Danielle’s Story

Hi, my name is Danielle (not her real name) and I’ve never been to the Honor Academy, but I went on a GE trip this summer and I think I got a pretty good taste of what Teen Mania is all about. Even in the short time I was affiliated with Teen Mania Ministries, I definitely felt the disappointment and guilt they try to brainwash people with. So here’s my story…sorry it’s kinda long.

I have never been to the HA, but this past summer, I felt God calling me to go serve a different community on a mission trip. I heard about Global Expeditions and after some careful thought and prayer, I decided to start fundraising to go to the Bahamas. My boyfriend felt he was also being called to go on the trip, and I was glad to have him by my side through out the process. GE, however, felt that it was not appropriate for us to go on the same trip, and offered that we be split into two different trip dates. After we had finally talked to the people in charge, and convinced them that we did not see this as some vacation for the two of us, but as a trip to serve God and the people of the Bahamas, they permitted both of us to go, under one condition: that we break up the day before the trip. We understood that they were strict about letting couples go on the trip, because a lot of couples might act immature in that situation, but we thought that once we were in the Bahamas, and once they started to get to see how we were, they would understand that we were going on the trip with good intentions, not selfish ones. A couple of months down the fundraising road, Sam got a call from GE telling us that we had to be broken up by June 15, when our departure date wasn’t even until July 28. When asked why, they could not give us an answer. We were annoyed with this news, but, deciding not to lie, we broke up for the time they specified. As our trip date neared, I found myself getting anxious because I didn’t know much information about the trip. Every time I contacted my rep, she would not be able to answer any of my questions. The morning before we went to the Miami airport (it was a “meet-you-there” trip) my boyfriend and I still didn’t even know where we were meeting the group. In fact, when we called GE, they told us to meet by baggage claim H-6, and upon arriving, we discovered that it didn’t even exist. By a lucky mistake we did find the group. We were also told to be at the airport by 2:00 in the afternoon, but once we got there, we were told our plane wouldn’t even be leaving until 8:45. When we finally boarded the plane, I sat in the seat I was assigned on my ticket, which was in the seat next to Sam. I would say it was no more than two minutes and one of the team leaders came and told me that I needed to grab my stuff and come sit by her, leaving Sam in his row all alone. I did as I was told, and once we got seated she explained to me that it was against the rules for boys and girls to sit next to each other. (I later found out this was a lie). On the first morning in the Bahamas, after the boys spent the night sleeping in tents (which my mom researched and discovered is actually illegal in the Bahamas) we were lectured on the “proper” way to do devotions. During the training of the drama “Ragman”, they made each group perform in front everyone else, and one of the TL’s (the same one who lied to me on the plane) ended up laughing at one of the groups performance, which inspired a very embarrassed ‘Jesus’ (one of the boys acting of course) to run out of the room and cry. Also, while training for the drama, they made all the boys playing the part of Jesus practice longer than everyone else and during this training session that very same leader who lied and who laughed at one of the groups informed the boys they weren’t good enough to play the role of Jesus, exclaiming that she wished she could play Jesus so it could be done properly. Later on the trip, we had a four hour lecture about relationships, in which our project director stated that every time you date, it’s like someone takes a bite out of your “cake”, and she ended on the note that “Nobody wants a dirty, disgusting, half-eaten cake.” This talk ended with some very angry and confused missionaries, and one girl even cried. During the ministry, one group was informed that they weren’t good enough at “converting” people, and as this attitude continued, I began to realized that those affiliated with Teen Mania didn’t seem to care about building relationships with or having compassion on the people of the Bahamas.. They were more concerned with “saving people.” In fact, after each day of ministry, we were asked how many people were saved that day, and I began to feel like it was more for show than actually helping and truly changing people’s lives. On the last night of ministry, Sam and I were playing soccer with a group of native boys, and a couple other missionaries, when we got confronted by two team leaders; one who went to the HA for a couple years, and another who had never been affiliated with TM before the trip. The latter came up to us first, and told us we were about to get in trouble, and that he didn’t agree, but that we just needed to listen and obey. When the other TL confronted us, she said that Sam and I basically shouldn’t talk anymore. Then she pulled Sam aside and told him that if he really loved me, he would just leave me alone and let me serve God. I was so upset that night that I was crying and when I asked if I could just speak with my best friend, the only person there I had known for longer than a week and a half, the project director said no and said she would talk to me instead….but she never even did. There is more that happened on the trip, but my story is getting a little long, so I’ll make a quick summary. In the last couple of days, I was forced to sign a paper stating that I was caught complaining (which is not true. In fact, the incident was that I told another girl to look at the good parts of the trip rather than complain.), I was insulted by my TL’s (after giving compliments to every one else in the group, they could find nothing nice to say to me), Sam and I got in trouble for being within 7 ft of each other (no joke.), and my project director talked about me behind my back (told others that I was a bad MA for complaining, which I stated earlier, did not happen that way). Before we left, the TL who was not from the HA informed Sam and I that we had a target on our backs from day one from all the other leaders. When I got home from my trip with GE, for weeks, I found myself confused with God and why things happened the way they did on the trip. Even now, I can feel the effects from it. When I came across this blog, I was relieved to know I wasn’t crazy for feeling the way I do about Teen Mania. Even though I haven’t been to the Honor Academy, I feel that I can kind of relate.