10 Months 11 Days...

10 Months

11 Days

Countless Hours

Was it worth it?....

On January 4, 2011 I eagerly arrived (early) to my first class of Antioch Training School. When I applied to this school I had NO idea what to expect, what I was getting my heart, my mind and my spirit into. Our leaders (who are incredible by the way) welcomed us and explained that while our past walking with the Lord could be compared to drinking out of a water fountain, this next 10 months and 11 days will be like drinking from a fire hydrant. Our first teaching was about the Father Heart of God and it left me crying on the floor before the Lord experiencing His Father heart unlike ever before. I should have known then. I should have known in that moment that the next 10 months and 11 days would be unlike any other.

After some people joining and some people feeling called other places we were left with the final 12. Together we experienced encouragement, conviction, and incredible teachings. We were blessed to get to hear from some very wise leaders who poured out all they had for us. In June we jumped on some planes and lived as the Indians do for 2 weeks. We saw the Kingdom of Heaven rest in Bangalore. The best part was that after experiencing 2 weeks of such closeness and conflict and battling together we were able to come back and continue it for our 2nd semester of school. Our class dynamic was unique and small. I LOVED IT. We were the small, original family of 12.

Together over the last 10 months and 11 days we have been drenched in the love of the Father, challenged out of mundane, "normal" christian living, moved out of places of contentment and filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. There's no way we could ever go back to life before ATS. We have been running at a million miles an hour reading countless amount of books, studying the word, working on bible study methods and finishing roots. After all feelings of stress, being overwhelmed, hunger, wanting a change of clothes, forgetting our cross, losing sleep trying to memorize sixty-something verses and missing assignments, we ask the question: Was it Worth It?

Completely. I can honestly say I don't know where I would be or how my relationship with the Lord would be if I hadn't experienced the last 10 months and 11 days in the training school. Nothing can compare to it and I am honored and extremely grateful to have gotten to go through it. I am so thankful to have been in it will my team of 12 and my amazing leaders. They have pushed me to not be okay with where I am at, to be real and vulnerable, to take ground back from the enemy in my life, to battle for each other and for bryan/college station, to laugh...a lot, to persevere in times of trial, to run to Jesus as fast as I possibly can in ALL circumstances, to have a greater sense of urgency to tell people about Jesus and to hunger more and more to see the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. Yes there have been many sacrifices and some hard times but it has been first and foremost and honor. 

As I get ready to go to my last teaching class of ATS I am so excited to learn more about our Father, be pushed to refine and reassess my heart condition, to laugh and to of course...eat more cake :) Love you all!