Prayers Answered

I always start the story of my first sponsor by saying it was totally a “God thing.” I was living in Heidelberg, the only German city at the time with an English-speaking OA meeting. Being new, I needed a sponsor, so I used the Sponsor by Mail program, which was pages and pages of names and mailing addresses of people from all over the place who were willing to sponsor. I thought, “How do I find the one from this list?”

Well, first I prayed. Then I read the list all the way through to see if anything jumped out at me. I narrowed it down to three names and decided to pray about them for three days. One of the ladies was from Sugarland, Texas. Ha! That’s a good city for a sponsor who’s an overeater, but where the heck is it? I looked it up in the atlas and left it at that.

In the next few days, though I’d never heard of it before, Sugarland, Texas, came up three times in totally unrelated and remote ways. Bingo. HP was saying this is the one. I called at a time that accommodated the seven-hour time difference and asked her if she’d be willing to sponsor me. She replied, “Let me think and pray about it for a week, and you call me then.” I called after an anxious week of waiting and praying myself. Thank HP she agreed!

We enjoyed five years of a wonderful sponsorship relationship via email and phone, doing Step and Tradition work. To this day we’ve never met, but that doesn’t matter. Her voice is still in my head, and her recovery has now been passed on to my sponsees. She was the first proof to me that HP answers my prayers in ways beyond my imaginings!

She was the first person who knew all about me and still loved me anyway! She was my first sponsor, and I will bless her name as long as I live.

— Chris J, Huntsville, Alabama USA