Last summer I read a biography on George Mueller, one of my heroes of the faith. I recently reacquainted myself with this great man of God for a Sunday School lecture. He was born in 1805, and lived a full life of 92 years, going to heaven in 1898. He was born in Germany, but spent most of his life in Bristol, England where he pastored the same church for over sixty-six years. Mueller married Mary Groves in 1830 (she died in 1870). They had one daughter that survived infancy (Lydia). He married Suzanna Sanger in 1871 (she died in 1894).
When George was 28, he founded The Scripture Knowledge Institute for Home and Abroad. There were five aggressive goals of the Institute: 1). establish schools for children and adults to teach Bible knowledge, 2). Bible distribution, 3). missionary support, 4). tract and book distribution, and 5). "to board, clothe and Scripturally educate destitute children who have lost both parents by death".
Mueller's vision for children grew into the orphan ministry that he is so well-known for.
He built five large orphan houses and cared for 10,024 orphans in his lifetime. He never took out a loan or incurred debt and he never asked anyone for money. He didn’t take a salary for 68 years and he rejected life insurance and retirement accounts. Mueller, his family and his orphans never went hungry.
George Mueller was quite the accomplished individual. He did all this while he was preaching three times a week from 1830 to 1898. If you do the math, that is at least 10,000 sermons.
At age 70 he fulfilled a life-long dream of missionary work for the next 17 years until he was 87.
He traveled to 42 different countries, preaching once a day, addressing some three million people. In 1878, Mueller and his wife Suzanna were invited to the White House to meet with President and Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes.
How does someone accomplish so much? To what do we attribute the many spiritual successes and victories of George Mueller? Find out next time!
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