The Man Who Never Asked for Money
George Mueller opened his first orphanage in Bristol, England, in 1836 with two shillings in his pocket. Over the next 60 years, he cared for over 10,000 orphans without ever asking a single person for money.
He made one rule for himself: he would never make his needs known to anyone except God. No fundraising appeals, no charity drives, no sponsorship requests. He prayed and waited.
Empty Plates
The stories that emerged from Mueller's orphanages defied logic. One morning, 300 children sat down to breakfast with no food and no money to buy any. Mueller said grace over empty plates. Before he finished praying, a baker knocked on the door with enough fresh bread for everyone -- he said he had been unable to sleep and felt compelled to bake through the night. Minutes later, a milk cart broke down outside the orphanage, and the driver offered all his milk rather than let it spoil.
Mueller recorded over 50,000 specific answers to prayer in his journals, which he published so people could see what he called "the faithfulness of a prayer-hearing God."
What the Numbers Looked Like
By the time Mueller died in 1898 at age 93, he had built five large orphan houses on Ashley Down, housed 10,024 orphans, established 117 schools that educated over 120,000 children, and distributed millions of pounds worth of Bibles and Christian literature.
The total amount that passed through his hands -- all of it unsolicited -- was over 1.5 million pounds, equivalent to roughly 150 million pounds today.
A Life of Radical Trust
Mueller said his primary purpose was not to care for orphans, though he did that with extraordinary dedication. His purpose was to demonstrate to the world that God could be trusted completely. The orphanages were his proof.
"The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith," he wrote. "The beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."
What This Means for You
Mueller did not wait until he had resources to serve. He served first and trusted God for the provision. You do not need to have everything figured out before you start. Sometimes the act of serving is itself the invitation for God to show up.