There I was in an Israeli prison, walking through a security checkpoint to visit an incarcerated SA member. What an ordeal! First, I had to empty my pockets. Then I had to take off my shoes. After that, I had to take off my socks and walk barefooted on a tile floor where other barefoot people—from all backgrounds—had been walking.

When I was eight years old, my mother would ask me (her only child), “Will you help me by drying the dishes and stacking them on the counter?” I enjoyed the activity and felt I was part of the team.

As I type this, it’s 2:34 a.m., and I have reached a little over eight months of sobriety. I just experienced what I believe may be the first depths of recovery but I’m not sure. When I first entered through the SA doors and was shown how to surrender my lust by my sponsor, my life changed in that moment.

I came into SA in October 2014, on the advice of a friend in another Twelve Step program. I started working the Steps with a female sponsor (the only SA woman in my area), but the situation did not work out, so I asked one of the men in my home group to be my sponsor. But this did not work out so well either.

The first thing I remember from my childhood is that I spent every waking minute reading stories of beautiful, fragile princesses, who would be rescued by handsome princes on white horses. I would spend many hours going through every detail so that I could be just like a princess, so that when my prince arrived I would be ready to go with him and live happily ever after.

I came into SA a little over three years ago, when I was 19. By the grace of God and thanks to this program, I have been blessed with sobriety one day at a time since my first meeting, a few days after my sobriety birthday on March 8th, 2012. I’m grateful for this opportunity to share my experience, strength, and hope with the fellowship—as well as the events that led up to it.

We are grateful to our members for our excellent 2014 financial results. We finished the year on target compared to budget! I’m excited to see members spread the word in so many directions: globally, through literature, and into the digital world.

At our meeting in February 2015, the General Delegate Assembly (GDA) voted unanimously to permit ESSAY subscribers to make up to 10 copies, either in print or electronically, to share with others. This decision is in furtherance of our primary purpose to carry the message (Tradition Five) while still protecting the integrity of our copyright.

How is your program going? Are you enjoying all of the sobriety, serenity, and sanity that your Higher Power has for you? Are you looking for opportunities to be of service to God and others? Do you want to foster new friendships with those who are seeking a shared solution to a shared problem?

In countries where there are no SA groups, SAICO depends on member volunteers to carry the SA message to those who seek help. SA’s International Committee (IC) is attempting to organize those volunteers to focus on specific areas where help is needed. We are currently looking for volunteers to answer inquiries from several countries.

On January 1, 2014, a new SA group was started in Zwolle, the Netherlands. We meet on Wednesday in a room that was kindly rented to us by an organization that deals with all kinds of addictions. The members of this meeting, however, felt that we needed another meeting in Zwolle, on another night.

I just re-read Bill’s Story (AA Chapter 1) with a sponsee of mine as part of his Step One work. It’s amazing that two Jewish sexaholics from Israel in their mid-twenties can identify with a 40-year-old alcoholic stockbroker from New York.

These thoughts from the AA Big Book run through my mind nearly constantly: “Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. How can I best serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done” (85). And, as emphasized on the same page, this is the proper use of my willpower.

I would like to share my recent experience in using the Serenity Prayer (SA 95). I’ve been sober in SA since October 2008, and have done lots of service work. But recently I was faced with one of the most challenging business decisions of my 30+ year career.

I came to SA in September 2005, when I realized I was hooked on Internet pornography, and I’ve been sober since that day. Before then, I thought I could stop on my own. I actually could stop for several days on my own willpower, but then I would binge on lust for days afterward and my obsession would increase.

I’ve been sober in SA for seven years now, and today I’m grateful to be a sexaholic. Because of SA, I have a life worth living, tools to help me live that life, and the ability to help others live a life worth living by working the Twelve Steps. But it wasn’t always this way; I had a lot of resistance at first. So I decided to write a few things about my early resistance to working this program of recovery, in case my experience might benefit others.

When a young bird is hatched, all it knows is the insatiable urge to be fed, crying out for its next meal. As the chick grows, the time comes when he is finally able to look outside the nest and see all the mature birds soaring through the air.

I’ve been sober in SA for four and one-half years, and I believe that my sobriety can be attributed in no small part to sponsorship. The SA program continues to bless me with valuable lessons from the process of both having a sponsor and being a sponsor, and I’m grateful to my Higher Power for putting my sponsees in my life.

When I first came into recovery in January 2004, my counselor recommended that I attend a Twelve Step group. The only group in Columbia at the time was another “S” fellowship, so that’s where I went. Then the wife of one of our members founded an S-Anon group when they moved here from North Carolina.

My wife and I recently celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, and I can honestly say that the last 13 ½ years have been better than the first 36 ½ years, for two reasons. The first reason is that I’ve been sober for 13 ½ years, and the second is that in the last 13 ½ years we have experienced honesty, respect, unity, and love—love that is expressed in so many different ways in our relationship.