[Extract of letter from Roy K. to SA members involved in new service structure and Central Office move.]

We are now setting about building a new “house” for SA, that is, a new Central Office as well as a new organizational structure. I would like to share some of my personal feelings and experience with you who are involved in this task.

SA had something like four or five false starts. Only when we stopped trying to start an organization and instead simply reached out to one desperate person crying out for help did SA “take.” Many times I have tried to “build” some aspect of the SA work, only to finally realize, in failure, that I was doing it. Whenever I give up the primacy of my will and submit myself merely as a servant, under God, the Lord continues the building of his house. The temptation for me always is to rely first on my own ability and insight. Hard experience has led me to come more and more to acknowledge God in every endeavor. I have personally discovered what Dr. Bob says at the end of his story: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down” (p. 181).

I believe SA is part of God’s house. Let us resist the natural and automatic impulse to be governed by our own insight and ability in building this house. Let us discover, as our founders did, “a faith that works,” even in this.

Let me share with you some of the most beautiful and rewarding experiences I have ever had in SA. In the early days of the old Advisory and IGC committees, we would “acknowledge God in all our ways” before every deliberation by simply taking a few minutes to pray together. This went beyond the ritual Serenity Prayer kind of thing, and we felt free doing it because it wasn’t an SA meeting, as such. We simply prayed aloud as we felt led, facing the problems of the task at hand. Time and time again—the Australian media offer and New York City issues come to mind—we were guided away from our own understanding to what turned out to be the way best for SA. We discovered that God would actually lead us, if we took the time to ask and surrender together, even in such matters.

I believe with all my heart that “Except the Lord build the house, we labor in vain who build it.” As we set about building this new house, let us humble ourselves, building together under God, to carry the message to those still in the bondage of lust, “praying only for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out.”