EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; HELEN KELLER P/89

 

In this post I will continue to share the story of Helen Keller. She lived from 1880 - 1968. Anne Sullivan, who had become Helen's teacher and mentor, used touch to teach Helen the alphabet and to make words by spelling them with her finger on Helen's palm. Within a few weeks Helen caught on. 

A year later, Anne brought Helen to the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, where she learned to read Braille and write with a specially made typewriter. Newspapers chronicled her progress. 

At fourteen, Helen went to New York for two years where she improved her speaking ability, and then returned to Massachusetts to attend the Cambridge School for Young Ladies. Helen was next admitted to Radcliffe College, graduating cum laude in 1904. Anne went with her, helping Helen with her studies.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; HELEN KELLER P/88

Today I will continue my series on Evangelical women who lived in the second half of 1800 and felt called to ministry despite the opposition of men, this time sharing the story of a woman named Helen Keller. She lived from 1880 - 1968. Her parents were Arthur H. Keller, a farmer and a newspaper editor, and Katherine Adams Keller. They lived in Tuscombia, Alabama.

Several months before Helen's second birthday, a serious illness left her deaf and blind. She had no formal education, and since she could not speak, she developed a system for communicating with her family by feeling their facial expressions.

Recognising her daughter's intelligence, Helen's mother sought help from experts including inventor Alexander Graham Bell, who had become involved with deaf children. Ultimately she was referred to Anne Sullivan, a graduate of the Perkins School for the Blind, who became Helen's lifelong teacher and mentor. Although Helen initially resisted her, Anne persevered.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; AMELIA GIBSON P/87

 

In this story I will continue to focus on Evangelical women who lived in the second half of 1800 and felt called to ministry despite the opposition of men, this time sharing the story of a woman named Amelia Gibson. She lived from 1879 -1955. Amelia and her husband the Rev. Reuben A. Gibson were ordained in the Pentecostal denomination and pastored the Zion Gospel Temple.

Amelia and her husband founded as well the Zion Bible Institute in East Providence, R.I., which began as a single house, but grew to contain 19 buildings, a faculty of 12, and a student body of 200.

The students graduated as evangelists, pastors and missionaries. They came from all parts of the world. Today the school is in Massachusetts and is known as North Point Bible College.

Amelia died in 1955. 

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; AMY CARMICHAEL P/86

                                                                                                                                                                             

In this post I will continue to share the story of a woman named Amy Carmichael. She lived from  1867 - 1951. Initially Amy travelled to Japan, staying for fifteen months, but returned home for health reasons. After a brief period of service in Sr Lanka, she went to Bangalore, India, for her health, where she chose to stay to continue her work as a missionary.

Amy founded the Dohnavur Fellowship in 1901, to continue her work. Dohnavur is situated in Tamil Nadu, thirty miles from India's southern tip.This place became a sanctuary for over one thousand children. Her work started with a girl named Preena. Having served as a temple servant (serving as a temple prostitute) against her wishes, Preena managed to escape. Amy provided her shelter, thus beginning her new ministry. In 1918, Dohnavur added a home for young boys, many born to the former temple prostitutes.

The Dohnavur Fellowship continues the ministry, now supporting appr. 500 people on 400 acres with 16 nurseries and a hospital. 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; AMY CARMICHAEL P/85

                                                                                                                                                                             

In this post I will focus on a woman named Amy Carmichael. She lived from 1867 - 1951. Amy's father was David Carmichael and her mother was Catherine Carmichael. Both were committed Christians.They lived in the small village of Millisle, County Down, Ireland. In her youth Amy attended Harrogate Ladies College for four years.

Amy's father moved the family to Belfast when she was sixteen years old, but he died two years later. In Belfast the family founded the Welcome Evangelical Church. 

In the mid-1880s, Amy started a Sunday -morning class for the "Shawlies" (mill girls who wore shawls instead of hats) in the church hall of Rosemary Street Presbyterian. This mission grew quickly to include several hundred attendees. 

Amy continued at the Welcome Evangelical Church until she received a call to work among the mill girls of Manchester in 1889, from which she moved on to overseas missionary work. 

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; ELLEN ARNOLD /84

 

In this post I will continue to share the story of a woman named Ellen Arnold. She lived from 1858 - 1931. Ellen purchased land in Comilla and began building a mission house in 1889, before moving there in 1890. She spent her life preaching, establishing schools and dispensing medicine. She became fluent in Bangali and helped establish the East Bengal Baptist Union. 

Ellen later moved to Pubna where there were tensions with other missionaries, particularly as the men, who had arrived later, controlled the finances and movements of the women. In 1912 she was instructed by the Australian society to "stop interfering in the Pubna men's department or come home."

From 1913, Ellen lived in a thatched, mud-floored village hut among the local people rather than in the typical British Raj style properties of her colleagues.

Ellen returned to Australia in 1930, with the East Bengal Baptist Union taking over her work,but returned to India as a voluntary worker and died in Ataikola on 9 July 1931 after refusing surgery for a malignant growth.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1800; ELLEN ARNOLD P/83

 

Today I will continue my series on Evangelical women who lived in the second half of 1800 and felt called to ministry despite the opposition of men, this time sharing the story of a woman named Ellen Arnold. She lived from 1858 - 1931. Ellen was born in Aston, Warwickshire, England. Her parents were Alfred Arnold and Ellen Jane Seager. The family migrated to Adelaide, Australia in 1879 where they became members of Flinders Street Baptist Church. She became a teacher after being in the first intake of the Adelaide Teacher's College.

Ellen was influenced by her pastor, Silas Mead, who had founded the Autralian Baptist Missionary Society in 1864. After some medical training, she and Marie Gilbert went to Furreedpore in October 1882, the first missionaries sent by the newly formed society, undertaking "zenana work."

Ellen returned to Australia in 1884 suffering illness and undertook a tour of the colonies and New Zealand which became known as "the crusade of Ellen Arnold." This led to the establishment of  the Queensland and New Zealand Baptist Missionary Societies. Four other young women decided to join her (becoming known as the "Five Barley Loaves") in East Bengal, which then became the primary mission field for Australian Baptists.