Amy Carmichael

No book has moved me recently like Amy Carmichael's "Let the Little Children Come". Amy was an everyday person like you and me. She trusted beyond her comforts, her dreams, her hopes, her circumstances in a God she knew was real. Amy was a missionary in India for 53 years without ever taking a furlough. God called her to go to the Indian people and she went. She loved the Indian people and spent the majority of her life rescuing girls who had been dedicated to the temple as prostitutes. The caste system was a brutal taskmaster and tradition upon tradition perpetuated this belief that girl babies were a curse and if they were dedicated to the temple, then surely in the next life the parents would gain favor. Many girls were dedicated from birth and given over at age 4 or 5. It is estimated that Amy rescued over a thousand girls. 

Why does Amy speak so deeply to me?  She has become such a spiritual hero and mentor to me that I find myself reading and rereading so many things she has written. The thing that has gripped my heart lately is she tells a story of a young girl name Mimosa who was born into her spiritual traditions and never heard His name but knew deep down there had to be "a God above all Gods they worshiped". One night she heard the name of Jesus, and she knew He was that God. She knew. She believed. For 26 years after her conversion she never heard a sermon, lecture, read a bible, sang worship songs, had fellowship with any other believers but Amy said "she was kept by Him for 24 years until she arrived safely in Amy's home". 

For 24 years the name of Jesus was enough to sustain her. Only The Name can sustain. So the question I ask myself now is what is sustaining me?  Where is my hope and peace and comfort? When I hear the name of Jesus am I stirred in my spirit?  Does it invoke emotions that cause me to fall down and worship?  Does it motivated me to tell others the glorious news?  

Those are the things I'm mediating on this Easter. We search so hard in this world for peace. I find my thoughts drifting more and more towards people like Mimosa and Amy Carmichael. My spiritual hero's. I bet a young Hindu girl in 1900 never dreamed a girl in North Carolina in 2013 would be praising God for her testimony of faithfulness and endurance. I can't wait to meet her in heaven one day. 

As Easter comes I don't want to forget the beautiful simplicity of the gospel. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31).

With great JOY,
Leeanne