Under the shadow of his wings (part 1 of 2)

Chapter 11

Under the shadow of his wings

The education of the children

India is a complex land, and her people are not like the open page of a book, to be read at a glance. But her children are frank, delightful things, and the people have a saying, ‘The drink of which one never tires is water – the fruit of which one never wearies is a child’.1023 The work that laid before her was nearly too hard for her, but she was strengthened day by day. ‘He that sent me is with me. “Go ye…”, I am with you always. So “Go” is really Come.’1024 Amy became rooted in India’s soil and when more children came, she and her fellow workers had to think about schooling them. Some other missions sent Amy candidates to assist her in the work, but generally Amy did not accept them:

‘I do not want people who come to me under certain reservations. In battle you need soldiers who fear nothing.’ So said Père Didon, so say I. […] All work that had in it the seed of eternity was bound to pass through a baptism of suffering and be misunderstood and judged by its apparent failure or success. […] What made it so difficult that there was a constraint laid upon us to keep the work pure. […] For this work which gives so much more than anyone not in it will ever know – asks much, even all.1025 Many who were willing to come were – in her eyes – accustomed to walking on the beaten track. Only the Cross had to attract them. With this insight she could expect opposition and she was aware that not everyone would welcome her way of working. She was of the opinion that God, just like Moses, had shown her ‘the pattern in the mount’, and therefore she could say:

1023. The Widow of the Jewels, 12.

1024. In Amy’s Bible (1895), in the margin of John 8:29, ‘And He who sent Me, is with Me; He has not left Me alone’. 1025. Ponnamal, 48, 49, 51 and 58.

How to cite: Kommers, J. (Hans), 2017, ‘Women in mission work: Strategic to God’s vision for the world’, in Triumphant Love: The contextual, creative and strategic missionary work of Amy Beatrice Carmichael in south India, pp. 249–279, AOSIS, Cape Town. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2017.tl41.01

In each case truth was the rock upon which they foundered. If our children were to grow up truthful they must be taught by those who had a regard for truth; and not just a casual regard, a delicate regard On this point we were adamant. It was then we began to know that we were committed to things that we must not expect everyone to understand. It would not be fair to expect it.1026 And in her own story of the Fellowship she wrote, ‘it matters that we should be true to one another, be loyal to what is a family – only a little family in the great Household’. People from outside started to question her: ‘What are you going to do with them?’ The whole enterprise in Dohnavur seemed ‘unpractical and foolish’. And Amy? First, as always, she brought everything to the Lord:

‘Thou knowest, Lord; Thou hast not shown us yet, but Thou knowest’, we used to say to Him, and found it comforting. ‘Only teach us how to train them in honesty and thoroughness, in detachment from the spirit of the world and in a pure indifference to all its tinsel allurements. Give us some to help us who will understand about the gold and silver and precious stones. Let us not be disappointed of our hope’. And He answered with a word of strong consolation; for He Himself knew what He would do.1027 The education of the children was a matter of great concern for Amy:

There is nothing so demanding as the spiritual training of the young. Its asks for everything we have to give, and for everything always. There is not the relaxation that work which can be closed down at times can offer.1028 Her aims were clear. Like any mother she wanted her children to turn out well. She prayed earnestly for them all and wrote down her prayer for them. The gist of her prayer was this:

• Make them to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ, winning others for Him.
• May they be loving, serving others rather than wanting to be served.
• Make them trustful, trustworthy and loyal.
• Let them be ready for hard work – doers, not mere talkers

• May they see the beauty of the world around them and have hearts to worship the Creator, • may they be gentle with animals, never cruel.

• May they learn to depend on God and never come under bondage of earthly things. • Let them grow up healthy, happy, friendly and keen to make others happy.

• May they walk in the light of the Lord.1029

Amy was convinced that the Dohnavur children should retain their Indian roots while being brought up as Christians. Tamil was the first language, although English was taught alongside. This was done very seriously and even nowadays, the very old in Dohnavur know English very well. In Dohnavur Amy created an atmosphere of joy and happiness for the children. Nesaruthina Carunia (Figure 15), who was brought to Amy when she was just a few days old, said that Amma, when she wrote to the children at boarding school or in Kanyakumari at the holiday home (Joppa), closed the letter with ‘Your very own mother’. When some children asked her why they did not live with their own mothers she gave them this reply: ‘I came here to save you. I am now your mother.’ In 1949, Nesaruthina wanted to go to a boarding school, ‘but Amma did not like it’:

She was afraid we would be spoiled in the outside world. We never left the compound. Amma was very protective. Amy said ‘Give me a lily’ and she put a dot on the clean nice lily. ‘You cannot wash away the dot with

1026. Gold Cord, 66.
1027. Gold Cord, 93. In 1910 Frances Beath joined Amy and took over the education of the children.
1028. Windows, 17.
1029. See A Century of Answered Prayer, 12.

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Source: © J. (Hans) Kommers.

FIGURE 15: Nesaruthina with the author’s wife in Dohnavur.

water, only the blood of Jesus can wash away your sins.’ And then she continued, ‘Darling, do you really want to go out? I want you to be here.’ Then another missionary told Amma, ‘She will serve the Lord. Trust Him.’ Amma said, ‘You pray, but remember. This is your place.’ And when the day came for the girls to catch the bus, Amma said, ‘I want to see you in the bus’ and when the bus was moving, Amma wept.1030 Amy once heard a remark ‘Christianity is a dull religion’ from one of the children, who had come fresh from Hindu life with its festivals, and compared these with the silent and orderly atmosphere in the Christian church. ‘And I sympathised’, Amy wrote. ‘Therefore in all our plans for the children we let the gaiety of birds and all the young things of God’s creation have a place in the scheme of things.’1031 So on the birthdays of the children (their coming days) the rooms were decorated, some extra delicious food was given and on Amma’s birthday in December there was a big event, held in the open courtyard where the clock tower is, and food was presented on banana leaves. Flowers played a big part in all the decorations and with strings of flowers over the children’s heads, everything and everyone looked ‘glorious’. ‘And there was always the hope that they would be part of the crown of flowers that our Lord would wear one day.’1032

1030. Nesaruthina Carunia, in an interview with the author, 16 November 2013 in Dohnavur.

1031. Gold Cord, 324.

Every little child in danger of being given to the temples was welcomed, irrespective altogether of its caste, as the DF did not profess to keep caste.1033 Amy avoided letting the children grow up in an English style; as she once said ‘we are very Indian here’.1034 All the babies brought to Dohnavur got Indian names.1035 According to the custom of the country, the babies were anointed with oil before being put to sleep.1036 It was also the custom to call most of their possessions by names other than their own. These names were entirely private:

We have to keep to this rule of privacy, otherwise we get shocks. ‘O Lord, look upon our beloved Puppy, and make her tooth come through; and bless Alice, whose inside has gone wrong’, was the petition offered in all seriousness, which finally moved us to prudence. We do not feel responsible for these names, for they come of themselves, and we see them when they come. […] The Rosebud is like her name, small and sweet. […] Most babies are complex characters, and are not known in an hour.1037 It happened when a child needed to be corrected, that a little ‘morning glory’ was required: they were put in a corner to think about their behaviour; it is ‘a privilege reserved’1038:

We try, of course, to fit the penalty to the crime, so that the child’s sense of justice will work on our side; and in this we always find there is a wonderful unconscious co-operation on the part of the merest baby. But the older children used to be rather a problem. Some have come to us after their wills had become developed and their characters partly formed. […] Discipline under these circumstances is not entirely easy.1039 The children, when necessary, were punished. When the Accal sent a naughty girl or boy to Amy, they feared a little bit because they knew a kind of remonstration was awaiting them. The word punishment was not used by Amy, instead it was a ‘morning glory’:1040 they were put in a corner, to think about the mistakes or received some strokes with a cane on the hand. Yet, the question of discipline was not an easy one. Amy wanted to fit the penalty to the crime, so that the child’s sense of justice would work on her side. During the 1906 revival in India, which also affected the children in Dohnavur, it was seen that the tone had been higher and the life deeper, ‘so that there is something to which we can appeal confident of a quick response’.1041 She knew all the children very well, especially in the first years, and each night she gave them a good night kiss; even when there were a few hundred of them, she knew their characteristics, and tried to see each child once a day. Children under 5 in Dohnavur were called the ‘tedlets’, and lived in a place called the Square. In the Square (Figure 16) were 13 nurseries, with a big patch of the grass in the middle where the tedlets liked to play. The little babies were in three nurseries, five nurseries were for the little boys, the Teddy Bears, and in five other nurseries were the little girls, the Lotus Buds. At about nine o’clock the bells of the House of Prayer bell would ring indicating it was time for prayer and after the prayers the lessons started.

In terms of education, they were not governed by the laws of India initially and were therefore uninspected. Sometimes they received help and advice from outside, and those coming to Dohnavur at that time wondered about the high standard of education. Amy herself had no teacher’s training

1033. Cf. Lotus Buds, 92.
1034. Nor Scrip, 113.
1035. Lotus Buds, 128.
1036. Lotus Buds, 175.
1037. Lotus Buds, 180–182.
1038. Lotus Buds, 226.
1039. Lotus Buds, 222 and 223.
1040. Lotus Buds, 222.

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Source: © J. (Hans) Kommers.

FIGURE 16: Some of the Dohnavur nurseries.

background; in Kohila she tells how she was led in the early days in planning the education for the children. The Home Education series of books published by the Charlotte Mason College in Ambleside in the Cumbria Lake District (UK) ‘was an immense help’.1042 Many English words were learned from the rhymes Amy taught the children about birds, flowers and beasts. Action songs were sung during various games. The place around the clock tower was an ideal location for games.

Amy, as an adherent to strict Christian principles, structured the education for the children on Christian principles. ‘She wanted them to be as trees planted by the streams of living water.’1043 In 1987 an old student wrote:

In the early days of the family cultivating character, honesty, hard work, service to others, and knowledge were more important than getting certificates. Loving God and becoming His children was the object of the upbringing. Educating the whole person-spirit, mind and body was the objective.1044

1042. Kohila, 20.

1043. Williamson, Amy Carmichael, 101.

1044. See D.A. Devapiriam, Vanacharbu – Woodland (Bangalore: Chriscom & Forerunner Publications, 1987), 19.

School life was under the care of God and Amy, who so valued times of silence, also sought this for the children. Regular prayer times accustomed the children to times of silence and concentration upon God:

Sometimes it has seemed to us that we were to set to learn and to teach a new and difficult lesson, the sacredness of the commonplace. Day by day, we learn to rub out a little more of the clear chalked line that someone has ruled on life’s blackboard: The Secular and the Spiritual may not be divided now. The enlightening of a dark soul or the lightning of a kitchen fire, it matters not which it is, if only we are obedient to the heavenly vision, and work with the pure intention to the glory of our God. […] Our Dohnavur text, which hangs in every nursery, looks down upon the workers, and, as they put it, ‘keeps them sweet in heart’: ‘Love never faileth’. 1045 Amy left room for the children to come with their own initiatives. That meant that in the education there was a lot of space for inspiration and the relaxed atmosphere in the school classes allowed the children to walk in lands of new ideas on the borders of their world. There was also literal exploration: one day on a school excursion, the class saw for the first time a cobra. The children came near to see, but Amy jumped in a circle around the enraged cobra and frightened the snake:

Blessed be the guardian angels upon whose assistance we do most sincerely count, for we are very short of nurses; but blessed, most blessed, be the Lord of all angels, Whose face the good angels do ever behold on behalf of these little ones committed to their care.1046 The children were taught the names of the flowers and insects; they went with Amy into the field, just as her father had taken her and her brothers out into the fields around Millisle and along the coast. Rev. Walker even gave them a microscope. Returning from leave in England in 1911, he knew what it would mean to her to have a microscope to show the children the small wonder world of tiny creatures unseen, so he brought one for her. No doubt it was a great delight for the children. Amy introduced many new games to the children, many based on the living things the children were so familiar with, for instance the Lizard Game. Amy herself wrote of her way of teaching: ‘It was a merry kind of schooling, and left many gaps, but it had some uses’.1047 In her choice of songs, she intimated that she thought about the psychological effects words could have upon the children’s minds. We see that she wished to avoid exposing the children too early to the upsetting and negative aspects of human life, when necessary:

Did He, who said ‘Suffer the little children to come unto Me’, wish that a child should be taught to say such words to Him? As for a hymn translated into definite Tamil in their hymnbook, ‘Earthly friends may fail or leave thee, one day kind, the next day grieve thee’- was it necessary to teach the very young that depressing fact? So, as the simplest way to help those children who at that time had no teachers, we began to make rhymes and songs for them, little things that they could sing truthfully. And then the dear gift was given of musical Sittie. If it had not been for Mabel Wade our children would never have learned to value music as they do.1048 Under Amy’s leadership music and singing were a most important characteristic of the community. In her own words:

One of the greatest pleasures we can give our children is to gather them for an hour’s singing. We are glad and grateful that it is so. We have none of the diversions or excitements of cities, but we have books, mountains, forest, sea, music, song. ‘And that is põthum’, said one, after hearing of other and different delights; and põthum means ‘enough’.1049

1045. Lotus Buds, 239 and 240.
1046. The Continuation of a Story, 31.
1047. See Wilkinson, At BBC Corner, 64.
1048. In Though the Mountains Shake, 210.
1049. Though the Mountains Shake, 212.

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For her the strain of work became too much, for she used all means to wrap as much truth as possible in a form the children could bear. In 1913 her prayer for someone to take over the educational responsibility was answered in the coming of Agnes Naish, who had by then 15 years of experience in teaching at the Sarah Tucker College in Palamcottah.1050 From the very beginning, Rukma and Purripu were Agnes’s trusted helpers. Amy had written Agnes (Nesa Sittie) a letter in 1913 in which she emphasised the ‘need for us to train our children for eternity and not just to enjoy the lost world. So we would ask your prayer that we may live accordingly’.1051 In these few lines, we exactly read the fundamental principle on which the educational system in the Fellowship was founded. Houghton says that some of the finest women in the family were those to whom Amy was mother and nurse and teacher, all in one.1052

There were children who were very intelligent and in Dohnavur they thought about their future at a very early stage. ‘India needs leaders, medical women, nurse evangelists and teachers. Such workers require a special course of training.’ Training was done outside Dohnavur in a ‘more liberal view’, so there had to be good talks with government officials. Amy asked for prayer: ‘ask Him who has so marvellously redeemed them what His purpose in their redemption is, and in what share in that purpose He would have you take’.1053 For the schooling of the children, Amy used the Cambridge System. Up to class 5 the Bible study was in Tamil, from 6 onwards everything was in English. Asked ‘To what end are you educating your children?’, Amy’s answered in 1947 (but by then she knew that great changes in the field of education were near at hand):

Principally, ardently, above everything’ that they be faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and a blessing to their land.

How many respond? Many do. Some do not.

What do you do about those who do not? We try to give them a start in life elsewhere.

Have the boys any practical training before going out? Training in weaving, carpentering, farming, simple mechanical and electrical engineering, and motor driving is given here. Some are trained as nursing brothers. What about the girls? Some are married. Their homes are scattered about India, Ceylon and the Strait Settlements. They turn to us in times of trouble. All who are married here, become fellow-workers. Many give themselves to be sisters to the younger children and nurses to the ill. Those who are unfit or unable in any way, we take care of here.

Why do you not prepare your children for Government examination? Because we should have to use books which we do not think would help them, and employ teachers who could not co-operate with us in our one and single aim.

Are you open to any change in this matter? Yes, if the providence of God leads otherwise, we are ready to follow. For the present we have clearness in working in this way.1054

1050. The Sarah Tucker College was established in 1895 by the Christian Missionary Society, as the first college for women in south India. It is named after Sarah Tucker, a physically challenged woman confined to her room in England. Moved by reports of the appalling condition of the women in this region due to their illiteracy, she stepped in to provide education for them. The institution began with four students. The motto of the college is ‘So run that ye may obtain the incorruptible crown’. See also Gold Cord, 106.

1051. Nesaruthina Carunia, in a monthly newsletter of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1993 (in Wilkinson, At BBC Corner, 65). 1052. In Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur, 240.

1053. The Beginning of a Story, 21.

1054. The Starry Cluster, 9.

Amy gave priority to Christian character building.1055 In helping the children to face the difficult future, her aim was ‘to have the children from the earliest days surrounded by wholesome, healthy influences, and brought up in absolute straightforwardness’.1056 The children should be as free as possible to seek God’s guidance for their own lives. After their education, the Accals returned to Dohnavur for permanent service. Amy saw to it that her grown-up young convert girls ‘may be kept safe and fitted to be a blessing to others’.1057 For her it was important that the results are weighed, not counted. The allover aim of the education system was:

[T]o train our children in truth and in love, and trust Him to open the way before them. We never deceived ourselves by imagining it would be easy for them. We were trying to prepare them to endure hardness, every kind of hardness, as good soldiers.1058 In choosing the teachers, Amy had her special wishes. The rock upon which the Fellowship was built was truth as revealed in the Scriptures. Thinking about the children’s education, she said:

In each case truth was the rock upon which they foundered. If our children were to grow up truthful they must taught by those who had a regard for truth; and not just a casual regard, a delicate regard. On this point we were adamant. […] So we were forced to be more than ordinary careful about the foundations of character. And we wanted those foundations to be laid in truth.1059 Practically no fairy tales were told to the children; questions were never suggested and never any answered that they did not ask. It was, and so Amy liked it, a merry kind of schooling. Often Amy took the children for outings (Figure 17) in the neighbourhood and showed them all the plants, flowers and birds. She even taught their names; she also went with them to a goldsmith so the children could see the process of refining gold. Every day the children had their ‘Sabbath rest’ and children learned to sleep lightly with one ear open, and while asleep the children’s angels (‘we think’1060) were sent to waken them. For an outsider this all might be seen as narrow-minded, but she had learned that ‘to cling to a creature is to fall with the sliding creature’.1061 From the beginning, the children did the work of the compound: ‘we teach them to keep their little world orderly because of the cloud of witnesses’.1062

Nesaruthina Carunia said that ‘Indians have a strong character; they can hide the truth’. Amy taught the children in a very original way to be honest, sincere and open. In her room were several fish bowls and Amma brought the children to these bowls and said, ‘Look at the fish bowl. How do you see the fish? Through the glass. That is how your heart must be. People must be able to see into your heart.’ ‘Pretence is untruthful’; ‘don’t hide if you are angry, ask forgiveness’; ‘don’t say if you don’t mean’.1063

1055. ‘Miss Carmichael and her fellow workers at Dohnavur have rescued hundreds of high-caste Hindu girls from this life [temple prostitution], and the work that is done there, with its building-up of fine Christian character and its insistence on the highest standards of love and friendliness and service, is the best bit of mission work I have ever seen.’ In another situation far in the north, Somervell said: ‘I suppose this place [the school of Mr Graham in Kalimpong] shares with Miss Carmichael’s work at Dohnavur the honour of being the best mission institution in the whole of India’ (in Somervell, After Everest, 252 and 110). 1056. In The Continuation of a Story, 44.

1057. The Beginning of a Story, 24.
1058. Nor Script, 123.
1059. Gold Cord, 66 and 67.
1060. Gold Cord, 70.
1061. Gold Cord, 66.
1062. Gold Cord, 76.
1063. Nesaruthina Carunia, in an interview with the author, 16 November 2013 in Dohnavur.

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Source: © Dohnavur Fellowship. Permission to reproduce was obtained from Jeremiah Rajanesan. Photographer unknown. FIGURE 17: Amy with some girls at the coast in Madras (now Chenai).

India became independent in 1947. From then on the government set the education rules: Now we were able to go to school. We said everything to the teachers, because we were taught to be honest, to be open. Our English teacher said: ‘Don’t say everything’. People outside our compound could not understand our English.1064 In Dohnavur Amy advocated an education that sharpened the intellect and formed the character. Education without the religion would produce bitter fruits:

Education cannot be an end in itself; it must lead to something else; and so we train the boys, always keeping as our aim that, in the end, they may be equipped to help their own people to know Christ.1065 This is Nesaruthina’s story:

Amy’s vision was that the children should be taught the love of Christ. That had priority, and holiness, sin and resurrection. We were brought here to become missionaries. We all were here brought up by

1064. Nesaruthina Carunia, in an interview with the author, 16 November 2013 in Dohnavur.

1065. Brothers of the Lotus Buds, 82: ‘Also our thought is to give them a good knowledge of Tamil, their own language, and of arithmetic sufficient for all ordinary purposes, and enough English to enable them to gain help spiritually and practically from English books.’ our  own sisters, and by the missionaries. We were happy here with nothing. And we were deeply taught by the missionaries of the love of God and the fear of the Lord. Amma’s aim was we would be evangelists all over India. We were happy here with nothing. There was here a blind lady, she is married now and serves with her husband the church and she cares for other blind children. That was Amy’s vision.1066 Daily prayers went up for the children:

Father, hear us; we are praying: Hear the words our hearts are saying;
We are praying for our children.
Keep them from the power of evil, From the secret, hidden peril;
Father, Father, keep our children.

From the treacherous quicksand pluck them, From the whirlpool that would suck them; Father, Father, save our children.

Through life’s troubled waters steer them, In life’s bitter battle cheer them:
Father, Father, be Thou near them.
And wherever they may bide, Bring them home at eventide.1067

‘Is it impossible to make the idea of entire consecration the foundation of education?’ This question of Andrew Murray1068 was deep in Amy before she had even heard of Murray. She wanted something new because she saw that one could not build a Christian character by evolving the old systems that produced poor students. She wanted New Testament convictions and the New Testament attitude towards life in general had become part of the children in the school. ‘Something that could not be torn out or laughed out of them.’1069 She uses this example:

In our mountain ravine, just above our swimming-pool, a small tree grows on the rock in the mid-stream. When the river is in flood and a roaring torrent pours over the little tree, whipping off its every leaf, it stands unmoved. Its roots grip the rock. We wanted the children to be like that. ‘Give them time to root’, we used to say to our advisers. ‘We are training them for storms and floods’.1070 Our way of education is planned so as to prepare in spirit and in mind our boys and girls for the service of the King of kings. It must therefore from the first to the last serve the Lord and be spiritual education. As we see things it is not worthwhile to spend time, strength, money, energy, on anything less than what will prepare the child to serve the Lord Christ, All our plans therefore are bent that way. It is that thought which governs the choice of lesson books and everything else. Because of that we are very careful of the influences that surround a child (the mind of a child is ‘wax that turns to marble’). So we cannot have unconverted teachers. This fact long ago settled the question of coming under Government.1071 In the education, the Bible was always open in a setting where study of the biblical text was an integral part of the whole education process. Not to impart knowledge, but to see lives changed by God’s Holy Spirit. Always Amy tried to be ‘practical and natural’ in explaining God’s Word. Nesaruthina gave an example – Amy would say:

1066. Nesaruthina Carunia, in an interview with the author, 16 November 2013 in Dohnavur.
1067. Toward Jerusalem, 116; Gold Cord, 142; Mountain Breezes, 149–150.
1068. In Gold Cord, 89.
1069. Gold Cord, 89.
1070. Gold Cord, 90.
1071. Amy to Margaret Wilkinson (in Trehane, The Timothys, 15–16).

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Look at that mountain beauty. Our life is a mountain climbing. One day we will be at the top. [The mountain top meant for her ‘heaven’] And if you cannot climb on your feet, climb on your knees. You kneel down and ask God to help you.1072 Amy did not reject ideas from someone who was not a Christian, but had proved principles. For instance in Plato’s The Republic she found ideas she could implement in Dohnavur’s education system. She read about the preparation of children for war:

But war implies soldiers, and soldiers must be carefully trained to their profession. They must be strong, swift, and brave; high-spirited, but gentle. But how must they be educated? – In the first place, we must be very scrupulous about the substance of the stories, which we are taught in their childhood […] Truth, courage, and self-control must be inculcated by all the stories that are employed in their education.1073 Because of the practical skills the pupils learned – most of the arts and crafts of the civilised world – many of them after being married and settled as a Christian family in a certain place, would prove to be loyal, trustworthy citizens and useful workers. The Gospel does not save souls, but it saves people. Amy’s policy for all the Dohnavur family children was that they were educated in an unrecognised family school. The underlying aim of all the education and training given to the girls and boys is that the children grow up to such a life of service ‘by introducing them personally to the Lord Jesus’.1074 The forming of a steady character was done gradually, by praying during their stay in Dohnavur with their teachers in private, learning to listen to the Word of God and to obey:

In such little things as these God goes on giving victories; and it is in the accumulation of these very things, small in the eyes of some, but great on God’s side; that characters are built.1075 Within the Dohnavur family there was no such thing as sex education. Girls coming to maturity hardly knew what happened when they had their period. Even their Accals did not explain it to them. Did they themselves have any idea? One can say that it was not done at that time. It was hidden, and nobody talked about it.1076 Indian villages were full of phallic symbols, but even in the villages no girl was instructed. It made them very vulnerable to sexual assaults. Asked why nobody told them the answer was ‘it is the husband’s duty to teach his wife’.1077 During the 1940s, Amy saw the necessity of having this kind of education, too. This after a medical doctor told her that even married couples led a monastic life. Her attitude towards sexuality and marriage can be attributed to her Victorian upbringing but, in my opinion, she herself struggled between two realities. There were the children she had to mother, but as children grow and become teenagers and adults she had to assist them in this stage in life as a mother. On the other hand, there was the ‘other life’, her life with the Sisters of the Common Life who were concentrated upon Christ and his work. It is said that even Amy herself did not know the affairs of sexuality, but she knew too well and she knew enough to know the iniquity and the agony many girls suffered physically behind the heavy temple doors and what they had had to go through when married

1072. Nesaruthina Carunia, in an interview with the author, 16 November 2013 in Dohnavur. After the interview Nesaruthina said: ‘Her talks never left me.’

1073. Note in Gold Cord, 107.
1074. See Brothers of the Lotus Buds, 50.
1075. Brothers of the Lotus Buds, 74.

1076. Talking about sexuality or pregnancy was not done or it was done in a way shrouded in the mist. Cf. the way Père Didon – often quoted by Amy – wrote about the pregnancy of a lady he knew: ‘Do you know that Lucie has hopes? […] Poor Lucie was getting impatient for the arrival of what she has been expecting. She would like me to baptise it’ (in H.D. Nash, ed., The Spiritual Letters of Père Didon (London: Forgotten Books, 2013), 290 and 293.

1077. Elliot, A Chance to Die, 262. to elderly men. Often she was torn in two and in such circumstances she asked the Lord what to do. All her cares, also of the education she laid at his feet. ‘Across the will of nature leads on the path of God. Not where the flesh delighted, the feet of Jesus trod.’

She refers to a day in Japan, when pictures were used to explain the message:

[A]nd among them was one of our Saviour. The people looked eagerly; care was taken to guard them from misinterpreting it, but the fact remained they had seen a picture of the foreigner’s honourable God. From that time doubts as to this mode of work in heathen lands, came to me. […] I discontinued using any pictures of our Lord, […] but trust entirely to the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to do the whole work.1078 One of the few rules for education was that the children were not allowed to take playthings to school. These things would distract the children from the subject of education at that time in class and could not avoid the children from becoming naughty because ‘children are as ingenious in their iniquities as ever’.1079 Amy created an atmosphere where love was the driving force. In every nursery, the Dohnavur text ‘Love Never Faileth’ was present. This text looked down upon the workers and the children, and, as they said, it ‘keeps them sweet in heart’.1080 There were certain rules to be learned, like obedience and always speaking the truth. Amy loved children dearly – ‘those happy little sunbirds’.1081

It happened that babies died and to explain to the other children where they were now, it was said that ‘they have gone to the nursery out of sight’, where ‘Jesus plays with our babies there’.1082 ‘God’s love holds us to the highest.’ Amy prayed for this kind of love and taught the children what love really is, namely the love with which God loved us. ‘Hold one another to the highest,’ she told them. ‘God’s purpose is to lift us out of ourselves. We have to help others toward faith.’ Prayer supporters in England prayed for the Fellowship, and the children themselves had prayer supporters. Often they got letters from them. When gifts were included, these were used for the need of the day:

We have no supported and unsupported children; for they all share alike what their Father sends. […] And we seek to be guided in the spending so that gifts may return to the givers in joy and blessing for ever.1083 For the children their coming day was very special to them. Their anniversary of arrival in Dohnavur is observed as their ‘birthday’. Amma loved to mark special days, and made the coming day very special for each child. The nursery where the child lived was decorated with lots of flowers and the child may look in the special cupboard in Amma’s room where the presents were stored. This was always a feast for them. It meant choosing some presents and being specially dressed that day and walking with flowers in your hair the whole day. As the family grew larger, it became a custom for all whose coming day fell in any particular week to celebrate them together on the preceding Sunday. As has been said, the celebrations were never without a lot of flowers. Amy liked beauty and she taught the children to have attention for beautiful things like animals, trees, and (tiny) flowers. ‘This nursery, like the other, looks out on the glorious mountains. If beautiful things can make babies good, ours should be very good.’1084

1078. From Sunrise Land, 152.
1079. The Continuation of a Story, 19.
1080. Lotus Buds, 241.
1081. Ploughed Under, 21.
1082. Lotus Buds, 12.
1083. The Beginning of a Story, 22.

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Amy may have learned this emphasis on beauty from the missionary David Livingstone of whom she had heard and read so much in her youth, who wrote in his journal on 13 October 1853:

Missionaries ought to cultivate a taste for the beautiful. We are necessary compelled to contemplate much moral impurity and degradation. We are so often doomed to disappointment, we are apt to become either callous or melancholy. Or, if preserved from these, the constant strain on the sensibilities is likely to injure the bodily health. On this account, it seems necessary to cultivate that faculty for the gratification of which God has made such universal provision. See the green earth and the blue sky, the lofty mountain and verdant valley, the glorious orbs of day and night and the starry canopy with all their ecclesiastical splendour, the graceful flowers so chaste in form and perfect in colouring. The various forms of animated life present, to him whose heart is at peace with God through the blood of His Son, an indescribable charm. He sees in the calm beauties of nature such abundant provision for the welfare of humanity and animated existence, there appears on the quiet repose of earth’s scenery the benign smile of a father’s love.1085 As a rule, conflict at bedtime was avoided. ‘The days should end peacefully for babies.’ When sometimes the children were naughty or disgraced themselves, they were taught the ‘rules’, but Amy did not go as far as Mrs Wesley who taught the children ‘to fear the rod and to cry softly’. ‘We cannot compete with that august lady in our training.’1086

On 21 August 1912 Amy got a telegram that Thomas Walker, on journey in Telegu country to take meetings, had died. His wife was still in England when he went ‘upstairs’. In Telegu country he fell dangerously ill and died there among the people he served with the Gospel. She always had a lot of support from Thomas Walker. For Amy he had been of immense value, as teacher, spiritual father, counsellor, adviser and above all as a dedicated missionary with a lot of insight and knowledge of the Tamil language and culture, a Bible expositor and prayer intercessor and as a man who fought with her in the battle saving the children. Humanly speaking she was now on her own, outwardly still very confident, though in her heart of hearts, it would seem, quite the opposite. It was Ponnamal, when she saw Amy full of grief – ‘stripped as a verily felt I was at that moment of my strongest earthly stay’ – who said: ‘It must be that you are meant to lean on God alone’.1087 Amy wrote, ‘We had to learn to “do without”’.1088 In those days of tension and much prayer, she learned the truth that nothing can assail: ‘I am the Ground of thy beseeching’. What the Walkers had been for her and the Fellowship is expressed in these dear words:

And all through those first wrestling’s with the enemy and first gladness in the triumph of our Lord, and on through the years that followed till he was taken from us, stood Walker Iyer, faithful is strength, and his gentle, loving wife, with whom everything was shared. Often as a I look at the joy the later years have brought, the joy of the larger family and the Fellowship of Gold Cord, I wonder if ever it would have been mine if it had not been for their friendship and comradeship. Their works do follow them.1089 In the education of the children, Amy looked forward, although in the beginning she was rather reluctant to send the children outside Dohnavur to institutions for further training. When she was convinced, she allowed them to go. Nesaruthina told us that Amma had tears in her eyes when the bus that would take the girls to their place of education was due to go.1090 Once Amy wrote:

1085. In Mackenzie, David Livingstone, 140.
1086. Lotus Buds, 118 and 121.
1087. Ponnamal, 89.
1088. Gold Cord, 106.
1089. Ploughed Under, 74.
1090. In an interview with the author, 16 November 2013 in Dohnavur.

If we are to flow out, we must have a strong spiritual base. To save children from torture and sin is not enough. We do need those who are ready to lay down their lives to lead them into true soldiership and a true following of the Crucified. This is much the most difficult work we have, and only the few can do it.1091 Education for her meant that every boy and girl would grow up as a strong man and woman based in the Scriptures and be a real follower of Jesus Christ and to be strong in this world with so many temptations. Real followers of Jesus would mean strong Christian families in India that would raise their children in the fear of the Lord. Amy saw a lot of potential in the children:

We, whose very own these dear children were, knew their limitations, but we knew, too, that they could offer truth, willingness for hard work, a freedom from the dominance of money, and very loving hearts. We have not yet tapped the deep springs of pure and passionate love that lie in Indian nature. We have given too little and asked for too little.1092 Life in the Fellowship was geared towards all-round development. The most important aspect of education was spiritual development. Thefus, a grandson of Mimosa, educated in Dohnavur, writes:

Morning devotions and evening prayers have stuck with me – sometimes even the timings! The glory of worship, the melodious songs, the memorable picnics, the richness of routine and regularity laid a solid foundation for life.1093 Amy prayed for her children:

Christ our Captain, hear our prayer, Lovers, who in love abide,
Warriors we ask of Thee, In the secret place of rest,
Comrades, who shall everywhere Yielded to be crucified,
Stand for love and loyalty. That Thy life be manifest;
Servants, who with souls aflame, Labourers, who joyfully
Kindled from Thine altar-fire, Choose rewards unseen today.
Live to magnify Thy Name, Cause us, O our Lord, to be
Live to meet Thy least desire. Like to these, for whom we pray.1094

A new chapter in the history of the Dohnavur girls began after India became independent in 1947. The new Indian government was expanding its education policy. In primary and secondary schools, the teachers needed recognised teaching qualifications. Amy had to give consent for the girls to go outside the Dohnavur compound for further education. The boys had already found a place in the government secondary school in Dohnavur village. They found out that teenage girls could get an education in line with Amy’s standard at a girl’s high school at Trichy, more than 200 miles away. The principal was a daughter of Amy’s first convert in India. Nine girls were selected to go to Trichy where they lived in the YWCA hostel. One of the Sitties went with them.

She was deeply concerned for the spiritual soundness of the family over which she now presided, almost in a manner of a medieval abbess. She hated praise; it is said that she was pathologically averse being photographed (there are very few surviving photographs of her); even her writing she barely acknowledged as having any style or value. In 1919 she was awarded the Kaiser-I-Hind medal ‘for her services to the people if India’. Her first reaction was to refuse it, on the grounds that Jesus was despised and rejected, and she deserved no better. In the end, she was persuaded that her

1091. Amy in a private letter (in Trehane, The Timothys, 98).
1092. Cold Cord, 278.
1093. In A Century of Answered Prayers, 28.
1094. In Trehane, The Timothys, 101.

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response might be read as rudeness and she accepted the award, but nothing would induce her to receive it in a public investiture.

In the 1980s, the Fellowship management saw that it was part of their mission to train people to serve God in India and new developments were undertaken, which Amy had never foreseen. The Christian education today in the secondary school annex at the Fellowship’s compound is focused on a government academic standard in order to get young Christians from all over the country in key positions anywhere in India. For girls, a good education that opens doors for further training enhances a girl’s marriage prospects. When they marry a Christian boy, they are able to bring up their children in a truly and stable Christian home. The influence of a young Christian couple on their environment will have a real impact on the lives of the people around them. In serving the Lord from Kanyakumari on the southernmost tip of mainland India to the Punjab in the far north, they will exalt his name.1095 ‘Is the work worth doing?’ This question asked at the very beginning of the Fellowship is silenced, when Amy takes us with her to the lake and tells about a baptism. ‘The work here is God’s work’, and we only have to obey to do his work:

It was the baptism of some of our older children, our first to confess Christ in baptism. They were standing in a semi-circle on the sand by the waterside, and round them a ring of converts, now workers, each with a little child in her arms; for the babies were with us that day so that their nurses could come. One by one the children walked into the water, and we on the shore were watching, when from the far West, over the mountains, a flood of glorious light streamed out upon us all, till the children in the water seemed bathed in liquid gold. It was so sudden, and so glorious that instinctively we looked up, almost expecting to see something seen but once-long, long ago; and the glory of it flashed through us, laying bare for one brief moment all the inwardness of joy deep under the reach of speech. Do not such moments come to all who have known something of a walk ‘with Christ at midnight over moonless seas’. Moments when the joy is so exquisite that the heart knows well it is not of earth.