Bøker av Heidi Heath Garwood

How could I not go? A year ago, I heard from a friend who had been on mission trips to Zambia many times. She had talked to a pastor there who had alcoholics coming into his church and wanted to know what he should do. My friend called me, knowing I was in recovery. I went online to find a meeting. Realizing that the nearest one was over fifty miles away and very few people there have cars, I decided to prepare materials for them on how to start a meeting. I went to my recovery group meetings at my church and got funding to buy books to send. I packed up the books, included notes on how to run a meeting, and merrily sent off the package to Africa. The package got stuck in customs and never arrived. Four months went by. I was very disappointed. Months later, out of the clear blue, I heard this distinct message from God, I didnt want you to send books. I wanted to send you. I did not want to go to Africa, but I knew in that moment I would go. Not only was I in Zambia talking to women about alcoholism on the day I got sober exactly ten years prior; I was speaking on the hour I got sober. God was very specific about where I should be on that day. Not in a million years did I think that I would be talking to people in Africa ten years later about staying soberI was just trying to stop drinking for that day in 2004!While there in Zambia, I got to visit that pastor and sit across from him in his dirt floor church talking about his meeting for alcoholics. I realized that God had taken me halfway around the world to encourage this one manand that was enough. My purpose now is to carry this message to other people who struggle with addiction as I have struggled in the past and to let them know there is a solution and there is hope. My hope is that this book encourages you and lifts you on your recovery journey.

THE SECRET TO MY SOBRIETY The secret to my sobriety is that my sobriety is not a secret. Addiction is shrouded in secrecy, lies and darkness. Separation from God.Sobriety is staying in the light of the truth.My prayer is that this book provides hope and inspiration for you if you are seeking to break the bonds of addiction and become the person God meant you to be.If this book can touch one heart, help save one soul, and lead someone back to the path where they will find Godthen it has served its purpose.You are important. Life is now. Step into the sunlight. Ask God for help this moment.I did and I am forever grateful for His Grace.

ELEVEN YEARSShhhhh! Enough on the years. I am not collecting years, just days. 4017 days on my sobriety birthday, July 12, 2015.Last time I checked, we are all on the same day Today.This year leading up to my sobriety birthday in July looked strangely like the six months leading up to the day I stopped drinking. From January to July in 2004, I was not sober much of the time.We received the news this year that my husband had a rare form of thyroid cancer requiring surgery and two types of radiation. During that same time, my mother died suddenly of a heart attack. I went through the loss of several other friends and their memorials tightly packed together right after my moms deaththen recently, my only nieces death.The difference?I didnt drink through any of what has happened this year. There is nothing in this life that we can experience that a drink wont make worse.Walking through the emotions of it all is hard. People said I would feel better when I got sober. Yes, I am feeling my feelings better because I am present. Stuffing the feelings by drinking was keeping me in denial and stuck. I feel better because I am not checking out. Feelings are not facts. The feelings pass. Growth happens. I can move on and live.Now, I am living all of this life straight up!You can too. I pray that for you.