My Name is Lisa Anne Rose. I am the founder of the Michigan Ray of Hope Foundation. This ministry was a vision given to me after a serious accident in June of 2011. I have seen a lot of trauma in my life, and I myself am a survivor of an abusive marriage. I divorced my ex-husband in 2000 and the healing process was extremely slow for me. I was 17 when he and I became a couple, and 30 when we divor
ced, but in many ways I was still that scared, naive, hurting, 17 year old girl. I made so many mistakes at that point in my life, mostly due to not knowing some very important life skills. I lacked self esteem, self confidence, financial knowledge, and job skills. I didn't know God hardly at all, and I had no idea how to raise my children to be Christians, because I didn't honestly understand what that truly meant even for myself. I thought then that the world should conform to what I wanted, and I had to learn it doesn't work that way. I was in a bad car accident in 2001. Because of this, over a short period of time, my life was turned upside down. I lost everything that I held dear. However, God used my loss of all those things, to make me realize material items do not heal or make you happy, that He was the answer to my pain, and I had to stop trying to deny that fact. At this point in my life, God also brought me to a wonderful Christian counselor; she helped me tremendously! I was able to grow spiritually, and to begin heal from some of the wounds of the past. She helped me to realize that I needed to start taking my life, my goals, and my relationship with God more seriously. I had only a few short months with that counselor before her family had to move out of the state. She did teach me a lot about God, more than I had learned in the many years that I attended church as a child. Sadly, I didn't heal from the past completely, though, that turned out to be a very long process. Because of the fear caused by the abuse, I avoided any contact with my ex husband for many years. Up until this year, I still carried some of the many misconceptions about myself that he had reinforced throughout the years we were together. I had been told I was ugly, stupid, crazy, a bad mother, a bad person, and I still believed some of those things about myself. In late 2010, I began seeing two Christian counselors here in Northern Michigan to work through some issues including my feelings about me. One of the first assignments I was given by the counselors was to look in the mirror each morning and tell myself that I am a child of God, and say “I love you”. I attempted this many times, but I never truly believed what I was saying. It was kind of funny at first, but became more painful as I continued to try to do this, knowing full well in my heart that I didn't love myself, not at all. Then, in May of 2011, I attended a Christian women's weekend, and when I did, God truly worked a miracle in my life. Because of the love shown me that weekend, I finally realized that I am a Daughter of the King, and I am worthy of God’s love, even though I have some faults. I realized something truly miraculous had occurred in me when I received the last love gift I was given that weekend, it was a hand mirror! For the first time, since given that assignment by my counselors months before, I was able to look into that mirror, and see me, a Child of God, one that Jesus loved enough to die for, even though she isn't perfect. When I saw that, I was able to see my reflection in the mirror and say ”I love you”, and this time I meant it! I saw that I am saved by Grace, washed white as snow by Jesus when He went to the cross for me. It was a wonderful peace that settled over me then, the full knowledge of the Love, Grace, and Mercy of God and Jesus had made that 18 inch drop from my head, to my heart. On June 4th of 2011 I was thrown from my horse and knocked unconscious. I suffered two hairline fractures to the back of my head, which could have been much worse, since I did not wear a helmet when I went riding. I also had a very severe concussion, two black eyes and the whites of my eyes were almost black from the blood that pooled when my brain was knocked hard first in one direction then bounced back in the other direction. I had bruises and cuts all over my body. I was rushed to Munson Hospital, where I underwent extensive testing, cat scans, x-rays, etc. I was in the hospital for five days. Looking back, I remember my horse taking off with me when he was spooked by some dogs, I remember trying to stop him, but then I don’t remember anything after that for about three days, and memories are still sporadic for the several weeks afterwards. This accident of course prevented me from working for many months, and the road to recovery was slow. Most of my doctors told me that stress of any kind should be avoided because it would slow my recovery even further, but it seemed that stress was unavoidable. I was struggling to keep my bills paid with no paychecks coming in. In addition, my ex-husband had gotten angry with me before the accident and had filled a petition against me. He didn't have any legal grounds, it was just his way of trying to get even, but my worry over his petition caused me a great deal of stress, slowing my recovery tremendously as the petition dragged out all the way through the end of August. In the midst of all the stress and trying to recover, somehow I ended up with a book called “Stronger” by Jim Daly. It deals with what people do when trauma of any kind happens in their life. In the middle of reading this book, God gave me a vision for the Michigan Ray of Hope Foundation. At first, the vision was of what I call “Hope Farm”, a couple of large homes, with several bedrooms each. These homes would be a place where women and men could be given a safe place to stay while working through the recovery process from whatever type of trauma affected them. These men and women would be taught important life lessons, learn how to develop a close intimate relationship with the Lord, and be supported emotionally and spiritually while they heal from their trauma. I was so very excited about this vision God had given me, that almost immediately I started doing some checking on what types of properties were available that would fit this need, and found that there were a few, but they were all very expensive. At that point, I didn't really understand why God had given me the idea for this ministry, because I didn't have the resources to make it a reality. I thanked Him for the vision, and then basically put it in a nice pretty little box, on a shelf in the back of my mind. With my mother’s help, once I was able, I started holding garage sales, selling everything we didn't absolutely need or wasn't nailed down to try and keep bills paid and to be able to get to my doctor appointments and physical therapy sessions. At the sale I held in August, a pastor from Cadillac happened by and we got to talking about what God had shown me. When he was done shopping, he asked if he could pray with me about the ministry, and then left me with a priceless piece of advice. He said, “Lisa, if you truly believe God gave you this vision, you can not put it away up on a shelf. You must do what you can, no matter how small it may seem, and trust God to do what you can not.” I took that to heart and started working on what I could. One thing was clear, it would take some work, and quite a bit of funding, but the need for an organization like Ray of Hope in Northern Michigan was and still is undeniable. There are other organizations to help people out there, but not many that are able to focus on the Spiritual side of any type of needed recovery.
