Sponsors are Imperative

     Sponsors Who Jesus Has Used To Help Me

        Note:  When moving to new areas, I would keep my previous

       Sponsor along with the new one.

        1.    Les K.  (Les introduced himself to me as a ‘PK,’ a Preacher’s Kid).

a.  Les was about 6’ tall and skinny as a rail—he was bald, wore glasses, and got around on steel crutches.

b.  He had rheumatoid arthritis—he eventually died from it.

c.  When I accepted the fact that I am an alcoholic, a guy in the church that we attended our AA meetings said, “You know everyone makes fun of Les, but he is pure AA—I cry with joy when I realize that at that instant, I decided to ask Les to be my sponsor.

d.  Les was my sponsor for 17 years.

e.  He taught me more about a faith that works more than any other person in my life.

f.  When Les died, I felt more of a loss than when my natural father died.

g.  When he helped me with my 4th and 5th steps, he told me that the greatest reason he was sober is that he took the 4th and 5th steps—he shared things with me that made me feel that I wasn’t the unique sleaze-bag that I thought I was, and if he was sober for 6 years because of the 4th and 5th steps, I was going to dump all of my garbage, and I did—which is one of the greatest reasons I have been sober over 40 years.  In addition, Les made me promise to make at least one AA meeting a week (I have missed only 3 meetings in over 40 years)—one of the greatest reasons for my long-time sobriety.

 

       2.    Clarence Snyder—his sponsor was Dr. Bob, one of the two men who are given credit for starting AA.           

a.  I met Clarence when he was flown into Rolling Meadows, IL to speak on the Circuit.

b. When asked if there were any changes to AA since the beginning and what he thought of them, he said, “The phrase, ‘This is a spiritual program, not a religious program’ has been twisted into something that is not what it meant in the beginning.” That saying was aimed at the Oxford Group because they became quite militant when we were breaking away from them (see Utube recordings in my website – www.billgoss7.com).

c.  Clarence should know about that phrase, he is the one who coined it, however I found that out from another member—Clarence did not tell me—he was humble.

d. Clarence was my sponsor for 8 years when he died.

e. Clarence was one of the original 41, people who helped write the Big Book.

f.   He was a member of the Oxford Group, with Doctor Bob as his sponsor.

g.  Clarence held the first AA meeting ever held—that’s right, it wasn’t Bill Wilson or Doctor Bob—see “How It Came About”  in “With Jesus…over 40 years.”

h.  Clarence said that we should be proud to be in AA and talk about it, that anonymity is to protect other people’s anonymity, not ours.

i.  When Clarence was dying, his wife, Grace, begged him to stay home the last 6 months of his life, but he felt that he needed to get out and spread the message.

 

3.    Doug H.

a.   Doug was my sponsor for 31 years.

b.  Doug served as a marine in the military.

c.  He encouraged me to put a claim into the VA for a disability, coached me with the claim and was highly responsible for my winning the claim.

d.  Unfortunately, Doug had several severe incidents near the end of his life that effected his ability to work the program—he started dying his beautiful white hair black, which I criticized, he exploded at me, stopped going to meetings, disappeared,  and no one knows what happened to him.

 

4.    Everett E.

a.     Everett was a member of Alcoholics Victorious.

b.    He was my sponsor for three years and he died.

c.     He regularly served meals to the poor on holidays.

d.    He was the sweetest man I ever knew, but he was spiritually tough. 

 

5.    Eddie D (Florida)

a.  Eddie (5’ 8”) was the toughest man I ever met—he was a “screw” at Rikers Island, NY. 

b.  When I met him, he had 25+ years of sobriety and was a leader in the local groups in Florida.

c.  He told me that when he went to work in New York, 280 people wanted to see him dead (the inmates that reported to him).  He had retired and moved to Lakeland, FL.

d.  When I got into an altercation with a truck driver on Christmas Eve (1999?) and quietly told him to get out of his truck, the truck driver could see that I was insane and begged off.

1.  The next morning I realized that either the truck driver or I could have been seriously injured, or maybe killed in the fight—I was afraid that if I went to jail that maybe I couldn’t stay sober and called Eddie to tell him I was scared to death—he said to me, “Don’t worry, Bill.  Just don’t drink and go to meetings.”  He told me the following story.

2.  The last time we were in Vegas and saw the Tyson-Holyfield fight, we were coming out of the Arena and an Andy Frain pushed my niece.  When I grabbed him by the throat and pinned  him to the wall, a Vegas cop came along and asked, “What the hell do you think you are doing?”  Eddie said that he flashed his badge and said, “If you touch me, I am going to turn this guy off.”  Eddie said that when things cooled off, the usher apologized for pushing his niece and everyone went their separate way.  Again, he said, “Just don’t drink and go to meetings.”

3.  Thinking that I had been sober for 20+ years and Eddie had been soberfor 30+ years, this was not acceptable.  I called Eddie the next day and said, “Eddie, you know that I love you, but I have a serious problem with anger and I think you have a serious problem with anger.  I am going to get a sponsor that will help me with anger and I think it would be a good idea for you to get a sponsor that could help you with anger.”  He tried to joke it off and said, “I think you are making too much of this, but I wish you luck.”

4.  The next time Eddie went out to Las Vegas, he came back in a pine box.  His wife refused to talk about what happened and refused to let us talk about AA at the funeral.

5.  This whole story showed me that no matter how many years I am sober, I will need a spiritual advisor and that I should make at least one AA meeting a week.

6.    George P (Florida)—this was short lived—we were moving back to Indiana.

7.    Harry G (Indiana)—this also was very short lived—he refused to share that his HP is Jesus at meetings, so we went our different ways—he is now going through some very hard times.

        Sponsees Who Jesus Has Used Me to Help

        Note:  When moving to new areas, I would keep my previous sponsor.

1.  Don W.

a. Don won the Silver Star in Vietnam.

b. When he returned home and applied at 32 police departments, he was offered 32 jobs.

          c. I was very proud to be Don’s sponsor.

d. He was offered a scholarship from Harvard to be an addictions    counselor—we eventually just lost track of one another.

     2.  Mike A.

          a.  Mike was an ex-marine and about 6’ 2”.

b.  After listening to him complain about his wife for 6 months and telling   him to stop taking her inventory, I exploded at him in front of about 40 people in a popular restaurant in Florida.  He sat there turning purple—later he stated that he almost grabbed me by the throat and strangled me—he didn’t.

c.  He eventually became the President of the Boy Scouts of America.

3.  Joe K. The huge exception—I sponsored Joe for 31 years and all of a sudden he stopped calling or receiving my calls—I tried to call him many times in the last 7 years with no return calls to his recorder—this is a reminder to me that this disease is cunning, baffling, powerful—and patient—no matter how          long we have been sober, we must be on guard—for me it is with Jesus Christ.