When I entered the program in 1992, there were two SA meetings in Northern Virginia — one in Falls Church and one in Alexandria, which moved in 1994 to Crystal City. There were four people with more than a year of sobriety, one with five years, another with seven and two with over a year.

In the spring of 1994, there was an additional meeting in Woodbridge, VA, my hometown. Something else had happened: many of the people who came in when I did or were struggling when I came through the doors were sober for more than a year. Second, there were more younger members – SA’s who were in their late twenties or early thirties — trying to get sober. These two phenomena gave this struggling young member some hope. By the end of 1994, we had two more meetings, in Stafford and Vienna. The meetings started and survived because of the need we had for daily contact with other lustaholics.

The summer of 1995 brought the international conference to Baltimore. For many, this brought a vision of the type of fellowship we could have in our area if we were willing to do our part and be patient enough to let God do his.

The spring of 1996 saw two more meetings — one in Centerville and two in Springfield, and that summer produced meetings in Herndon, Fredericksburg and Tysons Corner. Many of these new meetings struggled to survive, but they gave committed sober members a chance to do service and an opportunity to tell their story to the many newcomers who came and went. 1997 brought four more meetings to Fairfax and an additional meeting to Tysons Corner.

Today there are five morning meetings, two noon meetings and nine evening meetings in Northern Virginia. This is not including the five noon meetings and three evening meetings in Washington, D.C. For various reasons, many of these meetings weren’t announced in the “New Groups” section of the Essay. As I speak, we are losing two of our outlying meetings to an intergroup that is being started in Richmond, VA, which now has seven meetings a week and had none until the summer of 1995.

In Northern Virginia we have about 16 members with over a year of sexual sobriety, one in double digits and five with over four years. This isn’t counting those who live in D.C. and suburban Maryland, many of whom frequent our meetings as we do theirs.

The number of younger single sexaholics has increased; we have a 19-year-old who attends one of our meetings. We have a small number of women who are staying in the fellowship. We also have had an influx of members from other S-fellowships who needed our focused approach on recovery from lust. Many of those who left our program have come back and many who were chronic slippers for years are now getting sober and carrying a message of hope to others who are struggling.

Meetings that struggled in 1996 are maturing slowly in sobriety and numbers. The meetings that were here when I arrived have become the sober anchors that later meetings have looked to for guidance. Only our Creator knows what is in store for Northern Virginia in the next five years.