During an interview for the London Women's Convention in 2010, she was asked for any advice to share with the next generation of women. Her response is filled with passion and wisdom: 'Have you fallen in love with Jesus? I know you know he died to save you; I know you know you ought to love him. But do you love the Lord Jesus? Not just as Saviour and Friend, but as Lord and Master. Is he all in all to you?… Are you allowing God to be totally in control of everything, because of your love for him?' (23) conclusion CFP | Living Holiness: Willing to be the Legs of a Galloping Horse | Helen Roseveare". www.christianfocus.com . Retrieved 2016-12-09.

CFP | Living Faith: Willing to be Stirred as a Pot of Paint | Helen Roseveare". www.christianfocus.com . Retrieved 2016-12-09. Helen Margaret Roseveare, the second of five children born to Sir Martin and Lady (Edith) Roseveare, was educated at Howell’s School in Denbigh before going up to Cambridge. Her father taught maths at Haileybury College, and was then appointed as a schools inspector, before being seconded at the outbreak of war to the Ministry of Food. Here he masterminded a national scheme for food rationing and introduced ration books. Second Kings 3 is an amazing story. It is both exciting and beautiful. In the very next verse, after saying, “Make this valley full of ditches,” God goes on to say in essence, “You’re not going to see rain. You’re not going to hear wind.” It must have seemed awful, even stupid. There they were — an army by the dried up riverbed that separated them from the kingdom of Moab, and God was saying to soldiers who were not trained to dig ditches and who didn’t even have spades, “Make this valley full of ditches.” When she began the nursing school in Nebobongo, in the northeast of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), she chose the motto ‘totally for Jesus’. That motto shaped the whole of her Christian life, from her conversion in 1945 till her passing to glory on 7 December. What God said to me as I read that chapter, was, “Make this valley . . .” Now the word this involves the present. It’s where you are now. It’s not that valley of some other day in your life or that of some other person. “Make this valley full of ditches.” If you have any sense of valley around you — it may be a new start, it may be a change of employment, there may have been sorrow, there may have been grief, there may have been all sorts of different reasons — but this speaks of where you are right now. It is each individual’s personal valley.Living Fellowship". worldmissionbooks.com. Archived from the original on 2016-12-21 . Retrieved 2016-12-09.

It was during this latter period, including four years of civil war (1960-64), that Helen, with nine other missionaries, was put under house arrest by rebel forces. Dr. Helen Roseveare was born in Hailebury, Herts, England in 1925. She became a Christian as a medical student in Cambridge University in 1945. She continued to have strong links with the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union and was designated as the "CICCU missionary" during the 1950s and 1960s. 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. I’ll never forget that wonderful evening, the first of January, a lovely New Year’s Day over sixty years ago. I can remember it now as though it was yesterday. I don’t know how God does such wonders, but I suddenly knew with absolute assurance that God knew me and loved me so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for me. I’d heard this wonderful gospel throughout my first term at the university, when I’d been going to Christian Union meetings. I don’t even know why I went to those meetings, except that they drew me, they attracted me; but I didn’t know the Savior. Follow this prayer with the command of Jesus to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and his promise that all the other necessary things would be given to us as well (Matthew 6:33). My yearning in my own heart as I look forward is to have the right priorities all the time to please him in everything I do. It is my priority first and foremost to please my lovely Lord Jesus — to seek him so as to love him above all and everything else. And that’s what the psalmist said — to dwell and to gaze. One word became unbelievably clear, and that word was privilege. He didn’t take away pain or cruelty or humiliation. No! It was all there, but now it was altogether different. It was with him, for him, in him. He was actually offering me the inestimable privileged of sharing in some little way the edge of the fellowship of his suffering.

One thing I . . . know” comes from John 9:25. There was a man who was born blind, and Jesus healed him. The Pharisees were saying, “Who did it?” They were arguing with the man that he wasn’t the man who’d been born blind, and if he was, then who had healed him? The man said, “Whether he [that is, Jesus] is a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” And that was fact — actually, past fact! I pray that for every single one of us this is a past fact in our personal experience. There was a moment when, having been blind to the things of God, suddenly I could see! Helen accepted Christ while at university in Cambridge, and publicly declared her trust in Jesus, stating that she 'would go anywhere God wants me to, whatever the cost'. She was soon called to serve in North Eastern Congo to establish a hospital and training centre, initially in Ibambi then relocating to Nebobongo. The vast medical needs in this region were overwhelming and Helen soon realised that she could not accomplish much alone. Taking charge of an old leprosy camp, she established a training centre for nurses alongside the hospital. 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.” There should be the pressure that I must — not I may, not perhaps; it’s not an optional extra — I must share Jesus with others. I must tell them. That’s what Paul said. “One thing I do: Forgetting what’s behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me” (Philippians 3:13–14, NIV).

By 1964 the Simba uprising brought real danger. Rebel soldiers carried out unspeakable acts. Helen and several co-workers were placed under arrest for five months, not knowing if and when death would come, amid savage beatings and, for Helen, rape. Through the dark abuse of these months, she sensed the Lord saying: ‘These are not your sufferings. They’re mine. All I ask of you is the loan of your body.’ She wrote later of her ‘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.’ This beautifully illustrated children's biography of Helen Roseveare (1925-2016) is part of a series designed to show kids that God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. That takes us easily into Hebrews 12:1, where we are commanded to throw off everything that hinders — to throw off the sin that so easily entangles — and to “run with perseverance” (NIV) the race marked out for us. This race is not only for Caleb or Bishop Polycarp or Blandina but also for each one of us. All of us who know and love our Lord Jesus are to run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Isaac, Peter, A History of Evangelical Christianity in Cornwall, — privately published (Polperro) by the author (2001).Then I thought of Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna. He was eighty-six years old when he was burned at the stake in a.d. 156. He could have saved his life, had he cursed Christ. But he said, “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?” (For more on Polycarp’s remarkable courage and perseverance, see John Piper’s chapter in this book.) Blandina Helen Roseveare was born in 1925 at Haileybury College (Hertfordshire, England), where her father taught mathematics. Afterwards, I went up into the mountains and had it out with God. “O.K. God, today I mean it. Go ahead and make me more like Jesus, whatever the cost. But please (knowing myself fairly well), when I feel I can’t stand anymore and cry out, ‘Stop!’ will you ignore my ‘stop’ and remember that today I said ‘Go ahead!’?” She was encouraged to return to Congo in 1960, the year of the country’s independence. The new nation soon descended into a period of unrest and instability, leading to what became known as ‘the Congo crisis’, five years of brutality and destruction. Helen recounted that at this time, she had reached “what seemed to be the ultimate depth of despairing nothingness”.

Albert Orsborn, “Let the Beauty of Jesus Be Seen in Me.” Orsborn was General of the Salvation Army (1946–1952) Helen worked extremely hard to overcome many challenges whilst in the Congo, putting in long hours and carrying out a variety of tasks, often with little recognition. She strove for high standards in all aspects of her work. She resolved never to turn anyone away - to 'receive every visitor, whatever the hour, in His name and for His sake, showing His love.' (19) She was dependent on prayer and walked closely with the Lord, prioritising time with him. Yet despite testifying to the all-sufficiency of God's grace, Helen sensed God saying to her 'you want "Jesus plus". Plus a sense of success…' (20) It was a personal spiritual battle: 'My heart ached. A battle was raging inside me… Yes, I did need others to think of me as a success. Yet, at the same time, my heart knew that Jesus was all I actually wanted or needed.' (21) Roseveare H. Living Sacrifice: Willing to be Whittled as an Arrow. Tain: Christian Focus Publications, 1979 CFP | Digging Ditches: The Latest Chapter of an Inspirational Life | Helen Roseveare". www.christianfocus.com . Retrieved 2016-12-09.That demands that we come down into the valleys. We cannot fulfill God’s purpose for our lives up on the mountaintop. The disciples saw the transfigured Jesus in all his glory and radiance on the mountaintop. His garments were shining; his eyes were shining. They were in the very presence of the glory of God. Then they came down into the valley, where there was a crowd. In the crowd was a father with his epileptic (or demonized) son. That was where the work was done. Helen Roseveare is widely-recognised as one of the most courageous and influential missionaries of the 20th century. As I began to read this chapter, I realized that I knew the story — I had taught it to students in Africa. So I knew in a way what was coming, and yet I didn’t know the “Thus saith the Lord” verse. Suddenly I saw it coming. “Thus saith the Lord.” And I didn’t want it. I was scared. I thought, I don’t know what he’s going to say to me. I put my hand across it. But then I read this amazing verse that God was speaking to the kings of Judah, Israel, and Edom through his prophet Elisha. “Thus saith the Lord, make this valley full of ditches” (verse 16, KJV). Dr Helen Roseveare, the renowned English missionary to the Congo, has passed away at the age of 91. Through the brutal heart-breaking experience of rape, God met with me—with outstretched arms of love. It was an unbelievable experience: He was so utterly there, so totally understanding, his comfort was so complete—and suddenly I knew—I really knew that his love was unutterably sufficient.” Return