Tag Archives: George Mueller

Passing the torch over three hundred years

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Our friends, Odell and Beth Summer, are preparing for a particular mission field in Thailand. Who laid the groundwork for that mission field?

In 1695, August Francke, a direct product of the Reformation, founded an orphanage in Prussia and supported over a hundred orphans on faith alone.

Years after Francke’s death, a young man at the university where he had taught picked up his autobiography and was deeply and profoundly influenced. He went on to found orphanages in England that became known all over the world. That man’s name was George Mueller.

While Mueller’s orphanages were thriving, housing over a thousand orphans on faith alone, a young man visited them and in turn was deeply and profoundly influenced. He decided to found a mission board that would never ask for funds but would depend on God alone for all their needs. That man’s name was Hudson Taylor.

A young man listened to Hudson Taylor speak and decided to leave his fortune and his promising future to join Taylor’s China Inland Mission take the gospel to China where it had never been heard. That man’s name was C. T. Studd.

Studd spoke at a conference and deeply and profoundly influenced a young man who left all to take the gospel to China, working among the Lisu people of the western mountains. This man’s name was James Fraser.

James Fraser returned to the States briefly and spoke at a conference where a young woman was deeply and profoundly influenced. She left all to go to China and bring the gospel the Lisu people, first in China and then, after the Communist takeover, in Thailand. During this time she wrote a number of gripping and inspiring books about God’s work in her life and in the lives of the people. This woman’s name was Isobel Kuhn.

Isobel Kuhn and her husband John had a daughter named Kathy, who married another man who had gone to northern Thailand to bring the gospel to the tribal people there. That man’s name was Don Rulison, and as of this writing he is almost a hundred years old and is still living in Chiang Mai. Their children are still working for the Lord there as well.

After Kathy’s death a children’s home and boarding school was established in Chiang Mai and named after her, Kathy’s Home. Our friends Odell and Beth are hoping to be able to leave the U.S. next spring and become the overseers of Kathy’s Home.

Over three hundred years and across three continents, we have traced the work of God, as one generation proclaims His works to another.

Have you ever thought about how the gospel came to you? It started with Jesus, who spoke it, as a fountain of life, to the apostles. They took it as a glorious gift to many people, who carried it, one by one, like a precious treasure, to many other people, who passed it along, like a fire catching hold, to many more.

One by one, from one person to the next, like a roaring blaze, like a rushing river, the gospel traveled across the lands, around the world, taking root like a tree in the heart of one person after another. Then finally, like wind blowing from the east to the west, it came to someone who told it to someone who told it to someone, who told it to you.

—from chapter one of With Two Hands: Stories of God at Work in Ethiopia

Writing lessons from Charles Dickens

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Charles Dickens loved England. Because of this love, he felt a deep sense of urgency to help his homeland change in important ways. He wanted people to care about the poor, to care about orphans, and to arise from their complacency.

While his contemporary George Mueller worked for change by trusting God and starting an orphanage, Charles Dickens worked for change by writing books. Though his books appealed to the “power of the human spirit” rather than the power of God, he did want to bring about positive change, and for that I salute him.

But unlike the shrill writers and speakers of his day whose messages have sunk into oblivion, Charles Dickens knew the power of a good story. He knew that if he didn’t write a story that people would want to read, and to tell their friends to read, and to give to their children to read, the message would be lost. And so, he wrote about Oliver Twist, the indomitable spirit who persevered in the face of tremendous odds. And Nicholas Nickleby, who stood up to tyrants. And Sydney Carton, who gave his life to madmen for the sake of love. And of course, Ebenezer Scrooge, whose life was changed by realizing that there was so much more to living than amassing wealth. No matter how bleak the circumstances throughout his books, Charles Dickens wrote about triumph. Through this, he did his part to change his country.

A common response to reading or hearing about the new line of books I’m working on, about little-known missionaries, is, “There just aren’t enough missionary books these days.” Is it because of complacency? Is it because of the distractions of the offerings made by the modern culture? Whatever it may be, I share a goal with Charles Dickens. My audience is younger, my style is simpler, but I want to do my small part to write—though about the power of God rather than the power of the human spirit— to bring about change.

As Charles Dickens loved England, I love the Church. And so, because I want people to care, and to pray, and to go, I want to tell a good story. I want to write so that children will say, “Please read one more!” I want to write so that families will spontaneously talk about the stories the next day. I want to write so that parents who are reading aloud will pause to wonder over the sacrifice made by people who are, in essence, no different from them, ordinary people who will rely not on the power of the human spirit, but on the power of God, to effect the most important changes in the world—the changes that bring a soul from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the risen Son of God.

I want to write about triumph. It’s one way I can do my small part to change the world.