As In a Mirror

This is a new weekly meme that I have joined at the kind invitation of Miss Szymanski. Today, I would like to share a story from one of my favorite books of all time, A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael, written by former missionary Elisabeth Elliot. She was a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian missionary in the late 1800s-early 1900s. In fact, she died in 1951, not long before the biggest missionary news of all time. Amy Carmichael is known largely for her work in India, where she spent most of her life. But one of the countries she worked in before finally settling in India was Japan. This nation had only recently legally allowed Westerners in, so they were still quite a dark and mysterious island, still a frontier to missionaries. So here is an example of what challenges missionaries faced there:

Amy wanted to visit the Buddhist village of Hirosi, where there were only about eight or nine Christians. Before she went, Amy prayed about what God wanted to do there. She “felt pressed in the spirit to pray for… one soul.” So she and a Christian Japanese woman went, and a silk weaver became a Christian. “A month later they went again. It was two souls she prayed for this time. the silk weaver brought a friend who ‘found peace,’ and an old woman also turned to the Lord. Two weeks passed. Again they went, again they asked God what He wanted to do, and the answer was that for souls were to cross the line.” Other missionaries were praying with them about the trips and for souls, but some of them said that to ask for four souls was “too much.” Even the Christians in Hirosi spoke in doubt. “‘You can’t expect conversions every time. It’s quite presumptuous. Fancy going back to Matsuye empty-handed! etc.’”

Opposition from fellow believers to pray for four souls only increased when Amy said she was going to preach about believers’ need to burn their Buddhist idols. The other missionaries thought this preposterous, and even gathered in a prayer meeting to ask that the Lord would “open [Amy's] eyes, show her the foolishness of transgressing Japanese custom.” But Amy stood firm, stating that she “‘could not buy a soul at the cost of sacrificing the truth.’” Thank God, because Amy remained faithful, and believed that what God has promised, He is well able to perform, (Romans 4:20-22) the four Japanese converted. Weeks later, Amy again believed that God wanted her to pray for the addition of eight souls in Hirosi, and stood fast to God’s promise in 1 John 5:14-15: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” Still, the Christians resisted. They were afraid of not receiving what they requested of God, and that they would look bad. There was one particular man who butted heads with Amy on this issue. But finally, he told her, “‘You are a Jesus-walking one; if He speaks to you, though it speaks not to us, we will believe.’” The book continues: “Their trust, greater perhaps in Amy than in God, was rewarded. In His mercy… eight more “stars” now shone in Hirosi.” On Amy’s next visit to the village, no number was laid on her heart; there were more converts, but Amy did not know the number. Fourteen years later, two missionaries visited Hirosi, and found that those who converted under Amy’s preaching were still “firmly rooted in the faith.”

How glad we are that someone truly believed for the saving of those souls! For Amy Carmichael, faith was a deep, deep assurance that no one could take away, no matter how much they opposed her. Think about it– these weren’t unbelievers who wouldn’t believe God, they were MISSIONARIES! Not only would they not believe, they resisted Amy’s belief, and asked God to “open her eyes”!!! this experience was surely good preparation for Amy’s future life in India (you’ll just have to read the book yourself!). I find it neat that on almost each visit to Hirosi, God wanted to give/reap a double portion. He is so good that way. So did God really need missionaries’ help in getting eight souls? Not exactly; people don’t convert people, God does. But how can one hear without a preacher? Somebody had to speak the good news, and somebody had to do what it took to find willing hearers. Somebody had to trust God and obey what He said; then He could complete that good work. (Hebrews 13:20-21)