News - Quest

^ Young members of the Manurewa Adventist church in south Auckland, New Zealand, recently took Jesus’ parable of the great banquet literally.

Young people find a different “Quest”
Auckland, New Zealand

A church in New Zealand recently hosted a “Quest” dinner with a difference, which was organised by young people to thank leaders in their community.The “Quest” project is one of the resources developed by Adventist Health in the South Pacific Division, in conjunction with the “Circle of courage” cycling tours.
Following the “Circle of courage” ride in New Zealand early last year, Pastor Jake Ormsby, a member of the team, returned to his local church—Manurewa in Auckland—and initiated a “Quest” project with young people there.
Supported with funding from Adventist Health, part of the project was to host a dinner to thank local people in the community who have supported young people. providing interesting results.
“Our task was to organise a thank-you dinner, hosted by our youth taskforce team,” Pastor Ormsby explains. “This was to prove a real spiritual blessing for the team. More than 20 invitations were extended to youth leaders in the city. But on the night, only one person arrived.
“The young people had decorated the hall so beautifully and cooked a fine meal,” he says.
“Then they waited excitedly for the leaders to arrive. They had received a number of apologies but most were expected to turn up. Unfortunately, they didn’t show.”
Pastor Ormsby says it was “heartbreaking” to see the young people upset by the absence of leaders but adds, “The Lord had a different plan for that night. When they asked me for my thoughts, I reminded them of the parable Jesus told of the great banquet and inviting those in the ‘highways and byways.’”
The young people were inspired by this and went out into the night, bringing back street kids, prostitutes and the homeless—and the seats were soon filled. “There was a lot of rejoicing and celebrating,” says Pastor Ormsby. “Only God can bring the pure joy we experienced that night from what seemed like a hopeless situation.”—RECORD staff/Paul Rankin