The Starry Cluster

“Those who turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars for ever and ever.” — from Daniel 12

In India, Amy first went to Bangalore, a city with a cooler climate, to learn the Tamil language. Tamil is a beautiful old language, and hard to learn, but in time Amy spoke it well. A missionary named Thomas Walker helped her. He was a fine Tamil scholar, and he became her teacher and friend. In 1896 Amy went to live and work with Mr. and Mrs. Walker in the Tinnevelly district, in the far south of India.

There Amy travelled from village to village with a small band of Indian Christian women. They visited homes, sang, and told people about Jesus. The band became known by a Tamil name that means “the Starry Cluster.” Its leading member was Ponnammal, a young widow who became Amy’s closest Indian friend.

They rode in a bandy, a bullock cart with a mat roof and no springs, over bumpy roads. Once the floods were out and the cart rolled into a pool. “Crash and tumble went the bandy,” Amy wrote. The water floated their books out! They fished them out and went on, “somewhat damp, but happy.”

The work was often slow. For a Hindu family, a son or daughter becoming a Christian could mean losing them, so it was a very big step, and only a few took it. One of them was a girl named Arulai, who came to live with Amy and grew up to be one of her most trusted helpers.

Amy held on to a Bible verse that says God’s servants must be found faithful. “Praise God,” she wrote, “it does not say ‘successful.’” In her book Things as They Are she told the truth about the work, not just the happy parts.

God does not ask you to be famous or successful. He asks you to be faithful, to keep doing what he gives you to do, day after day. Faithful people shine like stars, even when nobody seems to notice.

Dear God, help me to be faithful in the little things you give me to do, every day, even when nobody notices. Amen.