Gambling Recovery Ministries: Indiana Problem Gambling

Post 42

AUGUST: expansion!!

Like July’s entry, this month’s happening actually had its beginning months earlier.  In June, my daughter emailed me with a website of a ministry center that she found interesting.  She thought that I might want to check it out during our upcoming visit to San Diego.  Sure enough … it did look like a place that I would like to visit – and perhaps - see if there was any way that Gambling Recovery Ministries could lend a hand of help to the center’s outreach endeavors.

So I e-mailed the Director of Christ United Methodist Ministry Center www.christsd.com with a brief description of GRM and information that we would be in the area later in the summer.  Reverend Dr. Bill Jenkins replied graciously that he would welcome a visit from us.  So in early August – after the Seattle Conference – Ron and I went to see the Center and talk with Dr. Bill. We found a very large and handsome,  Spanish-architecture church building, freshly painted and neatly kept, with dozens of rooms converted into a wide variety of outreach offices and facilities. In addition, two worship centers serve as home to eight churches.  Our meeting was a wonderful time of discussing ministry and outreach!  In fact, I will call it a God-appointment.  All three of us saw a ministry need that could be filled by GRM … and an alignment with the Center’s mission statements.

I’ll let you hear from Dr. Bill himself as he writes about our meeting, in his weekly Pastorgraph, dated August 5, 2013.  ( www.christsd.com  )

“In another one of those ‘It must be a God thing’ event that doesn’t surprise me anymore, Janet, Ron and I believe the Holy Spirit brought us together. I am thrilled to let you know we are working out the details for Christ Ministry Center to become the West Coast headquarters for GRM.

We will set up a resource center for addicted gamblers, their loved ones, and professional counselors. This ministry aligns perfectly with our mission to minister (among others) to those in prison, (the captivity of compulsive gambling). Visit www.grmumc.org for more details about GRM.” 

 

 The story of collaboration continues!  Immediately after this visit, I e-mailed the California Council on Problem Gambling  www.calgambling.org and the California Office of Problem Gambling www.problemgambling.ca .  I requested a wide variety of self-help workbooks, brochures, and posters in three different languages.  Help came immediately in the form of cartons of free materials from both the Council and the Office!  Moreover, Council Director Robert Jacobson called and offered additional assistance in the form of program speakers, training opportunities, and further materials. We had a great conversation and I look forward to continued collaboration with the Council and the Office.

Back to Christ Ministry Center:  soon after the first cartons arrived, Dr. Bill surprised us with a tremendously large media cabinet, complete with lots of shelving, and even areas with see-through doors with more shelves beyond.  He had arranged to have the huge unit moved to a frequently used conference room (the “Evangel Room”) – and he had it placed in a most convenient-to-see-and-use spot in the large room.  Needless to say, the shelves are now filled with problem gambling recovery information!

Then too, another gift of collaboration arrived at Christ Ministry Center!  Project Turnabout www.projectturnabout.org  a nationally recognized residential treatment facility for substance abuse and compulsive gambling (Vanguard Center for Compulsive Gambling), in Granite Falls, MN, sent us a quantity of the booklet “Chemical Dependency & Pathological Gambling” to augment the materials in our new San Diego-based GRM Resource Center.  I have referred this booklet to people for years and have kept a good supply of them on our Indiana Center’s shelves.

To top it off, I created separate listings of Problem Gambling Certified Counselors in the San Diego and the GA/Gam-Anon Meetings within a 10 mile radius from the Center.  I was pleased to see a good number of both PG Certified Counselors and GA Meetings in the area.

We are off to an excellent start with our expanding nationwide outreach of Gambling Recovery Ministries.  Please, visit the Christ United Methodist Ministry Center website at www.christsd.com and see the multiple and varied means of outreach offered to urban San Diego by this incredibly, collaborative and caring set of ministries!

 

Blessings,

 

Rev. Janet Jacobs

Gambling Recovery Ministries, Director 

If you have questions or want to hear more about GRM’s forward expansion, please e-mail jjacobs@grmumc.org