என் ஜெபப் பங்காளர் யார்?

93 வயதான ஒரு அமெரிக்க நண்பரிடம்,எனக்கு மிகவும்பிடித்தது, "உங்களுக்காக நான் தினமும் பல முறை ஜெபிக்கிறேன்," என்பதாகும். வேதக் கட்டளையின்படி நான் ஆண்டவரோடு அடிக்கடி பேச வேண்டும் என்று தெரிந்து வைத்திருந்தாலும், மற்றவர்கள் எனக்காக ஜெபிப்பது எனக்கப் பிரியமான‌ ஒன்றாகும். ஆனால்,யார் எனக்கு சரியான ஜெபப்பங்காளராக இருக்க முடியும் என்பதுகுறித்துநான்செய்த வேத ஆராய்ச்சியில் கற்றுக் கொண்டதை உங்களுடன் பகிர்ந்து கொள்ள விரும்புகிறேன்,

இயேசுசிறு பிள்ளைகளுக்காக ஜெபித்தது

ஒரு சமயம் ஜனங்கள், இயேசு தங்களுடைய சிறு பிள்ளைகள் மீது கரத்தை வைத்து ஆசீர்வதிது ஜெபிக்க வேண்டும் என்று விரும்பினர். சீடர்கள் அதை தடுத்தனர். இயேசுவோ சிறு பிள்ளைகள் பரலோக ராஜ்ஜியத்தின் பிரஜைகள் என்று சொல்லி அவர்களை ஆசீர்வதித்தார் (மத்தேயு 19:13-15). சிறு பிள்ளைகளுக்கான தேவதூதர் எப்பொழுதும் பரலோகத்திலுள்ள பிதாவை தரிசிக்கின்றனர் என்று இயேசுவே கூறியுள்ளார் (மத்தேயு 18:10). சிறு பிள்ளைகளுக்காக அக்கறை கொள்ளுகிறவரும், ஜெபித்து ஆசீர்வதிப்பவரும் யார் என்றும் தெரிந்து கொண்டோம்.

இயேசு பேதுருவுக்காக ஜெபித்தது

இயேசுவுக்கு வயதில் மூத்தவர்களும் பிள்ளைகளே ஆவர். அவர்களுக்காகவும் அவர் ஜெபிக்கிறார். அவர் சிலுவையில் அறையப்படுமுன்னர் உள்ள கடைசி நாட்களில் நடந்த சம்பவம் ஒன்றை லூக்கா 22ம் அதிகாரம் வர்ணிக்கின்றது. இவ்வதிகாரத்தில் சாத்தான் எப்படி வெற்றிகரமாக யூதாஸ் காரியத்துக்குள்ளாக நுழைந்தான் என்று காண்கிறோம். இயேசு, யூதாஸை இழந்த துயரத்தில் இருக்கும் போது தான் இந்த சம்பவம் நடைபெறுகின்றது. தனக்கு அருகிலேயே எப்பொழுதும் இருந்த பேதுருவையும் சாத்தான் சுளகினால் புடைக்க உத்தரவு பெற்றதை அறிந்த இயேசு அவனையும் இழந்து விடக்கூடாது என்ற ஆதங்கத்தில் அவனுடைய விசுவாசம் ஒழிந்து போகாமல் இருக்க ஜெபிப்பதாக அவனிடம் கூறினார். பேதுரு தன்னை சாத்தான் சுளகினால் புடைத்த சம்பவத்தை நினைவில் கொண்டவனாக தன்னுடைய நிருபத்தில் சாத்தான் கெர்ச்சிக்கின்ற சிங்கம் போல எவனை விழுங்கலாம் என்று சுற்றித் திரிவதாக கூறுகின்றான் (1 பேதுரு 5:8).

இயேசு ஒவ்வொருவரையும் நேசிக்கின்றார். அவர்களுக்காக ஜெபிக்கின்றார் என்று நாம் அறிய வேண்டும். ஆனாலும் தனக்குள்ள பொறுப்பிலிருந்து யூதாஸ் தவறி விட்டான். பேதுருவோ சாத்தான் அவனை புடைத்ததால் இயேசுவை மூன்று முறை மறுதலித்தாலும் உடனே தான் செய்த தவறுக்காக கதறி அழுதான்.

இயேசு சீடர்களுக்காக ஜெபித்தது

யோவான் 17ம் அதிகாரத்தில் இயேசு அன்று முதல் இன்று வரையிலான தன்னுடைய சீடர்களுக்காக செய்த நீண்ட ஜெபம் ஒன்றை காண்கின்றோம். 14ம் அதிகாரத்திலிருந்தே சீடர்களிடம் தன்னுடைய பிரிவைக் குறித்து சொன்னதால் கலங்கி போயிருந்த அவர்களுக்கு அந்த ஜெபம் இதமானதாக இருந்திருக்க வேண்டும். அதில் அவர் முக்கியமாக ஜெபிப்பது அவர்தம் சீடருக்கு பொல்லாத சாத்தானிடமிருந்து பாதுகாப்பு, அவர்களுடைய பரிசுத்த வாழ்வு, மற்றும் ஒற்றுமையான வாழ்க்கையாகும்.

இயேசு எனக்காக ஜெபிக்கிறார்

 எலியாவைப் போன்ற நீதிமான்களின் ஜெபத்தை ஆண்டவர் கேட்கின்றார் (யாக்கோபு 5:16). நோய்களிலிருந்து குணம் பெற, நம்மால் ஜெபிக்க முடியாத நேரங்களில், நாம் சபையில் உள்ள மூப்பரை அழைத்து ஜெபிக்க யாக்கோபு ஆலோசனைத் தருகின்றார். இரண்டு, மூன்று பேர் சேர்ந்து ஜெபிக்கும் போது அது வல்லமையான ஜெபம் என்றும் வேதம் கூறுகின்றது.

ஆனால், இப்பூமியிலுள்ள நீதிமான்கள் யாரைக் காட்டிலும் இயேசு வே பரிசுத்தமும் நீதியுமுள்ள ஆசாரியர். அவரே நமக்காக எப்பொழுதும் பரலோகத்தில் வேண்டுதல் செய்கிறவர்(எபிரேயர் 7:25, ரோமர் 8:34). எல்லாவற்றிற்கும் மேலான உண்மை என்னவென்றால், நாம் வேண்டிக் கொள்வது இன்னதென்று அறியாத வேளைகளில் ஆவியானவர் நமக்காக வாக்குக்கு அடங்காத பெருமூச்சுகளோடு வேண்டுதல் செய்கிறார் என்பதாகும் (ரோமர் 8:26-27). இந்த ஜெப விண்ணப்பங்கள் நாம் பாவம் செய்யாமல் இருக்க வேண்டும் என்பதற்காக என்று யோவான் கூறுகின்றார் (1 யோவான் 2:1).

நாம் எப்பொழுதும் ஜெபிப்பவர்களாக, பொறுப்பான பிள்ளைகளாக வாழ வேண்டும். நாம் மகிழிந்து களிகூற வேண்டிய விஷயம் என்னவென்றால், நாம் இயேசுவின் விலை மதிப்பில்லாத இரத்தத்தால் மூடப்பட்டவர்கள் என்பதாகும். கல்வாரியில் நம்முடைய பாவங்களுக்காக அவர் சிந்தின இரத்தமே இயேசுவை யாரைக் காட்டிலும் எட்டாத‌ உயரத்தில் வைத்துள்ளது. பரிசுத்த மான‌ இந்த ஆசாரியரை என் ஜெப பங்காளராக வைத்திருப்பது சரி தானே!

Who can be my “Perfect Prayer Partner?”

We have an American friend who is 93 years old. Whenever we meet or talk over phone, the one thing that he never forgets to mention is this: “I am praying for your family and ministry daily.” I marvel at this one statement. I am always happy about people praying for me, though I strictly obey the Biblical command that I also need to pray. So then, who can be my perfect prayer partner? In a recent study of the Bible, I was fascinated by the fact that Jesus prays for people. There were occasions in His life time on earth when he prayed for others.

Jesus Prayed for Little Children

On one occasion, people wanted Jesus to place his hands and pray for their little children. The disciples rebuked them. But Jesus evaluated them as citizens of heaven and placed his hands on them and blessed them (Matthew 19:13-15). Jesus said that children have angels who always represent them to the Father in Heaven (Matthew 18:10). We need to be aware of the fact that children are always prayed for and cared for.

Jesus Prayed for Peter

Jesus prays for His children, both young and old.  Luke 22 describes the incidents in the last few days of Jesus, before he was crucified. This chapter describes how Satan successfully triumphed in the life of Judas Iscariot. It was in such a brooding situation Jesus knew that Peter, the closest disciple of Jesus also was going to deny him. It is clearly stated that Satan said to Jesus that he is going to sift (make him sin) Peter like wheat (v. 31).  But Jesus said that he has prayed for Simon that his faith may not fail. He knew that Peter would turn back to Jesus and so he wanted him to strengthen his brothers. Peter having this image of Satan who tried to sift him writes in his letter later, warning us about Satan who prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).

We need to know that Jesus loves every one and prays for them. But there is always the role of a human responsibility in which Judas failed and yielded to Satan. Simon though he denied, later confessed and turned back and strengthened his brothers.

Jesus Prayed for His Disciples

John 17 is a record of the longest prayer of Jesus. It comes again in a gloomy context where we find Jesus giving his farewell address from chapter 14 onwards. It would have been really soothing to the disciples whose hearts were by then aching (14:1). Some words which are often repeated here in this prayer are regarding: glory, protection, sanctification and oneness. Jesus prays attributing all glory which is due to God and God alone. The rest of the three are his greatest concerns for the disciples living then and for all those disciples living in the years to come. He prays for protection for a disciple in particular from the ‘evil one,’ Satan. This was what he prayed for Peter. Jesus prayed that his disciples live a holy life. He also prays for a unity in diversity among his disciples.

Jesus Prays for Me

Jesus is the holy and righteous priest in whom we can rely upon, compared to earthly human beings. There may be righteous people like Elijah whose fervent prayers God hears (James 5:16). There are elders in churches whom Apostle James suggests to call and pray for healing and restoration. They are of a help in times we cannot pray. A unison prayer of a two or three is powerful and effective. But we need to always remember that we have Jesus, the perfect priest and the sacrifice himself who intercedes for us always (Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:34). Still great is the fact that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weaknesses when we do not know what we ought to pray. The Spirit intercedes for us in wordless groans (Romans 8:26-27). What a compassionate Godhead we have?  These compassionate, intercessory prayers are for us believers that we would not sin against God (1 John 2:1).  What more do we need?

It is mandatory that we pray and we behave as responsible children of God. Let us always be happy that the followers of Jesus are covered in His blood. It was the shedding of His holy blood for our sins in the cross that puts Him up the pedestal than any others. No wonder, I fall in love with Jesus,  my perfect priest and prayer partner all over again. 

“Go find my brothers and tell them!” - A Reflection from the Life of Magdalene Mary

Magdalene Mary is one woman who has been misunderstood during her life time and even now. What is her true story? She was one among the few named women in the gospels. Her name comes in all the gospels, 14 times. She was always listed first among any named women. The risen Christ firstly appeared to Magdalene Mary. She has been widely accepted as an “Apostle to the Apostles”. The gospels in the Bible imply that Magdalene Mary should have been in a leadership position among disciples.

Her Story
She is called Magdalene Mary, because she comes from a small town, “Magdala.” She was troubled as a youth, possessed by seven demons. Her life changed, from being a vessel of dishonour to an ornament of Jesus’ power. Because Luke 8:1-3 follows the unnamed sinner woman’s story, many tend to connect Magdalene and the sinner woman, and thereby call Magdalene Mary as a “reformed prostitute.” Demonic possession and sin of a woman need not have to do with an immoral behaviour always. Mary Magdalene became a follower of Jesus. She and a women’s group served Jesus and his team by taking care of their food and lodging, out of their own means (Luke 8:1-3)

Magdalene Mary followed Jesus all the way till the cross, while the “twelve’’ who were all men, did not do that. The “top two” disciples, Peter and John gave up, searching for Jesus at the empty tomb and went back home (John 20:3-9). But Magdalene Mary persistently waited at the empty tomb, all alone. So, God planned angels to talk to her at the empty tomb. To her surprise and shock, she then saw Jesus and she tried to hold on to him, conveying a message, that she did not want to lose him physically anymore. But Jesus gave a spiritual mandate to her to tell the good news to the other brothers (John 20:17). But we also see that the disciples did not believe her (Mark 16:11). Jesus appeared to the disciples, the men later. But they were stubborn and cynical and Jesus had to rebuke them (Mark 16:14).

The writers of the four gospels differ in their accounts about the resurrection, but they all agree that Magdalene Mary played a central role in meeting the risen Christ and that she told others. But Paul also did not acknowledge Magdalene Mary or the other women, as witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:4-8). Mary Magdalene should have been even among the 120, which included women, on the day of the Pentecost, mentioned in Acts 1 & 2.

Traditions say that Magdalene Mary served as an evangelist and went as far as France to proclaim the good news. The truth and the good news today is: it is Jesus who entitles women to take their place alongside brothers in churches and ministries today, like how he empowered Magdalene Mary. We all have the same spiritual mandate of telling about a risen Christ to the men and women in villages, towns, hills and everywhere! Dusting off all criticisms, women can find their strength in the words of Jesus. HE says to you and me today, “Go find my brothers and tell them!” Let us therefore do it!!

Best Wine Saved for the Last in a Marriage - Life of the Luthers

A Quick Tongue Vs A Quick Temper

Martin Luther was the one who sparked the Protestant reformation by nailing his ninety-five theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.  But how many of you know about his wife, Katie, the runaway nun? She had a quick tongue and Martin had a quick temper, a combination that does not usually make for a good marriage. One biographer calls Katie a “quick-witted Saxon with a ready tongue,” which made an interesting match for Luther, an intense debater with a short fuse. No doubt, they both had an unusual marriage. Let us glean some secrets for a happy marriage from theirs. For a forty-one year old former monk and the twenty-six year old former nun, there were lots to get used to.

Runaway Monk Vs Runaway Nun

Katie grew up in a nunnery when she was only nine or ten years old. At the time of reformation led by Martin Luther, when monks and nuns were leaving their monastic houses, nine nuns were delivered at his door steps. It became Martin’s job, to either find position or husbands for them. The nuns were not trained in housekeeping. All they could do was to sing and pray. Somehow Martin fixed lives for the eight and the one left was Katie. It was not as if no one wanted her. Her personality and quick wit attracted the attention of at least some men. But none were successful. Meanwhile Martin’s parents who were happy to know that his son came out of the catholic celibacy vows, put pressure on him to marry. And Martin himself had been preaching for many years by then, that marriage was a divinely established institution and to elevate celibacy above marriage was unbiblical. With all that, Martin decided to marry Katie.

Katie's Prominence

There is nothing romantic about their early days of marriage. There were lot of issues specially with regard to managing the finances. Martin was liberal and hospitable, whereas Katie was frugal and wanted to make money out of any service she provided. She saved money and bought assets and properties. Katie was many things for Martin – a gardener, a cook, a nurse, a cattle-raiser, a bookkeeper and a brewer. According to one historian, “Katie ruled both her household and her husband, a situation which the latter accepted resignedly, since he was totally incapable of organizing the affairs of even the smallest household. She brought order into his life and not always to his satisfaction.” Martin would probably change that assessment by saying, “She managed the areas that I delegated to her.”

Life was Hectic

Katie after a day with their six children, servants and animals wanted to talk with an equal. While Martin, after preaching four times, lecturing and conversing with students at meals, wanted to drop into a chair and sink into a book. This tested their patience and they had to learn to be patient with one other. Martin had a shopping list of ailments including gout, insomnia, hemorrhoids, gall and kidney stones, dizziness and ringing in the ears. Katie patiently nursed him back to health with proper diet, herbs, poultices and massages. Kathie also had to be a remarkable woman to manage the ever-expanding Luther household. The first floor in their house had forty rooms with cells above for sleeping. Besides their six children, there were a half a dozen of Martin’s nephews and nieces. Luther also brought the four children of his friend who lost his wife.  To cope with the growing household, Katie in turn brought in some of her relatives to help her out. Besides there were tutors and student boarders, and due to Luther’s fame, guests dropped in unexpectedly from England and elsewhere. So life was not easy for the couple.

Best Wine Saved for the Last

Katie called him “Doctor’ in public conversation. Martin called her anything that came to his mind. Sometimes thinking of Eve, he called her, “my rib.” More often thinking the way she managed the household affairs, he called her, “my lord.” Katie had a flair to acquire lands like an empress. So Martin addressed her as a “rich lady.” He even wrote, “Oh, Katie, you have a husband who loves you. Let someone else be an empress.” Martin’s appreciation of marriage deepened during his twenty years of living with Katie. Comparing marriage to the miracle at Cana in John 2, he says that the best wine is saved for last. Marriage is a school for character, and both he and Katie learnt much in that school. They learnt from each other, and from their children, and from their mutual experiences. They were an arguing couple. But still they managed to enjoy a good marriage. “To have peace and love is a gift which is next to the knowledge of the Gospel,” Martin once said.

Luther's Wisdom Quotes

Before his marriage, Luther sometimes spoke of matrimony as a necessity for the flesh. Afterwards he emphasised that it was an opportunity for the spirit. He decried the fact that many men were marrying only for physical reasons, abusing their wives, and knew nothing about love. “Marriage is no joke,” he said, “it must be worked on, and prayed over…To get a wife is easy enough, but to love her with consistency is difficult…for the mere union of the flesh is not sufficient, there must be a congeniality of tastes and character. And that congeniality does not come over night. Love begins when we wish to serve each other. A husband is supposed to love his wife, who is his nearest neighbour. She should be his deepest love and dearest friend.” All of these words are evident, when he called the book of Galatians as his Katharina Van Bora (Katie’s full name). Most of us know that it was the reading and understanding of the book of Galatians which led to his spiritual rebirth and eventually the Protestant Church. Martin often loved to quote: "Let the wife make her husband glad to come home and let him make her sorry to see him leave.”

Luther left for eternal home before Katie. At his death bed, Luther admonished: “If it be God’s will, accept it.”Katie responded: “My dear doctor, if it is God’s will, I would rather have you with our Lord than here. Don’t worry about us. God will take care of us.” Katie died four years later to her husband. Her last words were: “I will stick to Christ as a burr to a top coat.” 

The success of any marriage, like the Luthers, depends on two people who are not afraid to grow and change.

(I have copied lines from William J. Petersen’s “Martin Luther Had a Wife” for this article.)

They Loved Each Other – The Life of the Booths

How does a marriage work when both husband and wife are public figures? What if both are strong minded and dogmatic? Catherine Booth was as famous as her general husband, William Booth.  No wonder, their marriage survived and was successful too.  No religious movement has ever been more the product of a husband and wife team than the Salvation Army. It is also said that no family has ever disseminated the gospel farther and more effectively than William and Catherine and their eight children.

In some ways, they seemed an unlikely couple. He was tall (about six-foot-one), gangling, a bit awkward sporting a black beard and usually wearing a dark frock coat. She was dark, slightly built, had lustrous brown eyes, and carried herself with obvious refinement.  Both William and Catherine were intense, opinionated, determined. Both were frequently moody and prone to depression. Did their marriage work out? It worked and both lived to see the Salvation Army which they began in the London slums which has spread to fifty-two countries. The merger of social concern and aggressive evangelism among all types of people in Salvation Army added a refreshing new dimension to Christendom.

Catherine had definite thoughts on the kind of man she wanted to marry. He would have to have religious views similar to hers. He would have to be a man of sense and character and he would have to have similar tastes. She also believed that she must be physically attracted to him. Lastly he should be a total abstainer. Besides that, she had a personal preference for a minister. William Booth met all the qualifications except for not being a total abstainer. She soon convinced him of the importance of total abstinence, and that made him her perfect match.

William felt strongly that every minister’s wife should play the piano. So Catherine tried to learn the skill before she would be married to him. But that was not easy, because she lacked any musical sense. One day with bitter tears she said to herself, “William, I do this for you. Measure my love for you by this standard.” But what came easy for Catherine was writing sermons for him.

Catherine developed four rules for their married life: 1) Never to have any secrets between them 2) Never to have two purses 3) Talk out differences of opinion to secure harmony and not to try to pretend that differences don’t exist 4) Never to argue in front of children. The fact that two of the four had to do with differences of opinion underlines the fact they had some.

One area where they initially differed regarded women.  Catherine won the argument. Interestingly it was William who prodded her into preaching, and a decade later she was more in demand as a preacher than he was. When a nearby minister attacked women’s right to preach, Catherine responded with a thirty-two page rebuttal. To her mother she wrote: “Would you believe that a congregation half composed of ladies could sit and hear such self-depreciatory rubbish?”  She could never understand why reports on sermons by women preachers seemed to concentrate more on fashion than on content. As a female preacher, her delivery was calm, precise and clear without the least approach to formality or tediousness.

Catherine wanted to accompany her husband everywhere, for his sake as well as hers, but her health could not take it. When the Booths were nearly sixty and the Salvation Army had become international with their children spreading the message into distant lands, it was then Catherine discovered a cancerous growth on her breast. When she was given eighteen months to live, she told her husband that her first thought was that she would not be there to nurse William, when he comes to his last hour.  It was a crushing blow for William. He writes that for the first time, he had a sorrow that he could not cast on HIM. He felt that life became a burden and it was too heavy for him to bear. Later he writes: “To stand by the side of those you love and watch the ebbing tide of life, while the stabs of pain make the eyes flash fire and every nerve quivers, forcing cries of suffering from the courageous soul – is an experience of sorrow words can but poorly describe.”

Biographers state that both William and Catherine came from parents who had problem marriages. One would not expect the love and commitment that was evidenced by the Booths.  But they needed each other. At times they admonished each other. At other times they propped each other. The fact of the matter is, they loved each other.

"Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned." (Song of Solomon 8:7)

(I have copied lines from William J. Petersen’s “Martin Luther Had a Wife” for this article.)

For Better, For Worse - William and Dorothy Carey's Marriage

William Carey was the pioneer among missionary pioneers and Bible translator par excellence.  But his wife Dorothy had emotional problems. In going through this brief write-up on the Careys, we should end up finding clues that will help preserve the mental health of our own marriages.    

The marriage of William and Dorothy was not exactly idyllic. For more than forty years, William pioneered and plodded as a missionary in India. Dorothy lasted fourteen years reluctantly and pitifully. The story of William Carey, the humble shoe maker who became a brilliant missionary linguist shows how, God plucked an unlikely candidate to be the leader of a multitude. But what about poor Dorothy?

Nothing is known of the courtship of the two. But when they married, Carey was nineteen, Dorothy was twenty five. In their small poverty stricken home, where they started their lives, when William was not working on shoes or gardening, he was reading or studying Greek or preaching. Dorothy was an illiterate. It is said that at the time of her marriage to William, she signed the church’s register with a “large, wobbly cross”.

Year two of the marriage was traumatic for the couple, with the death of their daughter Ann. A high fever left William bald at the age of twenty-one. The daughter’s death left Dorothy despondent and fearful. While William bought a wig to cover his bald, Dorothy found nothing to cover her emotional hurts. William got the opportunity to pastor a church in England. In his spare time, he learnt foreign languages – Greek, Latin, French, Dutch and Italian – all of which were relatively easy for him, while Dorothy was struggling with her alphabets in English.

With four children in the Carey household, it is said that William was apparently concerned about disciplining his own mind and was not concerned if his children were undisciplined in behaviour. Dorothy possibly felt neglected, even abandoned by her husband. He seemed always to have important things to do. William’s world was growing, but Dorothy’s was shrinking.  From the very beginning, even though William Carey was failing as a husband,  he was not going to quit, in his burden for a missionary outreach to India.

Poor Dorothy was not ready for her journey to India. She had plenty to fear in such a venture. The couple had now lost one more child, with three boys left. When she first refused to go with him to India, many were shocked. It was accepted that a wife would blindly follow her husband, wherever he would lead him. However after many days of persuasion, Dorothy reluctantly agreed to the decision that her sister Kitty would accompany the family to India.

Four months aboard in ship with three boys and a new born baby would pose a challenge for any mother. Dorothy must have sensed that she would probably never see England and her loved ones again. Not sharing her husband’s missionary commitment, she felt as if she were sailing toward a slow death. Dorothy’s depression deepened into neurosis when her sister Kitty left her after marrying an English man in India.

The Careys had made six moves in their first nine months on the mission field. In the sixth place not long before they settled, Peter, their five year old died of dysentery. William, himself who was stricken with malaria then, had to dig the grave of his own child, since no one opted to help. Peter was the third child that the Careys had lost. But for Dorothy, it was a loss of everything in her life. From then on, William speaks of his wife as his, “domestic affliction”. After this, in one of his letters, Carey wrote regarding the qualifications for future missionaries. One thing was that, “it is absolutely necessary for the wives of missionaries to be as hearty in the work as their husbands.” Previously, it had not dawned on William that this was so important.

While the Careys finally arrived at their new mission quarters in Serampore, Calcutta, Dorothy was so deranged, that she was incapable of sharing in any of the domestic responsibilities. Hannah Marshman, another coworker in the missionary team took care of the Carey boys. Hannah gets credit for disciplining the boys, because William Carey was from the beginning unsuccessful in disciplining his own children. Dorothy at this stage was turning violent and had to be confined in a separate room. She finally passed away at the age of fifty-one. In her fourteen years in India, she was deranged for nearly twelve years.

Six months after Dorothy died, William remarried. To Carey, Charlotte his second wife for another thirteen years, was everything a missionary wife should be. The joys of his second marriage aroused his desire to marry a third time after Charlotte passed away. It was a happy marriage again, ending with his own death eleven year later.

William Carey was a plodder in every sense. What caused Dorothy’s mental illness? Hereditary problem? Insecure living conditions? William seems to have easy-going and indecisive in his dealings with his own family. Probably, he could not provide the security and stability that Dorothy needed. Also Dorothy could not understand the missionary commitment and sacrifice, a couple has to have and face as a family  in a mission filed.

After writing on the Careys, I feel, couples today, need to remember often the vow we gave on our marriage day in the presence of God, as often as possible and take attempts to fulfil it:  "I ___ take you, ___, to be my (husband/wife), to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, for as long as we both shall live." In both prosperous and adverse situations, we need to choose to be united in our married lives, holding on to His grace. 

(I have copied lines from William J. Petersen’s “Martin Luther Had a Wife” for this article.)

A Precious Person in My Life

On my marriage day with "Amma"

I knew this "Amma" from my childhood days. I don’t have memories of those times, when she first came to our house. I think she came when I was five year old. In the years of growing only, I came to know that she was from a very small village near my small town, Mettur where we lived. She came to help us in our household chores. She has told me many times, how in her village she never knew what a bathing soap was. She did not have access to education of any sort. She came to our small town, after marrying a man who was working as a watch-man in the one and only boy’s school in our town. I used to laugh loud whenever she would narrate her first experience of going to a cinema theater in our town. She thought that the hero and heroine were really doing private scenes in front of every one. She never could grasp the fact that it was a pre-recorded act which was displayed on a screen. She screamed and yelled at the people who were watching the film. She walked out of the theater and did not know how to walk back to her house. She had lost her way.

When she came to our house to help us, she had altogether a different problem. She had white patches all over her body. She was a Leucoderma patient. As a young wife, she was ridiculed by her husband. He hated her and started having relationships with other women. She then went from pillar to post, to temples and mosques. When she came to our house, she saw us worshipping another God, whom she  considered as one among the thirty crores of Gods and Godesses in India. She observed our life styles and started to make this simple prayer: “Jesus...if you are a true God, please heal me from this disease. I want my husband to love me…” My mom had told me later, how every day this amma would come and show her the size of the white patches getting smaller and smaller. In a few days her whole body regained her original beauty. Joyfully she joined the same church where, we were worshipping and later she also got baptized. From then on she had a steady growth in her spiritual life. Praise God, this ignorant woman found her way to heaven.

This one thing, which I am going to share with you, stays in my mind as fresh as ever. I was a bigger girl then. My parents had gone away from house for a short visit outside of town and had left me and my brother in her care. She stayed with us for the night. That night I could see her private prayer life. In the midnight, I could hear her naming some nations of the world like Greenland, Iceland and so on. I was thunderstruck. She was praying with tears for those countries. I could not wait for the morning to come. With great excitement, I asked her, “Amma, how do you know the names of these countries, which I am learning in my Geography classes at school?" I was struck back with awe, because she could not reproduce those names in the morning. It did not take me too long to realize that the Holy Spirit had put the burden in this simple, illiterate woman to pray for the nations of the world. Years later, after my marriage, I watched a video named, “Transformation” which was hghlighting how gospel penetrated to the difficult cold countires in the Arctic area. I got goose bumps all over my body and thanked the Lord for this simple woman and her prayer life.

Whenever I teach on the subject of “Missions” and being a “World Christian,” I never forget to tell about  this amma who impacted me in my childhood years.  I have told about her in India and the countries, wherever I have visited so far. Her name is Rukmani. We never called her by her name. For us she was our “Amma.” Isn't true that God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong? (1 Corinthians 1:27)