A Story of Recovery:

FA On The Frontier

I came into FA in San Diego CA . Technically, we were not the “frontier,” because we had two meetings, but it was a very small (and precious) fellowship. Our phone list was tacked onto the bottom of a larger LA fellowship’s phone list. I was encouraged to use the frontier (or “outlying area,” as it was called then) phone list to make connections with other FA members who did not have a large fellowship or any meetings at all. I enjoyed those phone calls. 

Being new to the program, I soaked up all the experience, hope, and strength I could get! One of my favorite calls was to a fellow who was in the Midwest. I found that using different time zones was a great way to facilitate my phone calling. She was 84 years old, had come into program at 80, and said that those had been the best four years of her life. Little did I know that just a year and a half into my journey with FA, my husband’s job situation would lead us to a city that had no FA meetings. I was terrified, but my sponsor was phenomenal. She was a wonderful, consistent reminder that God is in control and would take care of all the details. My focus was to make sure my food was in order, and everything else would fall into place. I am grateful for her sponsorship and her generosity with the gift of her time. 

We arrived in Dallas, Texas in the middle of July and took a leisurely week to travel with our family from CA to TX, visiting some friends, and camping along the way to see some beautiful sights in our country. We were in temporary housing for another two-plus weeks while our new home was being completed. To stay connected with my fellows and my program, I downloaded the meeting format and read it to myself, listened to CDs, searched out AA meetings to attend, made outreach calls, and faithfully attended my phone AWOL.  It was difficult and I often felt lonely, but my sponsor reminded me that I was not alone. I took on many sponsees. I found that sponsorship and sharing the program with others helped me keep my tools sharp. 

Just a couple of weeks into our move to Texas, two “God events” happened to spark the beginnings of the Dallas FA fellowship. I was at a water park with my youngest son and began a conversation with a woman next to me. She asked me how I managed to pack such a lovely looking meal while living in temporary housing.  As our conversation unfolded, I was able to share my program with her. During that same time frame, I had started attending a study group and the question had come up, “Has God ever done for you what you could not do for yourself?” I shared a bit about my struggle with food addiction and how God had provided me with a solution. I offered to continue the conversation any time, with anyone who wanted more information. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the woman at the water park and one of the woman from my study group were friends. They both started chatting about a woman they had met from California who was doing something very interesting with her food. They called me and we met for lunch. I shared my program with them, and they both wanted to get started. I had time available to sponsor one of the women, and the other was able to find a long-distance sponsor. They began losing weight and quickly attracted several people who began the program with long-distance sponsorship as well.  

It took quite a while for me to find AA meetings that worked for me. They needed to be “open” (to non-alcoholics), non- smoking, and non-celebration meetings (where milestones in the program were celebrated with desserts). Many trips were made to meeting places that no longer existed or meetings that were not open to non-alcoholics. But once I had established a schedule that worked for my program, I was grateful to have the benefit of the AAs of Dallas’ experience, strength, and hope to encourage me.  We three FA fellows in Dallas started meeting informally to encourage each other and to read the tools of the program. My fellows’ weight loss attracted several newcomers. When I had been in Texas for almost a year, we got word that a fellow from DC would be moving to our area. She had been in FA for a while, and we were able to begin meeting formally as a fellowship with the recommended amount of abstinence to start meetings. The fellowship of Dallas was on its way. We are no longer on the frontier, but our story certainly began there, and we are so grateful to all those long-distance outreach calls, sponsors, and, most importantly, to God for growing our fellowship so we could have recovery to share up close and personal.