A Letter to Celebrate Recovery

Hello, my name is Nick; I’m a grateful believer in Jesus who celebrates recovery from drugs, alcohol, and pornography, and is currently working on pride and codependency.

LAST WEEK:
If you weren’t there last week, Steve brought it! Here’s the message summed up in 5 Tweets:

• Recovery is a lifelong process and admitting you’re powerless is the first step.
• We need to learn to live in reality!
• Resentment is gonna eat you up from the inside out!
• When you’re running on empty nothing satisfies you. Jesus changes that!
• Nothing can separate us from the love of God, except not allowing God to be God in our lives.

This is easily one of my FAVORITE lessons of the year! It’s 20 minutes dedicated to explaining and exploring Step 1: We admitted we were POWERLESS over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.

If you missed it, don't worry! You can listen to online at newlifecommunitychurch.tv—simply CLICK HERE to access this lesson as well as others.

THIS WEEK:
It’s TESTIMONY night at Celebrate Recovery this week! Yes! Each week over 100 people walk through those doors. And here’s why that is significant—every number has a name, every name has a story, and every story matters to God! EVERYONE has a story and this week we get the opportunity to share in the struggles, the pain, the hardships, AND the victories of someone who is walking the road of recovery. Join us Friday night and discover HOPE is real and available as Tonya shares her story!

NEWS & UPDATES:
Here are 3 things I want to share with you this week…

#1 Celebration Station—Wow! On average we’re seeing 20 kids attending our Celebration Station since it’s launch a few short weeks ago AND they’re LOVING IT! We have a great team of leaders back there teaching, leading, and guiding our kids every Friday night. They are doing a FANTASTIC job helping our kids form healthy ways of coping with life’s hurts, habits, and hang-ups.

Serving in Celebration Station is a GREAT opportunity! We don’t want to get caught up on the “Only ifs” BUT, what would’ve happened had you been exposed to the different recovery principles and ways to cope with pain and hurt? Each Friday night you have the chance to make THAT difference in the life of another. I want you to BE the difference! I’d love to see this team grow to 10+. Is it you? If interested, please email celebraterecovery@nlccwv.org and let me know.

#2 Home Run The Movie—GREAT news! Martinsburg, WV has been officially selected to host this movie on opening weekend! A BIG thanks to local businesses, churches, and community leaders for coming together and making this happen! BUT, the work is not done. We need YOU to become this movie’s greatest supporter! This means telling your friends, telling your family, and inviting everyone you know! Imagine, on April 19, people are going to see what it’s like to be a part of the Celebrate Recovery family. How many people will you bring?

#3 BBQ Chicken Dinner—Who remembers our super awesome fantastic BBQ chicken sale we had a few years back? I do. It was good. REALLY good. And the best part of it, aside from the taste, we earned enough money to cover the cost of CR’s Friday night dinner FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR! I just wanted to let you know that it’s in the early stages of planning and we’re probably shooting for a date somewhere between March and April. In 2011 we sold 200 dinners. What if that number doubled? We’re going to need volunteers to operate the BBQ, prepare the side dishes, serve the dishes, set up tables, and a WHOLE LOT MORE!

THE END:
I love you. I’m excited we GET TO walk this journey together. Remember, recovery is a PROCESS not a quick fix. Remember, people MATTER (and this includes YOU)! I’m PUMPED for Friday and can’t wait to see you there!