Our priority is to always keep our Rest Ministries website, including our social network The Sunroom, safe and a place where God is glorified.
- General policies and procedures
- Our disclaimers
- Our privacy statement and suggestions
- If you need to report abuse
- Emergency procedures if someone seems suicidal
- Do you just need someone to talk to?
If you need clarification on any of our policies, we are happy to answer individual questions. Please contact us.
General policies and procedures
1. Please understand who we are. We are a Christian organization who believes in the love of Jesus, the Son of God, who is our Lord and Savior. With this foundation we shouldn’t really have to have a long list of policies about what is acceptable and not acceptable, but we have found the world is not a perfect place and having clearly stated guidelines help us stay accountable to the Lord and keep our Sunroom a safe place for all.
2. We are a safe place. This means things are said in confidentially, we are gossip-free, and any posting behavior that we deem destructive will result in you being banned. Do not repeat conversations that you read here. Do not copy and paste it without permission of an individual without their written permission. Do not download any conversations to your own computer.
It is never fun to ban people–we don’t like to do it. But we will keep this a safe place for all to post and share and these actions may result in an immediate banning. If you are using our network inappropriately, we are not hesitant to ban your membership. We always try to be fair, but the integrity of the ministry will never be risked due to posts or peddling of products, books, conversations, etc.
3. Be careful with your personal information. As safe as we make the Sunroom, it is still online and nothing online is truly “safe.” You may wish to avoid using specific names of family members, locations of your homes or doctor’s offices, or other information that could make you a victim if the wrong person got a hold of it. You may wish to avoid using your last name. Use caution when giving someone your personal email and we recommend getting to know them quite well for a matter of months before doing so.
4. Personal attacks on other members will not be permitted. It doesn’t matter what you call it or how you justify it. Being critical or admonishing someone “in Jesus name” does not make it acceptable. Please be gentle. Remember how emotion often doesn’t come through in typing and you words can easily be misconstrued.
5. If you think you could have caused pain to someone apologize, clarify, ask for forgiveness. None of us are perfect, plus we also have the burden of being in a lot of pain, living with little sleep, and being on and off of medications that can wreck havoc on how we react to situations. Before typing a long reply to something that may have set you off, take a deep breath, walk away and re-read something before clicking “publish.”
6. Be compassionate. We all have challenges and many of them are similar. Many of them are also unique. Plus we live all over the world, where cultural lingo may impact how we say something or respond. You never know when someone is reaching out, ready to end their life if they cannot find hope, and your words could be the final straw. Give mercy. Exude grace.
7. Don’t “should” or “shouldn’t” people. We all have a lot on our plate. Your convictions about everything from having an alcoholic drink to using medications to treat your disease may be foreign to someone who insists on “going natural.” Try to avoid creating scenarios where people have to defend their treatment or diet choices.
8. No foul language please. Even if you need to vent, even though you want to curse, it’s not okay here. Be wise with your words. Keep it clean. If they are not we will gently remind you and delete them. After a few warnings your account may be suspended.
9. We are not the place to try to advertise anything. This includes but it not limited to books, home business opportunities, life coaching, nutritional products, medications, supplements, or any treatments that claim or promise healing.
10. Be careful about self-promotion. Rest Ministries Sunroom does not allow any kind of advertising or promotion of one’s own web site, book, blog, company, etc. within your postings. This includes in your “Signature.” A signature can be created in your profile ares which will show in every post your make, but it cannot include a link. The signature should NOT be used for promotional purposes or you will be asked to remove it immediately.
- This-is-okay-example: If a topic in a forum is on caregiving and how hard it is to care for one when you are ill yourself, and you have a book you wrote on caregiving, you can mention it in a post and share specifically why you think it may be something the reader would be interested in.
- This-is-NOT-okay-example: You go through all the forums searching for conversations that pertain to the topic of your book and post how you wrote a book about it and the link to sell it.
- Repeatedly posting about your own resources as part of engaging in conversations will be seen as advertising.
11. Spammers do occasionally break through. Here is what to do: As soon as we are aware of the “bots” (they are robotics spammers oftentimes) they are immediately banned from our membership. If someone solicits money, asks for a personal relationship, or makes you feel uncomfortable in any way, do not respond to them and contact us immediately with the a link to their comment, a copy if their email or a screenshot of their profile.
12. Under no circumstances, posting of nudity or profanity in this network is allowed. All images, music, videos, etc. that you post you must own the rights to or have permission to post. Please do not post messages about politics unless is specifically relates to illness issues.
Our disclaimers:
Rest Ministries does not provide medical advice. No information found here should be interpreted as such. We are a patient-based forum to encourage and form friendships.
Rest Ministries reserves the right to remove or ban members, postings or groups for any reason we deem necessary.
Although Rest Ministries does their best to remove any questionable material as soon as possible, they cannot be held responsible for the posts of others on this site.
Rest Ministries reserves the right to remove/delete any messages, photos, profile accounts or any other form of information at any time. If you have a profile without any content, bio, etc. it may be removed without notice. We are not responsible for your loss of information and writings.
To report misconduct
Please use this form under “Contact Us.”
Emergency procedures if someone seems suicidal
Occasionally there are posts when a person sounds suicidal and needs immediate help. Here are the steps to take if you see such a post.
1. You may contact the person directly and add some encouragement if you feel comfortable doing so. If not, proceed to the next step.
2. Contact the group moderator if the posting is in a group or contact a Sunroom moderator if it is in a general forum. We will do our best to communicate with the person.
3. If you have exchanged personal information with someone and you have their phone number or address and wish to call and report your concern that s/he is suicidal, please follow your heart. We recommend considering going to the hospital or calling 911 if it is an emergency.
4. You can also call a suicide helpline:
- Suicide Helpline: 1800 – SUICIDE
- Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-827-7571
- National Suicide Hotline: 1-888-248-2587
- There is free, live counseling available (sporadically) through the wonderful people at New Hope. You can call: 714 NEW-HOPE (639-4673) or go to their web site and chat live
Do you just need someone to talk to?
- General needs 1-888-NEEDHIM
- New Life Clinics 1-800-NEW-LIFE
- National Prayer Line 1-800-4-PRAYER
- Want to know Jesus? 1-888-NEED-HIM
- Meier Clinics 1-888-7-CLINIC or 1-888-725-4642
- Association of Christian Counselors 1-800-526-8673
- Minirth Clinic 1-888-MINIRTH (646-4784)
- National Christian Counselors Association 1-941-388-6868
- Grief Share 1-800-395-575
* Do you have a resources you think would make a good addition to this page? Please let us know!
