The Kidnapper - Amy Carmichael

1867–1951

Amy Carmichael always had an eye for the down-and-outers. As a teenager in Ireland, she began a Sunday morning Bible study for women who worked in the local mill. Known as “shawlies,” these women wore shawls to church because they couldn’t afford hats, which all respectable women were expected to wear. While uppity churchgoers sneered at the shawlies, Amy welcomed them to her meeting, which eventually became its own church—appropriately called Welcome Evangelical Church. When family circumstances required a move to England, Amy started another ministry to mill workers there.

Increasingly, though, Amy was drawn to foreign missions. One problem: she suffered from neuralgia, a disorder that left her bedridden for weeks at a time. One missions board rejected her application because of this, but she persisted, serving briefly in Japan and Sri Lanka before finding her new base of ministry in India.

This ministry involved kidnapping.

At the time, young girls were often dedicated to the “gods” and forced into prostitution in Hindu temples. Amy was appalled, of course, and sought to change this practice. Even the Christians around her thought this was too big a task. Temple prostitution was deeply rooted in the culture. How could an Irish missionary change that?

Then a girl named Preena showed up. She had escaped from the temple and needed shelter. Amy welcomed her in and then stood up to the “employers” who tried to get her back. Soon there were other runaways seeking shelter. Amy found and protected them. Whenever she could get a child out of that peril, she did—despite threats and danger, fatigue, and even arrest. Over the years, some nine hundred children found refuge with Amy’s Dohnavur Fellowship.

Her failing health increasingly confined her to bed, but then she found a new ministry in writing. She penned a number of devotional and instructional books, most notably the classic If, which explores the depths of Christ’s love. It would seem that was her favorite subject, in life as well as art. “You can give without loving,” she once said, “but you cannot love without giving.” From the shawlies of Ireland to the temple girls of India, people saw divine love in her life.

Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

Ephesians 3:17