Hello my friends, our fellowship (sharingTheBurden.ca) caters to the hurting and his/her family; there are no qualifications for membership in other words. Most of our fundamentals come from a combination of Wally P’s Back To Basics program, The life Recovery Bible, its companion materials and the good old 12 steps adapted with permission from AA.
About 8 or 9 years ago I decided after over 10 years of 12 step work on myself, mostly Al-Anon, open AA and a couple of Spiritual programs (Serenity e.g.), that 12 step needed exposure far beyond the addict/alcoholic and co-dependent. Why, because it was simply a good solid moral way to live. I created Sharing The Burden, mostly to draw folk, teach the basics of 12 step and guide people to the most appropriate existing program.
My wife Julia and I would often have meetings with friends or alone, centred around the Life Recovery Bible that Stephen Arterburn and David Stoop co-edited. Julia thought that our church, The Olive Branch in Markham, Ontario may be interested in letting us have a regular meeting. So about 4 1/2 years ago we began a weekly meeting which has met every Tuesday evening since with many passers-by and several regulars. We are a mixture of people, some grieving; some addicts, co-addicts, terminally ill, mentally ill, others who are healthy and we are the caregivers for all of these people.
The philosophy is working and as we grow (now 2 regular meetings with others under consideration and a newly formed prison ministry), we are reaching a diverse audience who are learning that SHARING our pain can be the hope that someone must receive to find hope and then healing!
On June 8, 2012, my son Sean died of a drug overdose and our co-recovery times that spanned over twenty years became the gift that I would take to the world by expanding Sharing The Burden. His time in AA (12 step) and mine in Al-Anon (12 step) gave us a platform to relate from that allowed intimacy and love (when Sean desired sobriety) that gave us as father and son a relationship that few ever experience. I will be eternally grateful to the teachings of the 12 steps that made this possible.
Family recovery is the answer and one addict is simply the symptom of sickness in the family. Real recovery means family recovery or CO-RECOVERY with a common Spiritual theme where all sharing is safe and unrepeated. Program people (support group or 12 step) can relate and so must family members if real recovery is to be maximized (my belief anyway). There are powerful moments to be experienced between family members right in the midst of addiction: they will be missed totally if that common platform of communication does not exist. We tell people today that if there is a problem in a family member, get YOURSELF into recovery and your family will begin to change. When the sick person sees the change in you, he/she may want some of the same and you will know how to respond!
Today we are looking for internet radio opportunities, with our own show in mind, where we will demonstrate live, the type of sharing and format that has made a difference in literally millions of lives around the world. Where interest is high we will start new meetings.
Our jail ministry is especially interesting! I have been setting up meetings and leading a group of volunteers in a local detention centre for 10 years with an established 12 step organization, but the response I have received with the wider more open concepts of Sharing The Burden, where we openly, combine scriptural wisdom along with conventional 12 step teaching for anyone, has been wonderful! Giving these transient men the message of hope to take home to other family members who can gain some peace themselves with the same program, is reaching a group who rarely access or even hear of such support for themselves!
I feel that the Lord has given me this work of spreading this simple sharing philosophy wider and wider to all! Every church for starters can use the simple program to create a safe place, proven to draw out needed sharing far more successfully than any conventional bible study or cell group. The format simply works; the hurting share and there are the steps to take one to freedom!
Meetings Tuesday 730 PM at the Olive Branch Community Church in Markham
And Wednesday evening 730 PM at Wexford Heights United Church in Scarborough
ALL ARE WELCOME-DETAILS CALL SCOTT 647 222 0515
Sharing The Burden direction NOW
SECURE. So take your mistakes in hand move on and reach out to another who is hurting (fastest way to getting back in the saddle, for me anyway).
