By the grace of my loving God I’ve been sober since May 5, 2013. My home group is the Monday night beginners group in Newcastle, Australia. Currently I’m a SA trustee and the current SACFC vice chair.

The SACFC voted in favor of a motion not to call our fellows in prison “prisoners” but “Our Friends” because the term prisoner is so degrading and humiliating.

I spent a number of years in prison for drug-related crimes. I lost everything when I went to prison. When others referred to me as a prisoner and not as a human being— person due dignity just being a child of God—it made my despondency worse. When I went to prison I became a number, that’s right, just a number.

I paid a price for my mistakes, however my experience of being in prison was one in which I never stopped paying the price for what I did. I felt I was paying the price every second of every minute of every day. To relate some of the daily pain and fear I lived through: the food was barely edible; every day could be the day I got stabbed or bashed; the mind games others played with me; even the correctional officers played games with my life. Words cannot describe the cruelty that goes on in there.

I am a human being and all Our Friends are human beings. Everyone deserves a second chance at life. Individuals in prison with our disease of sexaholism experience worse pain, fear, and humiliation than I did for my drug crimes. I saw the horror of what happens to people with our disease in prison.

God loved me at my worst, and searching and finding that LOVE is what has healed my heart in this program of SA. LOVE is what Our Friends need. Love is free and heals wounded souls. Love transformed my life, your fellowship transformed my life with unconditional love. We all need love.

I wish there was more I could do to help Our Friends. I do everything I can to help them. God and you did everything you could to help me, the least I can do is carry the message and do all I can do to help.

Some view service as something which assists their program, however for me it’s more than what I get out of it. It’s more about God’s deep love for all his children. The God of my understanding loves everyone deeply and intimately; there is nothing my God wouldn’t do—or hasn’t done—to assist me. That’s what I try, and do for others. Our Friends in prison need all the LOVE they can get.