His Hands and His Feet

This week I am going to write about a woman who's life inspires me and I consider her to be a Hero. Amy Carmichael lived between 1867 and 1951. She gave her life to see people come to Christ and rescue children in India.

Amy Carmichael was born in Ireland (oh how I want to go there...). When she was only around 18 years old she founded a church in Belfast and soon started a Sunday school for girls who worked in the mill factories. In fact this ministry was so successful that it grew and grew and grew. Young girls wanted to be taught and learn about God.
After that she applied to go on missions in China, but was in very poor health condition. She did not end up going to China, but to India.
She was recruited to work with girls who were freed out of forced prostitution in Hindu temples. She founded the Donhavur Fellowship which still exists today and built a home for these young women, a haven to find shelter.
What is remarkable and what I love about God is that there is a reason for everything and that he knows our calling and takes care of things. When Amy Carmichael was a little girl she prayed to God to turn her eyes to blue (she had brown eyes) but that did not happen. It was only when she was in India that she found out why it was so important for her to have dark eyes just like the Indian women. As she went into the temples to capture and rescue these enslaved women she was not recognized easily (she also darkened her skin with make up to look Indian.). Had she had blue eyes she would've looked more European and would have had troubles maybe in India.
What we can learn from that is quite simply what Paul writes about in the Bible. Be a Greek to the Greek, a Roman to the Romans. Be transparent, be authentic, be close to the people surrounding you. Don't miss an opportunity because people are distracted by who YOU are as a person and don't see who CHRIST is in you.

Amy Carmichael gave her life to the children in India, serving them. She actually had very poor health and had to be in bed very often. This never stopped her from fulfilling her purpose, her calling. She served in India for 55 years, 20 of which she was bound to bed because of an injury she never healed from Yet, she kept on pressing, rescueing children, bringing them to Christ. Her heart was burning for the lost and broken, the needy. She loved those children she rescued.
Her most famous quote is:

"One can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving."

This is so true. When your heart is burning for something, when you love something with the immense love that only comes from God you cannot stop giving in any way. It's what God did. He loved us so much, that he GAVE, he gave His son, His only son, to rescue us. We were the lost, the broken, the needy, the ones who abandoned God. Yet, he LOVED and GAVE so that we may be whole, rescued, content, fulfilled and have a meaning in life. But not only for ourselves, but blessed with this to be a blessing. To be a river in the desert and love as He loved us first.

Amy Carmichael died in India, she had never gone back to Europe in the 55 years of ministry.
Her life is inspiring and influenced many missionaries after her. I pray that it may inspire you today to try to grasp again the fulness of God's love and His sacrifice so that we might be with him.

Now it's our calling to go out and be His hands and be His feet, to reach out our hand to the lost and broken. This may be in our neighborhood, in the utmost places of the earth. It may be at your work place. But whereever it is, you bring His light to a world of darkness.
So lift your eyes to Jesus, focus on Him, so that you may not miss what He has for your, the plan and calling for your life.
I want to end this blog with another quote by Amy Carmichael which expresses just that.

"Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is."

With those words and this short video clip, I leave you now but encourage you to ponder about these things and ask yourself where you should reach out your hand.

xoxo Ramona