If
I have the gift of prophecy,
and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to
remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I
give all my possessions to feed the
poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it
profits me nothing. 1 Cor. 13:2-3
“One can give without loving, but one cannot
love without giving” --Amy Carmichael
Amy Wilson Carmichael
(1867-1951) was a well-known Irish missionary to India and the author of
many devotional books that continue to read and loved even today. What is remarkable about Amy’s story that she
was an unlikely missionary and an unlikely writer. She was a devoted evangelist and reached out
to the poor and marginalized in England with great effect, but she had very
delicate health and was frequently exhausted and bedridden. God told her to "go“ to the mission field
while her own common sense and her closest friends said “you’re not healthy
enough to go”. She went against all odds
and against the will of her adoptive father, and ended up in India where she
founded Dohnavur Fellowship, a village of refuge dedicated to the safety,
education, and evangelization of morally endangered children. Despite her health issues, Amy was a woman of
action and personally cared for all of her children (which numbered in the
hundreds) giving time to them every day, counseling them, even hugging them and
giving them a goodnight kiss on the cheek.
But right in the middle of some of her most fruitful years of ministry
Amy had an accident that greatly injured her leg and essentially left her an
invalid for the final 20 years of her life.
Many attempts were made by doctors to fix and heal the leg, but, by and
large they failed and Amy was bedridden.
During this time of being forced to slow down, Amy was to write her most
well-known devotional books with the help of a stenographer and through them
maintained a correspondence with thousands the world over long before the days
of email and the internet. Amy never set
out to start of ministry to children or to minister as an author and probably
would have preferred to do other things, but she firmly believed she was a
servant of the Master and the Master, not the servant, is who decides what work
is to be done. Amy created an
environment of family and love in everything she did which is why in Southern
India, Amy was renamed “Amma” (mother) for this single woman and unlikely
missionary was truly a mother to multitudes.
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