\u201cA baby is God\u2019s opinion that life should go on,\u201d the
poet Carl Sandburg (1878\u20131967) wrote. A newborn is an
af\ufb01rmation of life and love and hope. It is also cause for
great celebration\u2014the arrival of a brand-new soul, fresh
from Heaven. What awaits the little newcomer? All the
best, we hope: love, health, happiness, success, and every
other good thing that life has to offer.

But what if that baby isn\u2019t everything we hoped and
prayed and expected it to be? What if it isn\u2019t \u201cnormal\u201d?
Or what if it won\u2019t be ours to have and hold and love
for very long? What then? Does that mean God has
changed His mind, that all is lost, that lifes h o u l d n\u2019 t
go on? Such unexpected and unwelcome turns can be
devastating unless we know the Lord and have explicit trust

and sends rain on the just and on the unjust,\u201d Jesus
said in Matthew 5:45. It is how we greet potentially
devastating events that makes the difference. The death
of a loved one, a life-threatening illness,\ufb01nancial loss,
betrayal, being the victim of violence or abuse\u2014if any of
these should happen to you or someone you love, would
you let them make you bitter, or better?

In this issue ofA ctivated you\u2019ll read the\ufb01rsthand
account of one couple who went through a heartrending
experience but let the Lord use it to deepen and better
their own lives, and to equip them to be a greater help to
others in their times of need.

For a wide range of books and
audio and video productions to
feed your soul, lift your spirit,
strengthen your family, and provide
fun learning times for your children,
please contact one of our distribu-
tors below, or visit our Web site at

Activated Ministries
P.O. Box 462805
Escondido, CA 92046-2805
USA

Bramingham Park
Luton, Beds. LU3 4BU
England

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture
quotations inAc tivated are from the New
King James Version of the Bible \u00a9 1982
Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Although Gabriel only lived on this
earth for two years and four months,
the Lord used him to touch many
other lives and to teach us innumer-
able precious lessons of love, faith,
conviction, endurance, compassion,
humility, courage, prayerfulness, and
the reality of Romans 8:28: \u201cWe know
that all things work together for good
to those who love God.\u201d

that Gabriel had Down syndrome, it
was very dif\ufb01cult for us to accept,
but as we became more informed,
we found out how special Down syn-
drome children are. And of course
the more we got to know Gabriel
and enjoyed his sweet angelic spirit,
the less we thought of him as
a \u201cretarded\u201d child and the more
we suspected that we were like
the people who the Bible says
had \u201cunwittingly entertained angels\u201d
(Hebrews 13:2).

Gabriel had several serious phys-
ical disabilities from birth, and obvi-
ously his body was not designed to
last very long. It functioned only by

the grace of God and a large daily
dose of desperate prayer and praise.
Each day was a miracle, a gift. We
compiled a list of Bible verses for
Gabriel\u2019s health and strength, and
referred to it often. The promise we
claimed the most was,\u201cHe gives
power to the weak, and to those
who have no might He increases
strength\u201d (Isaiah 40:29). The Lord
surely ful\ufb01 lled that promise in
Gabriel.

When Gabriel was six months
old, he contracted a severe cough. As
we desperately sought the Lord for
Gabriel\u2019s healing, He told us that He
was trying to teach us endurance. As
we dug into the Bible to learn what
that meant, we were encouraged to

ion many men and women of God
into the people He wanted them
to be. As for us, we needed to not
just pray once and count it done;