Rusted Servant

I feel so blessed to have the rich life I now enjoy as a result of coming through the doors of AA in the spring of 1998. 



My first piece of AA literature was given to me after about four days of sobriety. It was the March 1998 issue of Grapevine. I have not missed a single issue since that time. All of my Grapevine copies have been passed along to others when I am done with them, as was done for me. 



My first home group offered me the fellowship of connecting to people just like me. My second home group introduced me to a sponsor who would share his life with me and guide me through the Big Book and our program of recovery. He suggested that I get a “job” in the group. 



My first service position was door greeter. I also helped set up the room. I went on to become the alternate GSR, reading as much literature as I could get my hands on. And AA service soon became the centerpiece of my recovery, as I felt inspired by the spirit of the Three Legacies of Recovery, Unity and Service. 



As the alternate, I represented our group at my first Area 81 Assembly meeting during the fall election when our GSR could not make it. A little ill-prepared for this sudden responsibility, I showed up with a tent at the end of October in northern New Brunswick with my dog and a notepad and pen. The campgrounds were closed for the season, so I set up in the back of the school grounds where the assembly was taking place. Extra blankets were required in late autumn. 



A few more years down the road, I met my service sponsor and joined his group. He went on to become the delegate of our area. I would go on to become the DCM of that district. I also became involved in bringing meetings into a medium-security prison group. Prison meetings give me the opportunity to give back what was so freely given to me. 



No major incidents define my life in Alcoholics Anonymous. There are only moments strung together like pearls, one that created this wonderful life I now enjoy.



While serving as GSR, I had one of these moments when I attended my first Regional Forum in 2002. It was as if someone had opened a door for me to discover a new world on the other side. To this day, Regional Forums remain my absolute favorite AA function. I have since attended over a dozen Forums in different regions. They continue to amaze me with all the love I feel in the room and the genuine enthusiasm for service. I especially love seeing the first-time attendees discover service just as I did years ago.



I was introduced to corrections service after a year and a half in AA and have maintained a passion for that work. Eventually, I went on to become our area corrections chairperson. 



I now spend about four days a week involved in corrections-oriented work. Just last week my wife and I received a call from an inmate, Harold, who had served 23 years behind the walls. He told us he had received his full parole. His adult son was in the room when the decision was reached at his parole hearing. With tears in his eyes, Harold stood there as his son grabbed him and hugged him and said, “We finally got our father back home with us.” I couldn’t help tearing up with joy as we spoke together on the phone. 



Later that week, another man, Robert, called from Newfoundland to say that he may soon be getting his parole. He was on a 10-day pass back home when he unexpectedly ran into his daughter and granddaughter. He didn’t even recognize them until someone introduced them to each other. The family is now in the process of reestablishing a connection. What a powerful thing to see. 



Many of our Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays have been celebrated around our dinner table with fellows from the local halfway house who have no family support because of distance or family dysfunction. These have been among some of the best moments we have had in our home. When one alcoholic shares with another, the mystery of a loving power is transmitted in both directions.



In 2014, I was selected to serve as a Panel 64 Delegate for my area. On the last day at the 64th General Service Conference, we had the closing brunch and farewells in Rye Brook, New York. From there, many of the Panel 63s and 64s had a picnic together in Bedford Hills, New York, on the lawn at Stepping Stones where Bill and Lois lived and much of Bill’s writing took place. Later, for supper, my wife and I drove to East Dorset, Vermont, the final resting place of Bill and Lois. We paid our respects at the gravesite and slept that night at the Wilson House where Bill was born. That was certainly a day to remember.



As delegate, I got to serve on the Report and Charter Committee and a secondary committee of International Conventions and Regional Forums, which as previously mentioned, is my favorite AA function. I became overwhelmed with gratitude that I was at the 2015 International Convention in Atlanta, one of eight members serving on the committee for a Fellowship of over two million. What an honor to serve in something I love so much. For a moment, it seemed absurd for this to be happening to a guy like me. 



The day before I went to the General Service Conference, I was working my job, throwing garbage bags into the back of a truck. The next day, I was representing my area as a delegate. Only in AA do you see things like this happen

With my two years serving as delegate over, I am now considered a “rusted servant” in our area. Since rust never sleeps, I am now preparing to take a drive to pick up Bob D., who I met two years ago at the First National Corrections Conference (NCC) in St. Louis, Missouri. We became fast friends. He lives in Ohio and is as old as AA itself. We recently drove to the third NCC in Houston, Texas. It was a 40-hour trip. Bob kept calling me his Uber driver.



For those who find AA to be dull, I can only think about what my buddy Doug G. in Fort Myers, Florida relayed during one of our wonderful talks. He told me that Bill W. said “We must seek out pockets of enthusiasm in Alcoholics Anonymous.” That has stayed with me all these years as a code to follow.



Recently, God saw fit to put an unlikely member in my path. We were at a small roundup meeting during hurricane-force weather. I noticed a man sitting by himself away from the regular meetings and I asked if he would mind if I sat down with him. We talked for a while, then he said, “When we come into any room of AA, we should expect to encounter alcoholism at many stages. The length of sobriety sometimes has very little to do with where a person may be at in their recovery.” 

I was so glad he said that. No matter what difficulties we may have with some things we experience in the rooms, we all have a seat in AA. It’s my duty to be in that chair no matter what happens in order to do my part to help those who may be suffering in the next seat over.



Alcoholism slowly hijacked me from life. A loving God, with the help of AA, has given me a second chance to participate in my life once again. To have the dedication and support of my wife to share these golden moments is well beyond anything I could ever have imagined.