Wednesday, May 4, 2011

It's all George Muller's fault

In September 2010 we began homeschooling. The curriculum we use is called Sonlight. One of the reasons I chose it was because of it's strong emphasis on missionaries and global missions work.  Since we are a multicultural family, we were very excited to study about places all over the world and to learn about how God was working in them.  That fall, one of our Read Aloud books was the biography of George Muller. Now, I had grown up in a Christian home and attended a private Christian College, but for some reason, I couldn't recall anything about him, except from the short from the VeggieTales movie about how the children prayed for food and someone knocked on the door with food for them. 
George Muller: The Guardian of Bristol's Orphans (Christian Heroes: Then & Now)


Well, this book might well have changed my life. (See- homeschooling is not just teaching the kids...)  In summary, for those who haven't heard the whole story: George Muller was a minister who became deeply moved to help the orphans in Bristol, England and began several orphanages and schools for them. He never asked people for money- he only prayed that God would provide whenever there was a need. Buildings, furniture, money, food, you name it- he prayed for it.  It is such an uplifting testimony of miracle after miracle.  At the time I read the book, God had already been dropping messages about adoption and orphans.  And I didn't go looking for this book- it was scheduled into our curriculum. This book broke me for orphans and for stepping out and living by faith.

When we started our adoption journey, we felt like God was telling us to have George Muller's faith.  Let's not ask for money- God knows our needs and He will provide. So far, we haven't asked anyone directly for money and He has provided.   But this has been very hard. We have sold things and held some small fundraisers- so we didn't ask directly for people to just open up their wallets.  But we're starting to feel the tug of urgency. Ok, so do we write a letter asking people directly to give and trust God to move people or should we continue to only pray and depend on God to send the money?  I want to be careful that I don't become self-righteous, I want to have a pure heart. But I want to have unwavering faith and trust in God's power.  Do I not believe that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills? Do I not believe that He will fulfill His promise to give Maria a family?  But what if He wants me to do everything I can so that He can then do the rest? 

So, this is my dilemma. Why I stay up at night and think and pray and negotiate and pray and plan and pray.  One of our goals is to bring awareness to our church so they can be passionate about caring for orphans.  We started an Orphan Care, Foster and Adoption Ministry last fall and God is giving us a vision. Our first opportunity is coming up SOON! We are very excited to be able to do the coffee/food sales between the Sunday church services on May 22 and 29.  We also will be holding a Parent's Night Out Fundraiser on May 28.  We will be getting the orphan's message out to the church body and hopefully also gain some new prayer warriors!

But I still don't feel like God is blessing my letter sending. I will keep praying and seeking Him. I really want to be a vessel for Him to use and man, does this vessel sometimes feel soooo fragile.

4 comments:

  1. Gentry ,
    God sees and knows your fragile vessel and is tenderly holding it close to His heart. He knows your heart motive in this heart orphan awareness and knows exactly what you need to bring sweet Maria home. We have seen the Lord provide in His perfect timing for all of our adoptions and big and small needs for our family and other petitions.David and I have been reading George Mueller Of Bristol, a real faith builder. I have the same fragil moments but chose to trust and obey even though it sometimes "feel" like nothing is happening.
    I appreciate your desire to advocate for those who don't have a voice .
    Praying for you and your family :)

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  2. I'm going to try this again. I tried to post a comment and blogger wouldn't let me. I just wrote a LONG post to you that you didn't get... sigh... Don't know if I will try that much again.

    When we committed to our Aaron from RR over a year ago we too wanted to trust God to provide. Our son had already been transferred to a mental institute and the weight of that pressed heavy on our hearts. We felt STRONGLY, PASSIONATELY that we needed people praying for our little guy.

    So we made up pictures - 400+ pictures - the kind people give away at Christmas. We put "Please pray for me. Love, Aaron" on them and gave them out to everyone we knew and met for the next 9 months. With the pictures we had a letter that explained who Aaron was - his situation - what we needed people to pray for concerning him. We did state in the letter our financial need, but our focus began and ended with prayer.

    We sold stuff - had yard sales - worked extra hours - planned on selling more but the money started to slowly come in. We didn't have a 'fundraiser.' OUr boys did a puzzle and asked for donations in that way. We decided to put every person who donated on that puzzle. We had 600 names on a 500 piece puzzle when all was said and done. God literally provided to penny. Our adoption cost way over the norm. When we came home one final family gave us 500.00. We didn't think we needed it. Then we ran our numbers again. We were short THAT 500.00.

    Our adoption was hard- ridiculous - spiritually draining. In the end - the hundreds of people we begged to pray ended up being thousands and when we faced a hostile judge - her heart was turned because of those prayers. Thousands of bowed heads behind us in that courtroom. God provided the money - to the penny. He also provided what we needed spiritually. Asking people to pray was the wisest thing we did. It blessed so many people - watching our journey - sweating it out with us - worrying, praying, crying out to God for one child in a closed facility. And people still pray for him. I have people tell me all the time that his picture is still on their refrigerator. How sweet are those words to us. It is a testimony of God's concern for one little guy who was abandoned at birth.

    And the best part... the amount of families who jumped into the river to rescue a little one because of Aaron. I can't tell you what that does to my heart.

    So send out letters. Please send them out. Give people the privilege of praying that baby home. Let them take part in your process. It will change THEIR lives. Give them that opportunity.

    I too will be joining them in prayer.


    Julia Nalle

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  3. I too homeschool and just finished reading this book for the 2nd time around. I wanted to remind myself of George Muller's amazing faith and how I need to transform my prayer life in all areas so that's why I read it again...plus I love this book! I don't have any answers for you as far as whether to keep praying for the support to come in vs. sending out a letter, etc. But I do know that either way you will have that sweet little Maria home and in your family before you know it! Oh what a day that will be!

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  4. We homeschool too using SL. We love it! Please know I will be lifting you up in prayer!

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Thank you for sharing your kind words!