Just for Women Wednesdays- Christian Women You Should Know About

Last Wednesday, I posted about the life of Katherine Von Bora- Martin Luther's wife. This Wednesday, we focus on the life of a woman who risked much to tell others about the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amy Carmichael

Today's post is about a woman missionary, Amy Carmichael.(1867-1951)

Amy's life motto was, "Love to live-live to love." And loving for Amy was not merely soaking up sermons every Sunday but reaching out and sharing the love of Christ in a dark world. She grew up in Ireland where her family managed flour mills. She lived a comfortable life. She accepted Christ at the age of 16. Two years later, her father passed and family finances were altered. Life changed for Amy.

At the age of 18, Amy was invited by friends to attend meetings at Glasgow where it would be revealed that God was calling her to missions. During one of the prayer times at the meeting, the speaker paraphrased Jude 1:24, "O LORD, we know that Thou are able to keep us from falling." It was then and there that God's Word helped Amy to see that holy living for her meant sacrifice in ministry. She believed if God was calling her to a life of missions, He would provide the funds for her to minister. So she prayed. He provided. Amy ministered to girls in the mills and a building was put up to minister to them. There, many came to know Christ and were shielded from a life of sin because of Amy's ministry. But that is not the place where Amy would stay.

In 1893, she sailed for Japan for her first missionary journey abroad. She then went to China, Sri Lanka and then back to England. The problem believers had with Amy was that she didn't stay in one place. Her ministry changed and shifted a bit and she didn't communicate like the church wanted her to. Amy came to see that the Missionary Society who provided for her, was quite distant from the people they were trying to reach out to. 

What I find interesting about Amy was that she ended up in India where slave trafficking became her life's ministry. Even in 1901, the problem was going on. We think slave trafficking has become such a big issue today, but no, it has been going on a long time.

Warren Weirsbe writes this about Amy in India:

"On March 6, 1901, little Preena, a seven-year old girl, fled from one of the temples into the mission compound and begged  to be protected. It was then that Amy uncovered one of the ugliest hidden sores on " Mother India's" body, the secret trafficking in temple girls. She learned how fathers and mothers sold their daughters to different gods, turning the precious girls into temple prostitutes.

Infuriated by what Satan was doing to these dear girls, Amy declared war. How many battles she fought on her knees, wrestling for the bodies and souls for these helpless children! How many times she and her associated risked their lives, and faced arrest and imprisonment, in order to snatch some pleading child from the jaws of defilement and destruction. One by one, other girls found their way to Amy and she courageously protected them. By 1904, there were seventeen children under her care, and then the LORD opened the way for her to receive and ministry to babies. In 1918, they opened the boys word, for the money hungry idolaters sold boys to the temple gods just as they sold girls.

Amy practiced John 15: 7, trusting God to guide them by the Word and provide for their needs one day at a time. Her principles of prayer:

(1) We don't need to explain to our Father things that are known to Him.

(2) We don't need to press him, as if we had to deal with an unwilling God.

(3) We don't need to suggest to him what to do, for he himself knows what to do. " 

         (Source: "50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Spiritual Giants of the Faith, p. 302-304; Baker Books, 2009).  

What I find interesting about the life of Amy was that she might have been a little inconsistent in the church's eyes as far as ministry went, but she was focused solely on the LORD and didn't let what the current church culture thought deter her from reaching out to where God would have her to go. She fought hard to save these children. She risked her life.


To read more in depth about the life of Amy Carmichael, click here Amy Carmichael


To read more about the stories of Amy saving children, click here Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur


To find out more about current missionaries, click here and read their stories and find out how you can get involved.


http://www.commissionstories.com/

Everyone has a ministry wherever they are. Where has God placed you? Pray. Ask Him to reveal to you how you can share His love in the place where you are. He will do it dear sister! He will do it!