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November 1999
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Healing for the Nations! You may remember us best
as Rapha Retreats. It has been a while since we have communicated
with all of you and we'd like to update you on just a few of the
exciting things that have happened over the past few years.
As you know, we began at Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs in February
1993. In the Spring of 1997 we began praying and considering a move
back "home" to the East Coast. North Georgia would enable
us to be centrally located in the "Bible belt"- a great
place for Christians to more easily find out about the ministry.
We are also much more accessible here. First of all, the Atlanta
International Airport receives flights from all over the world and
airfares are often much cheaper. Second of all, our location has
enabled many from the eastern side of the United States to drive
to us. On a personal note, my family and Rujon's family as well
as five of our children are here in Atlanta and in Gulfport, Mississippi.
We love the Southeast and it does our hearts good to be home again.
The Intensive Retreats have been a constant since the beginning.
Here in Georgia we held our first retreat at Eagle Rest in Dahlonega,
Georgia in July 1997. Every month we continue to see God transform
the lives of pastors, truck drivers, doctors, missionaries, housewives,
and people from all walks of life. In addition to America, we have
traveled to many places around the world where we have conducted
these retreats. We have a team in the Netherlands now as well as
England and we continue to work with the Church of Our Saviour in
Singapore. It has been exciting to see God's truths transform the
lives of our brothers and sisters from those far away places. We
continue to be blessed to have many come from those countries to
Georgia to attend the Intensive retreat.
The retreats have for the most part remained the same with some
improvements where they were needed. Our roles have changed somewhat
as I have now moved into more of a leadership position in the retreats
which includes helping out with some of the teaching. Of course,
Rujon continues to play an active, vital role in teaching, group
leading, and one on one attention with the participants.
We have been blessed with a local team as well as those who come
from other states to work retreats. Our local team consists of Rob
Burnett, Steve and Rhonie Hammond, and Marie Farrow. Paulanne Townsend
from Memphis, comes and works retreats every other month. You'll
learn more about these special people in future newsletters.
The "Head to Heart" church conference is a relatively
new aspect of our ministry. Hundreds have been blessed by this three
day conference in which Rujon presents the core elements from the
Intensive retreat as only she can. In the words of a lady in Maine
where we conducted one of these, "It changed my life".
We are happy to say that a church conference held at a church in
Louisville, Kentucky was professionally video taped and is available
in a ten tape video series. It has been used extensively in Asia,
Europe, as well as America.
A couple of years ago I recorded the "Songs
From the Chapel" project. This is a collection of worship
songs from our chapels and is beautifully accompanied by orchestral
and background vocal arrangements. We even included some of the
chapel liturgy. Reports keep coming in about the worship experience
people have as they listen. We are thankful to God to be able to
glorify Him through music.
"From Head to Heart"
a book authored by Rujon and Robert McGee in 1997, explores the
barriers experienced by you and I as we seek to understand key words
and concepts in the scriptures. We are thankful for the profound
touch that this book has had on the lives of Christians here in
America and around the world.
In August 1998, Charisma magazine published an article on Healing
for the Nations which was very well done and a number of retreat
participants have come to the retreat as a result. Andy Butcher
did a fine job on the article. Thanks, Andy.
We now have an Internet group of alumni intercessors who play an
active part in every retreat by praying for the retreat participants.
Each month we email a list of first names of the participants to
our prayer partners and continue to update them throughout the retreat
week. These partners in the ministry are foundational to what God
continues to do through Healing for the Nations. If you are Internet
active you too can be a part of HFN in this exciting way.
You may ask what about the future? Our over all calling and purpose
remains the same; to present innovative programs, conferences and
materials that bring healing to God's people. Someday we hope to
have an international training center where foreign nationals and
missionaries can be trained to conduct these programs and conferences
in their own countries. We would like to have additional retreat
locations around the country and around the world. Grandiose? Perhaps,
but all very possible if God permits.
Meanwhile, our faith continues to be challenged each month as we
"pray in" retreat participants. You would think that by
now our retreats would be filled to capacity.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. With no marketing funds we
depend heavily on word of mouth referrals. This is sometimes frustrating
since we're aware that Atlanta alone has enough people who need
to attend retreats to fill every retreat beyond our life span. Besides
having the disadvantage of being a lesser known ministry, we are
up against tremendous spiritual warfare as the enemy continues to
try to cripple those in the Body of Christ. Nevertheless, God has
been faithful to sustain us and we continue to be excited about
the future. Our deepest gratitude goes to all of you who have prayed
for Healing for the Nations and have blessed us with your financial
giving. Indeed, you are a part of all that God is doing through
this ministry.
We are thankful for our board member Bernie Rhodes who has been
faithful to stand with us throughout this adventure. We are also
thankful that God has placed around us some friends to serve on
a steering committee for HFN. These people are Larry and Debbie
Lollis, Bill and Jan Kaneft, Al and Jeanne Nigro, and Craig and
Donna Forthman. We expect that you will be hearing from these folks
at various times in the future.
You have enriched our lives by having allowed us to share the retreat
experience with you. We trust that our renewed communication will
be a point of strength and encouragement for you. In the near future
we will resume publishing newsletters on a regular basis and we
will keep you updated on important events. Our prayer is that God
will join our hearts in our endeavor to bring healing to the Body
of Christ. Let all that we say and do bring honor, glory, and exaltation
to Him for He is worthy!
God bless!
Steve and Rujon Morrison
and the HFN team
P.S. If you want to read previous newsletters, click on the links
below:
July 2002 Newsletter (Acrobat PDF format)
April 2001 Newsletter
July 2000
Newsletter
If you do not have the Acrobat Reader program you can click
here to download a copy.
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