When I returned to my hometown of Louisville, KY in 1996 from San Diego, I desperately needed to connect with an SA group. Unfortunately, the eight or nine men that made up the Louisville group had strayed far from the SA meeting format I had grown accustomed to. The group hosted members with various addictions, including sexual addiction, and the emphasis was on Bible study. I tried to get the group back on track, but over a period of time the men dropped out and Louisville SA became a group of one.

Undaunted I became the contact person for the Louisville Hope Eternal Group and I continued to hold meetings on a weekly basis in my home, waiting for some new members. I was beginning to lose hope when a prospective new member was referred by the ICO in October 1996. I trusted in God and the SA guidelines and the new member kept coming back. Together we met on Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings in my living room, read the White Book, and shared our experience, strength and hope.

On a couple of occasions the humble Louisville group of two was visited by SA members from other parts of the country as they passed through. They were in need of a meeting and found a warm welcome in Louisville. They always encouraged us to persevere and gave sound advice on how to grow a solid SA group.

The real turning point came when I received a scholarship to attend the Nashville Conference in May 1997. I stayed in the home of Bill S., who became my sponsor, and I was able to connect with many SA members. The encouragement I received during the conference was just the booster shot I needed. The Nashville Intergroup later approved a request for support to fund a telephone voice mailbox for the Louisville group.

During this time I had begun counseling with a Louisville therapist who agreed to circulate SA brochures with our voice mail phone number to her colleagues. Our group of two began to pray that a few of the many people suffering with sexual addiction in the Louisville area would call, and God answered our prayers. The first two new members to join called the voice mailbox on the same evening within five minutes of each other. Although both were seeing the same therapist, they had never met.

Over the next several months, our group grew to 12 members. Our youngest is a college freshman and the oldest is over 70. We still have a Monday evening meeting in my living room, but we have moved the Saturday noon meeting and our new Wednesday evening meeting to a family care center to accommodate our growth. Within the next month we hope to add a Thursday evening meeting at yet another location, possibly in neighboring Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Here is a group that knows SA works, but only when we surrender to God’s plan and not our own.