Lillian Thrasher

Lillian Thrasher

The Profound Impact of Lillian Thrasher on My Life

Taken from "Life with a Purpose" by Jim Durkin

Sooner or later we must all face man's most difficult questions: What am I doing here? What's life all about?
I faced these questions. In fact, I struggled greatly with them. For years I tried to come up with my own answers, but they only led to failure. Finally, I began to accept God's answers. And a great stream of blessing and prosperity began to overtake me.

When I think of this critical period in my life, my mind goes back many years to an extraordinary lady I had the opportunity to meet. Her name was Lillian Thrasher. When I was a young man she was almost as well-known worldwide as Mother Theresa of Calcutta is today. Lillian Thrasher became known as "Mother of the Nile." She started Christian orphanages in Egypt that were homes to thousands of homeless children and orphans.

As a young woman she went to the mission board of her church and asked for authorization to go to Egypt to work with needy children. The board, seeing her as young, single and basically unqualified for missionary work declined her application. She went home and prayed about the situation, and felt that God really was telling her to go to Egypt. She thought, "No missionary group wants to send me, but I know God wants me to go. I have a few possessions. I'm going to sell everything I have and go to Africa."

Lillian Thrasher did it. Her only backing was her faith in God and the money she raised selling her goods. Her only goal was to exalt Jesus Christ, and she was prepared to carry out the will of God the best way she understood it. She spent several very difficult years in Egypt establishing credibility among the people, living in abject circumstances, and eating the poorest quality of food. She passed through this long period of testing with her desire to continue on in Egypt unshaken. Then she had a breakthrough in faith. She declared, "God is going to meet our needs. God is going to build a great orphanage in this country."

From that time on, funds and help began coming in, and God prospered Lillian and the orphans. Thousands of homeless children passed through her care. They were well-clothed, well-housed, well-taught. Many of them came to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and some went on to be ministers of the gospel and leaders in the nation.

Later in life Lillian went back to the United States and spoke at a conference I had the privilege to attend. She said something that made a deep impression on me, and actually helped crystallize my thoughts about life and about why I existed. In essence, she said, "If you're merely born, and you grow up, marry, have children, grow old and die, how are you better than an animal? That's all animals do-live, procreate, die. We're humans, not animals. We're meant to change our generation, and to change our communities, and to change our world for good."

What took Lillian to Egypt was a sense of her God-given purpose. What kept her there, against all odds, was her commitment to that purpose. She had divine understanding-not human reasoning-to give her assurance that she would succeed.

You, too, are here with purpose. You, too, are meant to glorify God. That's what struck me so forcefully as I listened to Lillian. I knew that my life would have no ultimate meaning apart from that one purpose.

You and I are here for one reason-to love God supremely and act out what He wants us to do. When Jesus came to the earth He came to do a specific work and to fulfill the Father's plan for Him.

As Christians, that same Jesus has entered our hearts by His Spirit and wants to express His love through us. Many people never accept this. They have other goals that in the end cause them emotional and spiritual instability. They can't bring themselves to say, "Father, I am here to do your will no matter what it costs me. I'm ready to stop everything in my life that's not focused on what you want me to do."

back to Articles, Teachings, Etc. by Jim Durkin