My name is Cristina Marin-Aponte. I did my challenge in November 2009 and I sat at the Pink Elephants table. I found out about Challenge through my parish priest. He had been involved when he was younger and told me it was a good community to meet other young Catholics. I wasn't to sure about going because that would mean I would spend my weekend with a bunch of strangers, but, I got over my shyness and just took the Challenge! It was one of the best decisions I ever made and it opened a whole new world for me.
My Challenge retreat was absolutely amazing even though I didn’t know anyone on my weekend. I was so surprised to see so many young Catholics just like me. They were all so welcoming and genuinely nice! I thought it was a little odd at first... There was a lot of singing involved and at the time, singing was not my thing. Let's just say Challenge grew on me and I've learned to love it!
Since that mind blowing weekend in 2009 I've been very involved in Challenge. I've been able to lead Ultreyas on topics such as Opus Dei, Love, Prayer, Happiness and the Rosary. I was surprised to see the amount of people that attended Ultreyas. In Challenge, there is always this great thirst to know more about our Catholic Faith. It's beautiful to see so many young people grow together in their Faith and help each other along the way.
One of my favourite Challenge moments was on the Challenge 24 weekend. It was about midnight and everyone was enjoying a late night snack. The music director and another Challenger pulled out their guitars and started to jam. Everyone started singing songs from Lean on me to the Backstreet Boys. It gave everyone this sense of community. I realized that we are the Challenge movement. We're all so different; we come from different backgrounds, we all speak different languages but there's one thing that we have in common: We all share the same Faith. The Catholic Church is indeed universal and you can clearly see that in Challenge.
