LDS seminary class challenge reaches youths around the world
By Jennifer Autry, KSL.com Contributor
January 25th, 2015 @ 9:02am
MONROE, Ga. — Seminary teacher Rachel Murphy’s armor of God challenge started with just one LDS seminary class, but now, it has unified seminary students in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world.
Last October, Murphy read a quote by Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles that inspired her to issue the challenge. The quote compared chain mail to spiritual armor.
“.. it has been my experience that there is not one great and grand thing we can do to arm ourselves spiritually,” Ballard said. “True spiritual power lies in numerous smaller acts woven together in a fabric of spiritual fortification that protects and shields from all evil.”
Early the next morning, Murphy was teaching her high school students in Monroe, Georgia and challenged them to come up with 100 different ways to put on the armor of God, write them on strips of paper and link them together in a chain. They were excited and quickly worked together to accomplish the challenge, Murphy said.
Murphy then issued the challenge to over 100 other seminary teachers via Facebook, asking that they send the completed links to her. Two weeks later, the packages and envelopes started arriving and have continued to arrive long after the original Dec. 1 deadline. Her laundry room became the storage place for these packages stacked now from floor to ceiling, Murphy said.
