Update: February 27, 2007: Faithful Still
The call came again this morning as we were getting ready to leave our apartment. No visits today. Our son apparently has a virus that has worsened, and some of the other children have also gotten sick. Our hearts are heavy... we really miss our little guy. Sitting only a few miles away from him and not being able to provide for him or even see him leaves us feeling pretty helpless. But maybe we're not so helpless after all...

One of the biographies I have read over our trip has been that of George Muller. He pastored a church in Bristol, England, for about sixty-six years, but he is most well-known for his orphan ministry. In his lifetime, he provided direct care for over 10,000 orphan children. When he started in 1834, less than 4,000 orphans in all of England had homes and twice that many children under 8-years-old were in prison. But the most amazing facet of Muller's ministry is that he never took a salary and never once asked for money to care for these orphans. In fact, he deliberately went out of his way to make sure that his personal needs, his family's needs, and the needs of the orphanage were never publicized. Why? Listen to his journal:

"If I, a poor man, simply by prayer and faith, obtained, without asking any individual, the means for establishing and carrying on an Orphan-House: there would be something which, with the Lord's blessing, might be instrumental in strengthening the faith of the children of God besides being a testimony to the consciences of the unconverted, of the reality of the things of God. This, then, was the primary reason, for establishing the Orphan-House...The first and primary object of the work was, (and still is) that God might be magnified by the fact, that the orphans under my care are provided, with all they need, only by prayer and faith, without any one being asked by me or my fellow-laborers, whereby it may be seen, that God is faithful still, and hears prayer still."

In prayer, Muller entrusted the needs of his own life, his own family, and the needs of every orphan to God’s care. By faith, he built five large orphan houses for over ten thousand orphans, circulated nearly two million Bibles, published and gave away over three million books and tracts, gave thousands of dollars to aid missionaries overseas, and by the end of his life the man who never asked for money had given over $7.5 million worth of gifts to the needy both in Bristol and around the world.

What was his secret? He knew God, he studied God’s Word (Muller read the Bible through at least 200 times), and most importantly, he believed God. When Psalm 68:5 said that God is the Father to the fatherless, Muller believed it. And so he would come before God day in and day out and say, "You are the Father to the fatherless, and so I trust You to provide for every single need in these orphans' lives." And God answered. By the end of Muller's life, at least 100,000 orphans were cared for in England alone.

So as we sit here separated from our sick little boy, we are not helpless. We have the inexhaustible riches of the Father to the fatherless at our disposal. For the third day in a row, we are not with our son at all, but He is with him. The Father to the fatherless sees him, and the Ultimate Physician is caring for him. And though we long to see our son, though we would do anything for a quick five minutes with him, we have the joy of entrusting our son's needs to the most Faithful of fathers through prayer.

O God, we thank you for the privilege of interceding on behalf of our son. We pray that we would prove to be faithful intercessors for him not just today or tomorrow, but for the rest of his life. We gladly take our place as mom and dad entrusted with the responsibility of standing in the gap for our son, crying out to You on his behalf day and night, for You hold our son in Your hands. All glory be to the One who is faithful still, and hears prayers still...

Thank you for praying for the baby.

We love you and miss you!
--David and Heather

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