Our new blog starting January 2006

Well, we started a new blog in January of 2006. You can find it here:

www.thequestcolumbus.blogspot.com

LIFE BOX Project a Success

In partnership with the Powell Grace Brethren Church we provided a LIFEBOX for every student at the Second Avenue Elementary School--. It's our goal to share "stuff for life"--learning, healthy and fun stuff and the stuff of LIFE in Jesus.

It was awesome to watch kids go crazy opening their boxes. Enjoy the pics and the precious thank you notes below.

it was a blur

more happy faces

fast and furious

tearing the LIFE BOX open

happy LIFE BOX openers!

excited

A thank you letter

Terrence's letter


the Translation:

Dear The Quest Church,

Thank you for making us boxs and thank you for all the hard work that your church did. Thank you for custom making our boxs. I appreciate how much time you spent on our boxs. Thank you for all the stuff you got me. Thank you for getting our school those boxes and thank you for getting me the buckeye colored gloves.

Thank you,
Terrence

A thank you letter

Shanique's thank you click on it to see it


Here's the translation:

Dr. Mr. Mike,

Thank You for that pink purse with my lotion in it. how did you no that Pink is my favorite color. Hey, maybe I can make you sumthing speshol (special). I wish you can be my dad can you do that next year

Love,
Shanique

11.02.05 thequest email UPdate

thequest family,

This week I want to introduce you to a year long emphasis we are going to have looking forward--our HARVEST PRAYER Project.

What is the Harvest Prayer Project?

An organized effort by thequest family to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to see people come to know Jesus personally and become workers cast out into the harvest fields.

How do I become a part of the Harvest Prayer Project?

Identify 3 households that you will regularly pray for over the next year that they will become followers of Jesus and workers in the harvest fields. [Target3]

Pray at least 5 times per week to the Lord of the Harvest begging for workers (including your Target3 and others from your house church). [Ten2b virus]

Let us know the names of the three households you will be praying for. The first collection of those names will be at our Thanksgiving Brunch Assembly on Sun. Nov. 20.

Why households and not just individuals?
Because we want to see whole families/households be reached for Jesus and become workers in His fields. The Early church has several example of this: Lydia and the Phillippian jailer and their households became the start of the church in Philippi (Acts 16). We want to pray that God will reach and release a whole “oikos.” We also understand that some households are individuals.

Where will the names of my 3 households go?
We will form a list as house churches and as a network of house churches to pray as a community for these as well. We will be discreet with these names to respect privacy, but be assured we will pray for them and for you as God leads you in relating to these people!

Why is the commitment for a year?
Next Thanksgiving we will have a Harvest Party to celebrate how God has answered our prayers. We normally have Harvest Parties in the fall…we are just going to pray and work toward next year’s party!

Why pray for workers, not just to get them saved?
Because Jesus said to beg Him for workers, not just converts. We are praying for people to be good soil that will produce a crop 30-fold, 60-fold or 100-fold as Jesus talked about in the parable of the soils (Matthew 13).

Why is it a project?
Because of the definitions of the word:
proj·ect n.
1. A plan or proposal;
2. An undertaking requiring concerted effort.

This is an undertaking requiring a plan and concerted effort. That’s why it’s a project. The people aren’t projects. The Harvest is the goal. The work is done through prayer. The plan is a project.

~~~

That is an introduction to the HARVEST PRAYER Project. I trust that you and Jesus will begin to discuss who the 3 households He wants you to pray for will be. I wanted to give you a few weeks to think and pray about it before we get together on the 20th to begin putting our list together.

Press on,
Mike

10.26.05 thequest email UPdate

thequest family,

11,708 days.

That's a long time.

That's a long time to do something.

In fact, that is my whole life...including today.

I was struck in my personal time with the Lord last week about God being the Great Provider. As I was musing, I remembered the Psalms as I was reflecting. Often the Psalmist looked backward to count God's faithfulness.

It hit me that my birthday was in the recent past...so even my marginal math ability might allow me to figure out how many days I had been alive. So I figured it out.

I was blown away. I wrote in HUGE letters in my journal-- WOW THANK YOU!

Every single one of those days, the Lord has done something for me. He has provided. To my knowledge, I have never been without food or shelter or clothes any of those days. WOW. What an amazing privilege and amazing work of God.

Certainly my parents would know better about those first several years. We never had a lot, but the things I needed, the Lord has always provided--as an infant, child and as an adult. I guess as I have seen pictures and video of the victims of hurricanes, earthquakes, poverty and more around our globe...I'm warmed with a deep sense of gratitude.

I know it's still a month till Thanksgiving, but I'm very thankful already! Besides this verse rings true:

No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT


Press on,
Mike

10.20.05 thequest email UPdate

thequest family,

This past Sunday in the INSTITUTE we were talking about being dependent on God. The practical piece for application that was suggested to foster dependence was to pray. Sounds pretty basic huh. Here's the quote that zinged the point home:

“We may assent to the fact that we are dependent on Christ, but if our prayer life is meager or perfunctory, we thereby deny it. We are in effect saying we can handle most of our spiritual life with our own self-discipline and perceived innate goodness.” (pg 86 of Growing Your Faith)

The next step in our discussion was to plan some times this week to spend in prayer. If you are like me good intentions typically only get me to ..."well, I should do that"... and then I don't. So we made a little time to make a plan--to have an appointment with Jesus.


On Monday, I got the following email:

"I wanted to say thanks for that idea you presented yesterday morning about making an appointment to meet with Jesus as if we would make an appointment with anyone else for work or with friends.I had made mine for 9 am this morning as I don’t start work on Mondays now until 11 am. I was running late as I was preparing a little for a meeting I had at work at 11 and was going to skip my time and make it up later but then the idea of keeping the appointment with Jesus popped in my head and I thought of whether I would just put someone at work or a friend off that way and the answer was no, so I made myself stop and keep the appointment with Jesus for a time of Bible reading and prayer. It calmed down the rushing I was doing and the meeting went fine.

But the main thing was that I did not blow it off. It made me start thinking, "why I would blow off an appointment with Jesus," which I often do. At the same time, I had never thought of it as an appointment before, but I would never think of doing that with say someone like you unless there was some emergency.

So I think this concept is something I will continue to follow even after this week-just writing it into my work calendar for everyday.I like these practical kinds of ways to make Christianity real to me. So thanks."

Would you like to set up an appointment or two with Jesus for the next few days? He would love it if you would. He's just waiting for you to make the time. Enjoy some sweet time together.

Press on,
Mike