10 MORE DAYS

Her name, Pandita Pamabai, though unfamiliar to many today, is etched in glory. Her father was a Brahmin priest who, at age forty-four, married a nine year old girl.Wanting to educate her, her took her to a remote forest in southern India, built a house and having removed all the distractions, taught her all he knew. Here in 1858 Pandita was born.

Her father determined that she too would have an education, and by the time she was twelve, Pandita had memorized eighteen thousand Sanskrit verses and had become fluent in various languages.

But the little family encountered mounting debts, then hunger. Pandita’s father “held me tightly in his arms, and stroking my head and cheeks told me that he loved me, how he had taught me to do right, and never to depart from the way of righteousness.”

Then he died of starvation, followed by her mother. Pandita set off across India, sleeping in the open, suffering from the cold, eating berries. She began doubting her father’s idols, and finally in Calcutta, she learned of Jesus Christ.

Educated women were novelties in India, and Pandita lectured here and there, seeking to raise the standard of life for women. Traveling to England and America, she embraced Christ and was baptized. She studied mathematics and medicine in western universities and she sought financial support for a home for child-widows in India. In the late 1880’s, she returned to India and opened the Mukti (Salvation) Mission.

It was thronged by hundreds of desperate girls. She and her workers dug wells, planted trees, tilled the land and preached the Gospel. Hundreds were converted. Thousands were rescued from starvation. She established schools to educate her girls. Then a church was built with these lines inscribed on the foundation.

“Praise the Lord. Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of Hosts. That Rock was Christ. September 20, 1899”

Her last years were spent translating the Bible into the Marathi language. She had almost completed the task when she fell ill. She prayed for 10 MORE DAYS in which to complete the work. Ten days later on April 5, 1922, she died; having just completed the last page.


**Note: While I have issues with anyone who would take a 9 year old girl as a wife, at that time it was culturally and theologically common in the eastern world. What should be accented is Pandita's father's desire that she excel, and be given all the advantages in life that he and society could afford her.