Victory

Good morning everyone,

I am elated!!!!!!!! Elizabeth just sent the folowing email to all of us BodyTalkers and I just HAD to share it with all of you. Thank you to those of you who have been praying for this victory!

Many of you may recall the struggle that we energy workers have been having with the North Dakota Board of Massage this past year. What a nightmare it's been for us with LOTS of resulting stress. Well, the nightmare is half over as the North Dakota House of Representatives voted VERY STRONGLY in favor of protecting energy workers. The exact wording of the amended bill is listed below.

We're not out of the woods yet, as the bill must still pass in the Senate. However, I feel good about the work that I've been doing on this with my Senator who is Robert Erbele. How thankful I am that God has put a Godly man in the position of being MY senator at the state level--now for such success at the Federal level.

Anyway, here is the email which I just received bearing good news of great joy! May your day be filled with such fruit for your labors today!

House Bill 1304 - re-written version
Sixty-second Legislative Assembly of North Dakota
Introduced by Representatives S. Meyer, Weisz, Delmore, Holman Senators Bowman, Erbele

A BILL for an Act to create and enact a new subsection to section 43-25-04 of the North Dakota

Century Code, relating to an exemption from massage therapy licensure for energy workers.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF NORTH DAKOTA:

SECTION 1. A new subsection to section 43-25-04 of the North Dakota Century Code is created and enacted as follows:

Any individual practicing healing by manipulating the energy field or the flow of energy of the human body by means other than the manipulation of the soft tissues of the human body , provided that the individual's services are not designated or implied to be massage or massage therapy . For purposes of this subsection, a light touch or tap is not a manipulation of the soft tissues of the human body.

The 19 representatives below voted NO on our bill to 72 YES.
I am not sure where these people are from, but I would like you to
contact people with this information and ask them to send a thank you to the representatives
in their district who are NOT on the list for voting for us.

It was just easier to print the list of people who voted NO.

Also, would everyone send a thank you to sjmeyer@nd.gov as she is the one who
has stuck with us the entire time and made this happen.

As you can see, it was a pretty strong majority who supported us--72 to 19. I am happier than I could have imagined to learn that both of my Representatives honored my request and voted in favor of this very simple bill. As they say, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." I have already written to thank them both for their support.

Now it's on to the home school bill which will be heard in the Pioneer room tomorrow at 9:30. If you're involved in home schooling, I ask you to pray about attending that meeting tomorrow morning. It is URGENT that we fill that room with home school families tomorrow! This is a critical year to show our legislators that we want them to support home schooling. The past 2 years have been spent working on getting this bill worded, "Just right" and we need to go and show support for it.

If it is impossible for you to be there tomorrow, then I urge you to make it a priority to be at the capitol on Thursday of this week. It is VERY important that the capitol be crawling with home school families that day so that the legislators realize that home schooling STILL is important to us. It is a concern to me that the fire which our early home school families had, which earned us the right to home school, seems not to burn as brightly as it did in our early days of home schooling. I certainly hope that I'm wrong in this instance.

PLEASE MEET ME AT THE CAPITOL TOMORROW MORNING AND/OR ON THURSDAY! LET'S SPEND THE TIME TOGETHER SHOWING OUR LEGISLATORS THAT NORTH DAKOTA HAS MANY FAMILIES WHO WANT TO CONTINUE HOME SCHOOLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, seeing as I know what Robert would ask at this point (End of sermon?), I guess it's time to get off of my soapbox and get to the work of home schooling Jacob today.

Thanks again to all of you who have been praying for things to work out with the massage board! What a blessing you have been to me--and to all of my clients.

Keep pressing towards the mark,

Dawn