A Word from Amy Carmichael

Several years ago, before the term "orphan" even entered my vocabulary, my mother gave me a biography of Amy Carmichael:  A Chance to Die by Elisabeth Elliot. Amy was a missionary in India in the early 1900s, serving for fifty-five years without a break. Her main focus was orphan care, especially rescuing female children from slavery and prostitution in Hindu temples. Her Dohnavur Fellowship saved over a thousand children. Amidst caring for all of these children, Amy wrote at an astonishing rate. Reading her biography had a deep but subtle effect on me. Years later, I find myself thinking through various phrases of Amy's as I walk the road of ministry.

It is my hope to do for one life what Amy did for hundreds. Her words are always a challenge and a comfort.

"If we take courage to expect, we shall have crushing disappointments sometimes, but often we shall find. And we shall tap deep wells. We shall discover a power and abandon of love to our blessed Lord Jesus that overflows our poverty of faith. Not the emotion of a moment, but the passion of a lifetime, this is what the Lord our God can effect, if only we rise to His thought. We ask far too little of men and women redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and the smoky, smouldering life of many who might have been flames for Him, and the frigid and measured quality of the service that they offer, is our sorrowful, just reward.

But do we ask enough of ourselves?

Lord, when I’m weary with toiling,
And burdensome seem Thy commands,
If my load should lead to complaining,
Lord show me Thy hands--

Thy nail-printed hands. Thy cross-torn hands--
My Saviour, show me Thy hands.

Christ, if ever my footsteps should falter,
And I be prepared for retreat.
If desert and thorn cause lamenting,
Lord, show me Thy feet--

Thy bleeding feet, Thy nail-scarred feet--
My Jesus, show me Thy feet.

O God, dare I show Thee
My hands and my feet?"

From The Widow of the Jewels by Amy Carmichael