Personal Narrative: My Experience At Worldview Academy

One year, I tagged along with my parents when they drove my brother and sister to Worldview Academy. Unfortunately, I forgot about the incident. That all changed, though, when I found myself enrolled at the same academy my siblings had previously attended. Since then, I have returned three times and this year served as my third and final “term”. After my enrollment, I concluded that I had discovered an anomaly, for I had never found myself more comfortable in a crowd of perfect strangers, nor so intrigued with academic subjects or experienced such an exhilarating time evangelizing as I had at the academy.
Even as an, extrovert I have felt uncomfortable in the presence of strangers, but Worldview created a unique environment that made social adaption unnecessary. For example, arriving students usually found themselves mobbed by enthusiastic red-shirted staffers, who would welcome them and transport their luggage to the appropriate dorms. Sadly, I missed this “aggressive” reception having arrived a full hour earlier. In spite of

this, my redheaded leader, Caleb, warmly greeted me and introduced himself before he rushed off to his prearranged welcoming position. This one instance represented the whole mindset of the rest of the people attending, including the other counselors, the faculty, and even the students. Everyone expressed an openness and friendliness that I have not discovered anywhere else.
Despite the fact that I used to hate school, the topics discussed at the academy intrigued me.

Consequently, I enjoyed the lectures, which constituted for about twenty-six hours of the week. I learned about leadership and its five pillars (meekness, integrity, vision, attitude, and empowerment), apologetics, evangelism, world religions, and much more. Five different lecturers spoke, and each one appeared to have specialized in one of the three modes of persuasion. Randy Sims appealed to the ethos, while Dell Cook pleaded with the pathos, and Andy Frye and August Huckabee presented the logos. Last but not least, Chris Sharp simultaneously lectured with all three in mind. By the end of each day, my brain would fatigue because of the mental effort required to track with and absorb all of the information, but I loved the feeling. Doubtless, all of the lessons intrigued, convicted, and encouraged me like nothing I had every experience

before.
In the middle of the week on Wednesday, Caleb and another lady staffer split our small groups into parties of three or four for evangelism. Immediately after lunch, the first wave of witnesses climbed into a yellow school bus, which drove us to a section of Old Sacramento. From there, everyone scattered to question strangers about what they believed occurred after death. Carter and I discovered that we used two conflicting methods of evangelism. He would provide historical and logical evidence for his argument, while I supported mine by using the Bible. Regardless, we still shared the Gospel and actually held some interesting and productive conversations with several people. In the end, I had never experience such an exhilarating time evangelizing; my church’s camp does not even provide this.
In conclusion, my week at Worldview Academy played an important role in my life and established an epoch in my timeline. Since I have listened to all three faculty teams, which rotate every year, my mother decided that should I no longer attend the academy. If I had the choice, though, I would definitely return, because I did not require an adjustment to society, an exhortation to learn, or an invitation to witness at Worldview Academy. It just naturally happened. All the people I met, the things I learned, and the time I spent evangelizing convicted, impacted, and hopefully transformed me. No academy like it exists; none whatsoever. If I find another one, I will have to write another essay.