Quest`s FIRST CAMP...

Yeah, it finally happened!!! Team Quest had the privilege of training our first 13 staff members. God looked after all the details for us. We rented a Baptist Church retreat centre and invited our friends Gilmar and Nika Pieper to cook for us and off we went. Our team worked long and hard preparing an amazing program including cooperative activities, training sessions and much time for spiritual growth. Here are some pics for you to enjoy!!! This is the whole group. Permanent staff, campers and volunteer staff. 35 people in all.
Our kids volunteered in the tuck shop and were very responsible.
The first night, we were privileged to cast the vision that God has given us for Quest. They caught it with enthusiasm!!!
Shannon, Patsy and Becky celebrating " the launching" of Quest!!!
We unveiled our next summer's theme, which is Indiana Jones and the Sword of the Kingdom. The next Indiana Jones movie is being released here in Brazil at the end of December, so for January it will be a very relevant theme. The week will be full of adventures and treasure maps in order to find the powerful sword, which in the end is referring to the Word of God. Our "sword" is powerful and meant to be used!!!

Our precious friends from Rio Grande do Sul who sacrificed and travelled many hours to help launch Quest.

If you want to see more pics and read the latest news, feel free to check out the Quest website

www.questbr.com

God's Message to Quest...

Thanks for taking the time to read this beautiful message of encouragement that a dear friend sent Team Quest many months ago. Today the words are so meaningful to us. When you pray for Team Quest, if God gives you a word, message or scripture passage, please feel free to send them on to us. God uses you, our complete TEAM to speak to us. Thanks for your support.

This week my mind has been centered around things of Quest, and I have been
praying earnestly that God would grant words of wisdom that I could share
with you. I understand that I am not one of the main decision makers, but I
do believe that God does use outsiders to deliver messages, as I know you
believe as well. After many hours of prayer and seeking, I feel I do not
have an answer as to what you should be doing, or purchasing, or which
decisions should be made... but rather, I feel as though it is more my place
to just encourage you spur you on in these times. Yesterday in my
devotional I read about Spiritual Perserverance, and I would like to put the
whole substance of the devotional in this e-mail, in hopes that you too may
be encouraged through it.

"Perserverance is more than endurance. It is endurance combined with
absolute assurance and certainty that what we are looking for is going to
happen. Perserverance means more than just hanging on, which may be only
exposing our fear of letting go and falling. Perserverance is our supreme
effort of refusing to believe that our hero is going to be conquered. Our
greatest fear is not that we will be damned, but that somehow Jesus Christ
will be defeated. Also, our fear is that the very things our Lord stood for
- love, justice, forgiveness, and kindness among men - will win out in the
end and will represent an unattainable goal for us. Then there is the call
to spiritual perserverance. A call not to hang on and do nothing, but to
work deliberately, knowing with certainty that God will never be defeated.
If our hopes seem to be experiencing dissapointment right now, it simply
means that they are being purified. Every hope or dream of the human mind
will be fulfilled if it is noble and of God. But one of the greatest
stresses in life is the stress of waiting for God. He brings fulfillment,
"because you have kept my command to perservere..." (Rev 3:10).
Continue to perservere spiritually."

After reading this devotional, I was reminded of the e-mail you sent
regarding waiting on God, and how it is not right to rush nor manipulate his
timing. And I truly believe that God will make known at the proper time,
exactly what he is wanting you to persue and take hold of, and when he wants
you to do it.

I also want to throw in another thing here. As I was praying and fasting on
Wednesday, I was praying for a word for Quest, and he gave me the word
"REDEMPTION". At first I thought the word to be odd, and did not what it
meant. So I started thinking of what it means to be redeemed.... things
like being made new, or to get back came to mind. But being curious about
this, I explored further in the dictionary, and found meanings like "set
free; rescued; saved; delivered; liberated; made good; carried out; a
deliverance or rescue." This was still not quite what I was looking
for...still I needed guidance. So I looked through the concordance, looking
up verses on redemption, and three stood out to me. Psalm 130:7, Isaiah
353:9 and Exodus 6:6. Upon reading them, I began to recieve a greater
understanding of what this word might mean. I do not want to spiritualize
things and say that the verses I just mentioned are directly relating to
Quest. But thorugh them I came to a clearer understanding. I do believe
that this is one more assurance to us, that God is taking back things for
his glory through Quest, and by redeeming what seemed to be lost. I urge
you to pray as well and see what this word means to you, and to Quest. To
see what God lays on your heart. I myself feel it is yet one more
confirmation that things are moving in the right direction.

As things continue to come together, be encouraged! There will be hard
times, and decisions that will seem to not quite make sense, but you know
they are the right ones to make. God is not always predictable. Continue
to be sensitive to his leading, like I know you are. Be the example of
Servant Leaders that Chirst has called us to be. Stand firm, daily seeking
Christs vision, and not mans. There will come a time when God will rise
things up, and there will be such tension as things begin to come together,
and made ready to be put into action...And just as a woman has her pains
before childbirth, there will be such joy and great reward when the new
creation in Christ comes to life.

Be encouraged. Be blessed.