In keeping with this week's Irish theme, I want to point you to the story of Amy Carmichael. I became interested in this lady because when we are in Ireland we fellowship at Millisle Baptist Church. Amy's father owned the mill in this town and the present facilities of the Baptist Church are located in the school he built for the factory workers' children.
AMY CARMICHAEL
1867-1951
One of the best-known and respected missionaries of the first half of the 20thcentury was Amy Carmichael. Her 35 books have blessed countless thousands. One who knew her well gives this testimony: "Miss Carmichael was a blessing to all who came into intimate and understanding contact with her radiant life. She was the most Christ-like character I ever met, and her life was the most fragrant, the most joyfully sacrificial that I have ever known."
Amy Carmichael was born in 1867 into a well-to-do North Ireland Christian family. In her teen years, she was educated at a Wesleyan Methodist boarding school; and at age 13, while still in boarding school, she accepted Christ as Savior. When she was age 18, her father died, leaving the family in difficult financial circumstances as he had given a large personal loan that was not repaid. The family moved to Belfast. There she became involved in visiting in the slums, and seeing the terrible conditions under which many women and girls worked in the factories, she began a ministry with these women. It was a work based on faith alone in God, and He met the needs in most remarkable ways.
She became acquainted with the Keswick Movement, and it was there that she learned of a close, deeper walk with the Lord. One of the leaders of the Keswick Movement, Mr. Wilson, a widower, asked her to come and live in his home and be his secretary. She learned much from that employment. She remembered on one occasion at Keswick where Mr. Moody had preached and afterwards was talking with Mr. Wilson when he stopped in mid sentence. He had just preached on the prodigal son where the father had said to the older son "Son, thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine." Mr. Moody said, "I never saw it before. Oh, the love of God's love. Oh, the love. God's love." Tears rained down his cheeks. Amy never forgot that spiritual truth-"All that I have is thine." It reinforced her faith that God knew her needs before she asked and wanted to supply them by faith.
She developed a good work among the women in Belfast and was then asked to have a similar ministry in Manchester. There, with her mother at her side, she developed a similar ministry among slum people and particularly the women and girls who were working under very terrible conditions in the factories.
Amy received her Macedonian call in 1892 at the age of 24; and the following year, as the first appointee of the Keswick's missions committee, she went to Japan. But there she met with disappointments. The Japanese language seemed impossible to her, and the missionary community was not the picture of harmony she had envisioned. Likewise, her health was also a problem. After 15 months as a missionary, Amy became convinced that Japan was not where God wanted her, so without notifying the Keswick Convention, she sailed for Ceylon. She was there only a few months when she was urgently called back to England to care for Mr. Wilson, who was in critical condition.
After about one year in England, she returned to the field, this time to India. She arrived in Madras in November of 1895, a discouraged, confused, and ill young Irish woman. She was 28 years old. Soon after her arrival, she contracted Dengue Fever, which laid her low for a period of time. She was sent to a more healthful place to recuperate. One friend who met her said, "You look fresh as a daisy." But Amy's temperature was 105, and in her own words she felt "wormy."
She saw in the community where she was that the church was very active but there were no changed lives. She detested the meetings with the other missionary ladies-drinking tea and gossiping, again showing very little concern for the eternal souls of those about them. She felt so alone. One day as she fell to her knees in despair, a verse that she had learned long before floated into her memory: "He that trusteth in me shall never be desolate," and she found that to be true throughout her long life of ministry in India. The following lines are so appropriate concerning the missionary community in Bangalore:
Onward Christian soldiers,
Sitting on the mats;
Nice and warm and cozy
Like little pussycats.
Onward Christian soldiers,
Oh, how brave are we,
Don't we do our fighting
Very comfortably?
Amy Carmichael
For the rest of this Biography go to Gospel Fellowship Association website HERE.
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