Our Basic Text carries a clue when searching for a Higher Power.
It says that service is a power greater than ourselves.
Id like to share a bit about what this has meant to me and my hard won experience.

I suppose that the theory that Higher Power can be experienced by doing service in NA is a result of the oltimers experiences with the same.
Seems like Jim,Bob, motorcycle Ed ,Dawn, and all those early NA members became aware that each time they did service in NA a remarkable thing happened; they stepped out of old patterns of self-centeredness and selfishness and became happy recovering addicts in the process.

I believe this is a concioius decision I can make each day in order to live and enjoy life wihout the use of drugs.

When I first came into contact with NA there was no NA Fellowship in my city and all I had was the Basic Text. There was however AA meetings and I went for their meetings, did service in that Fellowship . The most importanat thing for me was the discovery that  each time I reached out to the stil suffering addict that came to AA meetings,  I had a vision of hope.

That hope initially involved me being in a meeting and saying "My name is Raman and I am an addict" without any negative reactions to that. That hope did materialize when a few of us who met in AA meetnigs decided we needed to start NA meetings. We seemed to be able to manage with the AA Steps and being ion that Fellowship but there were many instances when we found that still using addicts either came to AA and left without finding identfication ort did not think they even wanted to go to an AA meeting

A moment came for which I am greatful to this day,  meeting with Laura and Bob who had travelled for the other side of the world to rech out to isolated recovering addicts. They arranged an NA meetiong in their hotel room and me and other Bangalore addicts were there.That nite I shared my story freely and without fear and felt like something new and good was unfolding in my life.  Bob gave us a simple suggestion
"Start an NA group and regularly scheduled meetings".
After this Laura Bob and i spent a fortnight together travelling and sharing all sorts of recovery stuff.  I had a tear in my eye when they left town.

Previous to this I had attempted to start an NA group called International Hope. it was basically a solo effort cause at that time there were no recovering addicts that I could work alongwith. That meeting lasted sometime before I had to close it up. In the six months of it's existance Id had about five different addicts visit. Two were from outstation, one from my city kept on using, another from my city who was clean couldnt commit because of distance in locality and the other was more into the other Fellowship. Id also done a bit of Pi by handin ut pamphlets to people in the field.

I am greatful to those recovering addicts who had come to AA after me but were motivated enough to ask and get help from a school for holding regularly scheduled NA meetings.  
Reality Group meetings kicked off, the premises for which had been  secured by these two recovering addicts  from that part of town. I was elected as the GSR of this group and my first task was to keep in contact with the world Service Office and the Regional office and do all that needed to be done by way of keeping the communication going. About 16 or so years later this group still exists, though in a different location.

Then came a time, about two years after this group started , when we were informed that a regional comittee was being formed and it would be appreciated if  the gsr from this group attended,. So off I went, feeling good about this, and travelling almost 700 miles by train to be there. And what a joy that was, sitting there and being part of something new happening in the Fellowship in india. At that time I was doing it because that was what was suggested, but today  Id do that even if it were not suggested, simply because Ive come to love doing service. We  15 or so addicts in that room that day had no idea of the momentousness of that experience, I believe we were indeed motivated by a Higher Power. Also I found that though Id spen a ot of money geting there and back, I was not bothered; my attitude had changed by working the Steps with a sponsor.

Now this Poer Greater than ourselves kept me and many others from that room in service and I went around the country doing all sorts of service; area service rep, area chair,outreach, convention committees, group  commitments, Worldwide workshop chairmanship and few other positions in ad-hoc committees. This has kept me away from being selfishly and negatively attached to my own needs and desires. The result has been a complete breaking away from addictive roots and out into the open world.

In retrospect I daresay  there were many mistakes done and some pain experienced, because of wrongdoing both on my part and from others. Yes,there have been negative times when service felt like a burden, There have been moments when I wanted to shout 
""!£$ you all, "£$% all this" loudly and say bye bye to service forever and go about the rest of my life. But those times were only passing clouds, what has come to stay is a miraculous willingness to serve and keep serving, till my last breath !

My sponsor has been a great resource, having served at World level for many years and has inspired me these past few years to stay active in service.

It is indeed my fond hope that one day, after finishing my Masters in Events and Conference Management, I will, by God's Grace, be in NA service at a level where my organizing talents will shine, when I can be a real asset in a team ; in order to serve the addict that still suffers !

In the meanwhile I continue in service here in England as GSR from the Sheffield area and Im headed to teh North East England Area Service Committee meeting tommorow in Leeds. 

I will then sit at the Regios P.I comittee as PI coordinator from Shefield and look at ways and means of strengthening the committee's efforts to carry the message here !

I will close this share with the Prayer
"God Bless all the addicts wherever they maybe, and God guide me along the path of right Service, which is doing the right thing for the right reason".

My Gratitude speaks when i care and I share the NA WAY !!!


-- Edited by Raman on Friday 5th of June 2009 04:15:26 PM