When I went up to bed that night, I tried to find Philippians 3 and to read the verse in context. I knew nothing about the Bible; in fact, I was terribly ignorant of anything to do with spiritual things. I had no idea who this man Paul was who had written the chapter, but I just knew as I read the chapter that I wanted to love Jesus as he did. I wanted to love him wholeheartedly. I wanted to love him with all I had — to put him first in everything.

Helen returned from the Congo in 1973 due to her mother's declining health. During her later years, she travelled around the world to speak of her experiences and wrote several books. She went to be with the Lord in December 2016. Run with perseverance the race marked out for us [for each one of us]. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. Roseveare H. Living Sacrifice: Willing to be Whittled as an Arrow. Tain: Christian Focus Publications, 1979 Exhausted, Helen returned to England in 1958 for a furlough, during which time she received further medical training. She eventually received an “overwhelming sense of privilege, that Almighty God would stoop to ask of me, a mere nobody in a forest clearing in the jungles of Africa, something He needed.”

Every year between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day I seek to have time alone with God and to ask him for a particular verse for the coming year. For 2006 he gave me a phrase out of Ephesians 1:17: “that [I] may know him better” (NIV). That has been the longing of my heart all year. When Paul wrote that phrase, he was at the end of his life, imprisoned in Rome. He’d been a missionary for years. He’d been serving God with all his heart for years, and yet still this prayer came out of his heart: “that [I] may know him better.” She went on to serve the Lord over two decades in Africa, enduring war, imprisonment and great personal suffering along the way. Serving the Congo

In 1973, Helen returned to the UK for health reasons, settling in Northern Ireland. She traveled, wrote several books, and servedas a missionary advocate. Some of my favorite verses are in 1 John 3, the first three verses. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. . . . Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is,” the all-together lovely One. That is beautiful. And that is what the psalmist said in Psalm 27:4: “. . . that I may dwell in the house of the Lord . . . to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.” So my life, my lips, my actions, my motivations, my reactions to other people should all reflect the loveliness of the Lord Jesus. There is a hymn that says it all: Despite the Christian heritage of her family, and faithful attendance at church, Helen sensed a void in her life and distance from God. Another passage where Jesus said that what was done was a beautiful thing was in Simon’s house, at the meal table, when the woman came and broke the alabaster jar of precious ointment, anointing him, as he said, in preparation for his burial. The other disciples were grumbling: “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” Jesus said, “Why do you trouble her? . . . She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:4–6). I love that this collection of books features a different color on each cover, making it a fun collection to display in our daughter’s library. While the book appeals to my daughter, I think it will just as easily appeal to little boys as well and be a great addition to a church or school library and for homeschooling families!Isaac, Peter, A History of Evangelical Christianity in Cornwall, — privately published (Polperro) by the author (2001).

Helen Roseveare was born in 1925 at Haileybury College (Hertfordshire, England), where her father taught mathematics. In 1973 she returned to the UK for health reasons, settling in Northern Ireland, where she wrote several books. But it was during her teenage years at boarding school in Wales that Helen consciously began searching for God. Yet she later writes that her beliefs at this time were merely superficial: 'I've no idea what I thought of God, or who I thought He was; but there was Somebody, God, who was bigger than everything around me, and I needed Him.' (3) At that time, she believed: 'I could reach Him only if I were absolutely honest.' (4) I imagine many of us can relate to that instinct that we can somehow reach God by our own efforts. Helen was keenly aware that everything in the world, including life itself, seemed useless and meaningless; there had to be something more. This led to further efforts on her own part to reach out after the 'Unseen' - she dabbled in Anglo-Catholicism and regularly attended Confessions and Mass. (5) Yet there was still a great sense of emptiness and futility. It seemed that however earnestly and sincerely she tried to help others, there was a great void in her life. After completing her studies, Roseveare applied to WEC to be a medical missionary. In 1953, she went to the Congo, where she was assigned to the north-east provinces. [3] She built a combination hospital/ training center in Ibambi in the early 1950s, then relocated to Nebobongo, living in an old leprosy camp, where she built another hospital. After conflict with other staff at the hospital, she returned to England in 1958. [4]There’s a teaching seeping into even what we call the evangelical Christian church that is belittling the fact that Jesus died for my sins. They say that he died only as an example or some such thing. I don’t honestly know how they explain away the fact of his penal death on the cross as our Savior or what they actually believe instead of the Truth. In fact, I don’t know how they can call themselves Christians if they don’t believe that “Jesus died for my sins.” For me, that’s the basic fact of Christianity. Jesus died for my sins. And this to me is solid fact. And whatever else happens in anyone’s Christian life, whatever the problems or difficulties, this one thing is certain: To love the Lord my God with all my mind will involve an intellectual cost. I must give Him my mind, my intelligence, my reasoning powers, and trust Him to work through them, even when He may appear to act in contradiction to common sense. The illustrations by Cecilia Messina are colorful and playful. They do a beautiful job of transporting your children into the story. I often play “doctor” with my kids, and I’m happy to use this story to show them how saints like Roseveare live out their faith. Do I choose what is good? Do we treasure that early hour in his presence, that quiet time alone with the Lord? It’s so essential to being what he wants us to be. It’s the only way we’re going to become more like our lovely Lord Jesus. Can that early hour be squeezed out? Now I know that for the mothers of small children it can be very difficult to keep that quiet time. I’m well aware it may not be possible in the early hour. But we can all find some time when we can be alone with God. He will enable us to find that time if our hearts are set on it. Do I guard that time against all intrusions?