The testimony of George Washington Carver

We have been encouraged by George Washington Carver and his testimony of how he over and over again went to the Creator and asked Him to teach him what the peanut was for. One of the most important things that George Washington Carver learned was to hear God speak to him and to teach him how to make products from the peanut. As a result, Carver was able to help the farmers of the south in ways that no other person has been able to single-handedly do. God has that kind of resources available to each one of us, to teach us how to farm better and to help others to farm better.

In the first part of the 1900's the boll weevil brought economic ruin to the south. The soil had been depleted after years of growing only cotton. George Washington Carver, a black scientist, looked for a crop to replace cotton as a cash crop that farmers in the south could grow so that they could survive financially. He tried a number of crops. The peanut he described as a "no-account." It was too hard to bring to peanut-manhood and as a food it was more satisfactory for hogs than humans.

George Washington Carver described his work:

"I get up every morning, winter and summer at four. First I go into the woods and gather specimens, and listen to what God had to say to me. After I have had my morning talk with God, I go to my laboratory and begin to carry out His wishes for the day, and if I fail it's my failure, and if I succeed then God's will has been done.

"Years ago, I when into my laboratory and said, 'Dear Creator, please tell me what the universe was made for.'

"Said the Creator, 'You want to know too much for such a little mind as yours. Ask for something your size.'

"Then I asked, 'Dear Creator, tell me what man was made for.' Again the great Creator replied, 'Little one, you are still asking too much. Bring down the extent of your request.'

"'Tell me then, Creator, what the peanut was made for.'

"Then the great Creator taught me how to take the peanut apart and put it together again. And out of this came all these products which the Creator taught me to make."

George Washington Carver in his lifetime discovered:

32 different kinds of milk from the peanut
300 different products from the peanut
300 products from clay
Over 100 products from the sweet potato.
A few years before his death, Dr. Carver explained the secret of his success: "It is not we little men who do the work, but it is our blessed Creator working through us... Other people can have this power, if they only believe. The secret lies" — touching his Bible — "right here, in the promises of God. They are real, but so few people believe them to be real."

"He said, "I always sleep over a problem. I go to sleep with it on my mind, and the next morning I see the method and the new perspective which usually clears it up. I did not do it. God has only used me to reveal some of His wonderful providences."