Home
Available as an ebook from Amazon.com
1st Edition
2nd Edition
This book is only available in limited quantities from the Author. $17 plus postage & handling, through the Contact page. Just tell me how many copies you would like,.
Turning Water Into Wine
This book may never have happened but I’m really stoked that it has. While at school, I struggled to keep up with the rest of the class and no one understood why until an eye defect was discovered during my thirties. English was probably the subject that I had the most difficulty with. Something that I didn’t understand was, even though I couldn’t keep up in class, reading a book was not a problem, and when I discovered this, I read a lot. Two of my favorite books were: Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. Both stories have characters who wrote books. With my level of success at school, I considered that being able to emulate such heroines was just a distant mirage that would never be reached.
By the time my learning difficulty had been fixed, the electronic age had come into its own. When I mentioned writing a book, indications were that because of the electronic media phenomenon, publishers were not taking on new authors and it was going to prove to be a very difficult venture.
People have asked me what I want my book to achieve and that has taken some time to figure out but I want this book to help Christians to reaffirm their confidence in their God and His plan for their lives and for those that do not have a relationship with God yet, I what them to realize just how much God loves them and how simple the answer is.
To get a sneak peak at what is in this book play these recordings from
Cooloola Christian Radio.
Writing My First Book
I started writing, when my minister asked me to write short devotional pieces for the church weekly news sheet to be inserted once a month. As I started out, ideas came slowly and being very concerned that I get everything right, I read them to my mother, to make sure that both my grammar and theology was correct. As more and more ideas developed I wrote more and more articles. I told myself that I would store them up in advance in case I got sick or suffered from writer’s block. As the stories mounted up, they started appearing more regularly than monthly until they were used on a weekly basis with the minister writing the occasional piece.
At some point it occurred to me that I could use all these articles and put them together as a book. What made me think about putting them in a book you might ask? As a child having read Little Women and Anne of Green Gables, I would have loved to be able to write like both these characters. However having a learning disability I felt that it was never going to happen.
The first indication that was would ever be able to write came many years ago while I lived in the town of Guyra on the Northern Tablelands. We had a minister appointed to our Church, who had left his youngest son behind in their home town because he had refused to move. This meant that his wife was trying to deal with a new job, new location and an empty nest much sooner than she expected all in the space of a few weeks. As there were very few women in our church around the same age as this poor lady, including myself, I asked God to help me find some way to connect with her to help her cope with all these new circumstances.I few days later I wrote a poem. This not only felt strange but was really strange because as a child at school I found English so hard as a result of the difficulty that I mentioned before but I hated poetry as a subject. I just couldn’t get a grasp of the rules or the picture language that was used. So why had I written a poem? When I mentioned it to our new minister a few days later, I discovered that his wife also wrote poetry and it appeared that God had found a way to relate to this poor lady.
If there was anyone least likely to write a book it would have been me. As each stage I was careful to wait for God to show me when to take the next step. I was still really surprised at just how straight forward the publishing of the book went. My brother-in-law published a book a few years ago and he indicated that the proofreading had taken up to eight months, backwards and forwards.
What advice do I have for anyone planning on writing a book, write, pray and wait for God to lead!
"I thoroughly enjoyed Helen's book, "Turning Water into Wine." Her life lessons are an insightful message for us today to help and encourage our future. Helen points out through her experiences, trials growing up, becoming a wife and mother that God in his Word showed her who she was to him. Many times the situation she went through did not go the way she expected but ultimately Gods guidance transformed her life for the future."
Barbara Duvall
Sometimes we are reminded that the small details matter, and may be critically important in ways we do not see at first. Helen Brown’s book shows us that the Christian’s spiritual walk is a daily experience, a constant work in progress and what happens between the major milestones can be just as important as the memorable things. We can learn a great deal from events or encounters that seem small in themselves but show us God’s presence in our lives and remind us of important Biblical truths. The reflections Helen records show how daily experiences can give rise to deeper spiritual reflections, and remind us that our walk with God is constant. The author has lived in different places and through a range of situations and experiences, including marriage, working and raising a family, and shows the reader what we can see if our hearts are open to hear God speaking to us and guiding. I enjoyed reading this and was reminded of something important myself. When Jesus was on earth He taught His disciples and followers day by day, by what they saw and experienced. He turned water into wine, raised the dead, healed the sick and desperate, and set an example to all. Even though the Lord is not here in person as He then was, His ministry to us continues. Putting His Word before us and the Holy Spirit with us, He continues His ministry. Even though our world is different from that of Jesus’ time, He is unchanging and He teaches us still. Believers today need to learn from what we see and what the Word tells us about it. Reading this book shows ways to do that. Jesus is still in our lives. Marvellous things still happen. Suffering still happens. Jesus is still ministering to us, He did not stop when He ascended. Helen Brown’s writings reveal this.
​
Andrew Clarke
