Cody - South Africa

“Where you go, I go. What you say, I’ll say, God.” If my Quest experience had to be summed up in a short phrase, that would be it. While the time spent in Quest is about learning to be a leader, it’s also a about learning how to be lead by God.


Stepping off the plane in Durban I had no idea what to expect. All I knew is that it was time to open my heart to what God wanted to do through me. In just the first day we had seen an entire wall of people who had died of aids…in just one place. When a death toll isn’t just a number, when it’s a list of names, of people that were there one minute and gone the next; women, men and children alike all extinguished by the same cold blooded, faceless killer. It’s stunning. It makes you appreciate the life you’ve been given, the time especially. God has granted me a strong, young body. With which I can move around this world as a beacon of his love. It didn’t take much for people to feel love, some just wanted a smiling face to take the time to sit and hear them out.

To walk into some of the worst living conditions, places where you can feel the darkness around you, and make someone smile because God prodded you to sit by them and pray. It brought people joy to feel a warm loving hand reaching out to them. That’s worth it all together. When you can see the love of God prevailing in the darkest corners of the world, you can’t put a price on that. God has shown me the power of his love in this trip. But it doesn’t stop in South Africa, God wants me to take that same boldness and love and share it with anyone who I come into contact with. Am I sad that I had to leave? Yes. Do I wish I was still there? Yes. But the point of Quest isn’t going on the trip, its coming back.