Friday, December 16, 2022

It is the 16th of December 2022. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Sometimes as I’m making the schedule for this show, I come across names and think, “I’ve certainly done a show on them,” only to realize I have not. Friends, I’ll tell you that I can’t remember every show I’ve done- but it means we have a big name for you today- the Irish missionary in India- Ms. Amy Carmichael, who was born on this day in 1867 in the village of Millisle on the East coast of Ireland just outside of Belfast.

The Carmichaels were originally from Scotland and were Presbyterians. Her father was a miller in Ireland, and for a while, they were successful enough to send their children to boarding schools- but with the industry suffering in the UK due to American imports, Amy and her brothers had to return home. It is here that she had an experience that would change her life- one Sunday morning, she was walking and saw a poor old woman carrying a large bundle of her belongings- Amy’s conscience was pricked- she offered the woman help and took the load to carry herself. It was Sunday morning, and she knew she would be seen and embarrassed, but she continued on. This began her life of service to the less fortunate.

She then took to holding church services for the poor- those known as “shawlies” as they wore shawls in the church because they couldn’t afford hats.

In 1885 her father died- her family befriended Robert Wilson- she would become like a daughter to him and a secretary. He was one of the founders of the Keswick Convention, an evangelical meeting that spawned others and were theological conferences for missions, evangelism, and revival. Here Amy heard Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission. She applied to become a missionary but was rejected because of her ill health. She did find a ministry in Japan that would take her, but once there, she fell ill with some frequent headaches. She would convalesce in China with missionaries, but when Wilson suffered a stroke, she returned to England. There she published a book based on her missionary work in Japan- which would elevate her public persona. She was invited by the Zenana Missionary Society of the Anglican Church to go to India.

She came to India in 1895 and worked on the southern tip of the country, learning Tamil and the local customs. She would wear a Saree and artificially brown her skin using coffee grounds to try and blend in. Her generosity was well known enough by 1901 that a young girl named Preena sought her out. Preena had been kidnapped and sent to a temple where she was being trained to be a temple prostitute. She escaped and went to her mother, but she was found out and taken back- her mother feared being cursed for taking what she was told belonged to the Gods. Having been branded as a punishment for her disobedience, she escaped again- this time to Amy. Using the courts, secrecy, and some subterfuge, Amy was able to keep Preena and sought to free more girls from the temple system. By 1904 she had 14 such girls living with her and, in 1909, purchased land- near the village of Dohnavur where she would expand the ministry with other female missionaries and more rescued children- she would be known as Amma- Tamil for “mother.”

She was a prolific writer and keen self-publicist. Since 1903 she has been well known in English evangelical circles because of her book “Things As They Are: Mission Work in Southern India.” The world missions movement and charismatic revivals proved fertile soil for her work and for support- she raised enough money that she was independent of any formal church or missionary structure.

In 1931 she took a bad fall and would be laid up in bed for the rest of her life- still at Dohnavur but now writing all the more to support the ministry. She did live to see India outlaw temple prostitution in 1948. She died in 1951. She would come to prominence to a new generation when Elizabeth Elliot, herself a famous missionary, published her biography in 1988.

Born on this day in 1867, Amy Carmichael was 83 years old.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary- from Galatians 4:

4 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 16th of December 2022, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who asks you not to use his coffee (at Gillespie.coffee) to darken your skin artificially… that sort of thing is frowned upon. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who wishes his big sister a happy birthday- Lisa Long of Santa Maria, California, and owner of the Old Orcutt Yarnery. Go there for all your knitting needs! I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.