You can give without loving. But you cannot love without giving." That is what Amy used to say, and she lived it. Lived it so deeply it could get her into lots of trouble. One time it seemed sure Amy Carmichael would be arrested and thrust inside an Indian prison on kidnapping charges. And technically Amy was a kidnapper. Many times over in fact! Thirteen years earlier, in 1901, Amy sheltered her first temple runaway. Temple children were young girls dedicated to the gods and forced into prostitution to earn money for the priests. Over the years, Amy had rescued many children, often at the cost of extreme exhaustion and personal danger.

One of her recent rescues was five-year-old Kohila. Kohila's guardians wanted her back. Amy refused to return the little child to certain abuse. Instead, she made plans to cause the girl to "disappear" to a safe place. Amy was too well known to spirit Kohila away herself. So she arranged for someone else to do it. The plot was discovered. Charges were brought against her. Thus Amy faced a seven year prison term.

She Was A Most Unlikely Heroine
Amy suffered neuralgia, a disease of the nerves that made her whole body weak and achy and often put her in bed for weeks on end. Friends thought she was foolish when she announced she was going to be a missionary. They predicted that she would soon be back in England for keeps. But Amy was sure God had called her to go overseas. All of her life, she had been learning to listen to his voice.

Praying for Blue Eyes
One of the first incidents occurred when she was a child. Mother had said that if Amy prayed, the Lord would answer. Amy had brown eyes. She prayed for blue. In the morning she jumped out of bed and ran to the mirror. Mrs. Carmichael heard her wail in disappointment. It took Mrs. Carmichael several minutes of careful explanation before Amy understood that "no" was an answer too. God meant Amy to have brown eyes for a reason, explained Mrs. Carmichael. Just what the reason was, she might never know. But meanwhile, brown eyes were perfectly lovely. Amy wasn't so sure. Smiling Irish blue would always be her favorite color, even if God said "No."

Youthful Escapades
There was a bit of rebel in Amy. If trouble developed at the Carmichael house, she was almost sure to be a ringleader in it. There was the time squeaks interrupted family devotions. Amy feigned ignorance, but the truth came out. The frozen mouse in her pocket had revived.

Another time she led her brothers and sisters in a challenge to see how many poisonous laburnum pods they could eat before they died. Fortunately they emerged with little more than upset stomachs. There was another time when she led them through a skylight onto the dangerous roof.

Critical Life Changes
As a youth Amy thought she was a Christian, but an evangelist showed her she needed a personal commitment. She gave her heart to Christ. Service to him became the center and passion of her life.

After three years of boarding school, Amy returned home because her parents no longer had the money to support her education. Mrs. Carmichael took sixteen year old Amy out to buy a dress. Amy found a beautiful one -- royal blue -- but turned away from it. Her mother was surprised, but Amy explained that clothes were no longer as important to her as they once were now that Christ had given her new purpose in life. She would wait a year until her parents were better able to afford new clothes for her. She never got that dress, because the next year, Mr. Carmichael died unexpectedly.