Nan, our Central Office secretary for the last couple of years, has agreed to be office manager as well as secretary, if she limits her work to less than full time. This new situation has come about since the last three secretaries haven’t worked out, since the Central Office has moved to commercial office space, and since Roy has withdrawn from being CO manager.
As announced at Bozeman, Matt W. of Kansas City is SA’s prison coordinator. He is the communication switchboard between SAs behind the wall and members on the outside who wish to correspond with or sponsor those in prison. At present, this involves coordinating well over a hundred SAs inside with those on the outside. This amounts to running a Central Office all its own!
…Thank you for the support that you and SA have given to us in getting a group started within the Arkansas Department of Correction. We have just completed our second meeting and elected our officers, plus we have started our study program of the “White Book” and have found that this program is what we have been searching for.
These last couple of weeks I feel I have begun to understand what surrender really means. I thank God that I never stopped going to the meetings. And I thank God and SA that when I was finally hurting enough to really give up, He and the Fellowship were there for me, and the love and support carried me through withdrawal.
We’ve started a new group in Neenah, WI with 6 to 8 regular members each week! (A group is also going to start in Green Bay soon. Along with Appleton, that makes three for this area.) Also, how would our new group formally register with the Central Office?
We send this check with our best wishes and gratitude from SA in Reykjavik. Our group here is 5-7 members and is very strong.… I am very grateful for SA and what it has done for me. I did not know what my problem was until I met an SA member. One thing I know, without God I can’t stay sober. As a matter of fact, I can’t do anything if I don’t turn my life to God and trust him for my life.
“It was a great conference…the oldtimers meeting was inspiring. It was also comforting to me to see how much solid sobriety we have… It was relaxing to be in such a group.”
In case you’ve been wondering why this issue of ESSAY is late (even with our non-schedule), you should know that letters, phone calls, and literature orders have also been running late. There was a bit of a crisis when our new secretary left without giving notice. Nan was unavailable to come back in and pinch hit until now, so we did the best we could with volunteer help from the local fellowship.
It was certainly helpful for me to get in touch with some of the resentments I still had left concerning my brother in “…” and how praying for a forgiving spirit is certainly helping me feel better about all of this. I have also been able to let go of digging out anymore from my past concerning the sexual abuse situations.
To date we have 30 inmates who want to join the SA group when it gets completely organized.
