Published
December 2001.
Hi,
I'm writing a sort of a generic letter to everyone I know
who has an inkling of what I do. I'm certain that it isn't always clear just what it is I
do, but that's okay because it's such a terribly personal thing, and I am quite certain of
what it is I am up too. I am returning my mind to the full awareness of God in me, and I'm
doing that for everyone along with me.
I want to get the unpleasant part of this over with, and it's not
really that awful. It's unpleasant in my own reluctance to ask for help which is something
I need to get over. I need to get over myself.
It is or isn't common knowledge now that Endeavor Academy
has been going through the process of foreclosure on it's properties. The Academy, Healing
Center, restaurant, and various housing properties are all part of an overwhelming debt
that we have been unable to keep up with the mortgages on for quite a long time. I believe
that the Healing Center and restaurant are safe from the foreclosure action. But it was
sure that we were going to lose the Academy through this foreclosure which has been of
great concern to us all, and though we were resigned to the probability that it would
eventually occur, we were always anticipating the miracle as well. The Academy isn't a
place separate from me that I attend. It's my academy. It's mine to keep open and keep
offering or mine to lose. I want to keep it open!
The Academy location is the central facility for all of our
programs. The meeting place, the kitchen and dining facility, housing for 80 plus students
and the location of all of the communication aspects of our work. The Prison Ministry, A
Course in Miracles International, printing and distributing the written materials, all of
the filming, reproducing and distributing of tapes. It was the point of entry for me
personally in my own awakening experience, and for hundreds of others who share this
experience with me.
We have been given by the bank that holds the mortgage, an
opportunity to pay off the entirety of the debt on the Academy itself, releasing it from
the threat of the foreclosure. If we can come up with $300,000 US by the 20th January [2002], we can own the Academy facility outright. Then whatever
happens to the other properties is irrelevant to us in the fulfilling of our purpose here.
$300,000 sounds like an astronomical figure to me, considering we
haven't as a group been able to keep up with our food bills consistently enough to be able
to keep luxuries like coffee on the shopping list, or pay for paper for the Xerox machine!
But it has been put to us that the debt is really quite small individually if we can each
contribute an equal share. Most of us have been living the sort of hand to mouth existence
materially that you would expect, but we are each pledging our share if we see ourselves
able to, and begging or borrowing whatever is necessary to cover the cost. We've come into
this position of incredible debt because we've never asked for anything in return for our
service, which is as it should be. Now I'm being asked to give personally just a bit more,
rather than to retreatand brace myself for the loss. It's an interesting situation,
considering that we all were resigned to letting it go. We never committed fully to saving
it. Let's give that a try! It feels great to me. I'm tired of being afraid of giving away
my little bit of nothing!
I can pay outright for most of my pledge, but it is going to take
literally everything that I own in the world to do it. It's an interesting thing for me to
consider. I have already had to learn to accept little gifts here and there in order to
remain associated with the Academy, and live a lifestyle that enables me to pursue the
mind training above all else. I always feel like accepting help is such a big deal and it
never gets easy for me. I forgot that literally the gift of my life was given me. It
happened through the revelation of God in my darkest moment, and the training to stay in
the perception of my world that that revelation afforded me was offered to me immediately
by "A Course in Miracles", at that academy. I was woken up from my nightmare,
and taken directly to the place where the errors in my thinking that made the world a
nightmare for me would be undone.
Dear God, how do I put a price on that? Who woke me up? Who took me to that place?
I've never been asked for anything in return. Only that I remain
awake and spread my joy of awakening. That's how Jesus works in you and I.
I'm simply asking for donations toward my pledge toward paying off
the Academy property, I guess it's not as melodramatic as it seems to me. Any one who
knows me, or knows of the Academy, or has been touched by EA materials or by the "A
Course in Miracles" itself, or had the revelation of their real relationship with
their Father, is a target for this request. Anything you can offer would be gratefully
received. I don't have a very long list of people to contact and everyone on it is pretty
much limited in their resources as well, so I don't really have an expectation of
collecting money from anyone. But I do feel good about making this personal contact about
what is actually the thing in the world that is the dearest to my heart, and what is
occurring with it and with me. I have been given the one thing that everyone in the world
is looking for, this is the means by which I have been given to offer it to everyone, and
I hope to keep it available.
If you can't help in any material way, just continue to give me your love and support, you must know how I feel and appreciate that. I know you
don't always realize just what it is you do, but when you offer me your love and accept
mine for you without conditions, the Kingdom is complete in us. That's all it is.
Thanks, I love you!
Mark
markpierre@hotmail.com