“On Judgment Day, the quality of each person's work will be exposed by God” ~ Corinthians 3:13
She attended Ireland’s best boarding schools and relished
the fruits of wealth and privilege. One day when she and her mother enjoyed tea
and biscuits in a fine restaurant, a little beggar pressed her dirty nose against
the window.
Amy’s heart broke for the starving, sickly girl. She promised
that when she grew up, she’d find a way to help those disadvantaged. Fifteen
years later she traveled to India, never to leave.
For an aspiring missionary, Amy had an unusual background. In
the late 1800s, it was rare for single women to go into a foreign country and
preach the Gospel. She also suffered from neuralgia, a condition causing
weakness and pain so great that she was often bedbound for weeks at a time. Finally,
Amy lacked any formal Biblical training.
Upon arrival, she immediately started learning the Tamil
language. Amy entered a world where the predominant religion was Hinduism,
where Christians were scarce, and the caste social structure neglected women
and the poor.
Despite dying her skin brown with coffee to fit in,
villagers mostly responded to her gospel message with disinterest or rejection.
Until she heard the cry of a 7-year-old girl named Preena.
“Pleeease help me! Don't send me back!" screamed the
terrified child as she jumped into Amy's lap, clinging to her neck. She’d just
escaped from a Hindu temple. Preena's mom had given her to the temple priests
in hopes of winning the favor of the gods.
With the help of another missionary couple, they found an
empty house in the village of Dohnavur and established a sanctuary for the
kids.
By the end of 1924, the number reached 30 children under their care. Amy oversaw around 140 of India’s most vulnerable by decade's end. Amy, now 63, had developed neuritis and arthritis which kept her bedridden for the rest of her life.
Though Amy’s conditions slowed her down, they didn’t slow
God’s work. By the 1940s, around 900 children and adults and 40–50 helpers
lived in the village. What began with a single house was now a thriving village
with nurseries, homes, a school, and a hospital with three doctors.
Amy continued
to manage the staff and meet regularly with children who needed special help or
discipline until she died in 1951 at 83. No fanfare – all Amy asked was to be
buried in the garden outside her window, the one she’d looked out at during the
last twenty years of her life.
