George Muller was born in September of 1805 in the kingdom of Prussia. He was the son of a tax collector. He was a bad kid. By age 10 he was regularly stealing government money that was entrusted to his father. At age 14 his mother passed away unexpectedly. That night he stayed up until 2 am playing cards with his friends, then went to a tavern for drinks. By age 16 he was a convincing young con artist and thief. He had the habit of visiting luxury hotels and inns pretending to be an upstanding citizen, then skip out without paying. Finally, that year he was arrested and sentenced to prison. A year later he was released after his father paid restitution. His father arranged for him to finish high school and surprisingly, he was accepted into University. While he was there he began attending a Bible study and committed his life to Christ.
His studies took him to England were he remained most of his life. At the age of 25 he was serving as a Pastor for a small congregation in Teignmouth. He began to be concerned about the churches practice of renting pews to parishioners. In those days, as a form of financial support, the church would rent the pew to families. In this way they would always have a place to sit and the financial needs of the church would be covered. The problem George had with this was that it meant the poorer folks were relegated to the back.
George became convinced that the right thing to do was to give up his salary and live entirely by faith. The church agreed and George and his young wife began living without a predictable income. For several years George and his wife, Mary, struggled with their finances. Time after time, when almost penniless, God would provide. They agreed to never speak about their financial needs to anyone, and they would not send out any type of appeal letter. Instead, they would pray and believe for miracles.
Their work grew and prospered. they established a missionary training school, which had included Sunday Schools, day schools and adult schools. While his ministry was growing and seemingly blessed. Two events occurred that lead George in a new direction.
One day George was presented with a heart-wrenching story about a little orphan boy who had been attending their day school. The boy was shipped to a facility outside of the city and could no longer attend school. The "Poor House" that he was sent to allowed adults to live with children and it meant the boy would likely be abused and mistreated in many ways. On another occasion, George visited a parishioner who was a hard working family man. So hard working in fact, he was spending 14 to 16 hours a day at his job and was physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. George pleaded with him to slow down and spend more time with his family and in prayer. His response was that he could barely make ends meet now, and that if he worked less he wouldn't be able to support his family. George told him, 'it's not your work which supports your family, but the Lord'. George did his best to convince the man that by faith, he could trust God to supply the needs of his family. The man respectfully listened to George’s stories of God’s faithfulness, and the conversation ended. George left knowing that the man believed in God, but wasn't trusting in God in a practical way.
George decided the best way to give the town a visible object lesson was to prove in a large way that God could take care of those in need. He began dreaming of opening an orphanage for the town’s homeless children. But he would do it without ever asking for support. He prayed that God would supply all the resources necessary. As George prayed, item-by-item, God came through. First he received unsolicited money. Then a husband and wife who said they felt called to support the project by giving all their household goods, and working for free as house parents. Then he received a house, then another. Money poured in without it ever being asked for.
Eventually, George & Mary's orphanages supported 700 kids at a time, and over the years, thousands of orphans were assisted.
Today The George Muller Foundation is still blessing those in need. Although their activities have changed, the heart of the work is still the same, demonstrating to others that faith in God makes sense.
George Muller - I admire you!
