Amy Carmichael
Travel is part of our modern day lives. Whether we take a weekend in Europe or a fortnight in the States, the opportunities to fly and cruise around the world are almost overwhelming. When you stand in an airport and check your flight on the departure board, you see the multitude of destinations also on offer to explore the world. So that makes Amy Carmichael’s story, over 150 years ago even more interesting. Travel back in time (pardon the pun) and you will see a courageous young woman determined to leave Northern Ireland to take the long, arduous journey to India, and never return to her birthplace.
Amy Carmichael was born on 16th December 1867 in the County Down seaside village of Millisle but her influence would extend beyond the Irish Sea shores to many countries and indeed, beyond her lifetime.
Amy was the oldest of seven children, born to David and Catherine Carmichael. During her time at boarding school in England, while thinking about the hymn Jesus Loves Me, Amy realised that she could not rely on her parents’ beliefs but needed to experience “the mercy of the Good Shepherd.” She gave her life to the Lord Jesus and committed to sharing her faith with others.
The Carmichael family moved to Belfast in the mid-1880s. Amy started a Sunday morning class for the shawlies (mill girls who wore shawls instead of hats). These young women worked in poor conditions and received little pay.
Amy brought them to the church services and as more girls came she decided to purchase a tin building to hold the large numbers. She called it the Welcome Hall and made it a meeting place for the shawlies. That hall became the Welcome Evangelical Church, which has become a thriving part of Christian ministry in the Woodvale area of west Belfast.
Initially, Amy’s attempts to get on the mission field didn’t go to plan. Barely five-foot tall she also suffered from neuralgia, a condition that caused shooting pain and headaches. She was rejected for work in China. She didn’t let this stop her and applied for work in Japan and Sri Lanka. She left for India at the age of 27, around the turn of the 20th Century.
In 1898, Amy passed her exam in Tamil, the local language in the region of India where she lived. Two years later, Amy moved to Dohnavur, a Christian village. The first girl whom Amy adopted from slavery in a local temple, Preena, arrived at Dohnavur. Amy became like Preena’s mother and would go on to become like a mother to many more orphaned Indian children, many of whom she rescued from slavery.
In 1901, she set up the Dohnavur Fellowship to provide a safe home for young girls and women sold as slaves to the Hindu temple priests. The organisation still exists today providing care and education for around 120 children as well as 60 senior citizens. Those that grew up in Dohnavur stay on to look after the next generation so there are currently between 250 and 300 people in the family, as they like to refer to the residents.
In 1931, while touring a medical clinic that was being built, Amy fell into a hole and was severely injured. She never recovered full physical mobility, but from her bed she wrote many books that are still widely available today, such as If, A Rose from Brier, and Candles in the Dark.
The compassion Amy had for the Indian children meant that she never returned to Northern Ireland again and died in India on 18th January 1951. Amy was buried in the garden at Dohnavur. Her grave is marked by a stone bird table inscribed with the word “Amma,” which means “Mother.”
On 16th December 2017, marking exactly 150 years since Amy’s birth, a bronze sculpture was unveiled outside Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church in Bangor. The sculpture celebrates the childhood beginnings and the spiritual inspiration that helped inform Amy's young heart. It portrays Amy in the tenth year of her life looking out from below her hat towards a purposed future that would be filled with devotion to others, a serving life, a giving heart that would impact generations of children to come.
In the sculpture, Amy is holding her diary where she recorded her dreams, her hopes, her future. Because of Amy Carmichael's vision and incredible courage, countless children were given the hope of a new beginning and they were given a future.
Amy is an inspiration to those who want to serve God in other parts of the world. Her tireless obedience to God’s call remains as new generations read her writings and the work that continues through the Dohnavur Fellowship today.
“One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving.”