Me: Hi Prodigal, who is with you?
Prodigal: This is Hugger Bear and he helps children that are sick in the hospital.
Me: Wow, that is a worthy job to have. It reminds me of another person who went out to help children.
Prodigal: Please tell me the story.
This is the story of George Muller.
George Muller moved to Teignmouth, England from Germany in 1828. After several years of working in the area he found his thoughts centering on the idea of founding an orphan’s home. It would not be just a place to care for a few homeless children, but a vast institution-built and operated on faith. He would make it a pure example of trust in God.
On April 21, 1836, the first Orphan Home was dedicated in a rented building. Within a matter of days there were forty-three children to be cared for. Muller and his co-workers decided that the controlled experiment would be set up along these lines:
1. No funds would ever be solicited. No facts or figures concerning needs were to be revealed by the workers in the orphanage to anyone, except to God in prayer.
2. No debts would ever be incurred. The burden of experiment would therefore not be on local shopkeepers or suppliers.
3. No money contributed for a specific purpose could ever be used for any other purpose.
4. All accounts would be audited annually by professional auditors.
5. No ego-pandering by publication of donors’ names with the amount of their gifts; each donor would be thanked privately.
6. No “names” of prominent or titled persons would be sought for the board or to advertise the institution.
7. The success of the institution would be measured not by the numbers served or by the amounts of money taken in, but by God’s blessing on the work, which Muller expected to be in proportion to the time spent in prayer.
Before opening his first orphanage Muller has said that he would consider the experiment a failure, if ever the orphans had to go for a single day without food.
When the fist building was opened, George Muller and his associates stuck to their principles, spending time in prayer that ordinarily would have gone to fund-raising. An unbelieving public was amazed when a second building was opened six months after the first. Muller concentrated on prayer, and the money kept coming in. Eventually, there were five new buildings, with 110 helpers taking care of 2050 orphans.
For sixty years he recorded every specific prayer request and the result. His kept meticulous books on every penny received and all money expended.
He published in detail four volumes of his journals for others to look at toward the end of his life. If you look in his journals, you can see one point, during this time: no orphan every went without food.
TRUST IN GOD
Matthew 6:31-32
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat? or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
Jennifer Van Allen,
www.faithincounseling.org
www.theprodigalpig.com
