2020 ABMI Newsletter
To Our Leaders and Friends, Jan 2020 – Dec 2020
Greetings from Boulder!
Carol & I are healthy and safe at home in Boulder, Colorado as we are restricted at home from the world-wide pandemic.
We have enjoyed living in community with our son, Brett, who is living next door in his very functional tiny house. Our daughter, Melanie, her husband, John and their 2 children Azalea & Ezra returned from living in Zimbabwe and Durban, South Africa November 2017 and were living in our small house next door. Currently, John & Brett are working together as handymen here in Boulder. John is performing music gigs now and then. Melanie got a job doing health research for Kaiser-Permanente in Denver and during the pandemic is working from home. The Drace family are currently living with us. They are building onto the house for more room for their family. They have removed the back of the house – the bathroom and laundry room and dug a huge hole for the basement of their new 2 story house. John and Brett will be doing most of the new house building. Azalea & Ezra are currently attending middle school & high school with online classes.
Our Thailand international ABMI leadership gathering in March was canceled because of the pandemic. Linda Subris and Gade were the planners of this time. Later the schools in Brazil and Switzerland were cancelled.
Darv visited Michael Dinneen’s Valiant Living rehab program for men in Denver in March and April to understand more about his rehab work. Later Darv attended their staff meetings by Zoom. Michael Dinneen is a social worker in recovery from various addictions. He attended a DTS in Denver and married the leader. In the future he is planning to join ABMI after attending the ABCS. He has taught in our ABCS in Korea and Chile and joined Darv’s trip to co-teach in rehab programs in Manipur, India in 2019.
Darv is now participating in a ReCode program for healing memory loss by using basically vegetarian diet, daily fasting for 16 hours, exercise, quality sleep, and vitamins & supplements. The program is based on the book, The End of Alzheimer’s Program, by Dr. Dale Bredesen.
During the pandemic Carol has spent much time in our yard gardening – planting flowers and new shrubs. It’s never looked so colorful. A number of friends who were part of the Doorways English Language Learning group have begun meeting by Zoom for sharing, prayer and a short Bible study once a week. It has been very encouraging to have many prayers answered and rewarding to see and hear each other again after months of no connection.
Carol and Darv have enjoyed attending a weekly prayer meeting at the City on the Hill church which is for Christian leaders. We have often watched Zoom church services with Grace Commons Church, previously called First Presbyterian of Boulder and are attending the Restoration Messianic Fellowship on Saturdays. Carol plays the piano with a team for worship each Sabbath.
We have spent time preparing a more effective web site for Addictive Behavior Ministries International (ABMI). The new website name is www.abmi.global. We are gathering various lists of email addresses of ABMI students, staff and friends. If you would like to be included on one of these lists please notify us. Or if you would like to be unsubscribed let us know.
Darv & Carol both taught by Zoom in the ABCS in Curitiba, Brazil in late September and early October. Darv taught for 3 days on Understanding Addictions, The Tree of Addition & Addiction Rehabilitation programs. Carol taught all week for 16 hours on God’s Design for Maturity. It was great to interact with the 13 students and staff during the Zoom teaching. Here is the picture of the class.
Darv & Michael Dinneen are planning to continue working with rehab programs started by Ashang Kasar & Mayola Ngamchiyo in Manipur, India as soon as we can return to India. We both met and taught briefly in the programs last October. We were excited to hear that they have continued to be active during the pandemic.
As the media has persistently given messages of fear and confusion, we are remaining full of hope and looking at the positive aspects of the pandemic. It has brought many families more together and some others to turn toward God. Most of all we have seen our church and many others pray for repentance and revival throughout our nation. We continue to see God at work!
Our son Brett Smith and John Drace have offered to help us establish a new and more proactive Web site. The new name is www.abmi.global. We plan to have it active to share our activities worldwide. Some people already have asked about donating money toward our various global needs. We have been grateful for our donors providing funding for rehab programs and some of our international staff. This may be done directly through the web site.
Our future plans are to continue to visit and teach in ABC schools. We are excited to see many new rehabs providing whole-person-health care like the ones in Manipur, India and Brazil. We are praying that the cancelled ABC schools scheduled in Worcester, South Africa and Vietnam will take place at a later date. The new Salem, Oregon ABC school will take place in 2021. Darv & Michael Dinneen are planning to return to Manipur, India to provide further training in addiction rehab programs in 2021. Hopefully an ABC leadership gathering will be rescheduled sometime soon.
We wish you a Happy New Year with God’s encouragement and our prayers.
God’s Blessings and Our love,
Darv and Carol Smith
