May 20, 2013 Mark’s Story 5/20/2013 Recovering Alumni 20 comments Hmm. Where to begin? I guess that my name is Mark. I was very recently at Teen Mania as an intern and also as a Core Advisor. In this story(or rant) I will be, for the first time, recounting some of my experiences at TM. […]
My mom and dad wanted me to wait it out and stay there for the two months (that we already paid for). I got voicemails from friends and family encouraging me to stick it out. I ignored them. I had to. I couldn’t stay. Not after all that had happened that day. Adair’s parents bought
Noelle’s Story: Part 3 Read More »
Friday, August 15, 2008 – I was on a plane to Dallas, Texas. My plane was late during my connection. My mom decided to meet me in Dallas from Jacksonville. She rented a car so that way I could get bedding and storage bins and all that. We got on the road right away –
Noelle’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
In 2007, I heard about the Honor Academy internship from my Mom. I was talking with her about my future one night on the phone. I was telling her how I wasn’t sure what I was going to do after high school. She told me about Honor Academy. A girl from our old church had
Noelle’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
My Name Is Ashley, I was an Honor academy Intern in August 2008. Shortly after my grandmother passed away I was called by an Honor Academy representative who offered this bit of insight, “I know your grandmother has gone to be with the Lord, but you should take this as a clear indication that life
Another Ashley’s Story Read More »
Before you read my story, I want to make it clear where I am coming from. I am now inches away from being atheist. I have a deep hatred for religion (if there is a god who cared, I think that they would feel the same way), I feel that religion has done more
Even though it’s been 8 years since I completed my internship I am still struggling to make sense of my year in Garden Valley. Before applying for the Honor Academy I knew very little about Teen Mania Ministries, in fact my no one from my church group had ever attended an Acquire the Fire or
I have been reading this blog and commenting for over a year now. Until now I didn’t feel it necessary to really share my experience because I wasn’t nearly as hurt as many people have sadly been. I would describe my Honor Academy year as a “good” year. Not terrible, not exceptional. What made it
I was an intern from Aug.01 – Aug. 02. My Unreached People Group Retreat (UPG) was one of the worst experiences during my internship. I went into the weekend with a little apprehension. This was supposed to be a simulation of what it would be like to go out into the mission field and I
I would like to start by saying that my faith in God’s Sovereignty has only grown over the years since I attended the Honor Academy. God knew that I would be attending the Honor Academy. He knew the experiences I would have there and how He’d be using those experiences to grow me in my
THE WAR Teen Mania had a bit of a crisis half-way through my undergraduate year. 9/11 had occurred, and numbers were down. Parents were hesitant to send their kids overseas on mission trips. Youth groups were backing out of ATF. The Aug. class of 2003 was shaping into an embarrassingly small one. TM wasn’t making
Jamie’s Story: Part 4 Read More »
SEXISM My Intern Advisor was also the Dean of Women. She was on staff for only one year before she and her husband moved on to something else. At our very first focus group, she passed out that dreadful list of rules along the lines of “How to be a Godly Teen Mania Woman”. By
Jamie’s Story: Part 3 Read More »
My biggest liability was that I was physically tired almost all the time. I have had this problem my whole life, but it got a lot worse after I’d been at the HA for a while. My biological clock got so messed up that I would crash in my dorm room after work and classes
Jamie’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
PROLOGUE I came to the Honor Academy with issues. I brought a lot of baggage with me, as does every intern that has had to make their way in this broken world for 17+ years. I don’t think that the leadership at the Honor Academy fully understands this. They say they do, but the infrastructure
Jamie’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
My name is Meagan (I went by Megz at the HA). I have been reading this website for quite some time now and I shared a bit of my story on one of my anonymous comments. I’ve been debating on sharing my full story on the website for some time now, but I’m finally ready
I have a different kind of story to tell, but I think it is an important story for both recovering and non-recovering alumni. I was an intern August 98. I would describe my internship year as a positive experience, but I would like to explain that in more detail. Having read all of the stories
Hayley’s Story: How a Pro-TM Alumnus Learned to Listen our Stories Read More »
Emma’s ESOAL story: I was truly excited for ESOAL. I thought that it would be a great experience, and that pushing myself to my limits would be really good for me. So in the auditorium, we sat in our companies and platoons. General Hasz walks up and says, “So this year we are doing things
Emma’s Story: Part 3 Read More »
Summer started for Global Expeditions in June. I was working in operations in GE, and we had to basically make “Immersion” happen for each wave of missionaries. We had to plan the services, the ceremonies to get them fired up to go, and send them off. Once the missionaries arrived, I was working 7am to
Emma’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
Just before my senior year in high school, I decided that I wanted to take a year off from school after I graduated, to travel or do something different. My grandma offered to pay for most of a 3-month trip to Europe, but I decided to turn that down to go to the HA instead,
Emma’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
It’s been hard to force myself to commit some of these thoughts to “paper”. I don’t spend much time thinking about my Teen Mania days. I don’t really keep in contact with many friends from the internship… and the relationships I still maintain have a kind of depth that doesn’t depend on the Honor Academy
My second year, I started out on the Ministry team. It was great; it was the family I had always longed – for something real. But halfway into that program, they basically told me that I was not working hard enough so I was kicked off. Basically, I felt they were telling me that I
Brandi’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
Moderator’s Note: “Brandi” prefers to retain her anonymity, but I am allowed to tell you that this story took place within the last few years. Two years before coming to the Honor Academy, I was saved from wiccanism at an Acquire the Fire. I didn’t know what to do with my life so I ended
Brandy’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
Editor’s Note: This is the 2nd story of sexual assault I’ve been told in the past 2 weeks. If you have a similar story, this is a safe place to share it. You may remain anonymous.I graduated HA in August of 2004. I was (what I feel) sexually assaulted during my Unreached People Group LTE. I
I just want to start off by saying that the Honor Academy was not the worst moments of my life…I’m not bashing it or badmouthing it in any way, I’m just bringing to light that there are those of us (myself and my husband included) that had a very difficult time growing and maintaining our
Ashley’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
(2021 Moderator’s Note: Allie’s Story is part of The Vault, a series of drafts that were discovered in a backup file from 2011. These posts were not published for some reason but are now being published. If you are Bobby and do not want your story to remain published, please email me at recoveringalumni at
