Dear Family,

I just woke up after a 20 hour flight from Israel and boy is my butt tired . . . whew!!! But my heart is full of joy and gratitude and it all began September 1986 when I went to the World Convention in London, England . . . It seems like only yesterday.

I remember walking around in the convention center at Wembley Statdium outside of London. It was the 1st day of the Convention. We had traveled around Europe, going to meetings in Frankfurt, Germany and Paris, France. Wow!!!She was standing under the stairway, a pretty woman with long red, hair that went down to her waist. She looked like she was trying to hide from the multitude of addicts wandering the halls. I could tell she was overwhelmed. I said my name's Kermit and I'm an addict and gave her a hug, I could feel a little tremble. She said, in broken English, my name's Etti and I'm from Israel . . . and my heart strings soared. An NA member from the Holy land, my little Jewish heart could not believe it. A miracle. This woman had found a friend for life!!!

I was on the World International Committee at the time and told her so. I found out that she had very little clean time. I think about 1 year then. She had shown the flyer for WCNA to her therapist adn the woman said, "You have to go". Her husband worked for the airlines and so she was used to traveling in other countries. I don't know if I would have that much courage, with a year clean or so, to go to another country all by myself, where I didn't speak the language . . . God, what faith she had.

We learned, in the International Committee meeting when she gave her report, that there were 3 meetings a week in a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv. Wow!!! I knew I had to go. We also heard reports from the new comer named Jean Pierre from Paris. He was the 1st French speaking addict, the rest were Americans living there. There was also a report from Stephania from Italy. I had met her about a year earlier at the 2nd European Service Conference in London. She had 30 days clean and she came to represent her country . . . amazing.

Apparently, every Jewish addict had met Etti and given her piles of white books (all in English, which she could not read) and tons of T-shirts and gifts for NA Israel. She later told me that all these curly headed Jewish guys from New York would give her hugs and pour our their hearts to her . . . She could not understand 1/10th of that they were saying but she felt the love and caring.

She went home to Israel and I back to Virginia. A few months later we were up in New York visiting my Mom and had planned to go to the NA Convention just over the border in Connecticutt . . . when I get there, who do I spot walking across the snowy parking lot but my friend Etti from Israel. Okay, so I hardly knew her, but in my heart we were now friends for life, she just didn't know it. She remembered me from the World Convention and we gave big hugs and chatted. Her English was improving. She knew it was life and death for her to learn English to get the program . . . there was very little literature in Hebrew at the time, just a Little White book with the directions to the bomb shelter meeting on the back . . . I still have my copy that I got from her in London, it is one of my most prized possessions. She said that a doctor had translated the Basic Text but he wanted royalties or honorable mention if he turned it over to N.A. . . . not!!!

Etti told me she was going to stay with friends in Georgia and I gave her my number. I told her that I had lots of friends in NA in Atlanta adn taht she would be well taken care of. I didn't hear from her for months and I was concerned. One day I got a phone call. It was Etti and she was very upset. The people she was staying with were not in the program and they were not takign her to meetings or anywhere else for that matter. I was shocked. I gave her 3 phone numbers of NA members who had more than 10 year clean and said, "Call them. They will take care of you." She reached my friend Motorcycle Ed, who got her to a meeting that night . . . and the next and so on. Etti joined the Fellowship in Atlanta and got back to being the dedicated NA member she had been in Israel.

I remember coming to the GRCNA Convention (Georgia Regional) in Atlanta at the Mariott Hotel. It was a huge turnout for the times and we had about 900 addicts in the main speaker room on Saturday night to hear my friend Etti from Israel speak. How far she had come from that shy woman hiding under the stair well in London. What a testimony to courage, faith and spirit in Narcotics Anonymous. She had gone back to Israel, carried the message tirelessly for several years, learned the English language, came to America and reached out to the Fellowship and they reached back.
 

Etti shared that night about her and the Fellowship's struggle in Israel. There were a lot of folks coming in but not  a lot of Step work being done. I had sent her a Step writing guide that I had come up with for the 1st 3 Steps. She had translated it into Hebrew and they were passing it around. I have a copy at my house . . . I can't read Hebrew anymore, having run away from Hebrew school as a spoiled kid. But I know what it says. What does "we" mean in Step One? Look up the word "admitted" in the distionary, etc., etc., etc. She shared about her recovery as well and talked about lying around her apartment in the dark, not having eaten for days, and a friendly neighbor coming to her rescue. She said that we can get off the elevator of addiction on any floor, we don't have to go the the basement . . . As she ended her talk, the room burst into sustained applause. I was so proud of her and N.A. Israel.

Etti got together with someone to make recovery bumper stickers in Hebrew. She realized that there were not a lot of these type things over there. It seemed a little like guerilla warfare to me . . . tee hee. Sending over little recovery messages and slipping them quietly onto people's car bumpers. She still had sponsees back home and they were busy working the Steps. When I went over to Israel, a few years later, one of them met me there with all the Step work and reaching our Etti and I had done over the years, I felt like Gilla was my Grandsponsee.

I was in Israel for the first time in my recovery, about 4 years ago. I had gained a sponsee over there through a friend. This American named Todd was living in Jerusalem and studying Hebrew. His sponsor had left the Fellowship and someone suggested me. We hit it off from the 1st phone call. This was the 1st of my overseas sponsees. My farthest sponsee at the time was a guy from Toronto, Canada but reaching out to Israel, wow.

I sent Todd some Step sheets and we began at the beginning again. He had 6 or 7 years at the time and had done a lot of work already. He said it would be fun to go back to Step One. Now that is the best way to work the Steps I have ever heard, just for fun and not because your backside is falling off.

 Todd was the NA leader in the English speaking meetings. He was very active and sponsored several other guys, one of which was Jonah. As Jonah told it the other night, a rich spoiled Jewish kid from Miami Beach, Florida. And I will add, with an ego the size of all Israel and a brain that just would not stop for an instant.

Todd had come to his 5th Step and we had struggled with how to do this . . . over the phone just seemed unspiritual and godly expensive . . . Could you imagine a 9 hour phone bill for calling to Israel?  AAAAHHHH!!!  I had a bunch of frequent flyer miles and made some phone calls . . . A week later I was on a British Air Flight to Tel Aviv. God is good, all the time, as we say here in Alabama.

I arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv at 5 in the morning. It seems I always come or go to Israel at the oddest hours. Etti was there to meet me with a big NA hug. We went back to her place and I slept till 5 pm that night. We got up and went to an Israeli rock concert by Arkady Duchin, the big Israeli artist . . . It was very exciting but I couldn't understand a word of it.

I headed over to Jerusalem on the bus and was met by my sponsee Todd. It was the 1st time we had seen each other face to face. We had talked intimately for almost a year and knew each other as well as any two brothers might, without having a face to put to it. He gave me a big hug and I knew I was home. We went back to his apartment and I met the wife and kid, shalom.

Todd asked me where we should do his 5th Step and I said, "At the Wailing Wall, of course." Wow!!! Can you imagine, two Jewish addicts sitting at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the most holy place in our religion, and sharing their most intimate details about their lives? The Wailing Wall is the retaining wall for the original temple in Israel. People come to pray there every day, and there we were over in the corner reading a moral inventory. It took 9 hours.

When Todd was finished reading his inventory, and I shared with him the things in my life that were similar to his pain, I asked him if he was entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character? Not forever, I said, and not for always . . but at this moment in time? And he said, "Yes." We bowed our heads and shared our willingness with God. And then I said, "Todd, this Wall has taken peoples pain for thousands of years, I guess it could probably take yours as well. Why don't you go give you pain to God, and he did.

As we were leaving, it had become dark and the men were gathering in prayer. They asked if we could join them because they needed 12 men. I had forgotten almost all my Hebrew but I said okay. I asked Todd if we could say a prayer for my Grandmother who died one year ago and he asked the men to say kaddish, the Mourners Prayer. My Grandmother was a very religious woman and a major pain in the ass but she cared about me more than anyone. As they said the prayer, tears came from my eyes. About 3 months after I came home, I got to go to a funeral to support an NA friend from Virginia. It turned out to be the cementery where my Grandmother was buried. After my friend's service, I begged off and went to see Grandma. I stood over her grave, with tears flowing out of my eyes and told her that I went to Israel and said kaddish for her at the Wailing Wall . . . God gives you what you need. 

I shared at theEnglish speaking meeting with about 10 members in attendance. I remember walking the streets of Jerusalem with my sponsee and the other members of the English speaking N.A. and telling them what you really need here is a convention. But you need to do it with the Israeli Fellowship. Maybe do something small like a campour. It you send me flyers, I will get them out in the States.

Then, I left to go speak in Tel Aviv in the bomb shelter at the Hebrew speaking meeting. I was not prepared for it at all. I thought there would be 20 or so addicts in attendance. When I got there, the room was filled, the walls were all taken up and members were fillingup the stairway as well. Wow! Here is a thriving Fellowship and all they have is a White Book and some I.P.'s in Hebrew. Hey, that's all we had when I got clean.

Gilla translated for me and I share sentence by sentence my experience, strength and hope in Narcotics Anonymous. I had 12 years clean at the time. At the end of my talk I always share a beautiful song about recovery and the disease. I am now know in Israel as "the guy who sings." I can't tell you how grateful I was that night, to be able to carry the message to my N.A. family in the land of milk and honey, the land of my ancestors.

The members were so touched that a bunch of them came with me to the  airport. They could hardly speak a word of English but they wanted to share the time with me. These big hairy Israeli guys brought me some flowers at the airport and bid me shalom.

Now, we come to today, whew! I found out on the internet about the European Service Conference to be held in Haifa Israel, September 3-7, 1997. Wow! What a miracle, a convention in Israel. I had to go. I told my fiancee and she freaked out. She was sure that I would get killed by a terrorist bomb of kidnapped or something. She was so upset about it that I let go of the idea but did tell her that I had sent a tape to speak and if they asked me, I was going.

I had made plans to use frequent flyer mileage to go and had the reservations all in place. I did not have quite enough mileage but I figured lets let God worry about that. I do the footwork and leave the results to him or her. The committee mailed me and said they wanted me to share. I told my honey and we had a big fight. I said that she could come withme if it would make her feel better. And so, she agreed to do that . . . Oy vay, we had to pay for her ticket . . . Ouch. God works in mysterious ways. When I called to check on my mileage with my credit card company and told the lady that I was 10,000 miles short, she said, "Oh, we can lend you that much." If God is for us, who can be against us.

The carrier I could use was Swissair and they allowed me to break the flight in Zurich, Switzerland. I have a sponsee in Belgium named Luc, who drove all the way to Zurich to meet me and do his Step 3. It was wonderful to see him face to face. We had been working the Steps for about a year and we had never met in person. This wonderful type meeting happened again in Israel when we were woken the second day by my sponsee from Istanbul, Turkey who came to the Conference to meet me. The hotel phone rand and a familar voice siad this is Kerem and I am downstairs. I rushed to put my clothes on and jumped on the elevator to a warm hug from my sponsee.

The Conference was wonderful. The most exciting thing for me was the fact that the Israelis put on a fabulous event and that over 400 members from their own country came to the Convention. Wow! I did not know that there were so many recoverying addicts clean in Israel N.A. My heart soared as I sat in the main meeting hall that was filled to overflowing with addicts and most of them were local members. The opening meeting was started with my Grandsponsee, Jonah from Jerusalem doing the 1st share. It was a very proud moment for me and English speaking in NA. Jerusalem. What a wonderful offer of unity for the Israelis to recognize the other meetings in their country. Jonah was great as was Becky from California, the second speaker.

My talk was earlier that day, from the problem to the solution. I shared mostly about the Steps because that is where  I found the answer to my problems. The meeting started with readings in English and a few addicts in the chairs. By the time I got up to speak, the room was filled. They were translating from the back of the room into several languages, including Hebrew. I had run away from Hebrew school when I got old enough and never went back. Sad, I might have been able to share directly to them in their own language.

When I finished, you could see that members wanted to share in Hebrew but were feeling uncomfortable. They had been told to share in English only. I quickly asked someone next to me who spoke both languages to translate the other way, from Hebrew to English. I have always been taught in N.A. to do whatever is possible to make all addicts feel a part of. Once the Israelis learned they could share in their own language, the microphone stayed busy for the rest of the meeting time . . . It was great.

My honey go to go to the Woman's Meeting and as usual, she got gut level honest and shed some tears. This is the wonderful open person that she is. The other women from around the world were deeply moved by her honesty and willingness. She even got to pick up her 1st international sponsee, a loner from Ankara, Turkey.

The next night we had some main meetings and a roll call of the countries. It was great to see members from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, England, France and on and on . . . After all the meetings, we say outside at some cafe tables overlooking the Mediterranean and chatted. I looked at my watch and saw that it was after midnight and was not the 6th of September. I leaned over to my new friend, Yuval, from Israel, and said that I was not 16 years clean. They all hugged me and he said, "Let's have a special meeting." He ran off to get a room and we all went down to have a birthday meeting for me.

We got to a room at the Convention Center with the dozen or so folks that had come down with us. The room began to fill up and up. Soon, addicts were coming to the door and turning away because they thought there was no room . . . I mentioned that just a few months ago, they would crawl through a sewer to get the dope they needed but now they won't even ask someone to make room or sit on a carpet to get recovery . . . We tried to clean the doorway so all could come in.

16 years and one day before that, I had walked into my 3rd and last treatment center and 4 days after that, I walked into my 1st Narcotics Anonymous meeting. That was about September 9th, 1981. I have not found it necessary to use a day at a time since that 1st meeting. For that I am truely greatful. I shared with the members and Yuval did an excellent job translating for me so I could really let my story flow along.

I shared about the gifts that N.A. has given me . . . my son, clean, clean and 24 years old and healthy. My sister who will be celebrating 15 years in January. My Dad's girlfriend who has 11 years clean and my younger brother who has 8 years clean in N.A. I told them that if I spoke at meetings every day, for the rest of my life, I would not be able to repay the debt of gratitude for the gifts that N.A. has given me and than ended with my song . . . "The Last Time I Saw Michael." They gave me a standing ovation and sang an Israli song for my 16 years clean. It was the best N.A. birthday I have ever had and that meeting was the best present anyone could ever give to this addict.

My gratitude speaks, when I care and when I share with others . . .

THE N.A. WAY.

In Loving Service,

Kermit O. - Montgomery, Alabama USA

SHALOM, Y'ALL