Amy Carmichael was born in N. Ireland to a wealthy family in the mid 1800's. Her family lived very humbly despite their wealth and hard times hit and a financial struggle resulted. The stress of the enterprise resulted in a heart attack that killed Amy's father. Amy was the oldest but in her early teens, she was responsible for a half-dozen siblings. Her mother, Amy and several sisters went to England to live with some siblings remaining in Ireland and at least one brother going to America when he came of age.
Amy took a job working for Robert Wilson as his personal assistant. Amy had been very involved in her spiritual life back in Ireland even starting a Sunday program for the poor children that became quite popular. She and Mr. Wilson shared their spiritual views and encouraged one another. Amy felt called to missionary work at a young age and in her early 20's went to Japan. Soon she was called to China but shortly after her arrival, tensions between Japan and China and Britain? made her stay dangerous. She had health issues that seemed to worsen in cold weather so she was sent to the S. of India (Still full of colonialists).
Amy flourished in India, people always sensed her kindness and soon it was apparent in her new homeland. Not long after coming to the mission station in a place east of the Ghats, an older, very attractive woman visited Amy and they talked for hours. It wasn't until the woman left, that one of the other missionaries told her that she was talking to a temple prostitute (it didn't shock Amy, she was not one to judge). She was appalled to learn that many baby girls were given as gifts to a temple, so that the god would show the family favor. Girls were not held in esteem because they required a dowry that many parents found onerous, so giving their daughter away was not a tough decision for many. Amy was appalled by the caste system and immediately demonstrated that attitude by wearing white cloth, a color (lack thereof) of the untouchables as a way of communicating that she did not esteem people based on the caste system. Some adult temple prostitutes ran away. One story was a young girl around 12 (marriageable) she wanted to be a Christian but by choosing Christianity she would be dishonoring her family and they would kill her. Amy helped her escape to another place, thereby she was safe and her community didn't know she had dishonored her family.
Sometimes the parents could afford an extra mouth to feed so giving a girl to be raised in a temple insured that she would be fed and cared for even though she would be used for a very young girl sought solace because she was raised as a temple prostitute. Soon people were giving their young daughters to Amy to raise and she started an orphanage in a nearby area of Dohnavr in the State of Tamil Nadu India.
Amy sent letters to her friends and those interested in her work, this correspondence covers the 50 years of service in India; she also wrote 13 other books. While in ministry, she never once asked for money. She prayed and waited until the money arrived and it always arrived, when needed and in the amount she needed. She raised many children and people started bringing her boys as well so she had a separate home for them on the property. She built a prayer house and then a Hospital. She built a dispensary at a town nearby for basic medical care.
When she was 63 she had gone with some of her workers (some were women who had been raised in her orphanage and remained loyal) to see a home they wanted to use, it was considered haunted so though the people in the region didn't care for Christians, the owner was motivated to rent it out, she fell in a hole (it was night time). She had a severe break in her leg and a twisted ankle and had to be taken to the hospital. She never recovered though she had a nice healing of her leg and ankle. Doctors realized that something occurred within her spine and she was bedridden for nearly 20 more years. She still maintained close to those running the various services and changed many lives for the better. She died in her early 80's and said that she wanted no coffin or stone marker. So, her friends put a birdbath to mark her remains as she loved the birds of that area so much that she would let them fly into her room despite the mess.
This book was written on the fourth grade reading level so it can be enjoyed by people, young and old.