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Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious GemsCopyright © 1998 by YWAM Publishing

Published by YWAM Publishinga ministry of Youth With A MissionP.O. Box 55787, Seattle, WA 98155-0787

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in anyform without permission in writing from the publisher, except in thecase of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.

ISBN-13: 978-1-57658-018-9ISBN-10: 1-57658-018-0

Ninth printing 2012

Printed in the United States of America

Unit study curriculum guides are available for select biographies.

Available at your local Christian

bookstore or from YWAM Publishing

1-800-922-2143 / www.ywampublishing.com

Adoniram Judson

Amy Carmichael

Betty Greene

Brother Andrew

Cameron Townsend

Clarence Jones

Corrie ten Boom

Count Zinzendorf

C. S. Lewis

C. T. Studd

David Bussau

David Livingstone

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

D. L. Moody

Elisabeth Elliot

Eric Liddell

Florence Young

George Müller

Gladys Aylward

Hudson Taylor

Ida Scudder

Isobel Kuhn

Jacob DeShazer

Jim Elliot

John Wesley

John Williams

Jonathan Goforth

Lillian Trasher

Loren Cunningham

Lottie Moon

Mary Slessor

Nate Saint

Paul Brand

Rachel Saint

Rowland Bingham

Sundar Singh

Wilfred Grenfell

William Booth

William Carey

ä

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

East Asia

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

South India

ä

ä

N

India

Kaveri River

WE

ST

ER

N G

HA

T M

OU

NTA

INS

CEYLON

Colombo

MadrasBangalore

Kotogiri

Ootacamund(Ooty)

Nagercoil

DOHNAVUR

Palamcottah

Tirunelveli

Gulfof

Mannar

Arabian Sea

Bayof

Bengal

miles

Scale

0 75 150

11/23/40 inches

1. Swinging in the Rain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2. Shadows in the Attic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

3. A Voice from the Fountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

4. Tin Tabernacle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

5. Out of the Blue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

6. Laughing in the Rain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

7. Enough of English Clothing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

8. Get the Head out of Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

9. A Fish out of Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

10. Going Native . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

11. The Starry Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

12. Let Me Stay in the Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

13. Child-Stealing Amma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

14. Tied Feet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

15. Little Gems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

16. A Strange Sense of Joy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

17. She Is a He! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

18. Amma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Contents

Waves smashed across the bow of the SSYokohama Maru, sending sheets of water rac-

ing back across the deck. None of the passengersaboard noticed. They were too sick to care. Mostwere gathered in the ship’s saloon, too scared tostay below deck as the ship shuddered and rolledviolently from side to side. The smell of vomit waseverywhere.

Amy Carmichael, a young Irish woman, sat inthe corner sicker than she’d ever been before in herlife. It felt to her as though she had been aboard shipforever, but it had been only four days. The voyagefrom Shanghai en route to Japan had been so calm.Halfway across the Yellow Sea, though, the shiphad run into a typhoon, and as a result, she was

11

Swinging in the Rain

Chapter 1

now being mercilessly battered by storm-ravagedseas. All Amy wanted to do was get her feet back onsolid ground, and soon.

Just when she thought she could not stand to bethrown around by the sea any longer, the captain,wrapped in an oilskin parka, stumbled into thesaloon. He spoke first in Japanese, reeling short,sharp sentences off his tongue. Then he turned toAmy and in broken English announced the goodnews. The Yokohama Maru was directly offshore fromShimonoseki, their destination port. Amy breatheda sigh of relief. Then the captain told her the badnews. Because of the wind and huge waves, therewas no way the ship could dock at Shimonoseki.They would simply have to stay offshore and rideout the typhoon.

As the captain left the saloon, Amy vomited intothe bucket beside her. She wondered how longthey’d have to wait for the storm to die down. Shefelt so wretchedly ill. Still, she was tired of sittingand feeling sick, so she decided a walk might helpsettle her churning stomach. She knew it wouldn’t,though. It hadn’t any of the other times she’d triedit. Still, she had to get away from the gagging air ofthe saloon. She wrapped her woolen shawl aroundher shoulders and clambered to her feet. Stumblingout onto the deck, she took a deep breath. Shegripped the ship’s railing tightly as seawaterwashed around her ankles and spray lashed againsther cheeks. She looked longingly in the direction ofShimonoseki and hoped it wouldn’t be long before

Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems12

the wind and sea calmed enough for the ship toberth.

As she gazed towards Shimonoseki, Amy saw amost unusual sight, at least for the middle of atyphoon. A steam tugboat emerged through theblinding rain and billowing seas. It came withintwenty feet of the starboard side of the SS YokohamaMaru, bobbing up and down in time to the waves.One of the sailors yelled to the captain, and soon acrowd of passengers and crew had spilled out ondeck for a closer look.

The captain of the Yokohama Maru and the cap-tain of the tugboat yelled and gestured at eachother. Amy couldn’t understand a word of whatthey said, but she hoped it had something to dowith towing the SS Yokohama Maru into dock. Butapparently, towing wasn’t what they had been talk-ing about. Instead, the captain announced that thepassengers were going to be transferred to the tug-boat and taken into Shimonoseki. The starboard armof the ship’s derrick was lowered, and a rope netwas attached to the winch line on the derrick arm.As the first passenger was placed in the rope netand hoisted into the air, Amy looked on in horror.She wanted to get her feet on solid ground inShimono seki as soon as possible, but this was defi-nitely not what she had in mind. The derrick armswung over the side of the Yokohama Maru towardthe tugboat. The man in the rope net looked terri-fied as he dangled over the frothing ocean beforebeing dumped onto the deck of the pitching, rolling

Swinging in the Rain 13

tugboat. A crewman on the tug helped the passen-ger out of the rope net, which was then hoisted backaboard the Yokohama Maru for the next passenger.

One by one, the passengers were loweredaboard the tugboat until finally it was Amy’s turn.Reluctantly, she stepped into the net. Before she hada chance to change her mind, the crewman operat-ing the winch pulled a lever, and the rope net gath-ered around Amy. Suddenly, she was danglingabove the deck. With a jerk, the end of the derrickarm moved over the side of the ship. Amy swunglike a pendulum in the rain. She looked down at theangry waves snarling up at her. Frothy spraysoaked through her clothes. Then she was over theaft deck of the tug, and as she swung from side toside, the winch slowly lowered her. One of the tug’screwmen grabbed the net and steadied it as Amywas dumped bottom first onto the deck. The crew-man helped her out of the net, and she huddledwith the other passengers.

Finally, when all the passengers had been low-ered aboard the tug, their luggage was also loadedinto the net and transferred to the tugboat. Aftersome more yelling between the captain of the tug-boat and the captain of the Yokohama Maru, and aloud hoot of the tug’s steam horn, the two boatsparted.

If the trip on the Yokohama Maru had been treach-erous, the ride on the tugboat was downright dan-gerous. Amy prayed frantically throughout thejourney. The small tug didn’t cut through the stormy

Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems14

seas like the larger ship had. Instead, it rode up andover the mountainous waves. At the crest of eachwave, the tug tipped forward or rolled sideways somuch that Amy thought it would capsize for sure.Finally, the outline of the Japanese coast came intoview, and a cheer went up from the passengers.

Amy’s feet were soon back on solid ground. Asthe rain dripped from her felt hat and formedrivulets that ran down her cotton dress, shebreathed a deep breath and slowly exhaled. For thefirst time in several days, she didn’t feel like vomit-ing. She had made it to Japan. She had traveledhalfway around the world, and now she wasfinally here. What an adventure it had been! Therehad been so many risks along the way. But then,risks and adventure were nothing new to AmyCarmichael. She’d always been willing to take risksto get what she wanted.

Swinging in the Rain 15