Last night, the girls in my core and I celebrated a 50’s style themed birthday/dance party that quickly escaladed into a cake and icing fight that was only slightly out of control… but in the end we got all the cake off the wall and out of the couches! In our core, we have learned to love one another and appreciate our differences and serve one another over the past 10 months. It hasn’t always been easy, actually it was really hard, but through living with such a diverse group of women, I have learned so much about having deep and meaningful relationships. I would have never imagined being such good friends with some of these people, but it is amazing how much we don’t know about each other and what we all end up having in common- like how muchwe all love Jesus!

The relationships I’ve developed at the Honor Academy have changed my life. I have never had people so genuinely interested in encouraging me to pursue the Lord and who just wanted to love me because Jesus said to. I have met people who have served me so selflessly and this year, really learned the meaning of “less of me, more of Him” (John 3:30). I’ve had a lot of friends throughout my life, but I never learned the true meaning of Christ-like love between friends until I learned to love when its difficult, had others help to carry my burdens when I was down, and seen people stick by me in some really stretching seasons. I am so grateful for the godly friends I have acquired here and I know that we will be friends for the rest of my life. These will be the people with whom I will be celebrating with, leaning on, and praying with for the rest of my life. I praise God for the amazing gifts of deep friendships here.

-Amanda Fraser

Ah, life. Yes, life. Life is an adventure. God has taken me on so many adventures in this life that I have been living for Him. I wouldn't trade any of them because I know that every single one of them has made me who I am today. 

Let me start by saying I knew I wanted to come to the Honor Academy when I was 12. I heard about it at an Acquire The Fire and fell in love with the Ministry Team. Then I heard that you had to be what they called an "Intern" for one year before being able to join MT. "Simple," I thought, "that's where I'm going." Well, that changed over time. Pressures, doubts and fears weighed upon me and I slowly but surely let that desire go.

After some interesting turns in my academic career I graduated a year early and started college. Close to Christmas break of that first semester the Lord gently reminded me what I was supposed to be doing, The Honor Academy. So I ended up here after all the craziness and confusion in the very class that the Lord called me to when I was 12 years old.

This year has been incredible. I wouldn't have chosen any differently if I could go back. Before coming a friend of mine asked me to please not change during my year. I told him that I wanted to change. I want the Lord to change me. And He has. 

On arrival day we had an evening session about getting rid of the sin and idols in our lives and surrendering them to the Lord. I didn't have a specific item in mind, so I wrote on a piece of paper "My life. Refine me." The Lord is Faithful and True.

God has blessed me in so many areas of my life, but one in particular is in relationships. I grew up an Army kid, and ended up changing friendship circles about every 1 1/2 years. As a defense mechanism, I learned to not get attached. I fully expected to walk out of this year with no life-long friends. In my experience, you have friends for a time, and then you move away and move on. God had different plans.

He has blessed me with incredible friends that spur me on to Jesus Christ every day in ways that I never expected. These are friends I believe the Lord intends for me to keep my whole life, which I had always longed for, but never really thought was possible.

There is way too much that the Lord has done for me to write about shortly, but here is just a bit, just a taste of what this year has been.

Testimony from a School of Worship intern that helps lead worship on the road with Acquire the Fire:

OH, here we are. It is so crazy how God just gives you opportunities to grow and learn without even expecting it. I didn't think a year ago that I would be leading worship for Acquire the Fire. God has been doing some awesome, crazy things with this band.

In San Diego, the crowd wouldn't stop singing and something broke in the Spirit that really released people from bondage. People were on the ground with their hands up in complete surrender shouting, praying, and weeping... FREEDOM broke out. Ever since then every place we go experiences some sort of freedom.

In Seattle and Sacramento, it was the same thing. All of our worship sets just seem to get longer and longer each weekend. Saturday night we played for an hour and they couldn't stop singing and praising the Lord. You know God takes over when you step away from the microphone and everyone stops playing their instruments and everyone in the room continues to sing, continues to shout, and the holy Spirit just fills the room. 

Host homes have been amazing. It feels like home. I love having pizza nights where we make our own pizzas. I love doing youth services and church services and seeing kids running around the sanctuary beside a 70-year-old. There is so much unity. I love it!

I love this band. Weird people make up the best teams. You look at the apostles that Jesus chose and they were from all walks of life: A tax collector, fishermen, country men, city men, brothers, a zealot... they made up a diverse, amazing team centered around Jesus. We know that if Jesus is the center, then everything else falls into place. Great things are accomplished. I love the fact that our team is so incredibly different, yet our purpose and vision is the same. We want to see God move heavily and mightily. Some of us are incredibly loud. Some of us love to laugh out of pure joy. Some of us are more grounded and organized. Some are free spirits. Some love to read. Some love audiobooks :-). We all love people. We all love Jesus. He is the center of everything that we do. I love that although we sometimes don't have a host home, don't get a soundcheck in, not have any practice time and yet STILL be able to keep a good attitude, knowing that God is in control.

Seeing lives changed and people freed makes every single trial that we face completely worth it. I am so excited to see all of the things He has in store for the rest of the tour! :-) Portland here we come! We'll be comin' round the mountain...

-Dani Rocca

The day before I was going to commit suicide, I asked God to show me He was real (this was the result of countless divine appointments). I asked Him to prove it to me, that if He loved me like He said He did to prove it to me. The next day at work I met a youth pastor's wife who was volunteering at my job, raising money for the ATF in Anaheim. LONG STORY short, I ended up going and got saved at the ATF. But not only that, I also signed up for the Honor Academy and spent the next three years trying to get there. I was 16, got a job at In-N-Out and was struggling in my faith. I was radically converted but never quite discipled, and so getting involved with a youth that didn’t support me and persecuted me, which stunted my growth. I knew there was more for me but I fell back into the Law trying to live a good life, but fighting my past. I ended up falling away, but God had pulled me back to Himself, and I worked even harder to get to the HA after having been to Campus Preview. I came to the HA beaten and broken, thinking I had it together, stuck in works, and struggling to be like I was when I first got saved. God re-introduced me to the cross, and the people around me cultivated healing and restoration. I can honestly say I love God more than when I first got saved and I have a better understanding of my faith as well as for the vision God has given me for my life. 

I finally have direction. At the Honor Academy, the leadership structure has really enabled me to grow. Sin can’t live peacefully complacent in your heart when you have a Core Advisor pressing you to grow or men of God around you helping you through your sin. Being taught basic foundations and dropping everything I thought I knew, I received instruction that has escalated me. Like the Lord said, “Humble yourself in sight of the Lord and HE WILL lift you up.” After the Fasting retreat God revealed to me the plan He has for my life in regards to His Great Commission. The Plan in a nut shell, is I want to move to Portland to study the church and revival movements, art, writing, psychology, sociology, to reach the Art community with the Gospel and to help build up the church. Seeing as it is one of the most unchurched cities in America. Then, potentially move to Europe and bring revival with art where the Art movement and Church once flourished. Currently I am a Global expeditions caller, calling students who are signed up to go to Europe on the missions field enabling them to take the good news of redemption and restoration.

God Bless,
Ricky

(On the left Ricky's friend Jared and the right Ricky)