Hair of the Dog

More Thoughts on Recovery

How could I not go? A year ago, I heard from a friend who had been on mission trips to Zambia many times. She had talked to a pastor there who had alcoholics coming into his church and wanted to know what he should do. My friend called me, knowing I was in recovery. I went online to find a meeting. Realizing that the nearest one was over fifty miles away and very few people there have cars, I decided to prepare materials for them on how to start a meeting. I went to my recovery group meetings at my church and got funding to buy books to send. I packed up the books, included notes on how to run a meeting, and merrily sent off the package to Africa. The package got stuck in customs and never arrived. Four months went by. I was very disappointed. Months later, out of the clear blue, I heard this distinct message from God, I didnt want you to send books. I wanted to send you. I did not want to go to Africa, but I knew in that moment I would go. Not only was I in Zambia talking to women about alcoholism on the day I got sober exactly ten years prior; I was speaking on the hour I got sober. God was very specific about where I should be on that day. Not in a million years did I think that I would be talking to people in Africa ten years later about staying soberI was just trying to stop drinking for that day in 2004! While there in Zambia, I got to visit that pastor and sit across from him in his dirt floor church talking about his meeting for alcoholics. I realized that God had taken me halfway around the world to encourage this one manand that was enough. My purpose now is to carry this message to other people who struggle with addiction as I have struggled in the past and to let them know there is a solution and there is hope. My hope is that this book encourages you and lifts you on your recovery journey.