Mom Mentor Testimony: Meet Kona Brown

“I often felt like a passenger without a voice,” says Graham Blanchard Mom Mentor Kona Brown, of her childhood in a South African Christian home. Today, Kona speaks out with a strong voice through her blog and her life’s work:

Tell us about your ministry through your blog and how it all got started.

I worked for a long time as an analyst before I “retired” (a word my husband loves to use) to start our family. I found the experience of motherhood to be a sort of awakening, almost like I was turned inside out and I was experiencing everything for the first time. And I mean everything, the good and bad of being a mom, the struggle for value after “opting out,” weariness and wonderings instead of focus, struggles with God when I watched the news. My analytical mind went into overdrive, and I started feeling compelled to write it all down. And so I did. I didn’t know it was going to turn into anything.

What is your testimony? How did you become a follower of Christ?

My story starts with a well-worn cliché: “I grew up in a Christian home.” Despite a tumultuous childhood, my mom remarried an amazing, passionate Jesus following pastor, and I was there and aware of my parent’s journey with Jesus from my later primary school years. But I often felt like I was a passenger without a voice. Like it was all a choice that had been made for me. In my early 20’s I reached an impasse in my work and relationship life and I felt desperate for answers. I remember crying out to God in prayer and scriptures I had learned as a child and heard repeatedly coming up in my spirit. I lay down on the bed and for the first time experienced the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit. When I got up I knew that regardless of what I ever had to walk away from, I would walk after Jesus.

What are the biggest challenges for you as a Christian woman?

Oh that’s easy, I have two big ones! Holding fast to the freedom I have in Christ and the truth I have in the Gospel when everything in my culture, my industry and world pulls out all the stops to lie to me and enslave me. Parenting in line with the Bible while at the same time raising my kids to understand their context and environment, have compassion on and respect for all people as opposed to resting my laurels on tolerance.

How does your faith influence your parenting?

It has certainly crowded me to Christ in a way that was different from any other time in my life, because my desperate dependence is apparent to me daily. But it has also been my greatest source of peace. God’s plan and His hand, the power of the Gospel, are greater forces in my life and that of my children than any parenting strategy, fancy school or jam packed extra murals schedule ever could be.

In closing, what encouragement would you offer a struggling mom?

Your children will be one of the biggest areas in your life that God will ever use to shape you. If you are too tired, too overwhelmed and too worn out to pray, just pray this: “Lord open my eyes to see you at work!” Because believe me, He is.

Visit Kona’s blog, the Unsinkable Mommy Brown.