“Missionary Mondays” is a weekly resource for parents. Each week will feature a missionary story that is designed to be read to young children. Also included is a prayer and corresponding activity. Enjoy!
Amy Carmichael
Have you ever been surprised by God’s plan? Sometimes He does something that isn’t at all what we would think to do…like the story of David and Goliath. No one would have ever believed that tiny David would have defeated Goliath the giant! But the Bible says that “man’s ways are not God’s ways, and our thoughts are not His thoughts.” His plans are higher than our plans.
The story of Amy Carmichael is one of God’s very big surprises. A wealthy (and sometimes mischievous!) little girl who lived a life of luxury would one day become a woman who gave every bit of her money and strength to loving her Savior. The way she loved and served God has set an example for every Christian who will ever live.
Amy Carmichael was born in 1867 in a beautiful country called Ireland. She was the oldest of 7 children and had a loving and godly mother and father.
Amy spent a wonderful childhood riding horses along the seashore. She loved anything that came from nature…she would lay on the grass for hours and watch as small bugs were sucked into the tiny whirlpools of a nearby creek. She would dump out the contents of her dollhouses and fill them instead with moss and shells and bugs.
When she was 13 she fell in love with Jesus and asked Him to save her. Everything in her life seemed to be just perfect.
But one day, when she was 18 years old, a terrible thing happened. Her father died suddenly, and events quickly got worse. His very successful business shut down and the family was left with no money. The life that Amy Carmichael had always known was over.
But a much richer, much more meaningful life was about to begin.
Soon after her father’s death, she and her family moved to Belfast. As difficult and scary as all these changes were, the Lord was directing her toward a marvelous plan that he had laid out for Amy.
While in Belfast, Amy and her mother began visiting women and young girls who lived in the slums. Imagine the dirtiest, most chilly and damp, least comfortable place you can imagine. That is what the slums were like. Women and children dressed in rags. They ate trash right out of the trashcan. They were never able to wash their skin or their hair. It was a horrible way to live.
Amy’s heart broke for these people. She was so sad to see the terrible conditions that these wonderful people lived in. So she started a ministry right there in the middle of the slums. What started as a small group of women and girls who would meet with Amy regularly for Bible teaching and encouragement eventually grew into a giant crowd! Amy and her mother were giving these people hope, and they couldn’t get enough of it. People all across the slums were falling in love with Jesus just like Amy had.
Several years later, after hearing a very exciting sermon by Hudson Taylor, Amy knew that God was telling her that it was time to go somewhere new. By having her serve for years in the Irish slums, God had prepared her for the trials that were sure to come from moving to a foreign land.
What was so surprising, though, about Amy’s call to the mission field was that she suffered from a very painful and difficult disease. At any moment, her body would become weak and filled with pain, leaving her stranded in her bed for days at a time. But Amy didn’t see it as reason not to go. She trusted and loved Jesus so much that she would have gone no matter the obstacle.
When it was time for Amy to leave Ireland, she eagerly packed her bag and boarded a ship that was to take her to Japan. Her heart was filled joy at the thought of how God was going to fill up the hearts of the Japanese people.
But imagine Amy’s surprise when, less than 2 years later, she was forced to return home due to her poor health! Why would God have given her such a clear call to missions only to send her right back home? Why wouldn’t God heal her from this disease that seemed to mess up everything?
These were the questions that many people had concerning Amy’s continued commitment to the mission field. Amy knew that God’s plan was perfect. And she was not going to give up.
After staying home for a short time to recover, she received a new assignment. She was to head to southern India. Not only was there a great need for people to hear about Jesus there, but the climate was one that would greatly benefit her weak health.
Amy, filled with joy still, set sail for her new home. A home that she would never leave for the next 53 years.
When she arrived in India, she was stepping foot on ground that God had prepared for her. This was to be the place that Amy would give her life to; the place that Amy would love and treasure more than any other.
She quickly learned the language and culture of the Indian people. She and another Christian family became known as the “starry cluster” because of the joy that shone out of them as they would travel to villages sharing the truth about Jesus.
Amy was very influenced by the life of George Mueller, who loved to live with as little as possible so that he could depend entirely on God for all of his needs. Amy was often heard saying, “How much can I do without that I may have more to give?” And that is truly how she lived. A once-wealthy Irishwoman now had not a possession or dollar to her name, but was so rich in faith that her heart would fill with joy at every opportunity she had to give to others.
It wasn’t long before she realized exactly what God wanted her to accomplish while she was in India.
One day, while working out in her garden, an Indian woman walked up to Amy with a small girl by her side. The girl’s name was Pearl Eyes.
Amy recognized the girl, as she had seen her before. Pearl Eyes was a 5-year-old girl who was forced to be a slave in a nearby Hindu temple. The slave children who worked in the temples had terrible and frightening things done to them.
“Come in, sweet girl,” said Amy. “Sit here and I will fetch you a doll to play with, and then I want you to tell me your story.”
As the small girl sat on the floor and described what life was like for all of the children in the temple, Amy was horrified and deeply saddened at the things that Pearl Eyes told her.
Amy discovered that the little girl had already tried to run away from the temple twice, but had been caught both times and severely punished. This time, Pearl Eyes ran away from the temple and happened to bump into a kind Indian woman who knew of Amy and her great faith. The Indian woman secretly brought Pearl Eyes to Amy.
“Pearl Eyes, Jesus has brought you to safety! You are to stay here with me, and I am going to devote the rest of my life to saving every child I can from the horrors of living in those temples. Praise be to our God for bringing you to me, sweet Pearl Eyes!”
For the next 50 years, Amy worked to save thousands of children from living as slaves in the temples.
She never married and had children of her own, but her home was filled with sounds of rescued children who called her their mother.
Her joy and happiness and sweet spirit were like a healing medicine to all of the hurt and broken people around her. One man who knew her said that “Amy had the most Christ-like character I ever met, and her life was the most fragrant, the most joyfully sacrificial that I have ever known.”
Many of the strange things that God brought into Amy’s life seemed to make more and more sense over time. Her family’s poverty had prepared her for a life in a very poor part of the world. And a terrible injury that she sustained in her 60’s that left her bedridden for the rest of her life gave her the time and attention to write over 35 books, all of which bring much praise and honor to the Lord even today.
Amy’s life is marked with an unwavering joy and happiness. Her gentle heart brought love to thousands of children who otherwise would have grown up in a dark and evil place.
The Lord used Amy Carmichael in a way that should fire us all with the love of our Savior. She gave everything, that the people she loved so dearly may be part of God’s family.
What a wonderful, surprising story the life of Amy Carmichael is! Man or woman, rich or poor, healthy or weak…God will use anyone who’s heart is humble and willing to serve.
Prayer: Gentle and kind Father, you have shown us more of the way you love people by the way you fashioned Amy’s heart to love. Give us the desire to love and serve the way she did, with concern and compassion. You are so kind, Father, to fill people’s hearts with so much of your love that they would go out and live lives the way Amy did. Tell me what kind of life you want me to live. Do you want me to give away all I have? Do you want me to love people who are lonely or sad? Do you want me to go somewhere new? Give me faith to be obedient, Father. Amen.
Activity: Make a “Prayer Time Watch”
This activity will not only be a sweet craft for you and your child to make together, but will also result in prayer for sad, lonely, or destitute people that you know.
Supplies:
- white poster board
- markers
- scissors
- multicolored construction paper
- brass clasp
Directions:
- Cut out a strip of colored construction paper that would fit around your child’s wrist.
- Cut out a circle of the poster paper. Draw a clock face with a heart in the middle. On the back of the circle, write the names of people that your child thinks of who need prayer…people who are lonely, or needy, or sad.
- Using a brass clasp, attach the watch face to the wristband.
- As your child looks at his watch throughout the day, he will be reminded that is is “time” to pray for the special names that he thought of.
Check out previous “Missionary Mondays” stories!
George Mueller
William Wilberforce
Mary Slessor
Hudson Taylor
