This week is Invisible Illness Awareness Week. I am so excited about all the terrific presentations we have ready for you to watch or listen to online and I have been happy about all of the enthusiasm so many of you have shared.
This week, I am sharing devotionals I have written that have a running theme of “how to help a person with a chronic illness.” I have adapted them for you, knowing if you are reading this, you are likely ill yourself! But they are also nice little snippets to be able to print and share with friends, family, caregivers, your pastoral care team and church and more.
Our team of devotional writers will be back next week and they have more touching examples of how God is working through their lives, just like He is in yours.
Please keep this week in your prayers. There are millions of people who suffer from the same pain and illness symptoms you and I do, but they don’t know where to turn to deal with it all. You and I are certainly not perfect, but can you imagine going through your illness without knowing God has a purpose and a plan for your life?
Without the Lord illness is so much more likely to lead you down the paths of destruction, instead of hope and renewal. This week, we hope to send the message of Proverbs 23:18 “There is surely a future and a hope for you and your hope will not be cut off.” When we turn to the Lord, we always have hope. Even if nothing goes as planned here on earth, we have the hope of heaven!
I ask you to join me in prayer for softened hearts that are receptive to this message. Many of our speakers speak of their faith in the Lord and how necessary a relationship with Him is to truly find peace in the chaos of illness.
I invite you to come on over to http://invisibleillnessweek.com. To find everything to do with the virtual conference, go to http://invisibleillnessconference.com and there you will find the schedule (everything is archived for later too), some goodies to print out like a desk-topper, notepaper to take notes, and a schedule, among other freebies.
Plus, Monday morning I will be in two places at the same time (well, sort of.) At 8 AM Pacific my welcome video for Invisible Illness Week will air at Invisible Illness Conference. But I will be “live” on Grace Cafe’s morning radio program that is on BlogTalkRadio, so you can listen live and then see the video afterwards if you’d like.
And if you have a minute, please share something with a friend or your favorite “social network” like Facebook. Our budget for this entire event is zero dollars, so it’s people like you who have helped us spread the word. We are receiving about 6,000 visitors to our sister-site for Invisible Illness Awareness Week per day. Isn’t God awesome?!
Here is a little example that you can edit and personalize. Thank you for your help and your prayers.
“I just wanted to let you know that there is a virtual conference this week for Invisible Illness Awareness Week. It is sponsored by the Christian ministry I receive daily devotionals from, Rest Ministries. The “conference” is Sept 10-14 at http://invisibleillnessconference.com and there are many Christian women speakers that will be speaking on topics like parenting, emotions when living with an invisible illness, personality styles, marriage, and more. All the videos will be archived so you can watch anytime or listen to the audio file. I hope you will be blessed!”
Warmly,
