George Mueller moments

Over the last several months we've been blessed with many events that we call our 'George Mueller moments" -- we had a need, never mentioned it to anyone, and God used people in our family or community to fill the need. What a joyous thing to be able to call Josh and tell him, "Guess what! We have another George Muller moment!" Yippee!

So who's George Mueller? Our family was first introduced to him through our homeschool curriculum as part of the Heros of Faith lessons. Later, lo and behold, George appeared as part of a VeggieTale video of all things!

Mr. Mueller was the son of an English pastor, I believe, but strayed FAR from the faith and practices of Christianity. In his teens and early 20s he was regularly in debt (for not so great reasons that I cannot remember) and at least once jailed for his debts. In order to please his father, he agreed to go back to school. While there he continued his bad habits, (gambling maybe?) until invited to a bible study. Yaddy, yaddy, ya, he came to a crossroads one night because he needed money for tuition or something. Instead of going about his usual means to get funds, he dropped to his knees and prayed for the money. That same night his prayers were answered; he knew it to be an answer to prayer because he had not mentioned his need to anyone. From that night on (our biography book tells it), he decided to never ask for things he needed but rather to pray about them and let God work.

In a biography from swordofthelord.com, his story continues:
George Mueller
1805 - 1898

Mueller moved in 1832 to Bristol, England, to be the pastor of another church. There his famous work with the orphans began when two young children were thrown upon the church's care. Mueller had only two shillings to his name when he began the orphanage work, but over the next sixty years God sent more than $7,500,000 to supply their needs. New buildings were built or purchased, staff was hired, and the hundreds of children never missed a meal. Many times prayers were said over empty plates only to have food arrive at the last moment.

Mueller resolved never to tell anyone what his needs were. He told them to God and confidently expected them to be met.

During his life, Mueller started 117 schools which educated over 120,000 young people and orphans. He became pastor of Bethesda Chapel in Bristol. The church had some 2,000 members at his death.

So, we thank you for our George Mueller moments. Thanks for letting God work through you and you didn't even know it! (Josh just asked, "Why write about George Mueller? Did you have another moment you didn't tell me about?") It's a great thing to look forward to how God is going to work in your life. And we'll take the good AND the bad, right?