ESOAL, Emotionally Streatching Opportunity of A Lifetime

Well everyone, here is the long awaited and promised entry about ESOAL, also known as Toture Camp. I'll try not to make it too long. Remember now that ESOAL was an optional LTE. You could ring out at any time. First, let me explain to you the purpose and goal of this LTE. The goal of ESAOL is for you to die to yourself and to live only on the strength of the Lord. While dying to all that you desire, you also find there are issues that you need to deal with that you never knew were there.Bascially, ESAOL causes you to reach what the HA calls BAR. BAR stands for the burial of your old self and ways and the resurection of your spirit man relying on the strenth of the Father. Thus you have BAR, Burial and Resurection. If you felt that you had reached BAR you had the option of choosing to ring out of ESOAL or you could continue. Everything in ESOAL has done in a military fasion. All the participants were put into companies which consisited of about 6 to 8 platoons. Each platoon had about 7 members. The leader of a company was called the Second Leutinent. Those over him were the Captain, First Leutinent, and the Major. The man over everything was the great General Hasz. Companies were ordered around like in the military. We marched like the military and talked like we were in the military. If you messed up acting or speaking like the military, you suffered the consequences. All of the challenges that we faced were called evolutions. In ESOAL, it pays to be a winner, first time, every time. If your platoon won an evolution, you could take a quick break, recieve more sleeping time, not roll the hill, etc.
Let me explain a few things that you are forced to do while at ESOAL. Before ESOAL even began we were require to memorize several verses, a hymn, and a grid with countries on it. You were tested on all of these things during ESOAL. If you failed these tests you suffered the consequences. There were also two nights in which we had to watch a very long and boring documentary, but we couldn't fall asleep because we were tested on it at the end. This doesn't sound very hard, but when you only got about 3 hours of sleep and had done extremely physically streatching evolutions in 95 degree weather it became very difficult. If these tests were failed you also suffered the consequences. Sometimes, you were forced to ring out. There were several different times that you had to do PT (Pysical Trainging). During the night we had what is known as the Sleep No Sleep Cycle. We were allowed to get into our sleeping bags to "sleep." What happened was we laid down for 7 minutes and then we were called up again. Then we had to run to a pool of cold water and dunk our heads in. On the last night we had to completely immerse oursleves in the pool. We didn't actully get any sleeping during this evolution. If you didn't know, it takes the human body approximately 7 minutes to fall asleep. We had to eat absolutely disgusting food. The food that we were fed for our normal meals wasn't that great either. There was a hill that we had to roll over and over for about an hour. Yes, there was lots of throw up over the hill, and yes, we did roll through it. There was the OC (Obstacle Course), which was physically challening yet fun. It was in a giant pit of Texas red dirt. There were several walls you had to climb over, tunnels with mud and water you had to low crawl through, nets up walls you had to climb, barrels you had to carry, ropes you had to swing on, tires you had to hop through, ropes you had to low crawl under, and a giant mud puddle you had to run through. You had to do all of this as quickly as possible. There were the Slimming Marches. You marched in complete silence in the military fasion for about an hour. There was Hide and Seek. During this your company split up into singles or pairs. You then had to cross a vast area of forest and get to the other side, whithout being caught by the facilitators hiding in the trees. If you did get caught, well, may God be with you. These are only some of the MANY evolutions that we were forced to go through during ESOAL.
God taught me so much during ESOAL.
There were several different areas of my life that God dealt with me, and I'm still continuing to learn. One of these things is my pride. During ESOAL I saw how much pride I had in my life. I wanted to do everything on my own and without the help of people in my platoon. I thought that I could handle everything on my own. The night that I reached BAR I realized that I couldn't contine without the people in my company. I had to remember that EVERYONE was better than me. If they were not there to help me along the way, I would not have survived through ESOAL. God also showed me that I never truly put others above myself. There are so many times that we think in our minds that we are putting others first. We convice ourselves that we are doing this because it is the good Christian thing to do. However, rarely is putting others first and serving thing a lifestlye and truth in your heart. I wanted to do my thing and not have to help others. I was concentrating only on myself surving ESOAL.
Truthfully, I didn't really care if the others made it. God knocked my upside the head and showed me how my heart truly was. Putting others first is now something that I am continuing to work on every day.
I learned how selfish I am. Before ESOAL I didn't really consider myself a selfish person, but I was wrong. Every time that I wallowed in self pity or my circumstances, or concentrated on how I was feeling, or throught about what I could do to make it through, I was being selfish. I wasn't putting others before myself. God worked in me in incredible ways during ESOAL. These are only some of the many issues that God taught me. I am continuing to learn, grow in, and practice these principles in my every day life. I thank God that I went through ESOAL. It was the most streatching thing that I have ever done. I was being streached physcially, emotionally, and spiritually all at the same time. It truly was an opportunity of a lifetime.