Whitefield's Motivation
The time from which George Whitefield was ordained up to the building of his orphan house in Savannah is accounted for in Whitefield’s own words in A Further Account of God’s Dealings with the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield. Whitefield’s mission since “having been ordained at Gloucester, on Trinity Sunday 1736,” was always to bring to light what was necessary among society and to fill that gap of what society lacked through his ministry (Whitefield 5). Whitefield did not immediately feel called to travel to Georgia to establish what he called “Charity-schools”, but he began to entertain the idea after receiving letters from his friends, and fellow ministers, John and Charles Wesley, who had gone abroad around the time Reverend Whitefield became ordained. As he continued to receive funds toward his Charity-schools as he preached throughout England, George Whitefield writes that, “Letters came from the Messrs. Wesleys…from Georgia. Their Accounts fired my Soul, and made me long to go abroad for God too,” but he felt that he had no outward calling from God to pursue this urge (8). Eventually, however, Whitefield felt this call from God to join the Wesley brothers in spreading protestant religion to the young colony. Not only did John and Charles Wesley inspire George Whitefield to spread his mission abroad, they were also the masterminds behind Whitefield’s orphan house. Whitefield writes that the Wesleys, “with his Excellency General Oglethorpe had concerted a Scheme for carrying on such a Design, before I had any Thoughts of going abroad myself,” which may have been their way of convincing Whitefield that he could continue his mission in Savannah and replace them in their role as ministers to the colonists (29). Although Whitefield was the one to see the orphan house through to fruition, the Wesley brothers, specifically John, were significant in the history of Savannah. John Wesley was influential to both George Whitefield and the town of Savannah, so much so that there was a proposition to put a statue of him in Reynolds Square (Daugherty).
