Amy Carmichael’s Common Work for the Lord

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Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) is well known as the devout, faith-filled Irish missionary who served in India for fifty-six years. Her primary ministry there became one of caring for the spiritual and material needs of more than 2,500 orphans, many of whom had been rescued from lives of temple prostitution.

Amy Carmichael with Orphan

While such ministry was extremely significant and commendable, it involved a great deal of mundane, self-sacrificial work. Early in her orphan ministry Amy found herself questioning the value of such common service as compared to explicitly “spiritual” ministry.

What she learned and then taught her ministry associates and the children they served, instructs and encourages us in carrying out our own responsibilities of life which seem more commonplace than significant and spiritual to us.    

By June 1904, Amy’s orphan ministry in India had grown to include seventeen infants and young children, six of whom had been rescued from temple slavery and prostitution.  Amy and the native women of her mission compound faced the relentless, often messy, routine of caring for squalling babies.

Amy Carmichael with Orphans

As a result, Amy was not able to devote as much time as she previously had to evangelistic work.  “Could it be right,” she wondered, “to turn from so much that might be of profit and become just nursemaids?”

Remembering the example of her Lord who washed His disciples’ feet, she concluded the answer to her own question was surely “yes.”  The servant is not above his master, and it is not the concern of the servant to decide which work is great and important, and which is small and unimportant.

Years later, she wrote on this same subject: “If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider ‘not spiritual work’ I can best help others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love.”

Some of the more recent converts, both young nurses and older women, objected to doing such childcare work, considering it beneath their caste.  But Amy had taught her primary Indian assistant in the orphan ministry, Ponnammal, that “motherwork,” like all other honest labor, is God’s work.  It is not to be despised but offered up to Him.  Ponnammal, in turn, set an example for the others by quietly doing the tasks they did not care to do.  Her spirit influenced others, and eventually there was not a single nurse among them who refused to do whatever needed to be done.

As the children grew, they too were taught to serve by helping with the work.  They helped keep the house tidy, husked rice, picked fruit and cleaned rice vessels.  To encourage them in their work, Amy taught them a song:

Jesus, Savior, dost Thou see
When I’m doing work for Thee?
Common things, not great and grand,
Carrying stones and earth and sand?

I did common work, you know,
Many, many years ago;
And I don’t forget. I see
Everything you do for Me.

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This and other instructive examples of Christians faithfully, humbly carrying out their service of the Lord, even when it seemed mundane and secular rather than exciting and spiritual, can be found in my book Timeless Stories: God’s Incredible Work in the Lives of Inspiring Christians (Christian Focus Publications). If you’ve appreciated and benefited from this blog, thanks for sharing it with others.

Copyright 2026 by Vance E. Christie

Removing the Burden of Sin – Amy Carmichael

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In our secularized society I don’t hear much public or even private admission about people feeling burdened by their sin. But God’s Spirit is still very much in the business of working in people’s hearts and drawing them to salvation. So we can safely assume the Holy Spirit is convicting not a few people of sin, righteousness, and judgment (see John 16:18).

Amy Carmichael with orphan pix
Amy Carmichael with Orphan

Perhaps you know of an individual who is under such conviction. Or maybe you are convicted and burdened about your own sin. The solution for addressing such a spiritual concern is pointed out in the following true story.

Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) was a Protestant Christian from Ireland who served faithfully as a missionary in India for fifty-six years. She and a group of fellow Christians once ministered in an Indian village where they met a young boy from a Hindu family.

Sometime earlier the boy had approached his own dad with a spiritual concern: “Father, I have a load. The burden of sin is heavy. What can I do to get rid of my sin?”

“Learn the Thousand Stanzas and your sin will melt away,” his father advised.

So the boy learned those supposedly holy writings. But his spiritual burden was still heavy. “Is there no other way?” he queried.

“You are young,” the father replied. “Wait for a year or two, then you may find the way.”

“But what if I should die first?” the boy responded with earnest concern.

Amy Carmichael
Amy Carmichael

His ongoing burden led to his coming to have an unquenched spiritual thirst. Finally, he heard a group of visiting Christians singing one of their hymns at a service in his village. The words of the chorus were: “Come home, come home. You who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling. Calling, ‘O sinner, come home’.”

The words of the hymn drew the boy like a magnet. At the Christian service, he heard the Gospel (Good News) message that God’s Son, Christ Jesus, had come into the world to save people from their sin. The boy learned that Jesus, at the end of His sinless life, had died on a cross to receive the judgment our sins deserve so we could instead be forgiven. The next day the boy trusted in Christ and His death for him on the cross to rescue him from his sin.

He afterward testified: “Where was my burden then? Where was my thirst? Gone – as the dew when it sees the sun!”

If you are weighed down with a sense of sin and guilt, I pray you’ll find relief by coming to believe in and receive Jesus as your personal Savior from sin. If I may be of any assistance to you in that matter, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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Timeless Stories by Vance Christie

This and many other spiritually-beneficial, real-life incidents are to be found in my book Timeless Stories, God’s Incredible Work in the Lives of Inspiring Christians.

Copyright 2020 by Vance E. Christie

Trusting God Who Is Able – Amy Carmichael

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Three of Amy Carmichael's Orphan Girls

Three of Amy Carmichael’s Orphan Girls

As part of her ministry in Dohnavur, southern India, Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) helped rescue children who had been sold as slaves and prostitutes for use in the immoral practices that commonly took place in Hindu temples.  Early in her years in India, she began rescuing young girls from that fate, then caring for them at her Christian orphanage.  Only slowly did she become aware of the fact that young boys, too, were sold and used in those same degraded ways.

She spoke to her ministry colleagues about the boys’ plight, only to be told why it was impossible for her to do anything about it:  Her hands were already more than full.  Boys were harder to rear than girls.  Boys’ and girls’ work had to be kept separate in India.  Where were the men who were needed to help with ministry to boys?  Surely God would have to raise up someone else to lead a boys’ work.

Amy would not settle for that verdict.  Instead, in 1911, she began to pray fervently about the matter.  One day while walking in the forest she pondered the perplexing problem of men being needed for a boys’ ministry.  She paused by a waterfall.  Then, as she watched the ceaseless cataract pouring down from above, she “heard a voice from heaven, the voice of many waters” saying: “Can I who do this, not do that?”  She later revealed, “Spiritually, in that hour, the work for boys began.”

Seven years of ceaseless prayer passed before the first baby boy was entrusted to the care of Amy’s orphanage.  She immediately took action by surveying a field next to the girls’ compound, then coming up with a design for a boys’ orphanage that could be located there.

She also asked the Lord for a specific sign that His blessing was on the new venture—a donation of 100 pounds.  She shared that request with her ministry associates.  The very next day a legacy of exactly 100 pounds was received in the mail.

Eight years later, in 1926, between seventy and eighty orphan boys were being cared for at Dohnavur. By the summer of the following year, plans were also being made to build a hospital at Dohnavur.  It was to be named “Place of Heavenly Healing,” and Amy Carmichael insisted it be not only functional but also an attractive, even beautiful, facility.

“Do you think we could manage without a maternity ward at first?” queried the compound’s new doctor, May Powell.  Dr. Powell strongly desired to include such a ward but was well aware that steep construction costs might require corners to be cut.  Her nursing staff thought it would be absolutely necessary to include maternity facilities.  So they decided to leave the matter to God’s providential guidance.  If He desired them to have one He would cause the money to be sent.

Amy and her colleagues sometimes celebrated family feast days with the children entrusted to their care.  On one such day the children sat on the floor with delicacies piled on a green leaf plate in front of them.  Garlands of bright flowers festooned the walls.  Presently a child ran up to Amy with a yellow envelope in her hand.

Opening it immediately, the missionary found a check and a short note that said simply, “One thousand pounds for maternity ward.”  She later admitted, “I stood like Rhoda, and opened not the gate for gladness” (Acts 12:13-14).

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These are just two of many examples of trusting God that appear in the chapter on “Faith” in my book Timeless Stories, God’s Incredible Work in the Lives of Inspiring Christians. The incidents in that chapter illustrate that we can trust the Lord, for His own glory, to supply various needs that we have as we seek to live for and serve Him: finances and other material needs; spiritual fruit; ministry workers; healing and health; strength to face overwhelming difficulties; even weather intervention. I believe our own faith in our almighty, attentive God can be stimulated and strengthened as we prayerfully ponder these outstanding instances of exercising strong trust in the Lord.

Copyright 2014 by Vance E. Christie