Amy Carmichael

{|align="right"
Infobox Person
name = Amy Beatrice Carmichael


image_size = 180px
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1867|12|16|df=y
birth_place = Millisle, County Down, Ulster
death_date = death date and age|1951|1|18|1867|12|16|df=y
death_place = Dohnavur, Tamil Nadu, India

Amy Beatrice Carmichael (16 December 1867 – 18 January 1951) was a Protestant Christian missionary in India, who opened an orphanage and founded a mission in Dohnavur. She served in India for fifty-five years without furlough and authored many books about the missionary work there.

Early life

Amy Carmichael was born in the small village of Millisle, County Down, Ireland to David and Catherine Carmichael. Her parents were devout Presbyterians; she was the oldest of seven children. She was adopted and tutored by Robert Wilson, cofounder of the Keswick Convention.

One story of Carmichael's early life tells that as a child, she wished that she had blue eyes rather than brown. She often prayed that God would change her eye color and was disappointed when it never happened. As an adult, however, she realized that, because Indians have brown eyes, she would have had a much more difficult time gaining their acceptance if her eyes had been blue.

Carmichael's father died when she was eighteen. In many ways she was an unlikely candidate for missionary work. She suffered neuralgia, a disease of the nerves that made her whole body weak and achy and often put her in bed for weeks on end. It was at the Keswick Convention of 1887 that she heard Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission speak about missionary life. Soon afterward, she became convinced of her calling to missionary work.

She applied to the China Inland Mission and lived in London at the training house for women, where she met author and missionary to China, Mary Geraldine Guinness, who encouraged her to pursue missionary work. She was ready to sail for Asia at one point, when it was determined that her health made her unfit for the work. She postponed her missionary career with the CIM and decided later to join the Church Missionary Society.

Work in India

Initially Carmichael traveled to Japan for fifteen months, but after a brief period of service in Sri Lanka, she found her lifelong vocation in India. She was commissioned by the Church of England Zenana Mission. Hindu temple children were young girls dedicated to the gods and forced into prostitution to earn money for the priests. Much of her work was with young ladies, some of whom were saved from forced prostitution. The organization she founded was known as the Dohnavur Fellowship. Dohnavur is situated in Tamil Nadu, thirty miles from the southern tip of India. The fellowship would become a sanctuary for over one thousand children who would otherwise have faced a bleak future.

In an effort to respect Indian culture, members of the organization wore Indian dress and the children were given Indian names. She herself dressed in Indian clothes, dyed her skin with coffee, and often traveled long distances on India's hot, dusty roads to save just one child from suffering.

While serving in India, Amy received a letter from a young lady who was considering life as a missionary. She asked Amy, "What is missionary life like?" Amy wrote back saying simply, cquote|"Missionary life is simply a chance to die."

Carmichael's work also extended to the printed page. She was a prolific writer, producing thirty-five published books including "Things as They Are: Mission Work in Southern India" (1903), "His Thoughts Said . . . His Father Said" (1951), "If" (1953), "Edges of His Ways" (1955) and "God's Missionary" (1957).

Final days and legacy

In 1931, Carmichael was badly injured in a fall, which left her bedridden much of the time until her death. She died in India in 1951 at the age of 83. She asked that no stone be put over her grave; instead, the children she had cared for put a bird bath over it with the single inscription "Amma", which means mother in the Tamil.

Her biography quotes her as saying: cquote|"One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving."

Her example as a missionary inspired others (including Jim Elliot and his wife Elisabeth Elliot) to pursue a similar vocation. [Elisabeth Elliot, "A Chance to Die: the Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael." ]

Works

"(Partial List)"
* " [http://books.google.com/books?id=EvEMAAAAIAAJ From Sunrise Land: Letters from Japan] ", Marshall 1895"'
* " [http://www.openlibrary.org/details/thingsastheyarem00wilsuoft Things as they are; mission work in southern India] ", London: Morgan and Scott (1905)
* " [http://www.openlibrary.org/details/lotusbuds00carmiala Lotus Buds] ", London: Morgan and Scott (1912)
* " [http://www.openlibrary.org/details/raglandpioneer00carmiala Ragland, pioneer] ", Madras: S.P.C.K. Depository (1922) (biography of Thomas Gajetan Ragland)
* " [http://www.openlibrary.org/details/walkeroftinnevel00carmuoft Walker of Tinnevelly] ", London: Morgan & Scott (1916) (biography of Thomas Walker)
* "Candles in the Dark", Christian Literature Crusade (June 1982)
* "Rose from Brier", Christian Literature Crusade (June 1972)
* "Mimosa: A True Story", CLC Publications (September 2005)
* "If", Christian Literature Crusade (June 1999)
* "Gold Cord", Christian Literature Crusade (June 1957)
* "Edges of His Ways", Fort Washington: Christian Literature Crusade (1955)
* "Mountain Breezes: The Collected Poems of Amy Carmichael", Christian Literature Crusade (August 1999)
* "Whispers of His Power", CLC Publications (June 1993)
* "Thou Givest They Gather", CLC Publications (June 1970)
* "Ploughed Under : The Story of a Little Lover", Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) (1934)
* "Kohila: The Shaping of an Indian Nurse", CLC Publications (July 2002)

Bibliography

* Elliot, Elisabeth, A Chance to Die: the Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael. Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1987.
* Wellman, Sam, Amy Carmichael: A Life Abandoned to God. Barbour Publishing, 1998

External links

* [http://www.dohnavurfellowship.org/ Website of the Dohnavur Fellowship]
* [http://www.inversionfellowship.org/mediafiles/amy-carmichael-to-live-our-songs.pdf Amy Carmichael - To Live our Songs]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6729927.stm BBC News, "Slaves to the goddess of fertility"]

Persondata
NAME= Carmichael, Amy Beatrice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Carmichael, Amy Wilson
SHORT DESCRIPTION=missionary in India
DATE OF BIRTH=December 16 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH=Millisle, County Down Ireland
DATE OF DEATH=January 18 1951
PLACE OF DEATH=Dohnavur, Tamil Nadu, India