Rainbow of Hope Sticky Notes Encourage People

By Shari Wilks

This is my first year as a member of Rest Ministries and this is also my first year participating in the Invisible Illness Week.

This past Monday I had to make a trip to the post office to mail a letter and as I walked into the lobby I looked over my shoulder and saw a bulletin board. The cork bulletin board contained many different items pinned to it such as business cards, flyers advertising vehicles for sale, information offering baby sitting services, church concerts, tutoring and more.

As I was looking at the different items posted on that cork bulletin board I giggled and thought to myself, as Lisa Copen would say, I’m feeling a little mischievous!

I had just placed a few packs of post it notes in my purse along with a couple of Sharpie pens right before I left to mail my letter. I borrowed them from my daughter because she is “The Post It Note Princess” in our house. She leaves them everywhere and is very fond of the bright, flourescent colored post it notes.

I had a pack of every color. . . red, orange, yellow, neon green, blue, purple, and pink. I began to write messages of encouragement on the first post it note of every pack, a total of seven notes, stuck a push pin in each note and lined them up to form a nice little rainbow in the center of the bulletin board.

I stood back and smiled at my Rainbow of Encouragement. The only thing missing was my camera. I wish I could have taken a picture of it to share at invisibleillness.com.

I quickly forgot about the camera and thought to myself, I have no idea if anyone will take one of these notes, but I am sure that my Rainbow of Encouragement will definitely grab someone’s attention!

I returned to the same post office to mail a package today. I walked into the lobby and glanced over at the bulletin board and guess what?

My Rainbow of Encouragement was gone! Every little vibrant colored, encouraging post it note was missing! I smiled and thought to myself, Thank you God, I guess My Rainbow of Encouragement actually turned out to be Your Rainbow of Hope because at least seven more people who have an invisible illness will come to Rest Ministries and get visible hope!

Invisbleillness.com – “Each One, Can Reach One” . . . and I’m eager to reach many more.

Shari has had Myasthenia Gravis for 16 years and fibromyalgia for a year. She has had many ups and downs with MG, also known as remissions and relapses. She says, “My last MG relapse caused the fibromyalgia and also depression. I was in the deep dark tunnel called ‘life’ for almost a year before I saw the Light. I am happy to say that by God’s grace I am doing much better because I have decided to center my life around God and NOT my chronic illness.” Visit Shari’s Page at the >Rest Ministries and HopeKeepers Sunroom.

Do you have a story to share? Post something below and we will contact you!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Invisible Illness Week Online Virtual Conference Registration Now Open

You don’t even have to get out of bed for this virtual conference!

Will you be attending at least one Invisible Illness Awareness Week Workshop?

Here are the details about the seminars of Invisible Illness Week:

• This year, 2010, we will have one seminar each day, 90 minutes long, with guest experts on panels
• M-F, September 13-17
• They will be held online, for free
• 10:30 AM Pacific time, USA
• Go to www.blogtalkradio.com/invisibleillnessconf at the time of the conference and the program will play out of your computer speakers
• If you miss it you can listen to it later, and within a few days they are also imported into itunes if you listen to podcasts on an ipod.

Here is a time zone converter.

Register below. It’s free. We basically just need your name and email, but if you’d like to share anything with us (including a web site address if you blog about your illness), we’d love to get to know you better. Leave any comments in the “bio” section if you’d like.

If the form does not work for some reason, just email us “yes, I am coming/listening in!”

http://invisibleillness.eventbrite.com

Are on Facebook?

If so, be sure to RSVP there too . Why? It helps us spread the word by popping up the little Facebook ad in the right hand column. Plus, we have a better idea of how many listeners to expect.

Remember, you can listen to all of the programs from your computer. They will be broadcast via Blog Talk Radio. If for some reason you can’t get it working, within moments of the program being complete, you can listen to it archived at Blog Talk Radio and later on itunes.

Popularity: 5% [?]

What Exactly Is A Chronic Illness And Who Defines It?

by Lisa Copen

If you were to walk up to a person on the street and ask him what he believed the difference was between illness and health, chances are that you would likely receive a fast reply about how health is when the body works correctly and illness is when it does not.

When one starts to live with daily symptoms that resemble a chronic condition, however, the necessity of needing to understand the difference between a healthy body and a chronically ill body becomes much more important. It comes as a surprise to many people who are diagnosed with illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome, that many diseases are still surrounded with great mystery, even from the medical community. Long-term symptoms are not fully known.

This does not negate the need, however, for one to seek answers. When the definitions of health and illness significantly impact your life, it obviously becomes a more personal issue. And the validation to have your pain recognized by both friends, as well as medical professionals, can become quite important. One needs someone to listen and diagnose symptoms of his or her illness.

The definition of chronic illness seems like it would be a simple answer even though there are thousands of types of chronic illness: Health is feeling good; illness is the lack of health or appearing overweight or out of breath. But consider the fact that there are many people who actually are quite ill, but who appear to be in great health. How many times have we heard of a perfectly healthy forty-year-old man having a heart attack? Or a young woman having a stroke that is completely unexpected since she runs marathons annually?

So if one’s appearance or “feel good” measurement doesn’t work accurately to decipher the difference between health and illness what do we use to determine it?

Those who cope with daily chronic pain due to a chronic illness may be surprised to hear the physician ask, “Do you think you can be a healthy chronically ill person?”

According to Derek Yach, who presented on the topic of “Health and Illness: The Definition of the World Health Organization,” both societies and individuals have a variety of definitions of what is regarded as health. These definitions have all undergone scrutiny and criticisms.

How can health be determined after all? For example, does life expectancy or infant mortality rate statistics determine a society’s health? While we serve up lunches for our children full of sugar and poor carbohydrates, other groups turn away from that cause and instead pressure McDonald’s to remove toys from Happy Meals and have a McDonalds calorie list. While the toys may be nice perks, not every mother is Googling the McDonalds Happy Meal toy schedule. Moms are still saying, “Eat your food and then you can play.”

Are we setting unrealistic expectations on people to believe that everyone can obtain some level of “health”? Defining health and illness will always be a vague science because it is often the sociological definition and each country will have difference measurements to determine their level of health and illness, oftentimes emphasizing health (or illness) with certain intentions for international purposes.

And so this brings us once again to the question of “What is a chronic illness?”

Medically speaking, a “chronic” condition can be defined as any medical state of pain or symptoms that last 3 months or longer. This definition is provided by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. Chronic conditions typically have symptoms or pain that persists, regardless of treatment, such as the autoimmune illness chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, lyme disease, Alzheimer’s disease, migraines, or back pain from an event like a car accident.

Despite the fact that America may be well known for their well-being, nearly 1 in 2 American live with a kind of chronic pain, condition, or illness. This can include anything from chronic migraines to disabling back pain. This is according to the report “Chronic Care in America: A 21st Century Challenge” completed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Our society has firmly held the opinion that the commonly advertised medications will cure our illness or at least make all symptoms soon disappear. And we are told this is true: that we just need to follow the advice of the pharmaceutical companies and soon we will be as good as we used to be!

It is not unusual for us to believe that pain management is not the “management” of any pain but the complete and total removal of the pain. And curing one from that pain indefinitely. If a medication does not give us back our life as it was before illness, we assume the medication simply did not work; not that it worked to the best of its ability.

The World Health Organization (WHO) was established in the year 1948 and at that time the word health was given the definition as “being a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” According to the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, it defines the word illness as “a state of poor health.” In fact, this source states that “Illness is sometimes considered a synonym for disease.”

Many people would claim that true health is more about having a peaceful state of mind; an attitude about life that includes joy. They would say that health is not defined what your lab test results may expose about your body and its ability to function.

This can be a sensitive issue. There are healthy people who live with extreme chronic illnesses, but they stay as fit as possible in spite of their conditions. Other people may have wonderful genetics and be very healthy according to lab tests, and yet they put their body under great physical stress. And then if they get an illness, was it caused by the stress or was it an illness they likely would have gotten eventually anyway?

This starts to get into the area of the definition of social health, trying to understand which comes first, the stress or the illness? There are a variety of social factors that determine health.

To wrap up the topic, it can be difficult in our society to find a solid definition for chronic illness, because, depending on who you ask, the odds are that a variety of terms will be given. It’s true that chronic illness has a long list of frustrations and burdens; I know this because I have lived with illness for nearly two decades. But I also try to understand that joy is a choice I can decide to focus on. And while lab tests can determine if I have an illness or not, and its severity, no one has the power to take away my joy or how I find it each day.

Here is a 2-minute video where I, Lisa Copen, share some surprising news about who believes they don’t know anyone who lives with illness!

Lisa Copen is the founder of Rest Ministries and National Invisible Chronic illness Awareness Week, as well as the author of Why Can’t I Make People Understand? Chronic illness doesn’t have to be depressing! Subscribe to receive daily emailed encouragement from the largest Christian outreach for people with illness. Don’t miss Rest Ministries great books and gifts we’ve selected for people coping with illness.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Where Do I ‘Belong’ When I Live With Chronic Illness? (chronicillnesspaindevotionals.wordpress.com)
• When God Says ‘Go’ But Your Body Says ‘No’ (chronicillnesspaindevotionals.wordpress.com)

Popularity: 2% [?]

Tweets to Spread the Word About Blogging for Invisible Illness Week

Bloggers make a HUGE difference in reaching out to people, especially the patient community. If you blog or tweet, here is a sampling of some of the tweets we will be sending out in the next few weeks to encourage people to sign up with Bloggers Unite so we know who is blogging for Invisible Illness Week and so we can make sure to find those blog and come read them! Feel free to copy and paste or edit them to make them your own and tweet them or post them as your status update on a network like Facebook.

Thanks for your help, friends!

• R U Blogging for #Invisible #Illness Week #iiwk10! Let us know @ Bloggers Unite http://ow.ly/2qZbA
• Blogging for #Invisible #Illness Week #iiwk10 ? Tell us so we can read it! http://ow.ly/2qZbA
• If U R blogging for #Invisible #Illness Week #iiwk10 we want to come read it! Sign up at Bloggers Unite http://ow.ly/2qZbA
• We don’t want to miss your blog for #Invisible #Illness Week #iiwk10 so tell us about it here! http://ow.ly/2qZbA
• Bloggers are making a HUGE impact for #Invisible #Illness Week #iiwk10 – share your post here! http://ow.ly/2qZbA
• We R loving reading your blog posts on living with #Invisible #Illness – B sure to share it here:  http://ow.ly/2qZbA

Popularity: 1% [?]

Those with Invisible Illness Are A Hidden Minority Group – Among Us But Invisible

Imagine a minority group in the United States that has it really rough.

How rough? They have a hard time getting employment, and a large percentage have been unemployed for years and are dependent on the State or the generosity of friends and relatives. Those who do work often work only part-time or low-profile jobs. They live in relative poverty and sometimes have trouble affording housing or clothes.

Some members of this minority are not able to drive. Many do not own their own homes.

Moreover, the society at large frowns upon members of this minority talking about any aspects of their lives that are different from the lives of non-minorities.

These minorities are encouraged to pretend that they are not part of their minority group, and they are rewarded for passing as members of another group. Indeed, their career success depends on their ability to pretend that they are not part of the minority group.

Media portrays the members of this group as lazy, deceptive, self-indulgent, mentally ill, and taking advantage of others.

In the dating arena, being this type of minority appears to decrease a person’s desirability, all other things equal, and thus these minorities often seek to date other members of their group.

Very few members of this minority group are represented in the top levels of business, entertainment, or policymaking. A lower percentage complete college or postgraduate education compared to the general public.

All in all, these minorities tend to have less money, less education, smaller social circles, lower-paying jobs, less disposable income. Their rates of depression, anxiety and other mental disorders are much higher than in the general public.

Which is to say, members of this minority group have it rough.

Who are these minorities? Those with chronic, debilitating illness.

They are there all around us. People have varying degrees of disability from chronic illness, but the U.S. Department of Commerce estimated in 1997 that 20.6 percent of the population had some degree of disability from illness, but only 6 percent of these illnesses were “visible” in the form of a cane or assistive device.

It’s like a hidden world existing among the normal world but largely invisible to it, since only a small percentage of illness can be seen with the naked eye. But simply develop a health condition yourself and start frequenting the health forums and web sites, and you will get a sense of the vast populations of very sick people with correspondingly marginal lives.

Besides the suffering associated with their actual illnesses, members of the “sick” minority also frequently deal with:

- Lower standard of living.
- Poverty.
- Divorce.
- Marital and family strains.
- Not obtaining desired education.
- Social isolation.
- Losing friends and connections.
- Missing out on certain social activities, hobbies, traveling or other enjoyments.
- Quitting or scaling back on jobs or careers.
- Down-scaling career goals or choosing an easier career.
- Discrimination.
- Having to hide the fact that they are sick.
- Taboos against talking about their lives, as though their situations are a shameful secret.
- Restrictive diets for health reasons.
- Not being able to eat out at restaurants.
- Anxiety about whether they can meet their needs while in public.
- Belittling by doctors, being told it’s “all in their head.”
- Being doubted or accused of malingering.
- Being discounted.

Most notably, I have noticed that healthy people (and some doctors) sometimes seem to write ill people off as though they are in some other, lesser category, not real people. The subtext seems to be: “You’re just a sick person, so you have to be satisfied with the life you have. You can’t expect the sort of things a well person enjoys. Just be grateful fo any bit of relief or help you get.”

From the outside, it might seem like people in wheelchairs shouldn’t expect to use every building or every form of public transportation; or people with unverifiable chronic pain shouldn’t expect disability pay; or people with chronic Lyme disease should not expect to be cured. But when the illness is your own, putting up with suffering and a limited life becomes more than hypothetical, and one starts to take issue with any limitations or extra suffering that are not unavoidable due to the condition itself.

We all deal with the breakdown of the body at some point. Sick people are not “other”; they are “us.” If things had gone slightly differently, any healthy person could be sick, too. Indeed, when the time comes and you are no longer healthy, you will wish that sick people were valued and treated well.

What would it look like if sick people were not a “minority” group?

- Social Security disability funding would be a high priority, and those unable to work would have help applying for disability, receiving fair evaluations, and paying for their living expenses and treatments.
- Universal health care, with no penalties for pre-existing conditions and available even if a person is not working, would be a godsend for many chronically ill people.
- Sick allies would work on connecting sick people with the rest of the world. Healthy people would learn to be comfortable around, listen to, and to be friends with sick people.
- Instead of stigma, sickness would be afforded the same kind of respect we give to marathon runners or Ph.D.s or others who endure long and challenging hardships, since dealing with long-term illness takes strength and perseverance.
- We would aim for a high quality of life for the hospitalized and the elderly sick, including social contact, choices about their lives, changes of scenery, time outside, creative outlets, and contact with family and friends.
- We would respect contributions that sick people can make.

-There would be affirmative action for sick people, such as understanding in employment interviews, college admissions, medical school admissions, or hiring practices. Sick and formerly sick people have something special to offer, and their presence brings diversity.

Andrea Runyan is a writer in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied math and biology at Stanford University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and at Stanford, she wrote an opinion column for four editions of The Stanford Daily. She is currently writing a book about communicating with friends and family about chronic or invisible illness. See her blog at Andrea Runyan

Related articles by Zemanta

• Can One Person Make A Difference? The Story Behind The Notes (invisibleillnessweek.com)

Popularity: 1% [?]

Press Release – Invisible Illness Week Seeks To Encourage Through Anonymous Notes of Kindness

SB Wire- 8/9/12 – SAN DIEGO – National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week kicks off awareness efforts by spreading anonymous notes around the USA and beyond that will bring encouragement to those suffering silently. Invisible Illness Week, September 13-19, 2010 is an annual event sponsored by Rest Ministries, the largest Christian organization that specifically serves the chronically ill.

When Lisa Copen, founder of Rest Ministries and Invisible Illness Week, had 4 joints replaced in her left hand during the winter of 2009 due to rheumatoid arthritis, she wore a scary looking outrigger splint for four months, 24 hours a day, that caught the attention of many people wherever she went. While some people awkwardly looked the other way, many approached her and started to share their stories.

Lisa quickly realized just how many people are inwardly suffering silently and then when they saw someone who they thought could relate with their pain, they opened up and were willing to share. Many conversations ended with a hug and sometimes a few tears. She had also talked with friends about how, when she saw someone with an invisible illness getting out of a car parked in a handicapped spot, part of her wanted to go over and just say “I understand” but she was afraid how they may respond. She discovered other people with invisible illness felt the same way!

Copen shares, “Most people are not looking for large support groups or 100 percent understanding when it comes to living with a chronic illness. People in pain often times just want ONE person who really ‘gets it.’ And that one person can make a world of difference.”

Notes may say “If you are wondering if someone cares, someone does,” or “Your pain may be invisible, but you are seen! Hang in there!” and then followed with the web site invisibleillness.com.

National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, which Copen began in 2002, will make 2010 the year of “Each One Can Reach One.” Thousands of people around the world are participating by leaving encouraging sticky notes anywhere they think of, from bathroom mirrors and community bulletin boards, to inside of envelopes when they pay their bills.

With nearly 1 in 2 people in the USA living with a chronic condition such as diabetes, arthritis, cancer, or fibromyalgia, about 96% of illnesses are invisible.* The hope of the people involved at National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week is to remind people that although they may feel like they are alone in their pain, there are people who do care and understand the unspoken language of invisible illness.

It is easy to get involved. Grab a pen and some paper and share some encouragement in just a sentence! Add invisibleillness.com at the bottom so those who find the notes nowhere to discover more encouragement and get involved too!

Bloggers and the patient community will be participating in additional ways including blogging about invisible illnesses and conditions and attending virtual seminars online during the week of September 13-19.

*http://invisibleillnessweek.com/media-toolkit/statistics/

Popularity: 1% [?]

Sept is Pain Awareness Month

With our focus and planning for Invisible Illness Week we sometimes forget to mention that September is also Pain Awareness Month.

You will wnat to take a few minutes to go by the web site of American Pain Foundation and see all the exciting things they are offering such as a the launch of the Conquering Pain Together project and a a five-episode, Web-based series called the Let’s Talk Pain Show

Pain Community News is APF’s quarterly newsletter and is always full of information you should know about. Now, Pain Community News is available as an e-publication, so readers can just virtually flip through its pages.

Their web site states:

The fall issue of the newsletter is chock full of inspiring stories and helpful information including the creative and tireless efforts of advocates honoring Pain Awareness Month, 10 things you can still do to help make a difference in September, pains not to ignore, easing immunization pain, fast facts on acute back pain and much more! To receive print copies of Pain Community News in the future, please be sure we have your mailing address by registering as an APF member. Remember to encourage friends, family, colleagues and neighbors to join too – there is power in numbers, let’s work together to improve pain care in America.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Chronic Pain Makes 50 Year Olds Feel 80 (barbarany_9.blogspot.com)

Popularity: 4% [?]

Citizens For A World Free From Chronic Pain Giving Away Ebooks For Invisible Illness Awareness Week

Rome, Italy (PressExposure) September 15, 2009 — In honor of National Pain Awareness Month and Invisible Illness Week (September 14-20), Citizens for a World Free From Chronic Pain is giving away 500 free e-version copies of Forever Free From Chronic Pain by chronic pain elimination expert, Prof/Dr. Brian Rothbart.

Chronic Pain, an often invisible illness, is one of the biggest health issues facing the United States today. According to the American Pain Foundation, more people suffer from chronic pain than cancer, diabetes and heart disease combined. Studies also show that chronic pain is the leading cost of medical care in the United States and cases of chronic pain have risen as much as 38% in the last twelve years.

Citizens for a World Free From Chronic Pain (CWFCP) is a group created to inform the millions of chronic pain sufferers worldwide that theydo not have to accept drugs or ongoing pain management as the only solution.

The book being gifted, Forever Free From Chronic Pain, outlines a drug-free, surgery-free option for the permanent elimination of many types of chronic muscle and joint pain.

“I wrote this book specifically for the chronic pain sufferer” says author Prof/Dr. Rothbart. “It’s about helping people understand how their body works and the source of their chronic muscle and joint pain so they make informed choices about how to deal with it.”

Prof/Dr Brian Rothbart, internationally recognized chronic pain expert and pioneering researcher and physician, discovered the previously unknown source of chronic musculoskeletal pain and invented an innovative therapy which eliminates it without the use of drugs or surgery.

About Citizens for a World Free From Chronic Pain

To learn how to receive a free ebook and to learn more about Citizens for a World Free from Chronic Pain, please visit: http://bit.ly/16cJsX

To learn more about the book, Forever Free From Chronic Pain, please visit: http://www.foreverfreefromchronicpain.com

To learn more about international chronic pain expert Prof/Dr. Brian Rothbart: http://www.rothbartsite.com

To learn more about National Invisible Illness Awareness Week:
http://www.invisibleillnessweek.com/

Popularity: 4% [?]

Christian Illness Ministry Sponsors 5-Day Virtual Conference Online

SBWIRE – SEPT 14, 2009 / Nearly 1 in 2 people in the USA live with a chronic illness and about 96% of these illnesses are invisible.* Rest Ministries, Inc., the largest Christian organization that serves the chronically ill, and an affiliate of Joni Eareckson Tada’s International Disability Ministry, is encouraging those with illness, friends, family, caregivers, and churches to get involved in their annual outreach, National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, September 14-20, 2009.

In addition to churches having outreach events for those with chronic conditions, Rest Ministries organizes a 5-day free virtual conference with 20 seminars that can be attended via one’s computer and computer speakers. Seminars are on a variety of topics including marriage, parenting, starting a business, how to apply for disability and more—all when you live with a chronic illness. The seminars are held via Blog Talk Radio and listeners can call in through their phone line with questions.

Well known Christian authors who will be presenting include:

• Bill and Pam Farrel, best-selling authors; The Marriage Code (Harvest House, 2009)
• Naomi Kingery, author of Sugar Free Me (Xulon Press, 2008)
• Dena Dyer, author of Mothers of the Bible (Barbour Publishing, 2009)
• Georgia Shaffer, author of How Not to Date a Loser (Harvest House, 2008)
• Joanna Faillace, Certified Biblical Health Coach an author of Super-Naturally Healthy Families Cookbook Devotional
• Lisa Copen, author of Beyond Casseroles: 505 Ways to Encourage a Chronically Ill Friend (Rest Publishers, 2008)
• Maureen Pratt, author of Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness (Galilee Trade, 2005)
• Jennifer Saake, author of Hannah’s Hope: Seeking God’s Heart in the Midst of Infertility, Miscarriage and Adoption Loss (NavPress, 2005)
• Marcia Ramsland, author of Simplify Your Life (Thomas Nelson, 2004)
• Jolene Philo, author of A Different Dream for My Child (Discovery House Publishers 2009)

Lisa Copen, 40, founder of Rest Ministries says, “Many Christians may have a solid walk with the Lord, but the emotional rollercoaster of a chronic illness and its constant progression can leave them feeling alone and misunderstood. They are hanging on by a thread and being told they look fine and should just make themselves get up and go to church only adds to the isolation and bitterness of others ‘not getting it.’ The emotional scars can be harder to cope with than the actual illness.”

Copen, who has lived with rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia since the age of twenty-four, ended up in the hospital for a week last fall fighting off the flesh eating bacteria in an ankle wound. We never know what the next day will hold,” she explains. “It is so important that there is good communication between those who are ill and their loved ones, as well as the church body.”

Did Copen’s circle of friends and church come through for her? “It was an enlightening experience,” she says. “Although I teach others to ask for help, I found out how difficult it is. And then when I did ask for help, I experienced what it is like when you fall through the cracks and everyone thinks someone else is providing both the practical support as well as emotional encouragement.”

Rest Ministries extends their outreach about invisible illness awareness to churches, providing materials to start up HopeKeepers groups, books, cards, tracts, etc. About 96% of those with illness may appear perfectly healthy on Sunday mornings, but may struggle to get out of bed the remainder of the week.

Ken Chambers, Director of Church Relations at Joni and Friends International Disability Center, says, “It is vital that Christians understand the emotional and spiritual trials of those with invisible disabilities, as well as those with visible disabilities. I encourage church leaders to take advantage of the wealth of resources at Rest Ministries and to participate in the National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, which they sponsor annually.”

One can get involved by joining the hundreds of bloggers who are writing about illness in the next few days, by joining the cause on Facebook, and most especially, by tuning in for the conference. All seminars will also be recorded and archived.

See www.invisibleillness.com for more information or www.restministries.org for the sponsor of this event, Rest Ministries.

*Source: Chronic Care in America, U.S. Census Bureau

Popularity: 6% [?]

Connect with Other II Week Participants

Do you wish to connect with other participants of Invisible Illness Week? If so, we invite you to join the Invisible Illness Week GROUP in the Sunroom social network of Rest Ministries.

During the week while 4 seminars are happening each day, this is where we will also send you if you want to ask more questions of listeners on a particular seminar topic, if you have questions for the speakers that were not answered during the seminar, etc.

We are asking our speakers to sign in and check to see if anyone needs any additional information. If our speakers have handouts, this is where they will post a link to them.

The Rest Ministries social network, The Sunroom, has over 1300 participants and is a Christian environment for those with chronic illness. We understand that during Invisible Illness Week some of those involved may have different faiths or not have a religious preference. We ask that everyone be respectful of one another. If you do not wish to participate after Invisible Illness Week you can delete your membership.

Another option is to leave comments at the Blog Talk Radio web site where other listeners or the speakers can connect with you.

Popularity: 6% [?]

« Previous Page — Next Page »