Lisa is Attending Christian Retail Show

Lisa leaves for Flordia in a couple of weeks for the International Christian Retail Show in Orlando. First she will be attending a Christian writers women’s group annual retreat. She will also be mentoring for CLASServices for the two sessions of Book Proposal Blitz. The plan is that her parents will drive from Oregon to San Diego 7/7 and 7/8. Then 7/10 Lisa and her mom will go to Florida. Lisa’s husband will have to be working overtime a lot so Lisa’s dad will hang out with Josh. Pray for all of them!

With Lisa’s rheumatoid arthritis and her mom’s diabetes they aren’t the best of travelers and Josh has loads of energy to keep “Papa” on his toes! Lisa will be signing books, meeting with media, talking with publishers, etc. It’s a time of networking and gaining new relationships.

 

Beyond Casseroles Debuts New Look!

Beyond Casseroles: 505 Ways to Encourage a Chronically Ill Friend
is at the printer with a new cover! We are hoping to make it appear brighter and more fun and be used more in OUTREACH to people who don’t know the Lord. We received some wonderful endorsements that are included, and will also make it available for nonprofits or churches in bulk (100+ copies) to be ordered with their own logo, leader’s message, etc.

We are currently low in stock, so if you order, be aware that it may be 2 weeks before it is shipped. If you want to make sure you get the new cover . . . wait for an announcement here and you will also see the new cover on the order page.

 

Lisa is Working on Moms with Illness Book

If you are a mom with an illness and would like to participate, fill out our form here (choose “other”) and tell us a bit about yourself, kids, ages, etc. Lisa is in the process of writing the basic outline of the book and then will send out all the moms who have an expressed an interest a questionnaire. Moms can choose a few topics and send us answers. As Lisa works on it you can send a few more answers as things come to mind. She plans to have it published sometime in 2009.

 

What Have You Found at Our Web Site Lately?

Jonnie Wright, author of The Silver Bullet says, “Your new website is a dandy! Easy organization for those of us who can’t handle too much visual stimulation and who can’t think of the name of the topic they want–fibro fog in action! Love the color scheme too… it’s easy on the eyes! Very professional!”

Some of the great new resources you’ll find at our web
site:

• Our favorite chronic pain sites
• Our favorite health web sites
• Our favorite illness web sites
• Our favorite illness ministries
• Our favorite health ministries

What’s your favorite find? Tell us what you like (or don’t like) about the new site and you’ll be entered to win some lotion from Bath and Body Works!

 

Volunteer Featured in Her Local Paper

Mary Ann Redondo, a Rest Ministries volunteer, was recently featured in an article, Denville Woman Ispires Awareness of Rare Illness, in New Jersey. Way to go Mary Ann!

The paper says, 

Mayor Ted Hussa hosted a gathering at the municipal building aimed at promoting understanding about the little-understood condition. He proclaimed Tuesday NF awareness day, and about 30 people attended. Hussa organized the event after being approached by Mary Ann Redondo, 54, who cited years of teasing and insensitive comments by people unfamiliar with the disorder…Redondo has NF-Type 1, which affects one in 2,500 people and encompasses other potential complications such as bone deformities, nodules on the iris of the eyes and cancer. NF-Type 2, which affects one in 30,000 births, can result in hearing impairments and cataracts as well as skin tumors.

 

New HopeKeepers Group - Leader Feedback

New HopeKeepers Groups Meeting
Missy Brenton, who recently started a group in Georgia shared the following: “I had my second HK meeting yesterday. It was awesome! There were only four people there, but it was still a really good meeting. I had a local dr come in and speak on the psychosocial aspect of pain and how it affects a person, and in turn the family as well. We had some family there to voice their concerns, and everyone participated in the discussion, it was just really cool.

My husband was there as well. He is the pastor of the church, and he offered a personal and spiritual side to it. It was really cool how it all came full circle back to God and our dependence on Him. We must trust Him in all things And with his love, all things are possible.”

 

Rest Ministries is Going to Be on TV!

Lisa is so excited that May 19th has been confirmed as the filming date by the television show, American Bible Society Presents. (You can watch an episode online here if you want.) No word yet on when the viewing date will be, but we’ll keep you posted.

Where we need prayer: They want to film a local HopeKeepers group, which would be at Lisa’s church. Unfortunately no one in the group was able to accommodate the date change or else they didn’t want to be on TV. So Lisa is prayerfully trying to gather local people together for a time of fellowship so that the film crew has a “group” environment for the taping. Please pray that it will all come together and be glorifying to the Lord (and that the things that need to happen do. For example, Lisa does need a makeover to try to get rid of some of the puffy prednisone face. She should get her carpets cleaned. Her office is still pretty clean but needs a clean “sweep.” We’ll see what really needs to happen!) Please pray that this will be an amazing tool that will gather us more media attention so our ministry can continue to grow and find the financial support to help us do so too.

 

New Web Site Debuts This Weekend

At last the new Rest Ministries web site is complete and everything seems to be working well. Lisa will be updating it this weekend. It’s will take about 3 hours to upload and make sure everything is working correctly. If you visit us this weekend and our site is down for a few minutes, don’t worry! Just come back soon. If we had hired this project out it would have cost about $30,000, but Lisa has stretched her web design skills to (she hopes!) pull it off. We have found that some pages are taking longer to load then we’d like and will be working on some design tips to make it faster. We look forward to your feedback.

 

This Just in From Franklin Graham

Our hearts go out to the people of Myanmar. Billy Graham’s son is there and will be keeping people updated on where support and prayer is needed. This morning he sent out the following email:

I am currently in Asia, and the news of Myanmar’s devastating Cyclone Nargis is on every TV and newspaper. As I write, the death toll is reported at nearly 23,000, but some believe it could be as high as 100,000. More than 42,000 people are reported missing, and up to 1 million may have lost their homes after a 12-foot storm surge swept away entire villages. M yanmar is bordered by China, Thailand, India, and Bangladesh, and more than 90 percent of the population does not know Jesus as Lord and Savior. It is our prayer that many would find new life in Him.

To stay updated see www.billygraham.org

 

New Web Site Coming This Weekend!

We are excited for you to visit our site and check out the hundreds of resource links. For example, we have a lot of pages dedicated to health resource links.

These include:

• Ministries about Bio-ethics and Theology Issues
• Blogs we Like
• Chronic Pain Resources
• Christian Illness Resources
• How to Help a Co-Worker with a Serious Illness
• How to Organize Care for an Ill Friend
• Health Resources
• Christian Health Resources
• Disability Christian Ministry Resources
• Disability Interfaith Resources
• Nursing Home Ministries

… and lots more! Are pages will always be changing as new resources are found or available. We look forward to your suggestions of web sites and resources that you’ve found that you think we’d love.