William Borden

That’s what William Borden did. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, or perhaps you might say a golden calf in his back yard. He was heir to the Borden dairy estate and, because of this, was a millionaire by the age of 21. As you can imagine, he went to Yale for his education.

But William was not your average spoiled brat of a millionaire. While at Yale he started a movement to reach out to the students. After the first year 150 attended. By his senior year 1000 of the 1300 students attended. In his sophmore year they divided up the class of 300 among the believers and individually went after them. Whenever a difficult prospect’s name was mentioned, an ominous silence would rise in the room. At last Bill’s voice would be heard: “Assign that one to me,” he’d say.

As a follower of Christ, he heard and answered the call to missions. He further renounced his fortune and gave nearly all of it away to missions. As a missionary, his heart's desire was to take the gospel to Muslims in China. He. As he was traveling to China to begin his ministry, William stopped in Egypt to study Arabic, but four months later he contracted spinal meningitis and died at the age of 25.

After his death, Borden's Bible was found and given to his parents. In it they found in one place the words "No Reserve" and a date placing the note shortly after he renounced his fortune and given it to missions. At a later point, he had written "No Retreat.” That statement was dated shortly after his father told him that, if he left, he would never let him work in the company ever again. Shortly before he died in Egypt, he added the phrase "No Regrets."