Global Treasure
Christian Heroes
Lesson
Lillian Trasher – (1887– 1961)
Missionary to Orphans
Today we’re going to learn about a young girl
who put her faith in Jesus. She loved Him so much
that she wanted to serve Him in whatever way she
could. God took her on an adventure that was to last
a lifetime.
When Lillian was ten years old, she heard
about Jesus from the father of her best friend, Jerdy. She had heard him talking to her parents.
“Jesus saved an old sinner like me,” he proclaimed.
One night Lillian went to a prayer meeting at Jerdy’s house. After the prayer time,
Jerdy’s dad, a poor farmer, read from the Bible. He read slowly, because he didn’t know how to
read very well. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16, KJV)
“I used to be a horrible sinner,” Jerdy’s father then told the group, “but I happened
upon an evangelistic meeting in a town nearby, and I gave my heart to Jesus. He washed
me white as snow from all of my sins.”
Lillian didn’t quite understand this, but she thought about if for the next several days. At
the next prayer meeting, she was asked to pray. She wanted to pray a big, impressive prayer,
but all she could do was gasp, “Oh, Lord!” and she felt God’s presence with her.
Several weeks later, after thinking about all of these things, while walking home from
school one day she made a decision. She stopped in the woods and kneeled by an old log.
She felt God’s presence with her again as she prayed aloud, “Lord, I want to be your little
girl.” After praying a while longer, she said sincerely, “And Lord, if I can ever do anything for
You, just let me know – and I’ll do it!”
At the age of ten, she could never have imagined how God would use her during her
lifetime.
As Lillian grew up, she grew closer and closer to the Lord. Then through a chance
meeting as a young adult, or what we would call a “divine appointment,” she met a woman
named Miss Marker who ran an orphanage.
“The orphanage belongs to the Lord,” Miss Marker proclaimed. “He provides
everything we need. We just have to have faith and pray.”
“But who pays the bills?” Lillian asked, astonished.
“The Lord pays the bills,” Miss Marker answered. “He sends money, food, clothing,
medicine – whatever we need. He always keeps His promises.”
Lillian didn’t know what to think of all of this.
“Come work with me there!” Miss Marker said. At first Lillian thought this was a
strange offer. After thinking it over for a while, she heard God’s voice in her heart telling her to
go there to work.
Lillian worked in the orphanage for several years and learned many things. She learned
how to make clothing, how to cook, how to eat simply, and how to care for babies. She learned
how to teach and how to organize a lot of children. She also learned how unimportant things
are. She realized she really didn’t need a lot of stuff to be happy.
When she was twenty-three years old, Lillian felt God calling her to be a missionary to
Africa. This was not an easy thing for her to do. She was engaged to be married in ten days,
and a heartbroken Lillian called off the wedding. She had no missionary group to send her
there. Her family didn’t understand and didn’t want her to go. She had no money to get there.
But, she began on faith. She remembered the Bible verse, “He who calls you will do it,
because He is faithful.” (1 Thessalonians 5:24, GNB) She said to herself, “If God wants me
to go to Africa, He will provide the way.”
And He did. Through gifts from people she knew and complete strangers, she was on
her way to Egypt, which is a country in Northern Africa. She had made friends with some
American missionaries who worked in Egypt who were back in the United States for a while.
They had said to Lillian, “If God provides a way for you to come to Egypt, you can work at
our mission there in the town of Assiout.” And that’s what she did.
When she arrived, she immediately began studying Arabic so that she could speak with
the people among whom she had chosen to live. She learned to say “arjouky” for “please,”
and that there was a cereal-type food call “besara.”
One night at the mission, a young man came to the door. “Arjouky,” he said in Arabic,
“a young mother is dying. Please come!”
Lillian and two others went. They found the young mother lying on some straw on the
bare dirt floor. There was a starving, smelly baby, crying in someone’s lap in the corner. Lillian
felt helpless. “Arjouky! Arjouky takhdihom!” the young mother cried to Lillian.
“She’s asking you to take the baby,” one of the others said in English.
Then the young mother died.
Lillian didn’t know what to do. No one else there wanted the baby. The woman on
whose lap the baby was said she’d throw the baby into the Nile River. It was only a girl,
anyway!
Lillian took the baby back to the mission house, but the little hungry baby cried and
cried. “You must not keep the baby anymore,” the people who worked at the mission said
after a while. “We cannot work with all of that crying!”
“But she doesn’t have any place to go back to! Lillian replied. “How can I take her
back?”
So Lillian decided to take the baby and move out of the mission house. She rented a
small house in which to live. She used the rest of the money she had been given in America to
rent the house for a month, buy basic furniture and food for the baby.
That was the first child Lillian Trasher took in. Over time, she took in many more
orphans. God provided a piece of land on which they built an orphanage. Many, many children
came – ones with no parents, or ones whose parents didn’t want them because they had
disabilities. She even took in mothers and children when the father had died. And God
provided for them all. But there were many challenges.
Eight years after Lillian arrived in Egypt, a war broke out in Egypt. The country of Great
Britain had been in charge of Egypt, and the Egyptians wanted to rule themselves. British and
Egyptian soldiers fought fiercely throughout Egypt. One night, the fighting came to the village of
Assiout. From the orphanage, Lillian and all who lived there could hear the gunshots and
screams, see homes on fire, and smell the smoke. Lillian gathered the children.
“We must all stay calm, and be very quiet,” she told them. “Hurry as fast as you
can to the old brick kiln. We will hide there. You older girls each carry a baby or a
toddler in each arm.”
When they had all gathered again in the kiln where they had made bricks to build the
orphanage, Lillian began to count heads.
“Oh, no!” she cried softly. “I must go back to the nursery! Two of the babies were
left behind!”
A little girl touched her arm fearfully, “You’ll be killed if you go outside!”
“I must go,” Mama Lillian replied. “I cannot leave them there.”
She slipped back out of the kiln, running with her body hunched low to the ground.
Lillian found the two babies crying softly in their cribs. She grabbed one in each arm and went
back outside. When the sound of the guns seemed to have moved further away, she began to
run and crawl back to the kiln, praying the babies would keep quiet.
Suddenly the shots were closer again, and Lillian knew they were aiming at her. She
jumped into a small ditch, holding the babies tightly. While she was lying there, she realized
she and the babies were lying next to a dead soldier. The babies began to whimper again.
“Shh,” Lillian whispered. “God loves you both. He will help us.”
She heard the sound of footsteps walking nearer. Then a soldier actually stepped on
her shoulder, but she kept very silent. “He must think I am a dead body,” she thought as the
soldier walked away.
A few minutes later, Lillian prayed a question. “Lord, is it time to run?” She waited
until she felt God’s Spirit telling her it was time. Then she grasped the babies tightly and ran the
rest of the way to the kiln.
“We’ve been praying for you the whole time you were gone!” one small voice said
when she entered the kiln. “We were so worried!” said another. “If anything had happened
to ou…”
Mama Trasher cut in, “…God kept me safe,” she said. “Now everyone keep your
babies quiet. We have to keep hiding until the fighting stops.”
God protected them through that night in the kiln. In the morning, the fighting was
farther away and they were able to go safely back into the orphanage.
Lillian Trasher always depended on God for everything they needed to take care of the
orphans. She prayed all the time – without ceasing – asking the Lord for strength, and to
provide for the orphans and their mothers. Many times, God would provide at the last minute.
They would receive a donation of money, clothing, food, soap or whatever they needed – just
when they needed it the most.
At one time many years later, the orphanage was out of money and almost out of food
and supplies. Lillian had borrowed from others just to have food for the more than one
thousand orphans. Lillian prayed, but for weeks no money came in. She was very discouraged.
“I’m going to have to send all the children to live with family or friends,” she
thought. “Oh how it breaks my heart to even think of such a thing! But, we have no food. I
can think of nothing else to do!”
So, Lillian called the children together. She began to tell them her plan. “I love you all
very much. I must tell you that we have run out of money,” she said, taking a deep breath.
“Because of this, I must send you all to live with family or friends. If you don’t have any
family or friends, we’ll make friends for you. But when God has provided, we will bring
you back again.”
All of the children began to cry. This was the only home and the only mother they had
ever known. They didn’t want to be sent away. Mama Trasher was fighting back her own tears.
Then, in the back of the group, one of the children got down on his knees. “Lord, Lord,
Lord!” he called out. “I will be a good boy from now on! Please, please, please!” He was
begging God to help them. Then, one after another, all the children fell to their knees and
prayed with all their hearts.
Lillian realized the children were only doing what she herself had taught them to do by
her own example – to pray, in good times and in bad. They were turning to God for help in time
of trouble. This was actually the best thing they could do! She saw their faith in Him. She did
not want to disappoint them. She fell to her knees, too, and said, “Now what, Lord?”
Then she got up, hushed the children and said, “Children, I can’t send you away – I
just can’t. We will stay together, no matter what. We will keep praying, asking God to
provide for us.”
That evening she thought to herself, “Didn’t God promise to help me, from the very
beginning? Has he ever let me down?”
The next day, everyone at the orphanage waited prayerfully for one of the boys to fetch
the mail from the post office. Lillian was so excited to open the one envelope from America. In
it was a check for a thousand dollars. Lillian, the children, the orphans and the workers were so
happy! This w3ould buy food for almost a week. They thanked God for answering their
prayers.
These are just a few stories from Lillian’s life. There were countless time when God
guided, protected, and provided for this woman of faith. During the fifty years that she ran the
orphanage is Assiout, Egypt, there were over 8,000 children for whom she cared. Many of them
gave their hearts to Jesus, and became leaders in Egypt. Some became pastors and Christian
teachers. Could she do any of this on her own? Absolutely not! She depended on God day by
day, moment by moment. And he never failed her.
God wants you to learn to depend on Him each and every day, too. He wants you to
give your whole heart to Him, and trust Him one hundred percent. He promises He will never let
you down, either. And God never breaks a promise!
Sources: Lady on a Donkey by Beth Prim Howell, copyright 1960, published by E.P. Dutton and
Company, Inc., New York
“The Profound Impact of Lillian Trasher on My Life,” Taken from “Life with a Purpose” by Jim Durkin,
http://www.verbo.org/site/durking17.htm
For the teacher: Please don’t fail to notice in this story how Lillian came to the Lord. Because
of the testimony of a poor, barely literate farmer, Lillian began her journey with God. Because a
farmer was faithful to invest in a little girl, that little girl grew up and helped 8,000 orphans half a
world away. Never underestimate the value of your work with children in God’s economy, no
matter how you may feel about your own abilities. It’s not your abilities that count – it’s God’s!