A massive amount of learning and preparation have taken place in the last six months. First, we met a group of Mariners Church leaders who seemed eager to put together an "old school" A.A. regular meeting to let the recovery community see the role that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible have played and can play in recovery. One man has volunteered to organize and chair the meeting, and when we are in Orange County in May, we will be meeting with those in his circle who want to work out the details and follow through.
Meanwhile, based on what we heard on that trip to Irvine and other points in the Costa Mesa Area, we set about researching and preparing our new "Stick with the Winners!" Guidebook--which is foundational in training the trainers as to the details of:
(1) God's healings from the Old Testament days through to early A.A. in Akron.
(2) The First Century Christian Fellowship ideas that old school Akron A.A. adopted, developed, and practiced in early A.A. days.
(3) How the ideas from the Bible and from the Christian predecessors of A.A. and from the Christian upbringing of A.A. cofounders Bob and Bill culminated in the miraculous healing from alcoholism and addiction that the first three AAs--all Christians and Bible savvy--when they turned to God for help and were cured before there was yet an A.A.
(4) How it all came together in the Akron A.A. Christian fellowship founded in 1935.
(5) How--despite divergent applications and viewpoints about it--A.A.'s Conference-approved literature [the Big Book, DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, and the Co-Founders of A.A. pamphlet (P-53)] furnish a solid foundation for applying old school A.A. in recovery today.
(6) The exact ingredients of early A.A.'s simple, 7 point program, summarized in DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers on page 131, were practiced in 1935 and can be practiced in today 's recovery arena if only they are taught, learned, passed along, and applied.
These ideas were a major part of our recent 7 visit meetings and conferences in the San Francisco Bay Area at Oakland, Livermore, and Brentwood, as well as with CityTeam. We distributed copies of our new guide, and then several followed through by adopting plans for such old school meetings.
With that, we began assembling the resources that meeting leaders should obtain and could use in conducting the meetings.
We immediately began preparing a 25 video series that would be available for vieweres, classes, meetings, downloading, individual and group study, and learning.
Today, April 16, marked the completion of 20 of the 25 videos. Participants have been five people from Kihei, Maui--Bob J. who is doing the filming; David J. who is auditing and locating resources in preparation for Maui's first meeting program; David's son Danny who is extracting the material from the camera and loading it into our www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com site; and then by Dick and Ken B. who are doing the presenting.
That's the report, and it bodes well for use in meetings, workshops, classes, and the conferences that will take place in the busy period when Ken and I are in Orange County, California from May14-21.
The location, facility, date, time, and host (His Place Church in Westminster, California) are set. The intiial program is being circulated.
Half of the benefactors have already made their supportive donations. Many of them, and others, are now in our sponsor list. One speaker for Saturday is coming. Another has yet to let us know. The programs for the conference are very close to complete in content.
And the International Christian Recovery Coalition "Stick with the Winners!" Conference on May 18-19 is good to go!
See you in May!
Dick B. dickb@dickb.com
Gloria Deo
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