Quest Participants Discover “How God Is Working” From International Missions Experiences
When Joliz Cotto traveled from Connecticut to Scotland in February, it turned out to be much more than an interesting mid-winter break from her school routines. Rather, the cross-cultural Christ-focused learning experience, she said, “helped give me clarity on how God can use me to glorify him, if I just step out of my comfort zone. I was blessed to be able to go on mission to Scotland and make friends that will last a lifetime.”
The high school junior from Friendship Baptist Church in Litchfield, MA experienced what she describes as “an amazing opportunity where I was able to see how God is working in ministries all over the world.”
Along with six other youth and four faculty, Cotto visited Glasgow February 17-25, 2023, to partner with Dennistoun Baptist Church, a growing, vibrant, and multicultural congregation. The New England team participated in prayer walking around neighborhoods to seek God’s purposes. They also led worship Sunday evening and assisted the church leaders in Sunday School classes, soccer games, and other ministry initiatives.
Joliz Cotto speaking with Vivi during an ESOL class
While serving in an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) class, Cotto met a woman named Vivi, who had moved to Glasgow from Chile. Vivi said she had stopped practicing Roman Catholicism after leaving Chile because, according to Cotto, she “felt things would never go her way.” The Connecticut teen prayed “that God would soften her (Vivi’s) heart and that she would be receptive to the good news of the Lord.” The next day they read a passage from Romans and, as a result, Vivi decided to read a Bible verse each day because, added Cotto, she “felt that it would give her peace.”
“This was so awesome to see how God really does answer prayers and can work through language barriers,” Cotto reflected. “It was also a way for me to step out of my comfort zone and use Spanish to share Christ with others.”
Meanwhile, other teams of “Questies,” as they are called, were busy serving as Christ’s ambassadors in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
Caio De Souza, a high school junior from Igreja Batista Nova Vida, Middletown, RI, says he and the other team members serving in the Dominican Republic “definitely saw God working” in the villages. He expressed thankfulness for “the chance to show God to the kids through little things” that included playing jump rope, drawing with chalk, and singing songs, what some call a ministry of presence.
Caio De Souza playing games with kids
“I hope that we were able to impact the lives of the people that we met, and I’m grateful for the bonds made in the process. Personally, I’m usually reserved around others, and at the beginning of the week, I was a little out of my comfort zone,” he stated. Eventually, De Souza added, “I was able to really connect with my team and I saw God working through me by giving me peace and energy to finish the week strong.” He was able to “break out of [his] shell.” The Dominican Republic “will always have a place in my heart along with all the Questies,” he concluded.
The six youth and four faculty who traveled to the Dominican Republic supported the ministry of Ina York, formerly a New England Baptist mission volunteer. As founder and director of The Cercadillo Project near Santo Domingo, York has been committed to growing Christian disciples, empowering people through education, and “development of healthy community systems”.
Ava Ibrahim cleaning the home of a former pro boxer
Ava Ibrahim, a teen from Arabic Baptist Church, Newton, MA, described Quest as “a great experience for me because I have learned how to best serve the people around me like Jesus did, and to put my personal wants aside for the benefit of others.”
While on the missions trip to Puerto Rico with six other youth and three faculty, she learned “how our acts of service encouraged the people we were serving and how the relationships we built allowed us to share the gospel with them.” Her team assisted Send Relief, the compassion-focused collaboration of the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board. They also cleaned, painted, and cleared overgrown brush outside the home of a former athlete, and listened, shared Bible verses, and prayed for him.
“I learned so much from Quest, but my main takeaway is that there is always an opportunity to serve others as long as we are willing to follow God’s call in our lives,” Ibrahim concluded.
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The BCNE’s Next Generation Ministries leaders, Renée Ghobrial and Allyson Clark, traveled to Scotland with the team. Ghobrial will succeed Clark, who is transitioning toward retirement at the end of the year. They also organized and encouraged the twenty Quest participants from nine congregations in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
The twenty youth and eleven adults, who learned spiritual gifts, shared faith stories, and developed servant leader skills as they traveled together on one of the three international trips, are the latest in a long list of New Englanders who participated in the BCNE’s annual Quest ministry. Through Quest, high school juniors are provided with opportunities for discipleship that deepen their spiritual walks by working as a ministry team. A total of 525 youth and 77 adults from more than 85 BCNE churches have been a part of Quest, which just completed its twenty-fourth year.
A Massachusetts native and a New England Baptist since 1970, Dan Nicholas is the BCNE managing editor.