day 2

this morning, breakfast was served from 7-9 am. most of us dragged out of bed around 8. after breakfast, we went to the morning gathering at 9:30. Nick Hall gave a great talk on being merciful. In Matthew 5:7, it says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." He said, "Mercy must be experienced before it can be given." we learned about the five components on mercy: awareness, compassion, action, status, and experience. God shows us mercy every day of our lives, yet we have trouble showing any empath or mercy on others in our own lives. we need to work on filling out hearts with what is in God's heart: mercy. after the morning gathering, we had lunch. we split up into groups of 2 or 3 people and all sat with different groups. it was so fun and interesting to meet other people - there are people from so many states here.

after lunch, we went to a workshop on Urban Outreach in the city. they showed us videos on reaching out to the homeless, and we learned about the work we will start tomorrow out in the city with other groups. we were taught a slogan, "charity changes when we work together, when we work together, charity changes." we also learned about how to serve people without taking away their dignity. after our workshop, us BABES went to a seminar called Desirable Beauty... learning about how God sees us through his eyes. Psalm 45:11 says, "the king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord." Emily Dunham, the speaker, inpired us all by pounding into our brains how beautiful we are in the eyes of our creator. the media is very degrading towards girls now, and we learned different today. the guys played sports and went to seminars of their choice.

after our afternoon options, we went to dinner and some of us went to prayer team. then, we had our evening gathering. Geoff Safford spoke about mourning. Matthew 5:4 says, "blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." he talked about mourning for sin and having spiritual sorrow over sin. tonight, we were offered the choice to give our life to God or recommit. it was really cool! it seemed like there were a lot of new adoptees of God tonight.

then, starfield came back for a concert tonight! it was way cool to have them back again, since we had them every day in Salt Lake. Kristian Stanfill is a great artist, but it was awesome to have them for a few songs. a few people in the group made signs and hung out in the mosh.

it's been a great first day! we are all way excited for the rest of the week and to see what God has to say. :)

sarah christjans

DAY 1

today, we left park city at 5:30 in the morning. yeah, that means that we had to wake up at 4:30. anyways, our flights went fine and we arrived at columbus only 45 min. delay. (because of rain in
Houston). We got to the hotel (which is pretty great.) and we had our first rally tonight. The rally was really cool. There was a bunch of flashy lights and Kristian Stanfill (the musical group) did a really great job. We learned about being poor in spirit. The speaker (Geoff Safford) told us how even though we have every material thing we need, that doesn't mean that we have a great relationship with christ. He also explained how people who have given (or are willing to give) their material things away for God will inherit the kingdom. After the rally we walked around downtown columbus for a while to find some dinner (10:45pm) and then back to the hotel for a littl sleep. Awesome first day, can't wait till tomorrow!

Michael Casey

Before we go!

Well 2 years have ticked by and it is time again for MLC Student Ministries to participate in and experience Challenge. We have 20 students and 5 adults going to Columbus, Ohio and we are all so excited for to join the other 5,000 people who will gather with us. As we make final preparations to depart, will you please join with us on your knees and pray for our group that we would have soft and moldable hearts and that we would be able to leave behind distractions that would keep us from seeing God in a new and powerful way. Monday we have a very busy schedule - please pray that we make our connections and arrive safely and on time. Come back everyday to keep up with what we are doing during the week. Thanks for being a part of this!!!