Amy+Carmichael

(16 December 1867 – 18 January 1951) (Back to Missionaries) (Back to Women of the Faith)
 * [[image:Amy_Carmichael_with_children2_thumb.jpg width="250" height="335"]] || ==**Amy Wilson Carmichael**==

Amy was a Protestant missionary to India, who opened an orphanage in Dohnavur. She served in India for 55 years without furlough and wrote many books about the missionary work there. Amy was born in the small village of Millisle, Couty Down, Ireland to David and Catherine Carmichael. Her parents were devout Presbyterians and she was the oldest of seven siblings.

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

Amy's father died when she was 18. Mr. Carmichael was the founder of the Welcome Evangelical Church in Belfast. Amy continued at the Welcome until she received a call to work among the mill girls of Manchester in 1889 before moving onto missionary work. In many ways she was an unlikely candidate for missionary work. She suffered neurlgia, 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 afterwards, 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 Mary Geraldin Guinness who encouraged her to pursue missionary work. Initially Amy traveled to Japan for seventeen months, but after a brief period of service in Ceylon (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 who were dedicated to the gods and forced into prostitution to earn money for the priests i.e. Devadasi. Much of her work was with young ladies, some of whom were saved from forced prostitution.When the children were asked what drew them to Amy,they most often replied //It was love.// Amy Carmichael provided her shelter and stood against the threats of the locals, who insisted that the girl be returned. The number of such incidents soon grew and Amy Carmichael's new ministry began

Respecting 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 dark coffee, and often traveled long distances on India's hot, dusty roads to save just one child from suffering. ||
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