This is a newsletter I had only dreamed of being able to send. Please take a moment and read the poem written by our son, Clayton Brown, who is the inspiration for Equipping Minds.
Take My Hand and Run With Me!
When people look at me,
A great student they see,
Spoken well of by the faculty,
Who constantly excels academically,
Who will go into vocational ministry,
This path has been far from easy,
For me, nothing ever came naturally,
Since a child I worked more rigorously,
Than all my fellow classmates,
Always falling behind in my classes,
No matter how much effort,
It never looked well on my report,
Despite my failures, I pressed forward,
Discouragement was constant, yet I endured,
The hope and love my parents showed,
And the Lord’s hand of providence,
Brought me from shame and disgrace,
To a place filled with faith and grace,
Fellow student, have hope and rejoice,
For you also can be set free,
From all these struggles and miseries,
For nineteen years it haunted me,
But now I can run with ease,
See and learn from me, oh please!
I wish to see you at peace,
So take my hand during this race,
We will run a steady pace,
Confident with hope and success,
Until we unlock your gifts.
By Clayton Brown
Clayton wrote this poem during finals week just days before completing his undergraduate degree in Biblical Counseling at Boyce College. He begins his MA at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2015.
Our Son’s Story:
What you may not know is that I have sat where you sit, desperately wanting to hear hope for my son, Clayton, who was struggling. That journey began abruptly when his entrance into this world was traumatic. We watched God breathe for him for the first 13 hours before the trauma team arrived and transported him to the neo-natal unit an hour and a half down the mountain. We were in rehabilitation therapy from the get go, and the next 7 years would be filled with evaluations, speech therapy, and many tears. Read his full story here at Our Son’s Story.
