GARDEN VALLEY (KYTX) -- It's the end of the road for a controversial spiritual boot-camp program at Teen Mania Ministries near Garden Valley. Leaders there have decided to cancel "PEARL" (Physical and Emotional Relational Learning) which used to be called "ESOAL" (Emotionally Stretching Opportunity of a Lifetime).
This would have been the thirteenth year that ESOAL or PEARL would have been in operation at Teen Mania. The ministry has always said that its program is supposed to be something that strengthens participants' relationship with God. But it has come under fire recently. Now Teen Mania has released a statement criticizing the "secular media" for getting it all wrong.
The modern miracle of the Internet is what gave thousands of outsiders a look inside the very private gates of Teen Mania Ministries. ESOAL was a once a year physical and mental boot-camp experience.
To many, the videos looked scary and, perhaps, not like their own vision of Christianity. At CBS 19 we've heard from people who called teen mania everything from abusive to a flat out scam.
"It kind of hurts my heart," Danielle Tramontozzi said. "It just makes me sad because I loved it so much."
Tramontozzi went through ESOAL not once, but twice.
"You're always thinking through ESOAL," she said. "Am I in my line? Am I standing straight? Am I saluting? Am I at rest? What ever it is."
The second time she did it, in 2010, Tramontozzi said she got even more out of it than she did the first time, which was in 2007.
"It's one of those things where, not that you do for yourself, but it's like one of these challenges. 'I want to see what I'm made of. What's inside of me? What can I handle?' Sometimes people surprise themselves," she said.
Teen Mania released the following statement Friday:
ESOAL was started in 1999, and it was an incredible event. The lessons it imparted – of strengthening our character and reliance on God when we go through difficult times – were fantastic. Over the years, we worked to innovate and improve how ESOAL was conducted. We collected feedback, took input and structured and re-structured the event so it had the greatest impact possible in the lives of everyone who participated.
Then in 2011, we changed ESOAL so dramatically that we decided to change the name to PEARL. Even though many of the events were different, the lessons and goals were similar.
Unfortunately, the secular media did not understand – or even try to understand – what ESOAL and PEARL were all about. Neither did they do their due diligence and research our event properly. They didn't talk to the thousands who have come through the event with positive experiences. They ignored all of the positive testimonies of parents and youth pastors who came to see first-hand and even participate in ESOAL and PEARL over the years, even though those stories were offered to them.
So, this life-changing 90-hour event has been greatly mis-characterized and has resulted in the entire HA internship year being publicly maligned. We are saddened by what has resulted, and we want to make sure that all of the great things happening at the HA, at GE, at ATF – all of the lives being transformed by the Lord through these ministries — is the story that gets told.
So, the leadership at the Honor Academy has decided, starting this year, to suspend PEARL indefinitely.
While we are sad to have to take this step, we are confident that the creativity and passion embodied by the HA leadership and staff will mean those lessons learned through ESOAL and PEARL will still be taught. We don't know what shape that will take, but we are confident that with this change will come great new opportunities to seek the Lord and His will.
