the Honor Academy

4 September 2010:

Well Lets see yesterday marked three weeks in this place.  I will try to update and keep everyone who cares about how I'm doing up to date on things that are going on.  My first week was Gauntlet week.  This week consisted of  waking up at five thirty and having corporate exercise with everyone on campus at six.  Then sessions for the rest of the day that covered everything from the heart of Teen Mania to what we will be doing this year.  At the end of the week we made a commitment to be here for the entire year... its crazy because for some reason i though I was at camp and it was over then I realized "this is only the beginning..." hahahah oh well.  So I gave my word that I would be here, so help me God.  These last two weeks I was placed in my  ministry placement that I work about thirty one hours a week in.  My ministry placement is the ATF Acquire The Fire call center.  I get the privilege of calling youth pastors and letting them know how the event is going to benefit their youth.  I am calling for the Portland, Oregon event on April 15-16 2011.  Please pray that God gives me strength to do it, to be honest it was not my first pick i wanted to be in Global Expeditions Call center talking to youth, letting them know why they should go on missions.. but God has different plans for me.  Its okay all the glory goes to him.  I now get to wake up at four thirty and go to corporate exercise with everyone on campus at five.  :)  I actually have lots of joy when I do it.. for some odd reason.  hahahah.  I have class at eight and go to work from ten till six.  I am learning a lot of self control simply because the ministry has us on Orange block which means I can only have sugar one day week I get to choose, I'm not allowed to talk to friends outside campus via text/calls  Monday through Friday.  This is because they want to build unity within the body of Christ, which is everyone on campus.  Talking to people on the outside kind of hinders those relationships.. I live in Green dorm,  my  CA is Justina Spellmeyer, my core name is Restoration which is really cool seeing as though I know God wants to restore me.  I have a brother core the ministry does this so  I know how to build a pure relationship with the opposite sex without it being corrupted or based on fleshly desires.  I participate in a creative ministry which is Terra Nova.  I love it!!  We get together and do prayer intercessory as well as evangelism and treasure hunts.  The other night we were praying and I got a picture of a confederate flag... I didn't think much of it but i was like thats weird Lord is their racism going on... I forgot about it and the next day at corporate we were doing push ups and I saw this girl and she had on a bright orange shirt and on the back guess what... its had a confederate flag.  So i knew it was God  I tried to get out of praying for her cause i felt weird because i didn't know her, but as we were leaving I saw her all alone and away from the mob running to the cafeteria to get breakfast so i knew i had to obey the holy spirit.  I went up to her and i told her what had happened.  So when I asked if their was anything in specific that she needed prayer for she told me that she was feeling  discouraged because of corporate.  So I knew that all that joy that i felt was to be passed on.  So we prayed! It was cool, really its just glory to God.  I'm thankful that he would want to use me.  My home church that I go to is a Hispanic church Asemblia de Dios.  Its neat they are like twenty of us interns that go.  I like it a lot i feel Gods presence,  I tried a Caucasian church however the service is not that long and only last for like an hour... I needed a little more meat. haha.  There are days that I want to loose my mind because I feel like I cant go anywhere but its okay.  We are about to go through our first LTE Life Transforming Event. ESOAL. Emotional Stretching Opportunity of A Lifetime  It begins on the fifteenth of September and will continue until sometime possibly till Sunday  the nineteenth of September.  I will not be able to shower, brush my teeth, all the comforts of the world will be stripped from me and I will die to my flesh.  Please pray that God gives me strength to make it through and not ring out. I need to hit BAR Burial And Resurrection where its God truly just caring me through it because I know longer can.  I am scared, nervous, ready, and excited.  My company is Texas.  I will let you know how everything goes, but please pray that I am spiritually prepared and emotionally prepared.  I try not to think about it and will deal with it when the day comes.  Other than that I don't have much more to say.  I love and miss everyone back home God bless!!! saludos a todos!

E S O A L

highlights of 2010 E.S.O.A.L

 I finished my LTE Life Transforming Event- Emotionally Stretching Opportunity of A Lifetime otherwise known as ESOAL this past Sunday around six in the morning.  It all began around last Wednesday  around nine at night.  While a lot of my experience was a blurr, I will do my best to give detail and recall facts.  I was placed in Texas Company with my brother core and cousin cores.  two families, four cores- two guy cores and two girl cores.  I obviously loved my company!  We slept for a total of thirteen hours the entire time we were out there.  eighty-four hours the entire time from beginning to end, and most of all an amazing time the Lord showed me his greatness.  I remember the first day Thursday I wanted to ring out so bad because I thought i was so dumb being out there in the heat and sweating.  I didnt find a lot of purpose in it and I missed my bed and good food.  We ate three times a day our food consisted of a serving of 12oz of rice (no flavor) beans(no flavor) cornmeal(no flavor and food colored) I could not get through more than half a cup and it was forced down.  Its crazy how much you take a sandwich or an apple for granted until you can not have it and you learn how to split  a granola bar (chewy) into like thirty pieces to share with everyone.  My entire family was working hard so i figured I would not quite knowing I had more to give and just would pray for an injury so I could ring out medically I remember hoping to hurt myself.  It sounds bad but its crazy how the enemy puts those thoughts and lets us play with them so that we can give up.  I spent most of Thursday in self pity.  I worked hard, but the day seemed to drag on forever simply because I was too focused on myself and not on those around me.  My pride would not let me ring the bell as well I know I would not be able to look at the kernel in the eye and tell him I could not go on.  Friday I finally realized that I just needed to make it through the day and I would be okay.  I was in pain, I was chaffing and dirty.  With no shower and little sleep I didn't know what to expect so I expected the worst.  We had the opportunity to worship and God really just gave me strength at five in the morning.    I didn't want to let my family down and so I decided I would be full of joy.  The days were so hot but I remember that Friday God provided wind and clouds I was so thankful!  Finally on Saturday I remember marching in the morning around and I just saw Jackie's smile come to face and then my moms and then Luis's and then my sister Elizabeth's.  Then it hit me that these people were praying for me I had a church praying for me and that brothers and sisters around the country lifting all of the internship in prayer.  I wasn't alone and that God was with me.  At that point I was full of pure joy the kind in James 1:2-4.  I truly experienced it!  From that point on I was in such a good mood it didn't matter what they did to us I loved every minute of it.!  God showed me how unified we have to be I saw time in time again the companies that were weak in unity lost a lot of people while our company because we constantly were encouraging each other only lost six people total.  That is GOOD!  Joy is not something that we feel all the time.  A lot of the time when we are facing a hard trial we want to sit around and throw pity parties for ourselves and complain, yet we fail to realize that those around us are going through similar things and possibly worse.  You choose JOY!  Sometimes you can not control the situation you are in but you can control your attitude you can choose JOY you can choose to smile even when you don't feel like it, you may think its not something I feel its lying... NO! Its taking a stand having faith that God is in control and that even in the trial you trust him!  Whether through ESOAL or at work or even waiting for the red light, when you are running late.  Choose joy! hahahaha okay on a lighter note, i think I will try to explain some of the evolutions that we did.  We had to push a school bus a quarter mile, we had to sit in a cold bath in the middle of the night,  we rolled down a hill, we ran obstacle courses that were set up like navy seal basic training!  We got sandy! hahahah they would water us down from head to toe and then have us run to the sand pits and come back, and made us walk into a pond full of muddy water.  You may think this is so cruel why would they do this why would they put you through that... well truth is they didn't i CHOSE to do it!  We marched a lot!! I lost my voice We had two mile runs in the morning.  Words will never give justice to exactly what I experienced those days.  God is so good and well  in the end I know he had me go through it to show me his faithfulness, my God, my God is a GOOD GOD!  if you would like to check some videos out here is the site! till next time GOD BLESS

 trailerclub.blogspot.com

Oh by the way:  Thank you so much for all of the prayer that you guys are doing for me.  Its your faithfulness in it that God is working wonders in my life right now! May God continue to bless each and everyone of you!  :D