Coming To A Close

I am at the end of my year...there are only three days left...it's coming to a close!  I can't believe that this year is almost over.  Today is Wednesday and on Saturday I will be a graduate of the Honor Academy.  This year has taught me so much that I couldn't possibly express it well enough through a blog or even words.  There are things that the Lord has told me and shown me and done in me this year that I don't even understand.  The girls in this picture are one of those things.  I was at the Honor Academy living with 8 other girls for eight out of twelve months of my year.  I knew it was coming when those eight girls would have to leave and be replaced by new girls, but knowing it was coming didn't make it any easier.  The first few weeks were so much harder than I could have ever imagined it to be.  I missed my other sisters who were now miles away, only reachable by phone.  I was stuck with these strangers who didn't know me I didn't know them, things were just awkward.  I began to pray for these girls hoping that one day life would seem normal with them, I didn't expect what I got.  

God gave me a love that I can't even understand for these girls.  I look at each of them as my sister, someone that I would protect and defend against anything.  These girls have impacted my life and have shown me so much about love and unity.  They have been a blessing from the Lord.  I am so thankful for each and everyone of them and for the love that they have shown me.

Phoenix ATF

This morning I made it back to the Honor Academy campus after a long and exciting trip to Phoenix Arizona!  I traveled to my 5th Acquire the Fire event this year, and I have to say this one was a unique trip compared to the rest.  Each trip that I have been on has always been different, sometimes it's a good different and sometimes it's a bad different.  What made this trip different?  Throughout the weekend the Lord was speaking to me and showing me so many different things about myself and about others.  I was blessed with the chance to pray for a boy named Cody.  Cody came by my booth with a friend on the 2nd day of the event, we began to talk as I asked him what he had learned from the weekend so far.  He truthfully told me he hadn't learned anything because every time the speaker comes up or the skit starts he gets intense pain throughout his body and has to leave the session.  I prayed for him and told him to come see me later to tell me what he learned from the next session because I believed he would be healed.  I saw him a couple of time through the day he would pass by and wave.  He later returned to my booth to let me know that the pain had started up again.  Irritated at the devil I grabbed a few of my friends and we went to town praying for him and declaring healing over his life.  We sent him on  his way yet again believing that the pain would be gone.  At the end of the night Cody comes by my booth and tells me, that last time you guys prayed for me almost all of the pain went away I only had a little bit of pain left.  I was amazed, God is so good.  Continue to pray for Cody for this has been a reoccurring thing for him in recent time.  He has been having serious problems being able to stay focused because of these pains.

Fall Fasting LTE

This weekend, I did my second Fasting LTE here at the Honor Academy.  For three days I set aside food, electronics, as well as talking in order to set my gaze upon the Lord.  I love the fasting LTE, both times I have done it, I am put in a sincere place of desperation for more of Him.  For this LTE we were told to ask the Lord what He wanted us to do, and write it on a card.  We called it "Because God told me to."  I asked the Lord and He told me to ABIDE. He took me to John 15 where Jesus says abide in me and I will abide in you, apart from me you have nothing.  That hit home to me because so many times I try to figure everything out on my own instead of relying on Him to help me.  About a month ago I went down a process we call roads where you are challenged as a leader and put in different scenarios to see how you will react.  In one o of the sessions for that, we were sharing different struggles that we had and my best friend gave me a word saying that God wanted me to remain IN HIM.  So on a mirror she wrote IN HIM.  At the time yes, I needed that word, but even more so I needed that word this weekend because the two fit together.  ABIDE IN HIM!

This weekend I wrote my mission statement and I would like to share it with you.  This is What the Lord has put on my heart and what I am called for.

My Mission Statement

I am ADOPTED.  He calls me by name and I am His.  I know that my Father knows my heart and it is my quest to know His.  I will trust in Gods plan for my life as He leads me by my right hand.  I will be a bold woman who knows how wonderful she is because she is works of the Fathers hand.  It is my conviction to love others and call out the greatness in them.  It is my passion to labor behind the scenes of something great for the kingdom of God.  I will be an example in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity as I lead others.  I was made for greatness not because of who I am, but because Christ is in me. 

The Overcomers

December 8, I will be running a marathon relay with four other members of my Core family.  We will each be running 5.2 miles to complete the marathon as a fundraiser for our internship at the Honor Academy.  I am so blessed to have the opportunity to run with these amazing men and women of God (team pictures to come later)! We began training last week starting at about 2.5 miles for our run.  Yesterday we ran our first 3 miles stretch, and it was amazing to experience God using a painful thing like running to draw us closer to Him.  As we ran, for the last 1.5 miles we prayed and quoted scripture to each other which empowered us to run when we wanted to stop.  It gave us extra breath and life when we felt tired and dead.  God is using this training and will use this race to bring us closer to Him and to remind us that it is not by our strength that we are going to finish but by His. That is why we are calling our team THE OVERCOMERS.  Because through this year, and through the rest of our lives, we will constantly have to OVERCOME adversity in order to do all that God has called us to do.  This race is just a symbol of the battle that we are being called into.  And just like this race, the only way we will OVERCOME is by calling on the name of Jesus and understanding that on our own we are nothing, but in Him we can be anything!

Please consider joining the race with us by sponsoring our team!  You can click HERE to go online and donate.  Just select our team, THE OVERCOMERS.  All donations will be split between the team to go towards our internship.  But it's not just for us, it's for every person God is going to impact through us.  It's for every dream we are going to come closer to as we pursue God through the Honor Academy.  We need your help, please consider becoming a sponsor. 

 Also check out our facebook page: Dallas Marathon (Overcomers) 

Women's LTE

This weekend we had our Women's LTE and to be honest I wasn't that excited about it.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am not the girliest person in the world.  I'm a tough, rough, get your hands dirty type of girl so something like this is so far out of my element.  This year has been a year of embracing womanhood and realizing that I can the fierce woman that God has designed me to be and still not be a girlie chick.  I love it!  The Woman's LTE was honestly such a blast for me.  Yes I painted my nails, yes I had to wear a facial mask, yes I played with makeup and wore lipstick, yes I took lots of girlie pictures, but I enjoyed every moment of it because of the amazing women who wer beside me.  I got to spend the entire weekend with my core that I have been blessed with.  These women mean the world to me.  Through the weekend the Lord was really showing me how to be in community with women, which is a stretch for me.  Growing up, I always preferred to spend time with guys.  They are less drama, they get dirty, they don't cry, it was always my preference.  This weekend my eyes were opened up to other women, how we need each other regardless of whether I think so or not.  

One of the best parts of the weekend was Damsel in Distress.  During this, the women are role playing that we have been captured and imprisoned.  We are taken to the top of a hill to scream and holler for help.  In the meantime, our brothers have to run up the hill through paint balls and weeds to rescue us.  For me, this was absolutely amazing to see the man come out of each one of my brothers.  As I have mentioned before, we have a huge family, we have 7 brothers and 18 sister, those 7 had to come and rescue each of us one by one.  They were exhausted but they did it anyways because to them, we were worth it.  To be valued like that meant so much to me.  I also learned how important it is to let a man be the hero.  We very easily could have ran off the hill ourselves and have been fine, no big deal.  But the point was to call the man out of our brothers and trusting them to get us to safety.  It taught me a lot about being a woman, we have to trust that a man will do what he needs to do even if we can do it ourselves.  I was so proud of each of my brothers, they struggled and pushed to save us and they did it well!

Honor Week

Last week we had what we call Honor Week for the January class.  This week consists of reviewing the different pillars that Teen Mania is founded on and seeing how to apply those in our lives as we are getting ready to graduate.  Along with our leaders teaching us about these pillars, five interns are also selected to speak at each session about the pillar that they best exemplify in their lives.  I had the honor of being selected to speak before the last session on excellence.  I was able to share to my fellow classmates about how the Lord has taught me to do everything unto Him and to do see it through to the very end.  

Along with that incredible honor, I was also given the opportunity to be recognized along with three very close friends of mine as our classes Carrier of the Flame.  This is an honor given to four women in each class who best reflect the pillars and vision of the Honor Academy.  It was such a pleasure to carry the flame along side of my sisters and to be recognized as such a woman by leadership.  The same night that I was honored as a Carrier of the Flame, I was also awarded with the Directors Award.  

It is very humbling to look at these different honors and to see what God has done in my life.  I would have never been in the running to receive any of these when I first got here, or even a few months ago.  I can honestly say that God has done an amazing work in my life since the day I arrived at the Honor Academy, but in these past few months God has taken me to a whole new place of intimacy with Him.  That intimacy has opened the door for all kinds of heart changes.  I am so thankful for all that He has done!

The A.N.V.I.L. LTE

     A week ago, I was taking part in a brand new LTE that was created at the Honor Academy.  This was called the A.N.V.I.L LTE.  The ANVIL is a four day event that is created to break you, challenge you mentally physically and spiritually, and to unify you as a team.  We were all assigned to teams based upon family cores.  Most teams were made up of two family cores, but my team was just my family.  We have a big family, we are made up of two sister cores and one brother core so we were large enough to make up one team.  In those four days, each team had to run all across campus to different physical and mental elements to complete them as a team.  For example, my second day of the LTE consisted of a 3 hour scavenger hunt all across campus, two obstacle courses, pulling kiddie pools across a soccer field, and a balance beam.  Each of these elements were in different places all over campus and since this LTE is a competition between teams we had to run to every element.  On average we probably ran a good 3 or more miles a day.  This LTE wasn't as much of a  physical challenge for me as it was a mental challenge.  Since my team was only my family core, it provided a lot of grace on my part and a lot of passion to see them succeed.  I am absolutely crazy about my family so God used that to bring out the leader and encouragement in me.  I wanted to let me family step on my back if needed to overcome an element, I would have carried someone on my back if I needed to.

     When the LTE was over and done with, God had shown me how to be selfless.  There were so many elements throughout the weekend that I wanted to run as fast as I could on or I wanted to go off and do my own thing.  But if I had done that, there were people in my family who needed me and they wouldn't have had me to help them.  God showed me how to lay myself down for others and how to become more prayer minded about others.  At the end of the LTE, we had a ceremony banquet where awards were given out to individuals and teams.  I received an individual award of the ANVIL woman of the year (2013).  My team placed 7th out of 8 but we were proud of how we had done because we were by far the most loving and unified team in the entire competition.  We started as one, remained as one, and finished as one!