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 AMY
CARMICHAEL
Founder of Dohnavur Fellowship
Amy Carmichael was an ordinary woman
with extraordinary love for people. She
was born in Ireland in 1867, the first
child to Christian parents, David and
Catherine Carmichael. Amy grew up in a
large family, seven children in all. Her
parents were deeply devoted to Christ
and raised their children to love and
serve God. She learned early on the
discipline of sitting quietly and the
importance of a total, unswerving
commitment to Christ.
Amy was not pleased with her appearance.
She had brown eyes, which she found very
unattractive. While quite young, she
remembered her mother’s teaching that if
she asked God anything, He would surely
grant her request. So, having spiritual
stirrings at a young age, Amy proceeded
to ask God to change her eye color, not
realizing that sometimes His answer is
no. Much to her disappointment, they
remained brown. But as the years
unfolded, Amy came to realize the wisdom
of God’s denial of her request. While
serving the Lord in India, those brown
eyes served her well and made her fit
for service where God had put her.
During her formative years, Amy became a
very determined and well-disciplined
girl. Her father had taught her to be
“tough”, teaching her never to give in
to a difficulty. Due to her father
encouraging her “tomboy” spirit, Amy
learned to deal with physical stress and
strain and developed the determination
and an obedience to spiritual principles
that gave her the vitality she would
need to serve God on the mission field.
Because of living in a large family, she
also developed a tender heart and was
sensitive to the needs of others.
As she grew into adulthood, Amy felt
called to missions. She answered that
call with great joy and went as a
missionary to Japan in 1892. Fifteen
months later she fell seriously ill and
was sent to China for treatment and then
Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka) to rest.
In 1894 she went back to England. In
1895, Amy was commissioned by the Church
of England Zenana Missionary Society to
go to Dohnavur, India, where she served
fifty-six years as God's devoted servant
without a furlough. A major part of her
work there was devoted to rescuing
children who had been dedicated by their
families to be temple prostitutes. It
was here that she realized God’s wisdom
in His choice of her eye color. Nearly
without exception, Indians had brown
eyes. Amy’s brown eyes and Indian dress
made her more able to minister to women
and girls in the field, appearing to
them as one of their own.
After Amy had lived in India for some
time, she continued to be concerned
about a distressing situation that
existed in most of the pagan temples of
India. Young girls were taken in, many
times only as children, and made temple
prostitutes. The girls had a horrible
existence and Amy became deeply grieved
for them. She became convinced that she
must help these young girls wanting to
escape their horrible life in the
temples. While living in Dohnavur,
India, with a band of women that had
been converted to Christ, Amy founded
the Dohnavur Fellowship which became a
haven for homeless children, especially
those girls who had escaped from temple
prostitution. She was even given “temple
babies”, infants that were born of the
temple prostitutes, to raise in her
“home”. While the Dohnavur fellowship
began mainly as a haven for girls, later
a home for boys was also built.
The Dohnavur Fellowship became Amy’s
all-consuming ministry which she gave
her life to, never even taking a
furlough back to Europe. She wrote 35
books detailing her life in India that
have been widely read in Christian
circles and have inspired many to follow
their call to the mission field.
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