The Helen Brown Collection

13/09/2025

When the Roll is called

The death of Charlie Kirk affected me in ways that I never expected. I didn’t even know his name until the day he died. I had seen the video clip of his daughter running into his arms after his TV presentation and thought it was cute but that was my extent knowledge of him. I’m not even sure, why I was affected, except that I also try to spread the message of God’s grace through my writing. I’m just not as outspoken as Charlie.
Don’t’ get me wrong, I understand that while evil forces tried to silence him, God has allowed his message to be louder and have a wider reach than ever before. However, after a couple of days of not being able to sleep very well, I read a post about how Erika would be going to bed for the first time knowing that Charlie wasn’t coming home ever again. I suddenly thought about how she wouldn’t have been the only wife, husband, son or daughter who would have gone to bed that night with all those same challenges in front of them however, many of them would be doing it without the support system that Erika has around her. Their only refuge would be God himself.
God reminded me that we had recently said goodbye to a family member who was left the church to the song: ‘When the Roll is called up yonder.’ This is when I realised that Charlie wasn’t the only person in a very long line of people who were called home that day. Faithfull, but all be it quiet, servants of God, who will also hear, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’
So, while I have sympathy for Erika, more so because she has to deal with all the publicity surrounding Charlie’s death, let’s not forget that there are many more people out there who also need our prayers as they face the same challenges that are part of saying goodbye to their loved ones. May they also feel the arms of their God and Saviour around them.

18/08/2025

This event is happening, looking forward to this.

29/06/2025

We are all looking forward to this event.

13/06/2025

Really looking forward to this

21/04/2025

Over the last ten years, I’ve really struggled with my faith. Having lost two mentors within a year, I found myself slipping back, back into a milk and water spiritual diet. Just as that is not sustainable on a physical level, it is not sustainable on a spiritual level either.
One of the problems that resurfaced during this time was an old one that was big during my childhood, was I really saved, was I a goat or a sheep? I’ve lost count of the number of times that I have rededicated my life to Jesus, simply because I didn’t feel saved and now here, I was dealing with this all again.
This seems to be my Achilles heel.
So, how did God help me deal with this? Firstly, I realised that the most important thing was to remember that God’s word is true. The Bible says that if I confess my sins, (which I have done time and time again) He is just and will forgive me. (1 John 1:9). So, feelings, which are so unreliable have to take second place to the actual word of God. I have to stand firmly on His word, not keep moving from one feeling to another. Of course, the devil still has a go at me, each time a preacher talks about real Christians feeling this or that.
However, this Easter, God dealt with another problem, John 13:10 says: “Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean,”
I’ve always been concerned about how many times I get things wrong and therefore again feel unworthy of being saved. I constantly feel as if I have to start over from the beginning time and time, yet this verse took on a new meaning for me. My salvation was assured just as the word of God says, but yes, each time I mess up, all I need to do is come back to Jesus to have my feet washed.
Thank you Jesus for saving us, help us all to stand on your word first.

08/04/2025

Rubbish in Life
After some good rain, for which we were very grateful, and a considerable amount of time since I’d had done any work in it, I found that the w**ds had taken off and covered the garden. It was time to clean it out, which I started to tackle one morning.
The first thing that I noticed was that there were plants in the garden that I had forgotten that I had put in there. Now I had to be careful to make sure that I only pulled the w**ds. If I had kept the garden clean, instead of taking time off from tending it, those plants would have thrived and maybe the w**ds wouldn’t have grown as big. However, no matter how much of the w**d I pulled out, I was never going be able to remove enough to stop them from growing again.
I was also reminded that our lives, will always have roots of sin, regardless of how careful we are. They might not be big things but they will be things that come between us and God, I found that often during times of great blessing, it is easier to have those things creep into our lives.
Thankfully, God knows exactly what needs to be removed and what can stay. Hebrews 12:6 says: “for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines and chastises every son whom he receives.”
Yes, the process of having these things removed is difficult and sometimes painful but would we rather God let all the rubbish grow and ruin our lives. His love allows the good things to grow.
Proverbs 3:11 says “My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:”
The other thing that I was reminded of, is that, unlike me, God never takes time off and never lets things get away from Him. I’m so thankful for that.

08/04/2025

Life is tough
I was mowing the lawn once after having let it go for some time. We’d had a considerable amount of rain, which meant the grass was long and thick. I knew that I had to push my way through it with the hand mower as the ride-one was not operational.
There were patches when the going was really hard, so hard in fact that I doubted my ability to actually get it cut down at all and the prospect of having to push my way through the whole yard was very overwhelming. However, as I made progress, I found that not all the yard was as hard going as the areas that I had started with. Even amongst the tough stuff, there were areas that were easier to cut and pushing the mower was no trouble at all.
Which reminded me that life is hard, sometimes, it’s very difficult and it looks like the whole of our lives are always going to be just one long big struggle.
But life, is like that yard, even amongst the tough times in life, we will find that there are easier patches, even if that are small, and short lived. Things like a conversation with a friend, a child doing something nice for you, or even looking up and seeing the sunset or dawn sky light up with brilliant colours.
The important thing for us, is to make sure that we look, and appreciate those small things, and remember them as we plunge back into the hard stuff of life.
2 Corinthians 4:17 says: “For the momentary lightness of our affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far surpassing to excessiveness.” Which simply means that all our troubles will not last forever. Just like my yard has a fence around it, which creates a boundary and limits how much lawn there is to mow, God knows where He has placed our boundaries and when things will finish and if we have asked Jesus to be Lord of our lives then, ultimately there is Heaven to look forward to, where there will no more troubles at all.

04/02/2025

26/01/2025

My Brother's first book.