On November 9, 1895, Amy Carmichael arrived in India ill. Friends begged her to remain in England due to her neuralgia, a nerve condition that left her weak and in pain for weeks. If she had stayed, few would know her name today. She chose to save children from temple prostitution there and penned famous books about her efforts.

As a girl, her mother said prayer would bring answers from God. One evening, Carmichael asked for blue eyes over brown ones. She leaped from bed the next morning and checked the mirror. She cried when she saw brown eyes staring back at her. Her mother explained that a “no” counts as an answer. God wanted her brown eyes for a purpose.

In her teens, Carmichael believed she followed Christ but learned she needed a deeper bond with him. After that choice, serving him became her daily duty. She led classes and prayer meetings for poor street kids in Belfast. She helped the “shawlies,” factory girls too broke for church hats, so they used shawls. Proper folks avoided them. Soon, her groups grew to hold three hundred people.

When her father, Mr. Carmichael, passed away, his widow and kids relocated to England. An uncle invited her to share Jesus with his mill staff. She lived close by in a place full of bugs and dove into the task. Sickness struck her often, though, so she had to stop. She tried missionary work in Japan, but the chill bothered her badly and forced her home to England.

It pained her to leave her elderly mother once more, but Carmichael followed God’s pull to India. She learned that young children served as rented prostitutes in Hindu temples. She wrote a book called Things as They Are, sharing what she could about the cruel customs. She began rescuing those kids. In a sari with her skin dyed brown, she blended in as a Hindu. At last, she saw the reason for her brown eyes.

Her rescues broke the law, in truth. When she saved a five-year-old girl named Kohila, the family wanted her returned. Officials accused Carmichael of kidnapping and threatened seven years behind bars. Yet India backed off the case, maybe wary of global backlash. She once wrote, “Christ’s power shows in what he overcomes.”

Also On This Day

• 1522: Martin Chemnitz played a pivotal role in rescuing Lutheran theology from Calvinist and Catholic undermining, using his keen mind to defend the Reformation teachings of Martin Luther. Through influential works such as Loci Theologici and Examination of the Council of Trent, Chemnitz helped draft the Formula of Concord, an orthodox restatement of Lutheran faith that united disparate factions.
  
• 1731: Benjamin Banneker, born on a Maryland farm in 1731 to a free black mother and enslaved father, defied societal norms to become a polymath and prominent figure in American history. His remarkable achievements, including predicting an eclipse and creating accurate almanacs, challenged the racist views of Thomas Jefferson and left a lasting legacy as a champion of freedom and equality.
  
• 1865: John Hyde, a young man born on November 9, 1865, in Illinois, became known as “Praying Hyde” after yielding his heart to God and becoming a notable intercessor, pleading for the souls and needs of others. Through fervent prayer and unwavering faith, Hyde witnessed revivals and answered God’s call to bring souls into the kingdom of heaven, ultimately leaving an enduring legacy in the world of Christianity.
  
• 1885: Death from consumption of Jimmie Aoba, Florence Young’s first convert in her work among the Island recruits who served on Queensland plantations. After becoming a Christian, he had pleaded for nightly classes so that he might learn more quickly, and always brought other “boys” with him.
  
• 1918: Martyrdom of Ananius Aristov, who had been serving as village priest in Serginsky, and resisted the socialists who were murderous enemies of the Russian Orthodox Church. He and his two sons, Andrew and Hosea, are killed in the garden of the Perm theological seminary.