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FRIENDS
OF ALCOHOLICS
DIRECTOR’S
ANNUAL REPORT
Fiscal
Year: April 1, 2011 thru March 31, 2012
Dear
Friends of FOA,
Ephesians
1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in
Christ.” L.L. Letgers, co-founder of
Wycliffe Bible Translators, has this to say about Ephesians 1:3, “If you run
over in your mind and find one single blessing with which God might bless us
today, with which He has not already blessed us, then what He told Paul was not
true at all, because he said, ‘God hath.’
It is all done. ‘It is
finished.’ God hath blessed us with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies!
The great pity of it all is that we are saying, ‘O God bless us, bless
us in this, bless us in that!’ and it is all done. He has blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenlies.” For me to
truly appropriate the truths of God’s Word for my daily walk there must be
three essentials: (1) to see what is
already mine in Christ; and (2) to be aware of my need for it.
Through
our Bible classes we are accomplishing the first essential, to know what I
already have in Jesus Christ; which is everything. The second essential will be experienced by
each individual person as he sees his real need is Christ rather than just getting
sober or straight. Now they want this
to be accomplished in an act rather than in a process. So the third essential is (3) we must give
the Lord the necessary time to work the appropriation into our everyday
walk. There are no shortcuts to reality.
Think
about these words from George Goodman, “Some have been betrayed into professing
perfection or full deliverance, because at the time they speak they are happy
and confident in the Lord. They forget
that it is not a present experience that ensures fruit unto maturity, but a
patient continuance in well doing. To
taste of the grace of God is one thing; to be established in it and manifest it
in character, habit, and regular life, is another. Experiences and blessings, though real
gracious visitations from the Lord, are not sufficient to rest upon, nor should
they lead us to glory in ourselves, as if we had a store of grace for time to
come, or were yet at the end of the conflict.
No. Fruit ripens slowly; days of
sunshine and days of storm each add their share. Blessing will succeed blessing, and storm
follow storm before the fruit is full grown or comes to maturity.” The temptation to take shortcuts in our lives
is especially strong unless we see the value of, and submit to, the necessity
of the time element. But since God is
working for eternity, why should we be concerned about the time involved? Philippians 2:13 says, “for it is God who is
at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
A.W.
Tozer said, “Probably the most widespread and persistent problem to be found
among Christians is the problem of retarded spiritual progress . . . The causes
of retarded growth are many. It would
not be accurate to ascribe the trouble to one single fault. One there is, however, which is so universal
that it may easily be the main cause:
failure to give time to the cultivation of the knowledge of God.”
This
is why we have such a high rate of recidivism.
It takes time to learn these truths intellectually and even more time to
learn them experientially. T.
Austin-Sparks gives us two valuable thoughts regarding this all-important gap
between the actual appropriation and the practical experience when he says,
“Every bit of truth we receive, if we receive it lovingly, will take us into
conflict and will be established through conflict. It will be worthless until there has been a
battle over it. Take any position the
Lord calls you to take, and, if you are taking it with Him, you are going
through things in it, and there will be an element added by reason of the
battle. You have taken a position—yes
but you have not really got it yet, the real value of it has not been
proved. You have not come into the real
significance of it until there has been some sore conflict in relation to it. .
.There is a deposit in the believer, which in itself needs no addition, so far
as its quality is concerned. So far as
its victory, its power, its glory, its potentialities are concerned nothing can
be added to it. But the course of
spiritual experience, of spiritual life, is to discover, to appropriate, and to
live by all that the life represents and means.” Watchman Nee says, “How often we simply
admire and talk about truths the Holy Spirit reveals to us in the Word, whereas
His primary purpose in giving them to us is that we might stand on them in
faith, waiting confidently for Him to make them an integral part of our life.”
Please
pray that each man who enters the doors of FOA will have first been prepared by
the Lord to receive the truths that are taught each day. We don’t want them to simply admire Christ
but to so fall in love with the Lord Jesus that He is all that truly
matters. But we understand that will
take much time and we are ready to stand in the gap and settle into that time
factor just like it had to be done in our lives and still is.
This past year one hundred and
eighty-five men entered the FOA program.
Of those, forty-nine were repeaters and one hundred and thirty-six were
new for the first time. Ninety seven of
these men completed the program, with thirty-five presently going through the
classes. In our year long program, the
Romans House, we had thirty men transfer from the main program with ten of
those completing. We presently have
seventeen men attending that program. In
November of 2010 these students started studying the book of Romans and finally
completed that study on April 9, 2012.
They are presently studying the Book of Colossians. Pray for them as they work their way through
this wonderful letter.
Let me introduce you to our present
staff, alphabetically, so you can pray for us:
Dave Bailey, Aaron & Brittany Bonner (Luke and Joel), Kevin Conroy,
Harley Hood, Jimmy Johnson, Ben Joseph, Mike Madison, Scott Peterson, Tony
Phillips, Charlie Stewart, Equila Thomas, Bob Whitcomb, and Brad (Coach)
Woodruff. I appreciate each person who
ministers alongside Jane and I as we show forth the love of Jesus Christ to
each of the men the Lord sends our way.
We also have a group of faithful volunteers
that are committed to ministering regardless of the task at hand; they
are: Ann Bayly, Mary Beard, Sue Brooks,
Greg & Opie Gray, Diane Hessling, Linda Upton, and Bob & Shirley Wand.
There is one lady that needs no
introduction and that is Mrs. Elizabeth Barth.
I deeply appreciate this dear saint’s prayers for the men of FOA and
each of us who serve. This woman is the
very epitome of Philippians 2:5, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was
also in Christ Jesus.” Thank you Mrs.
Barth for your faithful spirit of service that glorifies our Savior.
Note:
Last year our Lord took two servants home to be with Him. One of our volunteers, Frank Brooks, went
home on June 21, 2011 and then a few weeks later the Lord called home one of
our staff members, Carl West, on July 5, 2011.
We miss them tremendously and thank the Lord for them always.
A few facts: Since July of 2011, Aaron (my son) has been
determined to sell as much scrap off the property that he can. You can see on the financial statement that
our sale of inventory was $27,046.57.
Some of that was our garage sale and some was the sale of scrap. Some of the scrap money went into the farm account
as well. There is still a lot more to
sell. We have been working on the
gymnasium quite a bit this year. We had
a group from Berean Bible Church in Pottstown, PA come down for a week to help
on this project and some other projects that needed attention. We will be gearing up to use this facility to
promote community awareness that FOA is here and there is a Biblical approach
to the problems of alcohol and drug addiction.
We still raise a few cows and pigs but we don’t need to utilize them for
a food source since we get a lot of our food donated. The garden has been planted and the plants
are beginning to grow. We are looking
for a good harvest this year. Brad
(Coach) continues to keep our food cost down as he manages the kitchen
responsibilities each day. Our present
cost per meal per person is fourteen cents.
I know that’s a little high from previous years but we have to take what
the Lord gives us.
This year I am trying to get as many
people as possible to receive our newsletter by e-mail or to view it on our
blog. This will cut down some costs
related to printing, mailing, paper, and envelopes. Our e-mail address is foaministry@aol.com
and our blog address is friendsofalcoholics.blogspot.com. All you have to do is e-mail me your
permission to be placed on the e-mail newsletter list or write me and say you
will read it on the blog. I would so
much appreciate your cooperation in this endeavor. We are also using technology in other ways
such as putting all our student files on a data base. Mike Madison is working on this as new and
former students come into the program.
We have been using power point in our classes for a few years now which
seems to help the men retain the information as they see it and make some notes
for their tests and personal growth.
I appreciate each one of you who read
these letters and pray for the ministry of FOA.
I also appreciate your confidence in me to direct this ministry in the
way it began back in 1958 under the leadership of Bro. Barth. I certainly know it is nothing of myself but
only that which the Holy Spirit accomplishes in and through me that is truly
going to glorify Christ. I desire to
have that same attitude Paul had when he addressed the Thessalonian believers
concerning servanthood when he said, “But as we have been approved by God to be
entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who
tests our hearts.” (I Thess. 2:4)
Your servant by God’s grace,
Mike Bonner
