Hopekinsville Fellowship
by Anonymous

The Hopkinsville, KY Fellowship hosted their annual Spring/Summer Conference the weekend of June 30-July 2. A full slate of activities were enjoyed by both the youth and adults. Perhaps the most exciting and enjoy-able aspect of this conference was the abundance of new folks who accepted invitations from the local folks–including some family members and 12-step group friends.

The youth leaders had their work cut out for them with over twenty young people attending the Youth Conference. Ronny Luttrell bunked a dozen or so boys, while Linda Jarrell had as many girls slumber partying at their home.

Teaching and sharing was geared to the newcomers throughout the conference, and it was truly rewarding to see folks catch on to our total truth. Friday evening’s teaching was led by Sanda Cooper, who had just returned home from a trip to Ireland in time to pack for yet another trip! Sanda focused on the principles of AA’s Big Book and the "Big, Big Book"–the Bible–to stress the necessity of following instructions and willingness in taking direction. She cited numerous examples of a single pathway to recovery both in the AA literature and within scripture. She gave us a mental picture of powerlessness in her story of being buried alive in a pine box and waking up in that box only to realize it would take a power greater than ourselves to rescue us! She also pointed out that we hear a lot about "HOW" in recovery circles–representing honesty, openness and willingness. She pointed out that the Big Book’s order spells "WHO" reminding us that Jesus Christ is the power that restores sanity and serenity.

On Saturday morning Brenda Luttrell shared the scriptural basis for powerlessness–the fact that it is one spirit or the other (Christ or Satan) that provides the power for our vessel. She demonstrated powerlessness through examples in the Bible of the vine and branch, master and slave, and vessel and its contents. Brenda helped the newer folks to understand the lie of "I’m just me" by searching Scripture for examples of how prior to accepting Christ we were all operated by Satan.

In the afternoon Fowler Cooper helped pull it all together by sharing the dimensions of our person–body, soul and spirit. By understanding the unique function of each component we are able to differentiate between mere thoughts and feelings and real truth. This was demonstrated in a personal way in several people who shared their own everyday struggles with thoughts and feelings. They came to see that it is by recognition that they are not their thoughts or feelings, but joined to Christ who is unwavering and ever-sufficient.

The rest of the weekend consisted of testimonies by Janie Snow and Linda Jarrell who shared their stories about the daily walking out of what we believe. Both have experienced dramatic weight loss, but more importantly–sobriety, by the grace of God.

Reflecting on the weekend, we are all grateful for the fellowship and indepth sharing that has shed more light on who we are in Christ.