My name is Marty. I am a very grateful child of God and a recovering sexaholic/alcoholic, two things about myself that it took years and a fall from grace for me to accept. I am writing this from my kitchen and, as I look out the door, I do not see any razor-wire fences - a view I had for 25 years because of my abuse of prepubescent girls as a Catholic priest.
Until about four years ago, I was living in a country in Africa with my wife. We had gone there to set up a humanitarian project to help widows, orphans and children. We'd been married for a bit over 38 years at that time. The stress of setting up a project from scratch, put an awful strain on our marriage.
The author lays out how he got involved as a sponsorship-by-mail coordinator, what it entails, and how many gifts he has received in return.
The thought rings in my mind, “Stop writing someone else’s story.” For so many years my addict controlled the story of my life. He told me to be afraid; that I was going to fail, so don’t even try. I so deeply believed my addict’s lies, that I wouldn’t dare to dream of who I am and what I wanted. I resorted to living a life for everyone else but me.
This January, our fellows in SA Exeter in the UK organized a Winter Convention held in their beautiful ancient city in the Southwest of England; it was a 3-day weekend of fellowship with sexaholics who came from all over the UK and Europe.
When I became the IGR of the Dutch Intergroup in 2018, I joined the regional (EMER) Correctional Facilities Committee because I realized I could have been arrested for many a column in the chronicle of my powerlessness and unmanageability. Soon, I offered my service as secretary. Thus moving “to the middle of the SA life raft” I met a lot of trusted servants from the US who were involved in the worldwide CFC service.
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.
As early as 2009, fellows of the Belgian SA were involved in 12th Step work for sexaholics in prison. In the ‘early years’ some contacts were established with prison staff, chaplaincy and social workers.
My first sponsorship experience was prison sponsorship. I was skeptical about reaching out and sponsoring others, but my sponsor kept pushing me. “Carry the message. Carry the message. Carry the message.” He’d repeat that over and over and over.
We were the first ever SA program in a prison outside the USA. It started at the Newcastle Monday night beginners group Prison Subcommittee. A prison chaplain at Junee Correctional helped us start the first ever SA program in an Aussie prison.
