The 2008 National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, September 8-14, 2008, has announced this year’s theme: “Hope Can Grow From the Soil of Illness.”
Lisa Copen, the founder of Rest Ministries, who sponsors this annual event says, “Illness is usually accompanied by a period of grief because so many dreams and hopes can die when we lose our health. But there is also hope for a new purpose, most often, one that we never would have imagined if we had our health.”
August will feature guest bloggers on the topic of illness who have discovered a clear sense of direction, despite the significant modifications illness has made to their lives.
Copen, 39, was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia at the age of 24 and clearly remembers wondering what her new purpose would be that would get her up on the mornings she could barely move.
“I had always planned to work for a nonprofit doing something to help others, but I never felt I was efficient or empathetic enough because I had not walked in the shoes of those I served. Now, through my illness ministry and books on aspects of coping with illness, I have the chance to use what I experience each day to reach out to others. It’s my hope that they will also find hope despite their illness, as they discover that new sense of purpose in the pain.”
To find out more about the telephone seminars that will be held September 8-12, as well as the invisible illness week awareness outreach products, visit www.invisibleillness.com .