LOUISVILLE, KY SHARES

I am Elder Ralph Ford at the Magazine Street 7th day Adventist Church in Louisville KY. The Lord is blessing our meeting tremendously, we have had as many as 15 people at our meeting and have only been started for three months. New people are coming all the time and report that the meeting is such a blessing to them. We solicit your prayers for this group, that the Lord will bless our efforts in spreading hope and restoration in our community. Elder Ralph Ford

CAMBRIDGE CANADA

To my many brothers and sisters in AC,
I am writing this to try and explain what I believe the Lord Jesus Christ has done in my life over the past five years. Before this time my addiction had progressed to a point where my life was completely out of control. I was drinking and using drugs. My children were suffering along with me. When I could no longer deny this and knew I could not stop on my own. The hardest day of my life was the day I sent my children to live with their fathers. I got on my knee’s and asked the Lord to help my children and to forgive me. My mother is a Christian, she witnessed to me and I gave my life to the Lord that day. I sensed a big change in me and around me, I could feel the Holy Spirit working in me. Now I realized my new life had begun. I still had struggles only this time I sought help. Eventually I went to a rehab home-”Turning Point Home for Girls”, a Christ centered program. I graduated the program. This was the first time I graduated from anything in my life and stick with it. I was told about AC in my church, and I have been attending these meetings for over 2 1/2 years and am now running a meeting from my own church. I am grateful for AC Ministries. The step work and related scriptures offer me direction and my life is more manageable. I am getting well, and well enough to get married this month. My family and I receive prayer and I pray for other group members which helps me with my own spiritual growth. AC is like a family to me. Thank you for all your prayers and love. Donna –Cambridge Canada Group

WEST MEMPHIS ARKANSAS

Crittendon County Detention Center women’s pod (cellblock) is currently running over 50% attendance at the weekly AC meeting. Inmates must sign up the Sunday before (every Sunday) in order to attend. Meetings are facilitated under zero tolerance policy that helps inmates learn discipline and focus as well as keeps the meetings orderly. The meetings end with a powerful prayer time where each inmate is prayed for specifically. The workbook scriptures generate good discussion. Inmates who have attended four meetings get a plain white poster board cross with and A and a C on the arms. Down the center is the word “HOPEFUL”. It represents the fact that the inmate has moved from being hopeless to hopeful. On the back of the cross is a scripture. I never know which inmates get which scripture and it is always amazing to see how well the scripture fits each inmate. After attending twelve meetings, the inmate gets a cross that is cut fancier and has red on one side and white on the other. It has the word “committed” on it. This represents the fact that they are now committed to their relationship with the Lord and their recovery. They get to pick their own life scripture for the back of that cross. The last cross will be blue cut with a fancy edge scissors and will be entitled “ faithful”. For inmates who have nothing but a bible and workbook, these crosses and what they represent have become coveted and are always received with joy. We will soon have a number of inmates released and it will be interesting to see how many transition over to the group on Ingram. Sincerely in Christ, Diane– West Memphis groups-AR

COAL CITY ILLINOIS SHARES

Our weather has been cool all spring and have noticed some of our regulars missing of late, since the start of summer and better weather. We were seeing six to nine people at our meeting just a month ago. That number has been decreasing to about three or four the last few weeks. We have had new people come almost every week. It seems that they just come to try us out, hear the word, receive encouragement, seem excited about the meetings and have good intentions to continue, but for whatever reason we do not see them again for several weeks, if at all. The Lord continues to anoint the meetings and we are able to ensure they hear the gospel. When we have people, we spend quality time in steps 1-3. One of our new guys, who was struggling with drug addiction accepted Jesus as his Lord two weeks ago. We praise God! He has shown much excitement and has told us some of the ladies in the church about his conversion. We pray that this seed remains in “ good ground” and that he grows in the Lord. In His Service, Bill—Coal City– IL

HAVE YOU THOUGHT OF THE HEROS IN ACTS

Acts 3:9-12 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. So don't worry, you don’t need to be a new Peter.. It is enough to be a beggar that has got a new life.
Acts 6:10-12 “ So, the twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them.” So, don’t worry, you don’t need to have a visible task… maybe cooking, making coffee is very important.
Acts 9:10-19 “He went when God told him.” What would Paul have done without Ananias?
Acts 10:34-35 “Then Peter began to speak: Now I realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” What would we do without Peter’s new understanding?
Acts 12:13-15 what would happen with Peter if Rhoda did not come to the door ?
Act 15:13-21 “ He took initiative to lead the meeting in Jerusalem. James was brave enough to make a decision that has influenced millions of Christians all over the world. What would of happened without that meeting?
Acts 16:13-15 What would of happened if Lydia did not open her home for Paul?
Acts 17:5-7 How dangerous it must have been to have Paul as guest? How brave Jason was!
Acts 23:16-24 What would of happened if his nephew had not told Paul about the plot?
Acts 27: 43 What would happen if Julius did not save Paul’s life when the other soldiers wanted to kill him?
And it is amazing we hear so much about Paul in Acts .. And then whoops, he just disappears in the end.. What happened to Paul? Maybe that is the point… It is like they all are running in a relay.
And what would happen if I do not run the race? Maggan—Sweden

Maggan and her Anders are praying for someone to come and lead an AC meeting at their church.
Thank You Maggan for taking the time to translate the AC substance workbook into your language.
Please pray for Maggan and Anders

.MENS RETREAT

In every moment, in every day of our lives we could say, “who knows what God might do!” This past Men’s retreat was truly a great experience, and I hope God blessed ‘the many’ as He had blessed me. This retreat had one of the best turn outs I have seen in a long time, that alone starts the retreat our with an air of excitement and fellowship. Seeing so many new faces, meeting old friends, and feeling God’s presence ‘fill the place’ . Many of the attendees had not been to a retreat in “years”! I know once I experienced my first retreat many years ago, I have not stopped coming (I’m afraid of what I might miss!). For those who could not, or chose not to make it, I hope that next time you will take that step to come, and make it even greater. There has never been anything like a retreat in my walk with the Lord, as he takes me through the steps to recovery. “Dealing with Unfinished Business” was the theme of this retreat and proved to be for me, right on the mark! There is so much in my life that has been left undone, and this was a great awakening reminder for me. God is not done with me, there is so much more to do as He takes me from “Glory to Glory”! He does that through retreats such as this...great Praise and Worship music, guest speakers, mini testimonies...and so on and on. Getting to hear the keynote speaker Bill Keaton (Co-founder of AC) again is always such a blessing, and ad the great talks and lessons by John Reed and Will Garrett (President), and very encouraging mini testimonies from John Gnizak (Ohio Group) and a guest from Teen Challenge...WOW! If you would like to know more of what God can do, this is where you want to be. I can’t forget the wonderful hospitality of Joe and Marie Jacobs as they hosted the “afterglow” with great food (loved those ribs Marie) and fellowship at their home on Saturday evening. Thanks Joe and Marie, and those who gave a helping hand! So if you have never been to a retreat, think to yourself...if I go “who knows what God might do!”
God Bless you all, Don Dodds