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Every
Healthy Vision Month |
July 2024This
year, the National Eye Institute (NEI) is shining a light on the
connection between vision loss and mental health. The theme for
2024 is Reframe Your Future, highlighting steps people with a
visual impairment can take to live well with vision loss.
July is Healthy Vision Month and
the focus this year is on maintaining eye health
and vision for the whole family. Protecting your
family’s vision is one of the most important
things you can do for long-term health and
well-being. Following these recommendations from
leading vision and health organizations can help
ensure healthy eyes and clear vision for life
for yourself and your loved ones.
1. Get regular comprehensive
dilated eye exams. A dilated eye exam is the
only way to detect vision problems and eye
diseases early. See an eye care professional for
a dilated eye exam every 1-2 years. Early
detection of eye diseases is critical to
avoiding vision loss.
2. Know your family’s eye health
history. It’s important to know if anyone has
been diagnosed with an eye disease or condition,
since some are hereditary. This knowledge can
help inform the specific kinds of screening and
treatments you may benefit from based on higher
risks.
3. Eat right to protect your
sight: In particular, eat plenty of dark leafy
greens such as spinach, kale, or collard greens,
and fish that is high in omega-3 fatty acids
such as salmon, albacore tuna, trout, and
halibut. The vitamins and nutrients in leafy
greens and the omega-3s in these fatty fish are
important for eye health and protect your
vision.
4. Maintain a healthy weight.
Excess weight puts strain on your body and can
lead to diseases like type 2 diabetes, which is
a leading cause of blindness. Shedding extra
pounds reduces your risks of chronic disease and
vision loss.
5. Wear protective eyewear when
playing sports or doing activities around the
home, such as painting, yard work, and home
repairs. Standard eyewear may not provide
adequate protection and impact-resistant eyewear
should be worn to prevent injuries from debris,
balls, racquets or other objects that could
damage your eyes.
6. Quit smoking or never start.
Smoking significantly accelerates age-related
vision decline and increases the risk of
cataracts and macular degeneration. Both tobacco
use and secondhand smoke exposure should be
avoided for optimal eye health and longevity of
good vision.
7. Wear sunglasses that block 99
percent-100 percent of ultraviolet A (UVA) and
ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation. Too much sun
exposure over the years can lead to cataracts
and macular degeneration. UV-blocking sunglasses
prevent this cumulative sun damage to the eyes.
8. Wash your hands before taking
out your contacts and cleanse your contact
lenses properly to avoid infection. Contact lens
wearers must be meticulous about hygiene and
follow the recommended lens care standards to
lower risks of eye infections that could
potentially cause vision loss.
9. Practice workplace eye safety.
Wear proper safety goggles or protective eyewear
matched to the specific job or task to avoid
occupational eye injuries from particles, dust,
chemicals and other hazards. Workplace eye
protection is required for many jobs to
safeguard vision.
Our eyesight is a precious gift.
See an eye doctor regularly, eat right, quit
smoking, and take other steps to keep your eyes
healthy for life. When it comes to vision
health, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound
of cure. How will you safeguard your family’s
sight this month?
Regardless of what you do, we appreciate your help and support.
We will send you a tax receipt for donations of any amount.
Thanks in advance!
CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO DONATE
https://forgive4health.org/donate.html
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Matthew 6:14-15: "For if you forgive other
people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your
Father will not forgive your sins." - GOD
BIRTH OF A MINISTRY
After years of working with divorcees, Dr. Saunders noticed that
many who were unforgiving were more ill and often could not
complete programs such as Divorce Care in their recommended
format. Many of these divorcees reported illnesses such as
hypertension, arthritis, diabetes, and chronic back pain. While
working on her doctoral degree, Dr. Saunders discovered
evidence-based literature that documented the connection between
unforgiveness and chronic back pain. The article led her to
conduct more studies on this topic, and ultimately, she
completed her research on forgiveness and health in Black
divorcees - resulting in the peer-reviewed published article,
“Can Christian Divorce Support Groups influence Forgiveness and
Health Outcome in Black Divorcees: A Phenomenological
Investigation” in the Journal of Divorce and Remarriage.
After publishing the article, Magon continued to build her
knowledge in this area, but shortly afterward, she started
feeling a call to start a ministry to help people to forgive.
Already too busy to take on anything new, and not an ordained
minister, Magon tried to resist this call for months and came up
with several excuses regarding why this was not for her. But
finally, in 2015, she surrendered and started this ministry as
an inter-church program. This has allowed her to take the
message of forgiveness across the U.S. and the world. Since
then, Dr. Saunders and her team have developed courses, books,
and other resources to assist individuals on how to forgive.
In 2018, Forgive for Health Ministries hosted its first annual
conference, then filed for incorporation in the winter of 2019.
The ministry aims to help individuals recover from life’s trauma
and get them to move into a new life free from the burden of
unforgiveness.
PROGRAM GOALS
1. To encourage health care providers to assess the forgiveness
levels of all patients and to refer them to appropriate
“caring’’ professionals or ministries
2. To help all individuals to forgive so that they can live free
from the shackles of unforgiveness.
3. To implement trauma-informed care in African Americans and
other minorities, so that they can “thrive”, thereby reducing
health disparities.
4. Work to build awareness and the evidence-based for addressing
religion, education, food insecurity, transportation, and other
social determinants of health.
5. Serve as a bridge between faith communities and public health
to improve population health.
OUR VALUES
Integrity, Honesty, Love, Respect, Compassion, Quality, and
Christian Service
Integrity
We are upstanding in all we do and are guided by decency and
fairness.
Honesty
We are honest, open, and transparent in all of our dealings.
Love
We strive to show all people the love of Christ.
Respect
We respect and listen to every person.
Compassion
We show the compassion of Christ to all we meet.
Quality
We provide high-quality service and work with excellence as unto
Christ.
Christian Service
We follow Christ’s leadership in service to all mankind.
OUR WHY
Forgive for Health Ministries, Inc. exists to help all people to
forgive. We offer forgiveness assessments, workshops,
conferences, retreats, books, courses, and forgiveness circles,
etc. to empower attendees to forgive those who have transgressed
against them. We work with churches, other places of worship,
hospitals, clinics, health systems, schools, work sites,
families, etc. to assess forgiveness levels and to use that
information to start the journey to healing and restoration.
Forgive for Health Ministries, Inc. and its leaders believe in
whole-person care and recognize the importance of healing the
body, mind, soul, and spirit.
Incorporated in 2019, Forgive for Health Ministries works with
willing individuals to heal all their relationships for good. We
are committed to using all of our energy to work alongside God
to restore health to his people. Forgiveness and its healing
power have been critical in the life of our founder who has
faced abuse, abandonment, and a host of adverse childhood
experiences, trauma, and other life-altering events. Yet, today,
Dr. Saunders’s main desire is to help those who have experienced
trauma to come into the light of forgiveness.
Call us at 404-216-0621 or email us at
forgive4health@gmail.com
and let us help you heal all your relationships for good.
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“Forgiveness isn’t just practiced by saints or martyrs, nor
does it benefit only its recipients.” Instead, studies are
finding connections between forgiveness, physical, mental, and
spiritual health, and evidence that it plays a key role in the
health of families, communities, and nations. Though this
research is still young, it has already produced some exciting
findings- and raised some important questions (Worthington,
2004) |
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