Thursday, January 8, 2009 East Central Illinois

Woman served rural poor in rural Douglas, Edgar counties

By Amy Rose
Thursday, December 4, 2008 9:04 AM CDT

BROCTON – Helen Taylor, founder of the House of Refuge mission near Brocton, always told people you don't have to look far to find someone in need. It was especially true of Sister Helen, as she was called, because people in need seemed to always find her.

Mrs. Taylor, who died at the age of 88 on Nov. 22, lived a life devoted to service for God and her fellow man.

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"She loved everybody and was just about as Christ-like as you can get," said her son, Ron Taylor of Humboldt. He remembers his mother always caring for others and following what she felt as a calling from God to help anyone that she could.

"She's always had a "mission heart," he said.

She started the mission for the poor called House of Refuge, which she ran out of a rural Brocton house from 1993 until being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.

It all began when she moved nearby to be with her son, Pete Taylor, to help him recover from a serious car accident. She set up house in her son Ron's abandoned rental property outside Brocton near the Douglas and Edgar county line. The house was full of clothes and items that had been left behind from former tenants. Where others would have seen a mess, Mrs. Taylor saw a sign that she was to use this house and these clothes to start a mission for the downtrodden that she had always cared for.

Donna Koeberlein started working with Mrs. Taylor when she opened the House of Refuge in November 1993. She said the mission never had to advertise.

"If people came and they were in need, she would serve them," Koeberlein said. "People loved her and they were drawn by her spirit."

Koeberlein said many of the people in need of food, clothes and housewares in the area came to the House of Refuge, because they were treated with respect and dignity. They could come without judgment and ridicule. Mrs. Taylor gave away everything that was donated to her House of Refuge. If it was not used locally, she would send it to other places in need.

There was no shortage of donors either. Local farmers gave food from their freezers and produce from their gardens; churches, organizations and individuals donated money and goods, and many volunteers gave their time and efforts over the 15 years that Taylor operated the mission.

Steve Allen, member of the Wesley Chapel, located south of Walnut Point State Park near the House of Refuge, got to know Sister Helen well over the years.

"She had a spirituality about her that was uncommon, more than anybody else I have ever met," Allen said. "Through her humility and devotion Christians were attracted to her and wanted to help her in anyway we could," Allen said.

Wesley Chapel gives to mission work all over the world, but Allen respected that Mrs. Taylor was just as effective in her efforts to serve the underprivileged as any other.

"She was there for the rural poor. She served so many people in that little house on the prairie," he said.

Her ministry was still on fire and going strong when she was in the nursing home, Koeberlein said. Mrs. Taylor worked with area towns to make sure a food pantry and other resources were available, when she was ill and could no longer keep up with the demand. Taylor grew up in rural Douglas County, where she met and married Jackson Taylor in 1936. The couple had six children – sons; Ron, Pete, John and David Taylor and two daughters, Rovene Davis and Rachel Cassidy. Mr. Taylor was a farmer and Sargent township road commissioner, while she took care of the home and children.

In the early 1950s, Mrs. Taylor began her religious service by becoming an ordained minister by the Association of International Gospels Assemblies. Her son said she was always more comfortable with a nondenominational approach to religious teachings. Her only church pastor assignment was at the Hugo Community Church during the late 70s and early 80s, after her husband had died.

When she retired, she spent six years in Florida, where she helped at a crisis pregnancy center, fed homeless people and worked as a housemother for a half-way house for females released from prison and returning to society.

Ron Taylor said his mother was frequently compared to Mother Theresa for her love and devotion to God and others in need.

"She's the closest thing to a saint that I've ever seen," agreed Allen.

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