Christian Recovery with Dick B.

Christian Recovery with Dick B.
Report on Our Southern California Meetings, March 18-26, 2010

Ken and I were in Southern California from March 18 to 26, 2010. We're now back in Maui. Here is a synopsis of our trip.

March 18-21: Orange County (Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon):

March 19, Friday, late afternoon, Costa Mesa: We met with Dale Marsh and his wife from Oroville, California. They want to launch a Christian recovery program at their church, the Church of the Nazarene, in Oroville, California. In order to gather information relating to that program, they visited our friend David Powers on Thursday. David oversees Rock Recovery (under ministry leader, Tommy Moseley) for the Rock Church in San Diego (http://www.rockrecovery.org/). David called us while we were still in the plane on the ground at Orange County Airport Thursday evening and suggested we meet with them just before they visited our friend Randy Moraitis who oversees the Lifelines Christian recovery meeting on Friday evenings for the Crossing Church in Costa Mesa (http://www.thecrossing.com/care). They were able to work in the visit with us, and it was very profitable. They decided to talk with their church about doing a pilot program in a church setting with us involving their use of the brand new, four-session, audio and video class, Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery, by Dick B. and Ken B.

** The Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery Class by Dick B. and Ken B. **

March 20, Saturday, morning and afternoon, Huntington Beach: We were at New Life Spirit Recovery on 18652 Florida Street in Huntington Beach (http://www.newlifespiritrecovery.com/OC_Recovery.html). Dr. Robert Tucker and his wife Stephanie are skilled Christian recovery counselors. Bob is the new President of the Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors (ACADC) Institute (http://www.acadc.org/index.html); and he conducts his programs at New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc., in Huntington Beach. This location is also the Southern California office of the new and rapidly-growing International Christian Recovery Coalition (www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com) founded in July 2009 , with Dr. Tucker as its Southern California outreach director. Dr. Tucker and his wife filmed the first “pilot version” on DVD of our new, four-session Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery class by Dick B. and Ken B.

This class consists of four (4) sessions of about 40-45 minutes each. We have now recorded all four sessions in “first pass” form on both audio (mp3) and video (DVD) formats. The sessions were originally designed for 28-day, Christian and Christian-track treatment programs; and we made each session a “stand-alone,” “non-serial,” presentation which does not “build on the other sessions” (as many classes do). Consequently, clients/students may listen to whichever session is playing the week they enter the treatment program and will not have missed anything. The Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery class also includes: (1) a workbook for the students; (2) an “orientation” session for class instructors; and (3) a series of questions and answers for each of the four session provided to the class instructors as further guides to the key points in each session. Additional, we strongly recommend that organizations and groups who present this class acquire for the class instructors—and, perhaps in some settings, for students—the new, third edition of The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide by Dick B. and Ken B. (2010). This Guide represents our effort to consolidate in one place the 20 years of research by Dick B. (and Ken B.) on the key points which show the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in early A.A.'s astonishing successes—as documented in A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature, authoritative autobiographies and biographies, and actual historical documents

This Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery class marks the beginning of our new “Christian Recovery” outreach to Christian counselors, Christian and Christian-track treatment programs, Christianity-based sober houses, Christ-centered groups, Christian recovery groups, correctional facilities, homeless folks, churches, clergy, AAs, NAs, other 12 Step groups, and more. We are in the process of developing customized “pilot programs” based on this new class for the different categories of “Christian Recovery” outreaches focused on helping those who still suffer from alcoholism, drug dependence, and other life-controlling problems. Our first such “pilot program” took the form of a class Dick B. and Ken B. are making available to the ACADC Institute so that all Christian counselors certified by the ACADC Institute will be required to learn about the Christian nature of the highly-successful, original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program.

Our second “pilot program” came out of a suggestion by Dr. Robert Tucker as to the need for a four-session class in a Christian or Christian-track treatment program. We have now put that class down on four DVD's. Our third “pilot program” built around this class is in the process of being incorporated into a Christian treatment program as of the time of this writing. And just before and during our trip to Southern California this month, we have had requests for us to develop “pilot programs” based on this class for Christian churches having (or wanting to develop) Christian-oriented recovery programs and for Christian-oriented sober houses.

March 20, Saturday, evening: After our all-day, marathon filming event, we went over to eat awesome Italian food at one of David Roman's four Roman Cucina restaurants in Orange County. David has been an avid “Christian Recovery,” A.A.-friendly supporter of our work in Orange County—to the point of buying cases of The Good Book and the Big Book by Dick B. and distributing them free to others. Not only would we like to encourage you to support David and his restaurants by eating there, but we would also like to ask for your prayers for David, his family, and his restaurants. Just before he was to meet with us on Friday, March 26, he suffered a break-in at one of his restaurants. Please consider putting David in your prayers relative to that situation. Thank you.

March 21, Sunday, afternoon in Costa Mesa: We spoke to the leadership of the Friday night Lifelines meeting at The Crossing Church (overseen by Randy Moraitis and arranged a further meeting with Greg Sipe, Program Director for Lifelines. A little while after that meeting we headed down to the San Diego area.

March 21-24: San Diego Area (Sunday afternoon through Wednesday morning):

(David Powers of Rock Recovery provided us with a room at the Crowne Plaza San Diego hotel for the duration of our visit to the San Diego area again this trip. Thank you, David!)

March 22, Monday, evening in Escondido: We had a tremendous meeting at Neighborhood Church in Escondido hosted by Gary Seymour and his Neighborhood Alcoholics for Christ group. Gary's group provides Christian ministry at the church, Bible study, Neighborhood Alcoholics for Christ meetings, and outreach to street people. Gary will expand Neighborhood Alcoholics for Christ in San Diego and elsewhere as our Heavenly Father directs Him and others answer. Walter Santos (“Santos”--,http://www.santosministries.org/), the noted Christian percussionist who "Sings for the King" provided great music throughout the evening. Neighborhood Alcoholics for Christ provided food. And Ken and I made a Christian recovery history presentation to the audience.

March 23, Tuesday, afternoon: We met at our hotel with Bob Bowling who has a “Bible Ministry” that distributes Bibles, Christian literature, and Dick B. books throughout the San Diego Area—FREE. Also present was his cousin Don who oversees an Overcomers Outreach meeting in the San Diego Area.

We also had an awesome conversation with a well-known Christian musician, Bryan Duncan.

March 23, Tuesday, evening: David Powers and Tommy Hathorn invited us to a dinner at 5:30 PM, followed by a Bible study from6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, at one of the sober living houses associated with Rock Recovery. I conducted the Bible study portion of the meeting (a first!), and there were about 40 people there. My topic involved two sections of scripture from the Book of James. Great audience!

March 24-26: Orange County (Wednesday morning through Friday afternoon):

March 24, Wednesday, morning and early afternoon in San Juan Capistrano. We met with Tod Cunningham, Marketing Director at Pacific Hills Treatment Centers, at about 10:00 AM at their headquarters in San Juan Capistrano. We then had a “working lunch” meeting with Tod and the clinical staff. We met with them to help them launch a new effort to position Pacific Hills Treatment Center as a unique, premier, Christian treatment program in part by working in an intensive way with Dick B. to incorporate his 20 years of research on the Christian origins of early A.A.'s highly-successful program into their Christian treatment efforts.

March 24, Wednesday, afternoon, in the City of Orange: Christian psychologist, marriage and family therapist, and radio personality, Dr. Bob Noonan, arranged a meeting for us at his office with the renowned Gospel and Blues harmonica player Darrell Mansfield (recently inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame—http://www.darrellmansfield.net/). He had read a copy of my book, The Good Book and the Big Book, and told us that he could see my heart (in that book). Bob is in the process of arranging a large meeting at the Church of the Open Door in Glendora for some time within the next few months (as schedules permit), that will involve a talk of perhaps one hour by me, followed by a concert by Darrell Mansfield. We were very excited to hear that Darrell will be staying and performing for Christian churches and groups in Maui from April 1-12, 2010, and we look forward to supporting him with our presence as available.

March 24, Wednesday, evening, in Costa Mesa: We met with Greg Sipe and four other people involved in the Lifelines Friday night meetings at The Crossing Church and shared our needs and plans for future outreach in Southern California. One of them, Skip, operates a sober living facility and is working on cranking up a Christian recovery group at his church.

March 25, Thursday, morning and early afternoon in San Juan Capistrano. We had another “working lunch” meeting with Tod and the clinical staff at Pacific Hills Treatment Centers.

March 25, Thursday, late afternoon in Huntington Beach. We obtained from Dr. Robert Tucker of New Life Spirit Recovery the “pilot copy” of our new, four-session, Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery class on four DVD's.

March 25, Thursday, evening in Costa Mesa: We had a dinner meeting with Roger McDiarmid of His Place Church and were joined by noted Christian bass player and successful businessman Johnny Ray Bartel. Johnny Ray is helping us arrange for the next version of the Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery class to be filmed and edited by Christian professionals in the television and/or movie industry. This will be a major production occurring possibly within a few weeds. Please consider praying for us concerning this endeavor.

March 26, Friday, late morning and early afternoon in Costa Mesa: We had a “working breakfast meeting” with Greg Sipe, Roger McDiarmid, and Eric Mack to discuss the filming of the class and the revamping of our websites. Eric, who assists Greg with the Lifelines meetings, spoke with us about undertaking correctional outreach with us.

March 26, Friday, later afternoon: Roger McDiarmid then drove us over to Johnny Ray Bartel's place of work to pick up the four DVD's containing the “pilot version” of the Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery class that we had loaned him the evening before. We discussed with him plans for professional filming, editing, and reproduction of the class. And we spent the remainder of the time with Roger McDiarmid working out plans for outreach, funding, films, and International Christian Recovery Coalition programs, as well as our next trip.

Richard Skolnik of Nesconset, New York—our Director of Transportation and Clinical outreach for International Christian Recovery Coalition—flew in from New York to drive us around Orange County and the San Diego area. Rich discussed extensive plans with us for more effective presentations in Vermont—particularly at the Dr. Bob Core Library in St. Johnsbury, Vermont—the village where Dr. Bob was born and raised and received his excellent training in the Bible from his family, church, Sunday school, Christian Endeavor, and St. Johnsbury Academy days as well as connections with the YMCA of which his father Judge Smith was president from 1895 to at least 1897.

In His Service, Dick B.
Writer, Historian, Retired attorney, Bible student, CDAAC, and recovered AA
Exec. Dir., International Christian Recovery Coalition (www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com)
Email: DickB@DickB.com
Main web site: www.DickB.com
See also: www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com

Contact Rev. Ken B. 808 276 4945