Amy Carmichael was born in the small village in Ireland. Her parents were devout
Presbyterians; she was the oldest of seven children. She was adopted and tutored by Robert Wilson, co-founder of the
Keswick Convention.
One story of Carmichael's early life tells that as a child, she wished that she had blue eyes rather than brown. She often prayed that God would change her eye color and was disappointed when it never happened. As an adult, however, she realized that, because Indians have brown eyes, she would have had a much more difficult time gaining their acceptance if her eyes had been blue.
Carmichael's father died when she was eighteen. In many ways she was an unlikely candidate for missionary work. She suffered neuralgia, 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 afterward, 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 author and missionary to China, Mary Geraldine Guinness, who encouraged her to pursue missionary work. She was ready to sail for Asia at one point, when it was determined that her health made her unfit for the work. She postponed her missionary career with the CIM and decided later to join the Church Missionary Society.
Initially Carmichael traveled to Japan for fifteen months, but after a brief period of service in 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 dedicated to the gods and forced into prostitution to earn money for the priests. Much of her work was with young ladies, some of whom were saved from forced prostitution. The organization she founded was known as 
the Dohnavur Fellowship. Dohnavur is situated thirty miles from the southern tip of India. The fellowship would become a sanctuary for over one thousand children who would otherwise have faced a bleak future.
In an effort to respect 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 coffee, and often traveled long distances on India's hot, dusty roads to save just one child from suffering.
While serving in India, Amy received a letter from a young lady who was considering life as a missionary. She asked Amy, "What is missionary life like?" Amy wrote back saying simply,
| “ | "Missionary life is simply a chance to die." | ”
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If you, or your family is looking for a good missionary biography to read, I would suggest reading, A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot.------------------------------------------
My phonetics professor gave us a copy of one of Amy Carmichael's poems in class on Friday, and I wanted to share it with you as a reminder to all of us to accept what God brings into our lives and ministries.
So often we want to resist, become over active, withdraw, or give up when things do go our way. It is only in acceptance where peace lies.
In Acceptance Lieth Peace
He said, "I will forget the dying faces;
The empty places --
They shall be filled again.
O voices moaning deep within me, cease."
But in vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in forgetting lieth peace.
He said, "I will crowd action upon action;
The strife of faction
Shall stir me and sustain.
O tears that drown the fire of manhood, cease."
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in endeavor lieth peace.
He said, "I will withdraw me and be quiet;
Why meddle in life's riot?
Shut by my door to pain.
Desire, thou dost befool me; thou shalt cease."
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in aloofness lieth peace.
He said, "I will submit; I am defeated.
God hath depleted
My life of its rich gain.
O futile murmurings, why will ye not cease!"
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in submission lieth peace.
He said, "I will accept the breaking sorrow
Which God tomorrow
Will to His Son explain."
Then did the turmoil deep within him cease.
Not vain the word, not vain;
For in acceptance lieth peace.
Taken from
Mountain Breezes: The Collected Poems of Amy Carmichael page 293.
