When The Rain Pours

Hey All, 

This is a story I wrote for Teen Mania's Marketing department about ESOAL.

Leave me comments on what you think, as well as any memories that come up while you read.

The rain comes down from the black skies above, falling from invisibility to drench the world beneath its unforgiving onslaught. Our friend the sun...

Well, unfortunately, the sun refuses to show itself on this “field of battle.” The persistent darkness, along with the perpetual downpour has kept me from videotaping today, and so my editors will have to make do with a written account of this event. I'm standing on a grass berm, overlooking a slightly run down football field, it's about six o'clock on the morning. The only light comes from the few unbroken stadium lights, struggling to pierce the darkness. It illuminates a muddy hundred people, some trying to grab some sleep on the northern edge of the field, others running back and forth, doing various exercises under the close watch of another group, dressed mostly in fatigues, with the odd spattering of black T-shirts and cargo pants. It seems to be a military affair, but is strangely out of place on this back-woods campus run by the Christian ministry known as Teen Mania. Prominent on the field is a large, Liberty-style brass bell, positioned in front of a wooden stage at the 50 yard sideline. The group gathered around this structure seem to be in charge, so I head over to them to get the scoop on what exactly is going on.

Fweep!

The sharp whistle comes from a lone facilitator. A group that was sleeping quickly rouses themselves and sprints over to him, assembling themselves in sharp lines and finally coming to attention.

“Too slow!” the facilitator barks, “Drop!” Pacing back and forth, the group positioned for push-ups, he continues, “Two whistles, you army crawl towards me. One whistle you stop.”

Fweep! Fweep!

Grunts erupt as everyone drops to their stomachs and begins to crawl.

“A little sleep, a little slumber, and poverty will come on you like a bandit. That's Proverbs right there. You all need to be sharp.” He walks casually around, leading the mass of bodies in slow circles. “You love sleep too much. Even now some of you are thinking about your nice warm bed back in the dorms.” Fweep! “Get it through your heads, you are not here on earth to sleep.” Fweep! Fweep! “This proverb applies spiritually as well. Think about it.”

As I make my way past the crawling mass of people, one young girl groans, pushes herself to her feet, and walks off toward the bell. Interested to see what happens, I trail her to where the “officers” are gathered.

“General Hasz?” she says, “I'm done, I want to ring out.”

She is addressing one of the men under the stage awning, a strong looking guy in conventional army colors. He looks to be in his mid forties.

“Two-Oh-Three is it?” She nods, “Tell me, why do you want to ring out?”

Painted on her helmet is the number 203, somewhat faded by the rain. She is soaked through and shivering slightly, makeup trailing down her face like camouflage paint.

“Sir, I cannot continue, sir” She says, at sharp attention, eyes straight ahead.

“Okay,” is the reply, “at ease. Let's talk about this, what's going through your mind?”

“I'm c-cold,” she stammers, “and I'm wet, and I'm just so tired. Tonight has been horrible, I couldn't sleep because I was shivering so bad, and now we're army crawling. I can't put up with this any more. I just want it to be over.”

“Did you come out here to ESOAL expecting it to be fun?” Hasz asks.

“No sir.”

“Well then, why are you here?”

“Umm... what do you m-mean, sir?” 203 is falling asleep on her feet, her eyes drooping as she struggles to pay attention to the General.

“You came out here expecting this to be difficult, right?” A nod. “If you expected difficult, and you don't enjoy difficult, there had to be something else you were going for, right?”

“I guess so...” 203 is barely hanging on, “I guess I came out 'cause of my family core. I wanted to help them through this thing, as their ACA. People said it'd be hard and so I figured I could encourage my family to keep going.”

As she finishes talking, another facilitator approaches. She's holding a thermometer, takes 203's temperature, and reports to the general.

“Alright, well, medically you're fine.” General Hasz hops down from the platform and walks over to stand next to 203, facing the group bear crawling the field. “That's your family core?” he points.

“Yeah”

“They look pretty run down, don't you think?” He has a point, the group is moving at a snail's pace. A few have given up, collapsed on the ground. “Does it look to you like they need encouraging?”

“I guess...”

“If you were to ring out now, how many of them do you think would follow you? You're there to hold your team together. You are their glue. You need to forget about how uncomfortable you are, realize that everyone else is in the same boat, and help them press forward. Does that make sense?”

203 shrugs, “Yeah, I guess it does.”

“Well then, Miss Encourager, what are you doing still standing here? Get back to your company.”

“Yes, sir!” 203 says as she turns and jogs back to her group. I hear her yell, “Come on guys! Lets go! We got this!” as she drops down, squeezing someone's shoulder and starting to crawl.

I turn to the Honor Academy's director, Mr. David Hasz, the “General” who gave me permission to do this story. “Does that happen a lot?” I ask.

“Oh yeah, at least 4 or five times every night, and then some more during the day. Not all of them have her strength. Most don't have a reason to keep going, or can't find one in time. A lot of them ring. But she'll make it, if she can keep focused.”

Over the next day and a half I watched this group of interns go through the rigorous gauntlet known as ESOAL, and was amazed at what they would put up with. One facilitator, when asked about his experience, told me, “Yes, ESOAL was hard, and yeah, it wasn't fun. But even though almost no one liked it, the redeeming value,” he said, “is that it brought people together. It formed a bond that has lasted me years. Oh, and it lets you know you can put up with a lot more than you think you can.”

Although personally, I'm not sure I would put myself through this craziness, only a fool can miss the value in it. Determination and tenacity, the unwillingness to quit, and the selfless nature of a team spirit are all rare characteristics in the world of today. Teen Mania has realized this and seeks to remedy it with the “Emotionally Stretching Opportunity of a Lifetime.” Their methods? A little bit on the unconventional side. Their results? Well, get to know an intern who finished ESOAL. I would let the results speak for themselves.