I’m walking down Lexington Avenue in New York and as I gaze up at the Empire State Building, I have to pinch myself.  “How did I get here?”  I am a sixty-eight-year-old grandmother from Johannesburg South Africa and visiting New York for the very first time.  It has been in the top five on my bucket list.  A wish come true. I was the Gauteng Intergroup World Service representative and New York was my stop over on the way to the OA World Service Business Conference in Albuquerque New Mexico.

I walked into the OA rooms on 21 November 2005.  I was overweight, uncomfortable and even if I did not want to admit it to myself, my life was definitely unmanageable.  I was curious to see how OA worked and just kept coming to meetings. After a while, I was asked if I would like to do service by being in charge of the tea and coffee basket. Sure! That was easy enough. I was willing.  So, how did I get from looking after the tea basket to flying on my own, half-way around the world?

I started working the OA programme with a sponsor and was encouraged to do service. I understood that if I wanted to stay abstinent, I had to work the programme including the tools. Service is one of the tools. Service to the fellowship ensures that it continues successfully and I wanted and needed a strong fellowship for my recovery. Slowly as I got more familiar with OA, I took on more service.

 “A sense of belonging”

The most rewarding by-product of giving service is making friends, forming bonds and relationships. It kept me coming back to meetings, staying in touch with fellows, and having that incredible rewarding feeling of being useful and having a sense of belonging. Today I have OA friends all over the world.  These are all people who “get” me and my food compulsion.

I have given service at meeting level by being a secretary, treasurer, literature and Intergroup rep.  Public Information was work I was familiar with and so I joined the Intergroup PI team. Next was being a Region 9 delegate for two years (OA has 11 regions globally and South Africa falls under Region 9). How wonderful to visit Athens and Paris. Experiencing how OA works all over the world is so rewarding and I was privileged to add my bit by being of service. I have been in OA for many years now and still do service by leading a Zoom meeting and serving on the Gauteng Intergroup.

What an incredible fellowship this is. It has not only given me back a sense of purpose but a healthy body and mind. I am humbled and grateful for the experiences given to me by OA.

“All I did was work the programme and give service.”
 
 -Tracey, Gauteng, South Africa