DISCIPLES ARE DYING DAILY

DPF-04

990620AM

LOSING OUR LIVES FOR JESUS. CARMICHAEL, AMY WILSON (1867–1951)
Missionary to India; founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, a society devoted to saving neglected and ill-treated children.
On December 16th, 1867, in Northern Ireland’s village of Millisle, Amy Carmichael was born. Nearly 84 years later in the hot and uncomfortable land of India, her 20-year struggle with paralyzing pain which had kept her bedridden for all those years ended with the death of her earthly body and the release of her spirit to the presence of Jesus she so loved and served.
What prompted such a life of dying to self, of losing our life and gaining so much in Christ? Amy suffered pain, discomfort, loneliness, immobility, and spiritual oppression for nearly all of her adult life. What prepared her for such a life? How do we as godly parents raise children who are free from self-indulgence, strong in the face of suffering, and trusting God’s perfect goodness in adversity and prosperity? Perhaps a little glimpse into her home life as she was reared will answer that question. Elisabeth Elliot captures the scene in her moving biography of Amy’s life entitles A Chance to Die. Amy Carmichael was born into a strong Presbyterian home in Northern Ireland. The oldest of seven children, she was thrust into early maturity by the death of her father.
Here was how she was raised, “the toughness of Irish Presbyterians, the ruggedness bred by winters on that cold sea, the no-nonsense principles of child-rearing”. There was never a question in the minds of those seven Carmichael children as to what their parents expected. Black was black and white was white. Their parent’s words were to be trusted absolutely, and whenever it was not obeyed there were consequences. Five kinds of punishment were used: being stood in a corner with one’s face to the wall, forbidden to go out to play, slapped, “pandied” which was a stroke with a thin flat board after which the child was to without fuss say politely, ““Thank you, Mother.” And worst of all the 5th punishment was to be given Gregory Powder.
You’ll have to read the biography to get the powder story but the key is this. To endure 56 years of adversity and hardship Amy had to learn to say Thank you God for all the affliction she faced. As a child, she learned to face chastisement with a humble and godly response. In her later life, she wrote, “I pray not for relief from pain, not for relief from the weariness that follows, not anything of that sort at all is my chief need. Thou, O Lord my God art my need, Thy courage, Thy patience, Thy fortitude. And very much I need a quickened gratitude for Thy countless helps given me every day.”
Amy Carmichael arrived in India in 1895 and served in India for fifty–six years without a furlough. The children of India, especially those who were to be dedicated as temple prostitutes, became the focus of her efforts. From it arose in 1901 the Dohnavur Fellowship, with more than one thousand children in three homes, a hospital, and evangelistic work. Because of her devotion to these children, Amy was known as “Amma” (“mother” in the Tamil language). In 1931 Miss Carmichael was badly injured in a fall, which left her bedridden much of the time until her death. She remained in India, however, and continued to write devotional books and poetry.
Elisabeth Elliot was right when she concluded: “As the sternness of an Irish winter, with its gloom and wetness and icy winds, puts apple cheeks on both old and young, so the sternness of Christian discipline put red blood – spiritual health – into the girl who could not have imagined the buffetings she would be called upon to endure.” And when at the end of her life she was asked of her estimation of being raised in such a disciplined home life she replied, “I don’t think there could have been a happier child than I was.”
In one of her loveliest poems, Amy Carmichael wrote,
I hear Him call, “Come, follow”;
That was all!
My gold grew dim.
My heart went after Him.
I rose and followed,
That was all.
Would you not follow,
If you heard Him call?