Learning From Our Oldtimers
I am retired and in my personal travels I made an effort to visit local groups when I could. On some occasions the groups I visited were small and had limited sobriety. In those cases I was often asked to give my story. I am always grateful for a chance to be of service by sharing my personal experience, strength, and hope and making new friends.
New Zealand has a relatively young fellowship with much to learn from the experience of other international groups. With five main centers and an intergroup that has been in existence for approximately three years, we have the structure in place to allow proliferation of the fellowship Down Under.
The current membership of the Russian-speaking Intergroup comprises groups from Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Until recently, SA members from Ukraine have been an active part of the RIG, but now they decided to become an independent Intergroup.
The main purpose of the SA fellowship is to carry the message to the sexaholic who still suffers, but to do that when the fellowship today ranges to the ends of the earth? Translations is one of the crucial channels to get in touch with SA worldwide.
I’m Bruno J. and I’ve been serving on the SA IT Committee for the past 4 years. Communication technology is playing an increasing role in the basic function of our fellowship.
Dear Essay, I was so grateful when I saw the August magazine titled “Supporting Women in SA.” Topics such as getting a sponsor, working the steps, mixed meetings, boundaries, service, and participating in the fellowship reminded me of my journey to recovery.
My sponsor defined “insight” as having an understanding of my behaviors. So, to me, having an understanding of why I am addicted to lust and sex has been a huge eye-opener.
Dear Essay readers, As we considered our options for the “old-timers” theme of this edition, we looked firstly at limiting ourselves to articles from members with 30+ years’ sobriety—all but one of these would be from the US, but thought this too narrow. Therefore, we decided to broaden the review, taking articles from members who are not simply sober for years, but that each of them would have either the longest sobriety or be a pioneer in his/her country.
Iranian old-timer Masoud describes in great detail how he has been working his program since the beginning of his recovery to improve his conscious contact with the God of his understanding.
The last weekend of August was one of the most unforgettable events in my life, when 48 SA and 9 S-Anon members gathered in Stirling for the Scottish SA Convention. Fellows from the UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, Ireland and Netherlands joined us in doing together what we cannot do alone.
