May 2010

HELP EMI Survive the Summer:

At EMI, Summertime is lean on income but BIG on ministry investment. Our proactive solution is to host EMI’s first-ever family fundraising picnic, golf extravaganza, and hot air balloon golf ball drop.

Register your spouse, friends, children, and grandchildren for EMI’s exciting new Golf Balls From Heaven Summer Fundraiser picnic at Tri-County’s Golden Tee Golf Center from 4:00-8:00 PM on June 5th. Enjoy the food, fun, and fellowship, and perhaps even take a ride on a tethered hot air balloon.

You can get involved in four ways:

1. Sponsor a foursome for $150. This reserves four places (for you and three guests) at the event. It covers the cost of catered food, over $80 apiece in golf-oriented activities for all ages and levels of ability – from a 9 hole par 3 course with cart and free golf instruction -- to an 18 hole putt-putt course and fun carnival games for kids and non-golfers. Once you sponsor, additional children can come for just $5 each.

Call EMI at 513-742-1100 or 800-364-4769 to register a foursome.

2. Volunteer to Sell Golf Balls. The grand finale of the event involves dropping over 1500 numbered golf balls from a hot air balloon for an opportunity to win either a flat screen TV or $1000, or other cash prizes!
By pre-selling numbered tickets that match the numbers on balls we will drop from the Balloon, your family and friends can bring much needed support to EMI. Anyone can “buy a ball” and they do not need to be present to win.

Contact EMI at 513-742-1100 or 800-364-4769 for a ticket pack.

3. Buy Golf Balls to Support EMI. You, your friends, neighbors, and coworkers can “buy a ball” for $25 (and get a 1 in 500 chance of winning a flat-screen TV or one of the cash prizes) or buy a sleeve of 3 balls for $50 (for a 1 in 167 chance). These are great odds, but even if you don’t win –– all the money goes to a life-changing cause.

Click to buy golf ball now

4. Donate to Support Summer Ministry. If you can’t attend or sell balls, or you don’t care about winning prizes, but you do care about helping EMI stay strong and keep on changing lives, you can make a generous Summertime donation today!

Your participation will make a world of difference!

Click to support EMI or call 513-742-1100 or 800-364-4769

Passing on God's blessing to a thousand generations

A conversation with Anne Clippard, author of EMI's Freeing the Family course.

EMI: Anne, you have co-authored several EMI titles such as Listening for Heaven's Sake and Quick-to-Listen Leaders. We want to highlight one of the newer courses you've helped to create, Freeing the Family: Healing the Wounds of Generations. What prompted you to develop this course?

Anne: "In my study of Family Systems, I began to recognize family patterns in my own family of origin. I was fascinated by what I was learning. This fascination developed more into a passion when I realized from the scriptures that we had an opportunity to impact for good a thousand generations that follow us and break unhealthy patterns that precede us.

"That is an amazing opportunity and challenge. I never thought that my choices could have such an impact for eternity. Sharing this realization with others prompted me to want to develop materials that would glorify God and help others to make choices that would impact the Kingdom for good.

EMI: There are many resources out there that deal with this important topic of family. What does this course specifically address?

Anne: "Freeing the Family teaches a tool called the “Genogram” to help people begin to see patterns of health and unhealth in their families of origin. It reveals the blessings and the curses that the scriptures talk about. We want to hold on to the blessings and begin to break the curses that we recognize. Awareness is the first step to change.

EMI: It seems like everyone today claims they come from a dysfunctional family. How does this course deal with this pervasive problem?

Anne: "There is no perfect family. We are all trying to be the best that we know to be. All families have something good and all families have areas that need to change. Sometimes it is hard for people to find anything good in their family and others have a hard time seeing anything bad. We try to do a reality check from both sides.

EMI: In the multiple times that you've taught this class around the world, how have you seen God work?

Anne: "God is always there when we call upon him, confess, forgive, and move toward healing. The delight in teaching this course comes from watching the “light bulbs” go on in people’s minds. They realize that they are not doomed but that God judges each one of us for our choices and actions and we do not have to follow the patterns that have been set in previous generations. After doing a genogram, one individual recognized the large number of sexual addicts in his family of origin. He chose to pray to break the laws of generations for himself and his family and then began the healing process. God has worked in a powerful way to restore the years the locusts have eaten for this person and his family.

EMI: Some of our readers are currently dealing with difficult family situations. Can you offer some thoughts on helping them cope?

Anne: "Every family deals with difficult situations. This keeps us all on our knees. Families were intentionally created by God and He desires for us to be in good relationship with him and our families. That is a challenge. The EMI skills of Listening, Renewing the Mind, Speaking the Truth in Love, and being aware of where change needs to happen helps us to move toward health and wholeness in these family relationships. It's a life-long process of change. We also need to realize that we cannot make other people change who do not want to change. There are situations that may not be perfect, but we can learn how to be a healthier influence.

Register online for Freeing the Family on Saturday, June 19, 2010 (New Date!) in Cincinnati, OH.

Everything you need to teach this course is available for purchase, including a detailed teacher's manual, powerpoint, and class notes. Buy from EMI online. (15% discount)

Listening for Heaven's Sake, Speaking the Truth in Love, and Renewing the Mind will be offered at the upcoming LIFE seminar, July 16-17, 2010.

For more information, call 513-742-1100 or 800-EMI-GROW (364-4769).

SOS graduates minister around the world

AMSTERDAM

"Thank you so much for your prayers and help as we shared the Listening seminar with a business team. It was an amazing day. The team got really excited about the skills and received a lot of insight into their situation. They really seemed to open up and connect more and more throughout the day. We taught a little nutshell version of the conflict resolution skills at the end. We also threw in some team-building activities. The director of the team said that we exceeded his expectations and that he would be happy to pass on our information to the 50 up-and-coming businesses in his building. I'm not sure we're ready for that, but it was a nice compliment."

Patricia Flynn, SOS graduate, 2007

Zolder 50 (church plant)

TAIWAN

"I am most touched by Christianity's unconditional love, grace that is freely given. I started Wonderful Life Ministry with this same principle, to share God's grace unconditionally with all the churches. We don't want anyone to be hindered from participating due to lack of finances. So our coworkers serve without any charge.

"Many friends ask me where funding for Wonderful Life Ministry comes from. Praise God many have given us freewill offering. God has been faithful, we are able to hire an administrative assistant, and have also been able to fund part of the cost for the pastoral seminar that we conduct.

"Thank you for your prayer support. We just finished a successful teacher's training workshop with 13 potential teachers and 6 coworkers attended. Please continue to pray for us that we can raise up more teachers to meet the demands."

Ren-Song Tsay, SOS graduate 2009

founder of Wonderful Life Ministries

MALAYSIA

"Thanks for the prayer support. I praise God that the positive, exciting and enjoyable training we had is the work of Holy Spirit. Facilitators were playing their roles effectively and wholeheartedly. Participants are excited about the teaching, they participated in practice exercise and asked relevant questions. Here are the few examples, how God leads us that night.

"One of the participant joined this event solely because his wife wanted to join. Initially he told us upfront that he might go home earlier if the topic is not relevant or bored. Thanks God! Although initially he was reluctant to share in the ice breaking group activity, eventually he opened up and he stayed until the end of the course with a smiling face.

"Two participants came from 3-4 hours drive away. Their initial plan were to come only for one day. Thank God, after the first day, they decided to come back.

"We were so touched because the old and the young, the lecturer, lawyer, church worker and the auto spare part salesman all seat together in the small group. ... and they LISTEN and learned to do so for Heaven's Sake.

Joseph Chan, trained through Skype by Yee Hwa Soon, 2008 SOS graduate.

Is God calling you to be a change agent? For over 30 years, God has been working through ordinary people using EMI training to impact over 70 nations. EMI's excellent curriculum is transferable and relevant, crossing cultural barriers to transform relationships. To find out how you can partake in this life-changing training, contact EMI at 513-742-1100 or 800-EMI-GROW (364-4769). Or email us for more info.