Breakfast for the Orphans

The following is taken from the public-domain narratives of George Müller, whose orphan houses at Bristol were supported, as he always testified, by prayer alone.

One morning the plates and cups and bowls were on the table, and the children were dressed and ready, but there was no food in the house, and no money. The children were standing waiting for their morning meal. Müller said, “Children, you know we must be in time for school.” Then lifting his hand he said, “Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat.”

There was a knock at the door. The baker stood there, and said, “Mr. Müller, I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn’t have bread for breakfast, and the Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at 2 o’clock and baked some extra bread, and have brought it.”

Müller thanked the man, and no sooner had he left than there was a second knock at the door. It was the milkman. He announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the orphanage, and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh milk, so he could empty his wagon and repair it.

The children sat down to a full breakfast. There had been no food in the house when they gave thanks.

Müller later wrote that he never went into debt, never asked any but the Lord for help, and that the purpose of the work was not merely the care of orphans, but “that God might be magnified by the fact that the orphans under my care are provided with all they need, only by prayer and faith, without anyone being asked.”