Lillian Thrasher

Lillian Thrasher (1887-1961) came to Egypt in 1910, convinced that God was directing her to serve in some mission capacity. An Egyptian man asked her to visit a dying woman. This poor dying woman received her visit and begged Lillian to care for her infant daughter. Knowing this woman was near death, Lillian agreed to take the baby home with her to the mission compound. This malnourished child, clinging to life, cried through the night, and mission directors approached Lillian the following morning to tell her the baby was too noisy and had to go. Lillian stood her ground, “If the child must go, then I will go too.” Lillian rented a room, bereft of mission support, and word got out about this foreigner willing to care for unwanted children. By 1916, fifty orphans had come to live with her. Lillian had found her calling and embraced it. Not that the work was easy. When terrorists tried to shut her orphanage down, she prayed and persisted. When the Nazis pillaged her town, and the orphanage ran out of food, she prayed and persisted. At the time of her death in 1961, the Lillian Thrasher Orphanage had grown to twelve hundred children. Abdel Nasser, who was president of Egypt at the time, called her “Mother Nile.” To her children, she was simply “Mama Lillian.” Her orphanage ran on prayer and the promises of Scripture. Her work gave rise to a new generation of Christians who have labored to share the gospel with Egyptians in our day.
When Lillian was nine years old, the testimony of a Christian neighbor ignited her spiritual curiosity. One afternoon, as she walked home from school, she prayed, “Lord, I want to be your little girl.” She paused, reflecting on what she had just said, and then prayed: