My Story – Missionaries in Kenya

Richard and his wife Selpher are Pastors and Missionaries in Kenya. They are on our mailing list and have offered great prayer support for Rest Ministries despite their own challenges. Richard recently wrote to me (Lisa) when he received the first new issue of hopenotes… I encourage you to visit their web site and read more about their ministry. There are also some wonderful photos of their ministry. I asked him to share more about what is going on in their lives so that we could pray for them as well. His response is below.

Dear Lisa,

So sorry for the sickness [you have experienced]. We have been remembering you in our prayers– as our prayer team is always in prayer for all saints and the prayer requests sent to us every Saturday.

We had wondered as to what happened to hopenotes as they have always encouraged us. I have been busy all through due to the refugees in our church that came ranning for help when we had trible clashes here soon after the presidential elections were announced last year on the 30th December 2007. God has been good to us as we have in this time of trauma had to believe God for victory.

God bless you and look forward for your kind reply to us.

Pastor Richard and Selpher,
http://www.thekingsrings.com/kings_pages/richminsterchristian/

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Dear Lisa and friends,

Greetings from Kenya again! It may have taken some time to reach to you again but I just wanted to let you know and celebrate with us the victory and miracle the Lord has done to our family during our time of silence. You may understand that Kenya has been facing some great difficulties and civil wars have been the talk of Kenyans and the whole nation had been immersed in the fire of conflict due to the disputed presidential election results that were announced on 30th Dec. 2007.

The story of Kenya falling apart was that top story to almost every country’s newspapers, radios and church pulpits in the whole world. During this time, the house we were staying in was set on flame the day we were at the church holding the Sunday services and we lost all things in that fire. Praise God that our family was protected by God. A few of our friends were told of this story but we withheld it from others. Soon after things had began settling down, we had to get to the bank and the bank gave us a soft loan and we bought a small farm in Bungoma city. We had to construct a house and now we have moved in there.

After the conflict we learned a lesson of staying amidst your own people, the people of your own language, as Africa is full of ethnic wars. This is a true story in Africa for due to many tribes and the colonial government divided the lands in tribal basis, when they went back the governments that took over after them again favored their own people–chasing people in a place and forcing people of their tribes there– so this is a continuous problem in the African lands.

One lady called Indira Patro, a friend whom we have known for sometime, sent us some funds to begin constructing at home. The Lord told us not to build at home and we kept the few materials. When we got the land, we had to get the materials to be used in this construction.

As I write, I have a prayer request to bring across for your prayer. I have two children born to me Blessed Richard and Gifted Richard. Schools have opened and now other children have gone to school and cleared their fees but mine are still. Since I relocated to the new home, problems have also increased due to the loan one of it is paying fees for over five orphans and now my little children.

Soon after relocating, we have been shopping for a good school and lastly we found one and they need Ksh 34,800, we have paid Ksh8,000 and now we are stranded on how to get the Ksh 26,800 to clear the fees now that we have been give a grace period of two weeks. Please remember us in prayer in this area. We believe prayer moves any mountain. Pray for us believers.

Pastor Richard and Selpher

HopeNotes #48 – 8.16.08 – Letter From Lisa

>read in your web browser

Hi Friends,

I am going to get this out on time, so I apologize for my notes being short. It’s been a whirwind of a week with our ISP flaking on us last weekend, and after having our web site down for over 9 hours we switched servers. Only then my email stopped reaching me (it is now). And as all this was happening, my favorite, can’t-live-without-mouse stopped working. I’ve had it since my first computer in 1996 and it fit my hand perfectly with my rheumatoid arthritis.

Basically, anything related to technology has given me a bad time this week. My ipod and the player, even the lamp in my office, and the freezer too!

[2 days laster..] The plan was to get the ezine out, but errors kept happening on the graphics and then Friday we had an “end of summer backyard bash” for Josh’s friends and kids in the neighborhood at my house. Out of about 15 families, 3 came, so it was a low turnout, but he had fun. We jumped in the car 30 minutes later to run to Josh’s OT appointment for a “home plan.” Joel got off work early to go so we could get ideas together about morning routines, etc. since school starts next week. We had dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack (Josh danced with the waiters) and then we all came home and collapsted in bed by 9 p.m.

Thanks for your prayers and understanding as always. In the midst of everything I am filling orders and answering emails as fast as I can. I love you all so much!

Lisa Copen
Rest Ministries Director and Founder

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Thanks for helping support one of our advertisers of this issue, author Jonnie Wright!

Looking for a new Bible study for your HopeKeepers Group? “The Silver Bullet” is a terrific!

Fun Stuff for Your Car

Check out these cool new license plates! Lisa just got hers and the quality is top notch!

Have another saying you’d like us to make for you? We can order a custom one for $16, but the one’s below are just $13.

Article for Reprint: Can You be Friends If They Think You Are Faking Your Illness?

REPRINT LISA’S ARTICLES FOR FREE! (or other RM stuff)

NEW! Lisa’s Latest Article: Can You be Friends If They  Think You Are Faking Your Illness?

National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week Theme Announced

 September 8-14, 2008 is this year’s week to bring awareness about invisible illness. Our theme is “Hope can grow from the soil of illness.”

We’ve had some wonderful feedback from you on our postings and we thank you. Doesn’t it feel good to know you aren’t alone in it all? And we also appreciate the fact when you answer surveys because we will be using your quotes and statistics to form press releases to keep invisible illness
issues in the news.

Some of our recent posts include:

• Invisible Illness Week “Brochures” are here!
• “You’re Too Young to Feel That Bad!”
• WANTED: Bloggers on Chronic Illness
• PRODUCT REVIEW: Skeptical People In Charge? Wear a Bracelet!
• What is the hardest part of living with an invisible illness?
• Washington Post Features Illness Stories – Send Yours
• MEDIA RELEASE: Invisible Illness Week Theme Offers Hope Despite Pain
• Do You Have a MySpace Site?

 

 

• ARTICLE: How can Churches Reach Out to the Chronically Ill?
• But You Look So Good!… What do you say? > click here to read the Invisible Illness Week Posts

   

Do you want to be a guest blogger for NICIAW? We are doing 30 days of guest bloogers and we need your help! Send us your submission here.

Our cards/brochures are in! Order today so start passing them out to your doctor’s waiting room, support group, church, friends, therpists, you get the idea!

We have a wide selection of goodies available for purchase now (tote bags, t-shirts, jewelry and more). We found a great company that will “drop ship it.” So the day you order an item, we will order it from the company directly, and they will ship it to you to arrive in 8 days or less. So, you have the choice of ots of different items, but we aren’t investing money up front for most of them. We hope it will work out best for you to get what you’d like and us to be able to be a good steward of our funds.

Brochures/rack cards are HERE! Invisible Illness web site.

Prayer Room at Church Reaches Many

When HopeKeepers leader, Dorothy, discovered that her church, McIntosh United Methodist Church Florida was going to celebrate the National Day of Prayer, she organized a special prayer room. She had a special place where people could come and prayer. Candles, special books, scriptures, and music all set the scene for a place of quiet, rest, and alone time with the Lord. We will soon be posting photos on our hopenotes Blog. f you would like to reach Dorothy for suggestions for your own prayer room, email her at:<b> dbmc001@gmail.com

Amazing Woman and HopeKeeper Leader Help Put On Workshop for Stephen Ministers About Rest Ministries

We can’t tell you how excited we were to receive this email from Irma. We are eagerly awaiting to see if she can make a video of her next presentation so we can have more to share with you in case you want to do this too! Please pray that this may be a wonderful connection for us to start sharing ministry ideas with Stephen Ministries

“Recently, one of the Stephen Ministers on my team has been given a care receiver, who suffers tremendously. We were desperate to find resources for this gentleman. Word of mouth led me to tour website and I’m so very grateful. I was so impressed with it and the many helpful materials referenced that I put together an hour-long Continuing Education program for all our Stephen Ministers giving them samples and sharing the benefit of going on-line at Rest Ministries.

I connected with a facilitator from a local HopeKeepers Group and she came to our program, so she could share her personal experiences and insights and spread the word about the availability of her support group. Now I have some neighboring Stephen Ministry teams that also want this info shared with their group.”

Joni and Friends Conference in Janaury – Put it on Your Calendar

The Disabilities Ministry Summit on the West Coast, sponsored by Joni and Friends International Disability Center, has been scheduled for January 23-24, 2009. It will be held at “Paz Naz” and the theme is “The Luke 14 Mandate: Ministry, Missions, and Movement!” Be sure to add it to your calendar. Lisa will be presenting at least one or two workshops and exhibiting. For more information and to see workshops as they are scheduled see the web site. Joni Eareckson Tada will be a Keynote Speaker.

Devotional Coordinator is Taking a Sabbatical

Kay, who has done our daily devotionals since 1996, is taking a few months off. If you write devotionals keep sending them to the same place. Carolann, who was our chat coordinator, has graciously volunteered to step in.

Kay says, “Just a note to let you all know how very special you are to me. Lately, I have been struggling emotionally with my childhood issues. I have found myself drained and spent. The past month has been very difficult for me to handle. Today in therapy, I make some significant breakthroughs which have taken me 38 years to get to.I would request that you keep me in your prayers that I am able to get the much needed rest that has kept me from enjoying life due to my panic disorder. My heart health is fine for now and my emotional health has made a sharp u-turn as of today. I pray it continues. Please keep me in your prayers that I may find some devotional time with Jesus and grow in His Word.”

HopeKeepers Magazine Represented at Canby Christian Writers Conference

Special thanks to Judy Gann, author of God of All Comfort (devotionals for the chronically ill), who is Rest Ministries writer’s coordinator and also HopeKeepers Magazine’s acquisitions editor. She participated in the conference on behalf of Rest Ministries and talked with many nice people who shared their stories and interest in our ministry.