Amy Carmichael can truly be labeled as a life abandoned to God, as she sacrificed herself for others, similar to the way our own Lord and Savior did.

Amy Carmichael was born on December 16, 1867 in Millisle, Ireland to her parents, David and Catherine Carmichael, who were pious Presbyterians. As a child Carmichael wished and prayed to God to change her eyes from brown to blue, but little did she know what plans God had in store for her. When Carmichael’s father died in 1885, she was adopted by Robert Wilson, co founder of the Keswick Convention, where she began to become involved more in ministry. In 1887, she heard an inspiring message by Hudson Taylor, at the Keswick Convention, which sparked her call to missions. Although Carmichael suffered from neuralgia, a nerve disease which weakens the body and requires long periods of inactivity, she continued her endeavor in missions.

Carmichael’s first missionary work began in Japan in 1883, where she discovered sheer disappointment. The Japanese missionaries whom she was working with were not living a pure life honorable before God. As a missionary, Carmichael wanted to associate with others who were truly after God’s own heart, so after fifteen months, she left Japan and returned home to care for a sick friend. Because of Carmichael’s drive to do God’s work, she left home less than a year later and returned to missions work. Commissioned by the Church of England Zezana Mission, she made her way to India. In India, Carmichael was truly able to get to work for God. Her main focus was rescuing the temple children, girls who were being sold as prostitutes to raise money for priests. Carmichael developed a shelter or orphanage for all of the children she rescued, which became known as the Dohnavur Fellowship. To stay in custom, members of Dohnavur Fellowship wore Indian dress and were given Indian names. Another great sacrifice which Carmichael made to better associate herself with the Indian children was the coloring of her skin with coffee.

On June 23, 1931, Carmichael slipped and fell, breaking a right arm, fracturing a thigh bone, and sustaining other damage to her hip. Still fighting strong, she spent most of her time in bed, but died at the age of eighty-three on January 18, 1951. After she began missions in India, she remained there her whole life, until her death.

Amy Carmichael is a supreme example of a woman who lived purely for God’s will. Taking all other concerns aside, she went to the extent of risking her life in situations, coloring her skin with searing coffee, and simply abandoning her own life to follow God’s will.