Isabel Craddock attended the Bible Training College (BTC) and took her insights to India.
Where she stayed for the rest of her life.
Nicknamed “Joan of Arc,” by Oswald Chambers, Jeannie Isabel was the daughter of Reverend Robert Craddock, a Methodist minister, and his wife Clara.
Born in Australia in 1889, she moved to England as a girl.
Records indicate the tall slender girl with bright blue eyes had an early heart for missions work.
At the age of 10 she donated 6 shillings, 2 pence for a Methodist Church’s missionary project.
(Her brother Fred donated 13 shillings, ten pence!)
It’s not clear when she began classes at the BTC, but Oswald and his teaching marked her for good.
At the BTC
Many students entered the BTC unsure of what they wanted to do in service to God.
Isabel was a member of the BTC student body.
Oswald inspired many of them. As Isabel wrote in 1934’s Oswald Chambers: His Life and Work:, long after her ministry overseas began:
“The remembrance of Oswald Chambers’ radiant trust in God’s almightiness, in spite of every obstacle that might arise to contradict it, gives courage and strength to believe even in the testings of today.”
His commitment to prayer left a mark:
“It was in the memorable B.T.C. days that we realized most how truly he lived and fulfilled the ‘ministry of the interior,’ as he called prayer.
“Nothing but this contact with the Father could have kept him so ready and prepared at all times to give help and advice.
“As he helped to solve our problems, or in times of crisis showed us our way through, the sense of panic disappeared, while we knew we were linked on to the Unseen and lost sight of the human element.”
Isabel used all those spiritual resources in her future as well.
Pandita Ramabai’s Mission
Isabel first heard of Pandita Ramabai’s Mission while a student at the BTC when a Miss Hastie visited and talked about the mission.
Intrigued, Isabel applied to become a missionary with Pandita Ramabai’s Mission in Mukti, Southern India.
Pandita Ramabai‘s story is worth retelling–but not here!
Suffice it to say, she was a social reformer, champion for the emancipation of women, pioneer in education and a Sanskrit scholar. Everything changed when she became a Christian!
She began translating the Bible into her native language, Marathi, in 1904–the first woman to every do so!
Her Mission served women and children with the opening of a school in the early years of the 20th century.
It’s not clear where Isabel first heard of the school nor why she wanted to serve there, but Pandita welcomed her in late 1915.
As Isabel Craddock wrote in Snapshots of Mukti Mission,
“The Saturday morning I arrived at Mukti’s gate I found Pandita Ramabai waiting to receive me.
“Ramabai did not seem a stranger, for she looked exactly as if she had stepped out of one of the pictures I had seen of her, a white-robed figure, breathing serenity and strength.”
Pandita and her daughter Manoramabai, ran the ministry. After Isabel completed her studies in the Marathi language, they assigned her to work with blind girls.
Practical and Spiritual Life Skills Taught
She loved her work with the girls and used her training from the BTC to good effect.
“God’s Word was opened up in all its fullness and richness as we were brought to a clearer understanding of the mystery of His love, and of the claims of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.”
Isabel devoted herself to teaching her students the same spiritual lessons.
She also brought life skills to the school:
“Isabel introduced Braille into the School for the Blind, spending long hours teaching the women and girls. Providing job training, she taught the blind residents to
make bead curtains, beaded handbags, bed tops, baskets made from banana trees, rope, and how to do cane work. She supervised all of this work personally.”
Furlough and surprise
Upon Isabel’s return from furlough to England in 1922, she discovered both Pandita and Manorambai had died.
She missed their leadership, but turned back to the Lord:
“It is impossible to put into words the feeling of desolation which came over me on returning from furlough and finding Ramabai’s and Manoramabai’s places empty.
We sorely missed Bai’s strong faith, but God…has continued through others what He purposed Ramabai and her daughter should begin.”
Working with blind girls and women, Isabel also shared her love for music and hymns.
“She was called “Stuti Moushe,” which means “Praise Auntie” because of her fondness for music.
“She taught hymns to the blind and practiced the Sunday hymns with them.
“Always aware of the needs of the girls and women, if Isabel noticed that someone was not singing, she would patiently teach her the hymn.”
Other than 1950, Isabel served as Mukti superintendent from 1945-1955 when she retired home to England.
Faithful to the end, she opened her home to anyone from the Mukti Mission who visited England
Isabel Craddock died in 1989, just a few months shy of her 100th birthday.
She wasn’t the only one of Oswald Chambers’ students to serve in India, but her tenure and devotion were the longest.
Isabel recalled many important lessons from her teacher, but perhaps this one served her the best:
“Our hearts are stirred afresh with the longing to ‘live most with Jesus Christ and be absorbingly taken up with Him,’ so that we may live the life God’s heart has planned for us and not be ashamed at His coming.”
Well done, good and faithful servant, Isabel Craddock!
Tweetables
Pandita Ramabai and Oswald Chambers: linked by one missionary. Click to Tweet
How one of Oswald Chambers’ students ended up a missionary in India for 39 years. Click to Tweet
Thank you for sharing this information. It was very informative. I so enjoy learning history.
The missionary stories are so interesting to me, and wonderful! Thanks for commenting.