I heard someone today tell their friend that they need change in order to stay passionate and engaged.  They were talking about what they were going to do after this year.  Both said that they knew they were supposed to stay, but that the easy thing would be to stay.  Then after those thoughts, one said that they needed change to be motivated.  And if she stayed another year at the Honor Academy, she wouldn’t be motivated.  I stopped and pondered that…

Do I need change to keep me loving God and being passionate?   Do I need change to keep my committment?

I kept thinking about it all day.  That statement to me sounded so selfish and prideful.   I am going to continue to think and ponder it, but let me know what your thoughts are.

Selfless Servent, Allison

Hello,

Well, I have decided to make a newsletter for the month of june.  I am currently working on it and very proud that I am designing the layout myself.  Usually I had help from someone else, but this time it is all me .  I never thought I could do it, but I am almost done. 

So all of you who have been faithfully reading the previous month’s newsletters, get ready for a GOOD ONE. 

Thank you for all your prayers and notes.  I appreciate them all. 

In His Service,

Allison

After much prayer and wrestling, I have decided to come home in August.  YAY!!

As part of my core growth plan, I have had to carry around an egg with me. 

I have learned that relationships are fragile.  I have to take care of them and nurture them otherwise they make break.  And when they break, what do I do?  Some have left the mess untouched.  Some have cleaned it up and started new.  Some have picked up the pieces and put it together.

What is my responce when i am hurt by a person?  Do I give up and leave the relationships broken?  Do I pick it up and still hold on to the broken pieces, constantly being reminded of the hurt?  Do I start over a pretend nothing happened?  This is my response: I do start over, but I do not pretend like nothing happened.  I forgive the person and move on.  That is hard to do when your want vengance and someone to pay for the hurt and pain your feel.  Isn’t that natural?   I have even felt that it is unfair for me to forgive but still have to deal with the pain that others have inflicted on me.   But those feelings are the desires of the flesh.  If we forgive, we open the door for Christ to bring healing to our soul.  It doesn’t make sense in the natural.  But living by the Spirit doesn’t make sense according to the natural. 

Whole relationships take diligence.  A relationship may come on accident but it won’t stay whole if I am not diligent to nurture it.  In order to take care of an egg, you have to pay great attention to detail.  i cannot neglect it or treat is harshly at any time.   We can all have realtionships, but without love, care, diligence, they won’t be whole and healthy.  My whole core can have an egg, but is your egg whole, uncracked?  This challenges me to strive for a healthy relationship.  I know that because of our human nature, accidents will happen.  We will fail people and hurt them.  But when I strive to love like Christ, the hurts heal easier.

It was very interesting, because I had to carry two eggs on Tuesday.  Many people looked at me funny.   And I couldn’t say anything because I could only talk to my core.   One was for core and one was for MA Roads.  It took lots of work to nurture two eggs.  Nothing happened to the eggs during the day.  Somehow I managed to keep them unharmed. :)   

I still have about a 4 days to carry my egg.  I hope I learn more by carrying this egg. 

On Monday night my core advisor rolled out a Core growth plan.  She feels that as a Core we need to learn how to love one another.  I totally agree with her in this decision.

1 John 4:7-8 “Dear Friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love is not of God and does not k now God, for God is love.”

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

Psalm 133:1 “How good and pleasant is it when brothers live together in unity!”

This past week we have had to eat all meals together, be together from 8-10pm, carry an egg around (the egg symbolizes our core),  have our quiet time togethers and only talk to each other.  All of these activities are meant to draw us closer together as a core and teach us how to love one another. 

It has been so hard to love them at times.  People have attitudes and disrespect you.  Sometimes I feel like they don’t deserve my love.  But how wrong is that!  I didn’t deserve God’s love, but God gave it to me anyway.   So I am learning how to not be led by my emotions. 

It has also been difficult to love them because I feel like they do not love me back.  At times I have had my own attitude about things we have to do because my core isn’t doing it with their whole heart.  I feel I am justified to have a sour attitude.  My reasoning is that since they aren’t loving, then I don’t have to love them.  But I am proven wrong, again.  My motiviation for loving shouldn’t be because I am going to be loved back.  I have no guarentee of that.  My motivation for loving should be because God has loved me, I am going to love others.  Jesus is my example of love.

Soozie, a amazing Woman of God who I work with made a cool video showing clips of what the campus looks like.  Just watch the first 55 seconds of the video (the rest is pictures of her CORE and people she knows).

I hope you enjoy!

For the first couple of day after Escape and Evasion I could not fully bend my arms.  On Monday, I could not wash my hair, brush my hair or touch my face with my hands.  My arms were in much pain.  And I looked funny trying to drink water from a cup.

On Thusday, I was FINALLY able to bend my arms!! YAY. 

My body is still recoverin (I have some sore abs), but I am thankful to say that I am healing…. and becoming stronger, too. 

Thank you for praying

God Bless,

Allison

This is the message at our Wednesday Night Service, given my Kemtal Glasgow. 

Capture Your Thoughts

Control Your Thoughts

Choose Your Thoughts

Change Your Thoughts

Confess the Word of God over yourself.  Choose to speak life instead of death.  Faith comes by Hearing and hearing by the Word of God. 

I have been allowing my thoughts to run my life.  I have slipped back into believing the lies, meditating on negative thoughts, and wallowing in my self pity.  We are not responsible for the first second of a bad thought, but we ARE responsible for the second thought.  So take it captive.  Renounce it and say that it is not your thought and then replace it with God’s thoughts. 

               Set your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.  –Colossians 3:1-2

At the Honor Academy we have many weekends that are dedicated to teaching us specific lessons.  I mentioned in a previous email about our Fasting weekend, Unreached People group Weekend and Endurance (10K) weekend, etc.  Well this last Saturday, I participated in the Escape and Evasion. 

ESCAPE AND EVASION

This one was special because it was selective on who could participate.  And it was a good thing, because it was INTENSE!!!!!!!  Never before in my life have I ever walked, ran, swam or biked in my life in one day.  It was more like a triatholon on steriods than it was Escape and Evasion.  The only thing we had to evade were the paintball snippers.  (by the way, getting hit by paintballs that don’t explode hurt really bad.)

THE BEGINNING

The day started at 5:30 AM.  We registered our teams first and then waited for instructions.  I competed in this race with my best friend, Tifany.  The first leg of the race was a series of checkpoints where we either just passed by or had to complete an activity to move on.  At one checkpoint we had to do 200 push ups, 300 sit ups, 50 stars and 200 jumping jacks as a team.  This was so hard!  I am thankful it was as a team because my partner could do more sit ups than me.   

Up until this point, each checkpoint was just a check in.  The only issue was that we were walking long distances in between each checkpoint carrying a 18-lb backpack full of rocks.  After the work out, we had to carry a 8 foot tall 2×4 wooden cross with us.  The next check point had us low crawl 100ft, crab walk 100ft and wheelbarrow with our partner 100ft, then switch positions for another 100ft.  The hardest part was carrying my partner in the wheelbarrow race.  I could never get a good grip.  By the end, my body was shaking.  The rest of the checkpoints were just check in.  That completed phase one of the race. 

THE SWIMMING, RUNNING and BIKING PHASE

We then loaded up on a bus and drove to a lake where we swam a short distance.  The water was refreshing.  From the lake we had to run back to campus.  I heard it was a good 5 miles.  When we arrived back on campus we had to ride our bike up to the New Obstacle Course.  We had to ride up hill to the O.C. on dirt road of the Back Forty (back forty is the back 400 acres of the campus, mostly woods and open fields).  Then we had to complete the O.C.  I was so exhausted by this point that I was unsure if I was going to be able to lift myself up.  I completed almost every obstacle on one try expect for one obstacle.  I had to try that one at least 25 times.  This was the hardest part mentally.  I finally completed it and road back to my partner so she could so the same thing.  Because of time constraits, after we completed that phase we were “phased out.” 

I was very glad that we were done with the race, even though we did not complete the entire thing.  I was exhausted and I was getting charlie horses in my calves (ironically right where I got hit with a paintball). 

Lessons Learned:

1. I learned a lot about the importance of teamwork.  We could not finish or do this race without our partner and we cannot do this life without God. 

2. Humility is key when working together with a partner.  I can’t always have my way and maybe my partner has so wisdom to share with me.

3. Read the labels and warning of your medication before you go do some strenuous physical activity.  The medicine I am taking says not to be exposed to sunlight for prolonged periods of time.  Well, I was outside from 5AM-2PM. 

4. I loved getting to know Tifany.  You learn a lot about a persons character when they are faced with opposition and challenges.

5. Don’t  EVER give up!  We can go a lot farther than we think we can if we get past the barriers in our mind and thoughts.

Now, pray that my body heals and I can move again . 

God bless, Allison

Hello all my faithful supporters.

I am glad you made it to WordPress.  This is a way for me to comminicate to you what I am doing at the Honor Acadmey in short little blogs.  I tend to write a lot, but who reads ridiculously long emails anymore?? 

So welcome to the new method of updates.  You will still get email updates, but just not as often.

I hope you enjoy!  If you have any ideas or prayer requests, just leave a comment or email me.

Allison Bieker

abieker@gmail.com