PYA 2003 - Wednesday, June 18th

Breakfast -- Yes, as usual, that is how we started Wednesday out, followed by a personal devotion time. After the devotion time, we had a praise & worship time before the seminars.

The morning seminars were started out with a short skit -- part of which, the students were challenged mentally (top two pictures). Andrew Conrad followed the skit and spoke on "Siezing the Day". Andrew emphasized to the students to be very clear on what their youth group's mission is and to understand what that means -- be able to answer the question "Why are we here?" Danny Mitchell spoke on Mercy Ministry, immediately following Andrew. Danny defined Mecy to be a kind or compassionate treatment given to someone who doesn't deserve it. Five points were touched on; God has a heart of mercy; God desires his people to be a people of mercy; The core of mercy is love -> Mercy without love are just social programs; Mercy is given through action; You must get beyond American culture. Dean Conkel followed Danny with a brief message on leadership, stressing that integrity and character DO matter!

After lunch, the groups split up and went out to do street evangelism, mercy ministry and hiking. Today, I started out by going to the mercy ministry location. The location was the home of a widow. The work this week at the house was first to paint the house and second ly to do some yard work (clear trees, shrubs, etc.). Even though there was a heavy rain storm, our students were still eager to work -- while getting very wet (bottom-right above).

After spending some time with the mercy ministry group, I left to visit the street evangelism group. Due to the rain, I was unsure how many people would be in the park for the street evangelism team to talk to. However, God had a few people in mind even with the bad weather. The students were actively speaking with anyone willing to talk to them.

After the students returned from their activity location, they were given free time until dinner. Following dinner was a quick target practice session -- target practice with flour in nylons, that is! Students were split by their castes and each student was able to 'launch' twice, scoring the best of the two.

After the evening activity, the students headed for praise & worship. The time started with the graduating seniors who will be attending Covenant College this fall (above). Anthoney Bradley spoke to the students and the evening was wrapped up with an extened time of prayer.