Missionary, educator, and friend to the forgotten
“Rise up, ye women that are at ease… hear my voice.”
—Isaiah 32:9
Sarah Isabel Hatch was the first missionary to India supported entirely by Baptist women of Ontario (West). Raised on a farm near Woodstock, Ontario, she was a gifted teacher with a deep sense of calling. A passage from Isaiah stirred her conviction that God was sending her overseas.
She arrived in India in 1886 during a difficult time for the mission, after several Canadian Baptist missionaries had died unexpectedly. Isabel quickly stepped into leadership, learning Telugu while overseeing outreach to women in Kakinada. With a small team of co-workers, she visited hundreds of homes each year, bringing songs, Scripture, sewing lessons, and stories of Christ to women who were largely isolated and unable to read.
A teacher at heart, Isabel also trained future church leaders and opened a school for girls. In the town of Ramachandrapuram, where she would serve for the rest of her life, she gathered Christian women for Bible study and then sent them out with her to share the gospel in surrounding villages.
But another calling soon emerged. When Isabel discovered that several people working in her home had leprosy, she refused to turn away. Instead, she began a ministry of care and dignity among those rejected by society. What began in 1898 with one small hut grew into a thriving leprosarium offering shelter, medical care, education, and Christian community.
For this work, the government of India awarded Isabel the Kaiser-i-Hind medal for humanitarian service.
When she died in 1935, fellow missionaries remembered her simply as “Big Sister”—a woman of great faith, deep compassion, and unwavering dedication to Christ.