off her jewelry like that? People would think she was one of the lowest of the low, an untouchable. What a huge insult it would be to her husband’s family, and yet it was her husband who had asked her to take it off. The rest of the way home, Ponnammal and Sellamutthu remained silent. When they got back to Pannaivilai, they spoke to Amy. “Marial has taken off her jewelry,” Ponnammal said. Amy nodded; she had seen her do it. “We are going to take off our jewelry, too,” continued Ponnammal. “If I had loved Jesus more, I would have loved my jewels less.” With that she bent down and began undoing her foot bangles. Sellamutthu followed her, and soon both of them were standing in front of Amy wearing no jewelry at all. Amy smiled at them both. It had taken a lot of courage to go against generations of custom, yet the women were prepared to do it because of their love for God.
Of course, not all Christians saw it that way. When Ponnammal’s father-in-law heard what she had done, he was outraged. How could she take off her jewelry and look like a nobody! He stirred up as much anger and hatred in the church as he possibly could. He saw it as an opportunity to get rid of the Starry Cluster and get his daughter-in-law back. But as hard as he tried to stir up trouble, the pastor of the church would not speak out against Amy or the Starry Cluster. Instead, he told Amy that for the first time, many in his congregation were finally beginning to understand what it meant to be a Christian and follow Jesus.