NEEDING YOUR HELP–VOTE (via “You Will Rise Again”)

My friend Renee… you know her online as lost sheep … has been blogging about spiritual abuse for a while. I mentioned her in one of my Blog Highlights posts.

Now she has entered a competition put on by Pepsi, trying to raise awareness for spiritual abuse. I promised her I’d help her promote her page to get votes, so read below and then help her out – you who are connected to my Tweets and FB feed would have seen these already, but here’s one more for a worthy cause!!!!!!!!!!!

As you know i am working on a community awareness for spiritual abuse—i am gotten accepted into the voting part of the pepsi refresh grant/contest—-voting will take place from today through August 31—and you can vote up to 10 times a day—you can vote by going to this link: http://www.refresheverything.com/youwillriseagain or going to Pepsi Refresh on FB application or going to the pepsi refresh website and once you get to the voting part … Read More

via “You Will Rise Again”

For those who just like to get to the point:  Go to http://www.refresheverything.com/youwillriseagain and vote for Lost Sheep’s bid to raise the awareness of Spiritual Abuse via a competition put on by Pepsi.  Thanks for helping!

Blog Highlights: Lost Sheep – Hockey and Faith!

I wrote before of my friend lost sheep, who started a series speaking to faith through the lens of hockey.  I loved her post then, and encouraged her to continue writing.  She’s revamped one of her blogs to focus on faith using hockey as the analogy, as well as other popular things in our culture.  I love her take on it – I told her that she might even make me start watching hockey because of her enthusiasm for the game!

This is her “About This Blog” post:

i write a couple different blogs—one on spiritual abuse and another full of poetry and my faith—i struggle dearly with my faith due to spiritual abuse, hurts, and oppression.  I am hoping to take this blog as an inspiration—I want to take this blog and relate faith to everyday life, through sports, music, reading, quotes, etc—some of this may not be positive, heck some of it may be very dark—but i ask you to take the time to read the post and see how your faith, etc does relate to everyday life—also, if you have something to share, let me know—be happy to share that on this blog also.

Please take a chance to read through the revamped blog Searching For Victory and be immersed, for now, in hockey parlance as it connects to our faith.

Here is an excerpt from her latest post  “HE is a PENS fan!! :)”

My son and I finally have a team to agree upon–the PENS–most other sports we are rivals–i tried to raise him” with the “right” teams–but he is stubborn–PENS are my favorite, and hockey is my favorite so at least we agree here—just thank god he doesn’t like the Red Wings–BLECH-i am really surprised my son doesn’t chose the red wings out of spite  just to be deviant and defiant–but i would love him anyways (so i think  i don’t know about having a wings fan in my household–hmmmpphhh)

i also dont want to be pushy “parent”  and make my son like, or do things he doesn’t want to—want him to make his own choices, and to grow up knowing he has his own choices-however, i am trying to be convincing of him to play hockey as a sport—would enjoy so much watching him play this sport—but then would also worry alot about him getting hurt.  I tell him to pray about it when he isn’t sure what to do, or team to choose.

This again makes me think of my faith in several senses—….

Read the rest here.

Blog Highlight: Lost Sheep – You Will Rise Again

I thought that I would continue the highlights of blogs that I interact with, and friends that I have met through the blogosphere.

Lost Sheep has been my friend now for a while, and we have been walking together through her recovery from spiritual abuse.  I have been there to listen and just be a friend while she expresses her frustration and pain about being constantly told that God hated her, that she was a terrible Christian, that she would never amount to anything and the like.  It has affected her emotionally, physically and, of course, spiritually as well.  She was horrified to realize later that the ‘church’ she had joined as a brand new believer eager to know more about the Lord was actually an organization with strong cult tendencies.

She has detailed how the abuse has affected her, given her story briefly, and set up groups for mutual support and comfort for those who have been victims of spiritual abuse, as well as pastors and leaders who want to know how to help.

I have encouraged her that her story and her work is important, and it will help many.  In a real sense it will also shine light into the dark corners of spirituality (this isn’t true church by any means) and as the light shines in the darkness, it will definitely derail Satan’s plans on many levels.

So, I encourage all to go and read her blog – You Will Rise Again.  Anyone who is interested to understand how cults affect people – here is one person who is no where near the end of her journey… she is constantly battling spiritual oppression as well as apparent betrayals from those who have promised to assist her.  BUT – she keeps on going.  She keeps pressing on – albeit with a lot of encouragement from some close friends.  Her work is important.  Get involved by prayer or by reading the blog and interacting with Lost Sheep.

Pray.  Get involved.