It was a day like today

21st November 1835

Georg Müller has just finished reading a book about August Francke’s life work, who, trusting in God, had headed an orphanage in Halle in the eighteenth century. Georg was profoundly moved and feels deep in his heart that founding an orphanage is also his life’s work. They filled every nook and cranny on Bristol’s streets, boys and girls without a roof over their heads, growing up without their parents’ love and a ready prey for tuberculosis and diphtheria. Georg, born in Prussia, was now living in this city in south-west England. He started working on his project with hesitation and apprehension and bucket loads of prayer. He did not have an inkling that in his life he would care for 10,000 homeless children and that, without actively advertising in the newspapers and asking for financial support, he would receive €146mio in today’s money, over the next 50 years. This sum was not a result from his begging of people but of asking of God to provide. His homes, which now Bristol City College uses, were called Ashley Down back then. Hardly anyone in Bristol knows about the buildings’ original importance and meaning, but Georg Müller’s faith has been an example for millions of Christians over the past two centuries.

21st November 1838

The orphanage has run out of money. No supper can be bought for the children. At lunchtime Georg and his small team are sitting together and are praying for nothing less than a miracle. After this anxious and worrying meeting and burdened with many problems, Georg goes for a walk, just to clear his mind and to take an extremely deep breath.

On his way back to the orphanage he bumps into a man who, unrequested, gives him £5. A lot of money in those days and enough to buy enough to feed his hungry protégées.

21st November 1839

Crisis meeting in the orphanage. There is just enough money left to buy the children breakfast the next morning. But no one has an idea, how to provide food for lunch. The staff come together for a prayer meeting. That evening Georg Müller writes in his diary Matthew 6,34: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” In the firm conviction that God answers prayer and knows what his orphans need, he falls asleep.

The next day three hours before lunch the orphanage receives donations in kind, which they sell and from which proceeds they then buy food.

21st November 2014

I have just finished my talk in front of 230 children of the Presbyterien School in Houston. I presented Diospi Suyana as a work of faith. With many pictures I show how it came about that there are now a hospital and school in Curahuasi, Peru, by a chain of coincidences and answers to prayer.

The children should then head back to their classrooms, but a teacher hurries to the front and says: “What we have just seen is a miracle, let us pray.” 230 pairs of ears listen in silence. The teacher, however, does not speak a word. Then she starts to cry and ends her sobbing with an “amen” – the prayer is finished. /KDJ

A teacher hurries to the front and wants to say a closing prayer.
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