Heroes of Christianity

The story of George Müller

by Janice Ross

Suitable for Whole School (Sec)

Aims

To explore what faith in God means by considering the story of George Müller.

Preparation and materials

• You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Heroes of Christianity) and the means to display them.
• Have available the YouTube video ‘The Torchlighters: The George Müller Story’ and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 30.17 minutes long, but you will be showing it from 18.44 to 20.25 minutes. It is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7jUlzZtyEQ
• Optional: you may wish to create anagrams of some fundraising-related words for the students to decipher, such as charity, money, marathon, sponsorship, badges, emergency, food bank and crowdfunding.

Assembly

1. Ask the students, ‘What do you think of when you hear the word “fundraising”?’
   
   Listen to a range of responses.
   
   Optional: display the anagrams of fundraising-related words for the students to decipher.
   
   
2. Show Slide 1 and click to reveal the word in the centre.
   
   Discuss various situations for which funds are needed, starting from the individual and working outwards to the international level. 
   
   As the students start to cover the next circle on the slide, click the slide to reveal the word there and discuss the needs that might be involved.
   
   - Individual. We each have individual needs.
   - Family. Our families have needs and sometimes, they might need extra help.
   - Local community. There may be issues that we can address by fundraising in our school or local community.
   - National. Charities that have a UK focus, such as the British Heart Foundation, the RSPB and Crisis, need to raise money to help the causes that they support.
   - International. International organizations such as the Red Cross, Greenpeace and Unicef also need to raise money to carry out their work.
   
   
3. Invite the students to share any experiences of fundraising.
   
   In each case, identify the cause that needed funds and the method of raising money.
   
   
4. Ask the students, ‘Have any of you tried using prayer as a way to raise funds?’
   
   Explain that for most people, this idea might never enter their head! However, there was someone who put it into practice many years ago.
   
   Show Slide 2.
   
   This is a man called George Müller. He and his wife set up orphanages and George ‘prayed in’ everything that they needed to look after the hundreds of children under their care.
   
   George was born in 1805 and lived until he was 92 years old. As a young boy, he was often in trouble for many things including stealing. However, when George was 20, he became a Christian and went on to become a minister. He decided that people who were already poor shouldn’t have to pay him a salary, so he lived by receiving donations.
   
   
5. Ask the students, ‘What might this way of living have meant week by week?’
   
   If possible, allow time for the students to discuss the question in groups.
   
   Answers might include worrying that basics like food wouldn’t be available in time, dealing with lots of requests, feeling totally dependent on others and so on.
   
   
6. Continue with George Müller’s story.
   
   As a young married man in Bristol, George could see that there was a big problem in the city. There were many orphans living on the streets and George didn’t have the resources to do anything about it. However, he was sure that God must care for these children very much. George believed that the children were God’s responsibility and that God would provide for them. He felt that God simply needed a person on the ground to work through, a person who would trust him.
   
   George decided that this person would be him, and so he embarked on a life of having his faith in God’s provisions tested daily. First, he and his wife opened up their home to 25 street orphans. Later, they opened three more homes, but the more children they took into the homes, the more the need grew. Every time they needed something, George prayed and laid his requests before God. Then, he waited, believing that God would be faithful.
   
   
7. Here is just one event that happened at one of the orphanages.
   
   Show the YouTube video ‘The Torchlighters: The George Müller Story’ from 18.44 to 20.25 minutes.
   
   
8. Identify that God provided for all of the orphanage’s needs, often through other people and their kindness.
   
   
9. Explain that our own faith grows as we see God provide. George Müller’s faith grew so much that in the end, he had helped thousands of orphans, all without asking anyone for a penny, except God.

Time for reflection

George Müller once said, ‘Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.’

Ask the students to think for a few moments about how George Müller lived out these words.

Pause to allow time for thought.

Ask the students, ‘What can we learn of faith from George Müller’s life?’

Pause to allow time for thought.

Prayer
If appropriate, you may wish to pray the Lord’s Prayer with the students. It is available at: https://tinyurl.com/as8ash5v