I’m Bernd, a sexaholic from Munich, and I’m grateful to have been a part of the Munich team that organized (with God’s help) the German-Speaking convention this year. The convention was held in Zavelstein near Stuttgart. The theme for the weekend was “Honesty.”

This convention was organized a bit differently from others in the past. Our Munich fellowship was inspired to bring in some new innovations, which worked well for our fellowship. To see a bigger picture of recovery, we (1) organized speaker meetings with two to three speakers each, who each had at least one year of sobriety, (2) invited an International speaker, and (3) recorded meetings for friends who could not come. We also organized three parallel tracks of one-hour meetings: one for German speakers and one for English speakers (for the first time at a German convention), and one mixed sharing meeting (as described in SA, 197).

We had International speakers and meeting leaders from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Ireland, as well as representatives from EMER to speak about their work and how we might better work together in Europe. As a big surprise, Harvey A. flew in to be our Saturday evening speaker. We enjoyed listening to him share his experience, strength and hope.

Altogether, 112 members participated. One highlight for me was that we were able to pass a basket and provide some travel expenses for Dave T. Now Dave will be able to travel to the Russian convention on his upcoming trip through Europe. He will be speaking at gatherings in Munich, Germany, October 16-18; Lille, France, October 23–25; in Warsaw, Poland, October 30–November 1; Moscow, Russia, November 6–8; and in Jerusalem, Israel, November 13-15. We want to show that we support each other in fellowship, even with friends we do not know yet.

This convention has meant a lot to me; I found new connections in my fellowship and with God.

In fellowship,