Whoimage

Overcomers Outreach seeks to support anyone with any addiction who is open to working the 12 steps in their life and who would like to know Jesus Christ more deeply as their Higher Power.

why

Whoimage

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these 12 steps, we tried to carry this message to all affected by addiction, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

What…

OO meets across various locations. Group leaders understand recovery. Each group is attended by a pastor trained to apply scripture to the steps as Bill W and Dr Bob did in the beginning of the AA fellowship.

We look at one Step a month, 12 Steps over the 12 months.

Who you see in the room, stays in the room.
What you hear in the room, stays in the room.
Our meeting is a safe room for sharing our struggle with addiction.
It is a safe room where the honest work of recovery is encouraged.

We stand in the grace and the light of what Jesus Christ has done for us.

Where…

Overcomers Outreach seeks to be a bridge between 12 step groups and the Christian community.

Anyone who struggles with any addiction or a family or friend is welcome to attend our meetings. Our Meetings

The City group meets on the First Wednesday each month in the conservatory room at St Andrew’s Cathedral right next to the Town Hall train station steps.

For further details contact Penny W on 0417 663 539 or John K on 0414 381 195 or Chris at the Healing Service on 9265 1660.

For a brochure- Click here.

If you would like to know how you can support the ministry of Overcomers Outreach – Click Here.

Prayer Points

Thank God: What a powerful meeting we had this month at the OO city meeting. Those who have benefited from OO are bringing new members along and all are being supported in working their 12 steps to recovery. So encouraging to be a part of this. Thank you Lord.

Our founding principle at OO is that all our power to do this work and the change that is brought about in addicts lives, comes from the Word of God and this is foundational in our meetings. Chris explained the importance of step 4 work; the rigorous honesty this takes. He used the dialogue between Jesus and Peter in John 21. How knowing an all forgiving, loving, merciful higher power can enable that honesty even when we still want to worry about what others are up to. Recovery starts with me. Thank God for the encouragement.

There is often so much warfare and loss and sadness in this field and so much ignorance and misunderstanding in the church. Let us rejoice with God for those who have overcome and for seeing His mighty hand at work.

Thank God: For a wonderful night of rejoicing with Him and for the preaching of His gospel to so many on the Addiction – There is a Way Out evening at St Andrews Cathedral. Testimonies were given, lots of questions were asked & answered by specialists in the field. We pray many people were encouraged to continue on their recovery journeys one day at a time.

Ask God: Increasingly this year we are seeing those who’d been struggling for years, now finally getting time up and finding slowly reconciliation with their families. Addiction is a family disease and often in our communities we ostracize the family. Please pray for families this month that suffer addiction. Its a heartache to so many. Our heavenly father knows our pain. Pray for perseverance in the struggles.

History OO Australia

Penny W found herself struggling with alcohol after she started attending a church in her mid-30s. She heard the gospel and found Jesus Christ in 1999. She was able to stop drinking in 2001 by ‘white knuckling it.’ So many Christians have the view that ‘just one won’t hurt’. What that led to for Penny was more suffering. She picked up just one drink at a party at the end of 2001 and by the beginning of 2002 she was unable to stop. She was also unable to admit she could not stop of her own free will.Thankfully someone in her church took her to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous where she was introduced to the Big Book. A book that outlines the instructions for recovery that was developed by a bunch of drunks reading their bibles and seeking God’s will for their lives in the 1930’s – what a miracle!

The Big Book of AA describes the condition on p.24

“At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail. This tragic situation has already arrived in practically every case long before it is suspected.The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so called will power becomes practically non-existent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.”

Penny says “I wish I could say the rest was history, after that first meeting – but as a Christian person I hated it. I hated the shame of my behaviour that took me there. I hated the stupid ideas that many had about God. I hated the fact that I was there. I hated the fact that they were sober and I was not. I hated it all. I hated the world. I just wanted to die. So I drank.”

It was to be some time before Penny got sober. She had her last drink on the 18th March 2003. It was the message of the 12 steps that saved her life and it is the hope of Jesus Christ that motivates her now. Out of the struggle of those early years Penny began an Overcomers Outreach group in Sydney CBD in 2006, after attending OO groups overseas.

There are many good 12 Step meetings in the Sydney area but many are not ‘warm’ to a Christian faith. Christians should not abandon the 12 Step communities, because of this – quite the opposite – they are an excellent place to shine like a light. Overcomers Outreach is about supporting the Christian in their Christ-centred recovery. There are many Christians who have addictions and obsessions, and they need to know they are not alone and there is an answer in Jesus. There is freedom. There is hope.