At Loving Hand Fellowship, we adopt the principles outlined in 12 Steps Life Recovery strategy to guide our client towards recovery from addiction, compulsion, or other behavioural problems. For those who are keen to know the original background of 12 Steps, please refer to this link (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-step_program).
Here are the key points of the 12 steps, in a nutshell :
Admitting Powerlessness: Acknowledge that we were powerless over our problems and that our lives had become unmanageable
Belief in a Higher Power: Believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity
Surrender to God: Make a decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God
Moral Inventory: Conduct a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
Admitting Wrongs: Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs
Readiness to Change: Be entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character
Seeking God’s Help: Humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings
List of Harms: Make a list of all persons we had harmed and become willing to make amends to them all
Making Amends: Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others
Continued Inventory: Continue to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admit it
Prayer and Meditation: Seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out
Spreading the Message: Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, try to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs
At its core, the program fosters a path of self-awareness, discovery for personal growth, healing, and connection with others. The emphasis is on surrendering the ego, accepting faults, and seeking spiritual growth and reconciliation with others. We truly believe that people can change positively but no man can change another person unless the individual comes to a realisation of the need and relies on God for empowerment to do so. As the saying goes ‘The end of your rope is the beginning of God’s doorstep’. This then is when positive transformational power begins.