Christmas Eve

The smell of the Quast family tradition filled our little one bedroom apartment today. Jon's dad is famous for making tons of cookies every Christmas Eve, even staying up all night to frost them! Cookie making in the Quast house is a serious event. We decided to start our own tradition by making cookies as well. We used the same recipes but didn't stay up all night. We just spent the day making 8 dozen cookies and decorating them all pretty. We then dropped off our goodies to friends and neighbors.

Happy Thanksgiving

We want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. We traveled to VA to visit with Jon's family, where we enjoyed good times with family and lots of turkey, mashed potatoes and pecan pie. On our way home we drove through the Outer Banks were we saw the many different lighthouses that have become famous over the years. During our visit we saw, Cape Lookout, Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke Lighthouse and the Bodie Island Lighthouse. We had a great time sleeping in the back of our Ford explorer, reading about the history of the lighthouses and taking in the beautiful scenery. It was a great time of relaxation and a good time for Jon and I spend quality time together.

Mommy and Baby at 20 weeks

Here I am half way through pregnancy and here is our little Quastlet at 19 and half weeks.

Baby's 1st Home Video

Its A Boy

That is correct. We are having a boy. This morning I was able to take off from work so that I could drive Jen to her docter's appointment in Jacksonville. It was nice to actually sleep in a bit, but then it was off to the docter's office. There was a little confusion on which exit to take because Floridians like to be elusive but we made it just fine. (Georgians like things to make sense, that is why we have peaches) We arrived at the docters office in PLENTY of time (I think that no matter what time you arrive at the docter you will always wait one hour in the waiting room). We went in and they did their thing and we got this wonderful image. As you can see it is a boy. We were encouraged that many things with the baby were perfectly normal (a couple minor normal variances) and healthy. Afterwards the docter sat us down and explained everything to us, in words I could mostly understand, and we left feeling very relieved and excited over finding out the gender. Then it was a race back home to get my work done at "the office".

Second Audio Available

The second audion sermon of my sermons at Browntown Baptist Church. The sermon is on our position in Christ. If youd like to listen to it click here. Like the other sermon please let me know of any technical problems so I can correct them. Thanks

Technical Problems Solved

I've been trying to figure out for awhile now how to upload audio to the blog and finally it is available for you. The first audio file I have is of my first speaking engagement at browntown baptist church on James 2:14-24. The second audio file is of my second speaking engagement at browntown baptist church, but it is not available yet. I have gone back to the original post that says "click here" but when you click it nothing happens...now something will happen. Please let me know of any technical problems (I am aware of the homilitic problem)

Partnership Developement Developement

Why do I word these things so? For one, to draw your attention to an article that otherwise you might not look at and two because I have some new news to share regarding status.

First: I had a meeting with my Pastor from our sending church last week. I was just asking some questions and was making sure that First Baptist St Marys still is seeking to be our sending church. He stated that our church is making every effort to do so (I have also talked to other people in the church and the attitude is that it is not even a question) and that he is trying to get it into our church budget in seed form this year so we can be ready when the time comes. Only hurdle has been created by myself in that my church still is not 100% sure what they need to be doing as our sending church, and my pastor would like me to get on that right away.

Second: I had a second preaching opportunity this past sunday at Browntown Baptist Church. This church is such a blessing as pastor Chris Johnson (pictured) and fam are 100% behind us and are probably our greatest encouragement right now. It's good to have friends who understand you. He asked me to preach on positional righteousness (no small task) and to listen to is just click here. I feel I made a better presentation this time around, but that's trivial.

It hit me not too long ago that people that God loves are dying every day and going to hell without the first chance to believe in Jesus. I am willing to go. I love those people with the love of the Spirit. But I am human. How much more does Christ, who has already died for them, love them? He will see to it that the Quasts get to them, I am sure of that. Why do I doubt God's faithfulness when He is not willing that any should perish?

These are the Last Days

Sunday School with a bunch of 9th and 10th grade boys is always an adventure. I have been teaching them now for about 1 month and it is going well. The first week I asked them some questions to see what they understand and don't understand about the Bible. I wanted to teach them Romans (since they came up with a 14 step process for salvation) but they were adament that they wanted to learn end times. Although I didn't think it was the greatest misunderstanding they had, I decided that it would be a good idea just because of how vocal they were on wanting to learn end times. So far they have shown enthusiasm in sunday school and if it helps them learn truth then so be it.

Today we talked about the Davidic Covenant and how David is promised an eternal lineage of Kings and an eternal Kingdom. We are just kind of laying the ground work for our study in Daniel and Revelation (I know, am I a product of NTBI or what?). No but Daniel and Revelation go together so naturally it would be harder not to teach them together so there.

If not the Gospel, then what? Mark 10 part 2

So last entry I went on a little rant about how the passage of Mark 10:17-24 was not talking about salvation entirely (although I'll admit the topic is touched) but I failed to go on to say what it is about. Well here we go

The rich young ruler comes to Jesus and says "what do I need to do to inherent eternal life". Here is where the topic is touched. The man is inquiring into the subject of eternal life, but remember what nationality he is. He is a Jewish man. From the Christian standpoint when we think of eternal life we think the sweet by and by of heaven forever and ever (which may not be the most accurate view of the afterlife but that is irrelevent). What is the Jewish view of eternal life? Life in the Kingdom that was promised to David. One in which the Messiah would put all of Israel's enemies under his feet and sit on the throne in Jerusalem forever. This is what a Jew is expecting for eternal life and unlike what some critics say this would be accurate for a Jew to believe. The Kingdom is coming and it will be eternal with the Messiah sitting on the throne. So when this rich young ruler says "what must I do to inherit eternal life" he is essentially asking "how may I enter the Kingdom."

What is required of a Jewish person, before the Cross, to enter the Kingdom. Is it not obedience to the Mosaic Law? Anytime they were ever punished in the Old Testament, check it out, its because they broke the law. Sometimes they would break the law and then offer sacrifice. This would still be considered "keeping the law" since God knew they would make mistakes. If mistakes were not an option God wouldn't have extended them the grace of sacrifices. Sometimes we see that they would continually be committing a sin, with no intentions of change, but still offering sacrifice. God was not pleased with that at all and would ask them to stop sacrificing. What was the gospel of the kingdom in the 4 gospels? "Repent, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Now notice to repent means to turn back to. The only thing the Jews would have possibly needed to turn back to would have been God and His law. And there were some who were ready for this Kingdom spiritually speaking. I think this rich young ruler was one of those, unlike what many people will say, as he was keeping the law (although the Scriptures don't tell us if his heart was near God or not).

So what did he lack? Christ told him that he lacked only one thing. Lacking for what? Eternal life? Christ tells us what he is lacking. He is lacking "Treasure in Heaven". This man is being implied in the text of going to the Kingdom. He just doesn't have any treasure there. He is rich in this life, but in the Kingdom he has stored nothing up for himself. The issue becomes a lack, not of eternal life, but one of treasure.

He is then told to sell his things and follow Christ. The man didn't want to do this since he was a rich young ruler. He didn't want to give up what he had, his wealth, and he didn't want to follow Christ. It interesting, to start the man had called Jesus good. Jesus reminds him that only God is good, but it seems to me what is going on is this man is expressing that he believes Jesus is a pretty important guy, possibly the Messiah. It would make sense why he asked Jesus how to enter the Kingdom. If he thought Jesus was the Messiah of that Kingdom the logic is there. However, if he was thinking that Jesus was the Messiah he did not think that it would be worthwhile to give up his treasure now to have treasure in the imminent kingdom the Messiah would usher in. Poor choice, showing his heart was not actually near to God at all, it was near to money.

In conclusion it might seem that I talked about at first him being saved and then second that he wasn't saved. I'm not really saying one way or the other but what I am saying is for a Jew to enter the Kingdom he had to be made ready by the Messiah. Righteousness is essential for Kingdom entrance. This man was also not ready for the Kingdom as demonstrated by not rallying to the Messiah and secondly by not wanting treasure in the that Kingdom. So in the end the passage is talking about treasure in the Kingdom, rather that being saved from hell.

(open for discussion :-) )

Mark 10:17-24...The Gospel??

I was greatly disturbed this week as we had a guest speaker at our church doing "revival services" and the purity of the gospel was not proclaimed. I had an open mind as the services began because, for one I had never heard him speak and had no reason to be skeptical, but in the very first message a red flag was raised as he said in opening "If someone has a faith that they think will take them to heaven but doesn't take them to church, I wouldn't trust that faith." I had hoped that I had misunderstood him but in questioning him afterwards, he meant exactly that: Christians who are not doing christian activity were probably never saved from hell to begin with.

A follow-up message on "bring a friend night" was on Mark 10:17-24. He entitled the message "What Jesus would say you need to do to be saved". If you read the passage you will understand that his message can be summarized to the following: When faith in Christ gets you to the point in your life where you give up everything to follow Christ, that is genunine faith.

I find all of this extremely disturbing. Unlike the popular title "The Gospel According To Jesus" would have you believe, nothing has to be given up to be saved. Being declared righteous by God is by faith alone in Christ alone. Do I need to remind anyone of Abraham? Or the phillippian jailor? Unfortunately this is where many people are in explaining the gospel to people. It's getting harder for me to listen to a false gospel preached, one that would have us look to ourselves for the commitment and resolve to live for Christ and that being what saves us rather than simply looking at the fact that Christ died on the cross for my sins, paid the price for me, and satisfied God's wrath completely with that act. Nothing is left for me. All is done. That moment I believed that to be true, God saved me giving me His Spirit. However all of this reminds me of the lack of telling others the gospel. Hearing the gospel preached incorrectly reminds me that I'm not preaching it at all, and that is sin.

In all this God is working on my heart. One to not be divided against my brothers because God is not a God of division. The body of Christ is not divided, and secondly that I need to be preaching the gospel constantly. I pray God give me half the passion of half the peopel in the church.

Browntown Days

So, this post is over a week late in being posted but thanks to those of you who prayed for us while were at Browntown Baptist Church last week with the oppurtunity of preaching in their Sunday morning service. It was a great time and I felt completely at home and relaxed there unlike any previous speaking engagement that I have had. That is due in part to Pastor Chris Johnson and his wife Daniella for making us feel so welcome and free to share actual truth from the Bible and also due to the group of believers who meet together there for making us feel welcome as well.

The message was out of James 2:14-26. The title of the Message was "Faith. You can't see it, smell it, hear it, taste it, or touch it. We took a look into the practical need of works in the Christian life, as our faith without works isn't much help to those in need. At the end we tied that into missions and how our faith in our churches won't reach the ends of the earth unless we do something to take the gospel out. To listen to the audio from this sermon (it's about 35 minutes long) click here. You might be able to enjoy if you can block out the million times I say the word "um" while I'm speaking.

Sorry no pictures, we forgot our camera

A Bit of Providence

So how do you entitle a blog post in which you are announcing to all your friends that you are having a baby? That's right, having a baby. For those who we haven't got a chance of telling yet Jen and I are expecting Quastlet number 1 around April 1st. How cool is that? I think it's really cool. Jen had her first docter's visit and everything is so far so good. Our church family is also being very supportive of Jen being that her family is a couple thousand miles away.

I just got back from a weekend backpacking Providence Canyon (yes the title had a double meaning). Jen was going to come with me but we decided that that would not be a good idea and I soloed it. It's only about a ten mile trail through GA little grand canyon but the solitude is well worth it. I was the only person camping in the entire state park. Just me and the coyotes and the raccoons....and the owls. It was a great weekend (except I forgot a lighter so I couldn't cook my food) but that didn't spoil my vistas of the canyon. Sometimes its good to go out and get the clutter out of your head I think.

This weekend keep us in your prayers as we have our first speaking engagement outside our sending church at Browntown Baptist Church (no jokes, that's its name). We are meeting with the Pastor and his wife this Thursday before bringing the message on Sunday morning. May more people become burdened with the need to expand the reach of the gospel.

Spontaneous Combustion

Wow, so I know that no one anywhere has not felt the heat the last couple of days. Today it was 99 degrees with a heat index of 118. Thats pretty hot. I work outside too so I feel it all day. In fact this is a picture of me today as I spontaneously combusted and had to steal this guys motorcycle in order to cool off. But I'm ok now. Jen is vacationing with my family this week in Cocoa Beach FL and she is excited that she is going to see the space shuttle lunch tonight.

(PS for the gullible I didn't really spontaneously combust...that picture is ghost rider, not me...)

Tut tut it looks like...

Rain. We've been having alot of that lately, but that's really good because if you remember we were on fire not too long ago. It rained its hardest when it was time to go to church :-) but that makes for a more fun drive.

And we just got a great deal on this Ford Explorer. We were hoping to get something like this before we went to Missouri, but we weren't thinking we'd find something now. But some prices you just can't pass up. God really worked it out. And it's a fun car

And I thought I was bored

Actually I'm not really bored at all. But even if I was, I wouldn't be as bored as these two. Two unlikely friends, a stray cat and a buzzard, just hanging out, looking into an empty dumpster. Fortunately God is keeping us busy.

Church life is going well. I'm teaching sunday school right now. The class is called "law and grace" looking at what standard a Christian should live there life by. It's fun. I'm also playing in the praise band (djembe and congas) and teaching a high school Bible study on John. Sigh, and hopefully we will be able to start speaking in some churches raising awareness on the need of tribal missions.

In all this work and home continue as well. We are both working 40 hours a week (praise God!) and are saving up for MTC next August. Things are looking good for that. Our pet bunny Stella and pet scorpion Ringo are healthy and provide us with alot of entertainment at home. All is well and we are just enjoying God. Miss you all.

Surf's Up

Ahhhh, I love surfing. I think I am the worst surfer ever who loved surfing this much, but I love surfing. The other day me and my friends went surfing after I got off work. Any normal person would say "I just got off work, I'm tired, and I'm not any good at surfing anyway so I'm not going". Also did I mention that there was some kind off storm coming through so the waves were like this: AKJH23H9W8EHRJ BNLKJSRIP UAIPEUGFIAS. That's right you guessed it: chaotic. I got pounded into the ocean floor a few times and back into the beach itself, but wow did I have fun.

My wife went with us on Saturday too. She didn't attempt to surf but it was fun having her there. I keep telling her to come out of her box...hehe. I took this picture while she was inside our bunnies cage getting it all set up for her. I don't normally keep her in a cage.

Caffeinated Conversations

It seems like a lot of social things these days happen arounnd a cup of coffee. Or maybe it not so much the times as my age. I'm not sure which but Jen and I got the chance to spend some time with our church's newest elected deacon Jeremy and his wife Leighann Pittman (and their little baby girl). We went to a local coffee shop (it's an easy choice since we have 1) and talked for a couple hour in there. It was great. Even the baby wanted coffee but her mom didn't think it would be good for babies (I agree).

What if squirrels drank coffee? They have enough energy is it is. They would move on to chaotic. Ok, it must be obvious by now I don't have much to write about...what if Spiderman drank coffee...

Maybe it's May

Actually, it is May. I'm just hanging out with my computer tonight, working on signing up for my employee benefits package from work. Normally at this time I'd be basking in the vocal sensations and vibrations of Phil Stacey on American Idol, but tonight Jen is enjoying her favorite show The Gilmore Girls (it's a chick thing). I really don't have much to write, but it's fun.

Today I got to talk to my good friend Jon Coe on the phone for a long time. I've been wanting to call him forever, but our personal cell phone is 5 years old which is like 86 in cell phone years, so it doesnt work hardly at all. But I have a company cell phone and now Jon Coe is on verizon so I could call him and not loose minutes since my company has verizon. Not a bad deal eh? To the rest of you that I havent called know that its not because I don't want to talk to you. I miss you all. And as that guy said on Gladiator: we shall see each other again, but not yet!

Gates of Hell

So yeah, 61,000 acres and counting are gone from GA's magnificent forest's of pine...The fire that they are calling "the monster" (or something like that) is burning like 60 miles away, but as you can see, you can hardly see the sun here at 3 in the afternoon. This is the closest we ever get to snow here in south GA (falling ash :-) ). For those of you though who did hear about bad fires and were wondering we are ok. Thanks for caring about us.

Our bunny Stella has discovered the toilet. Isn't that cute?

Unfortunately she also discovered the toilet paper. Not so cute

The Family's Growing...

Somebody special has just entered our little family. Or should I say some "bunny" special. Ha. Oh wow, why do I bother? Anyway Jen and I were on a date and I made a wrong turn (although I still maintained control of where we were better than a GPS system) and we wind up at the flea market. Ok, let's walk around. So we get around all the way to the back and they have animals back there. Pedigree multi million dollar dogs, lizards, cheetahs...you get the idea. Well they also had bunnies for a couple bucks and Jen has been wanting a miniture lop-eared rabbit since before we got married. Well, they had one.

We are still tossing around name ideas. Right now we just call it good bunny or bad bunny, depending on what it did. The name ideas we are tossing around include but are not limited to "Ihop" "Napolean" and "Fang". I like Fang personally. He's a cute little guy, but he goes to the bathroom constantly. It's amazing. And he can jump over thing 3 feet high. Or should a say she. Yes, fang is a girl.

Sushi...on Cumberland Island?

No, no. Jen and I made sushi at Christmas time for the first time and I was really proud at how our rolls turned out considering it was our first time making and eating sushi. So we took pictures but we keep on forgetting to post them to the blog. That and they never seem to be relevant, and even now they aren't relevant but I have to show them sooner or later...anyway eat your heart out...hehehe...eat...

So yeah Jen and I went to Cumberland Island to go camping a couple of weekends ago and we loved it. Cumberland Island is amazing. I've been there many times as a kid, but never to go into the wilderness area or to go camping so this was a new aspect to it. It was crazy becuase we saw that it was going to be a nice weekend so Jen called them on a Tuesday to see about making a reservation (You have to make a reservation because they limit the number of campers, and the space is limited on the ferry ride which is the only public way out there). They said that two people had just cancelled for that weekend. So then we asked when the next available time was to go over there and they said July so we said "we'll take this weekend".

So we got there and I had already decided that I wanted to hike all the way to the other end of the island from where the ferry drops you off becuase for one it's a wilderness area and two I didn't think many people made it back there. So there Jen and I set off to hike 11 miles one way without having trained at all. So yeah, maybe next time we shouldn't try to go that far cold turkey with full packs on but we made it only slightly injured in our feet and set up camp with daylight still.

Our weekend was full of solitude (we only encountered 4 people all weekend in the backcountry besides park rangers taking a wild horse census) and wildlife. We saw horses, hogs, turkeys, deer, woodpeckers, dolphins, an alligator, and lots of little armadillos like this one. Nice pose huh?

It was just the weekend retreat that the docter ordered. Nothing like the great outdoors to clear your head and clear out the noise so that you can hear God better. The only thing that could have made the weekend any better would have been sushi, but we didn't encounter any Japanese campers...

Top Story in our life right now

The other day Jen and I had a very relaxing Saturday about an hour from home. We went to see a place called Ft. Frederica and then we decided to go have a picnic lunch by the water. The whole time we were entertained immensely by these little guys as they dive-bombed the river for fish. I think pelicans are officially my favorite bird to watch. They are just so much fun. We counted over 20 in all just sitting around, although it appears that only 7 could appear in this shot. But thats not the big news

Jen and I have been talking and praying about what the future holds. We have made a decision that we are going to continue with New Tribes Mission, but we are pushing back our next phase of training at the Missionary Training Center from this August until August of 2008. Why postpone this long you ask? Since Jen and I have been married life has been very rushed and very stressful for both of us. We feel its just in our best interest to deepen our partnership to each other with life going at a slower pace. We've prayed and talked to our pastor and we all agree this is for the best. It will also give us more time at our sending church to educate them about Tribal Missions and strengthen the bond between sender and goer. They are already excited about the prospect of directly supporting missionaries and this will only add to this excitement.

Please continue to pray for us. We still have alot to do before August 2008. Thank you for your part in Expanding The Reach of the Gospel!

It's Working

Or should I say "we're working?" I know that its only Friday, but I have the day off from my job because my construction job is awesome and I work 4 - 10 hour days instead of 5 - 8 hour days. I have the option of working Fridays for overtime, but this week I opted for the 3 day weekend to get some stuff done.
Jen starts her nanny job up real soon and is psyched about that. The extra income there will be nice, and we have the same days off.
Things around here are going well. I can say that we are completely settled in at our apartment and we are starting to reconnect more with friends and church. Church is especially fun because this year our theme is "Going beyond the Walls: A challenge for missions." This is the perfect time for us to be at First Baptist Church. People are excited and interested in our future work with New Tribes Missions. Please continue to pray for us.

Jen is going to be a nanny

I am very excited to let you all know that I will be a full time nanny starting in February. I will be taking care of a little boy named Jonathan, who right now is only 3 weeks old. I've been babysitting off and on the last two weeks but I found out yesterday that I have the position. My job includes carring for the baby's physical needs (feeding, diaper changing, bathing), along with doing his laundry and stiralizing bottles and the best part is its a M-F job, hours running from 8am to 7pm.
Thank you to those of you who have been praying!

Jon's Job

It is official that I am an employee of L.C. Gaskins Construction Company. I'm not really sure what we build yet. All I know is I start at 7:00 am Monday morning. We work on the military base so I have to go get some clearance so I can actually be there, but thats not too long a process. The job is essentially an 8-5 monday-friday. You can't beat that. Thanks to those who prayed.
We'll be getting some more pictures up here sometime. Right now we go to the public library to use the internet so we have to bring the pictures from home first.

All Moved In

Well to those of you who read this thing (which is exactly a couple people) Jen and I are completely moved into our apartment in Kingsland. We're pretty excited, needless to say. We have been busy since coming here doing things like getting set up, looking for jobs, and meeting with our pastor. Those things have gone well except we still don't have jobs but...
Jen is going for a nanny interview today for a new born which would really suit her fancy and Jon is following up an application sent to a construction company that is looking for a green horn construction worker so things are looking up. Pray for us as we also pray for you.

On the road again

Well tomorrow we will hit the road once again, this time its off to Georgia for good. Its been a good three weeks here in Virginia. Jon's parents have been very helpful and gracious letting us live with them as we are transitioning, but now its time for us to strike out on our own. Today we re-packed Jons parents mini van, getting all of our possestions (including 2 bikes) into the van. We'll drive all day tomorrow, move into our appartment on Tuesday; we'll continue to look for jobs as we settle in. Jon's mom and sister are planning a visit next weekend to trade cars and bring Jon's guitars (which didn't fit in the van) down with them. Its an exciting time for us and we are excited to see God work as we trust him in everything.

Drive Back and Fort Pulaski

For those of you who know me (which would probably be everyone considering this is our blogspot) you know that when I drive I decide in the moment to take detours. Today's detour was Fort Pulaski in Savannah. It was beautiful! We really were fortunate to take a detour to such a nice place. We have taken some before that were laughable, but this one was nice. It was good to get out and stretch our legs.

This old lighthouse was about a miles walk from the Fort. We tried to get closer to it but once we got this close we realized it was on its own little island. It was still pretty from here though. It an old lighthouse. It was made in... a long time ago... We got back safe and sound to VA and plans are in progress for moving into to our apartment in GA next Tuesday!

We Have An Apartment!

I don't think in the history of the universe has anyone driven as much in one day as Jen and I have. I don't think we ever left the car. I take that back, becuase I know that we got out of the car in at least one place today because we got an apartment! Yes that's right. We didn't think things would happen this quickly but on the first day of looking God gave us the right one. And we found out later that we are next door to my best friend Josh Bostic. That was a complete "accident".
We will drive back to Virginia tomorrow so pray for us with safe travel and also pray because we still don't have jobs in GA, so we'll need to be finding those soon.

The drive

Today we drove down to GA in search of a place to live until missionary school. We got up early to leave and started down the road. Shortly after we left we got a phone call from my good high school buddy "Boot" who asked us if we were driving past his place. We were so we arranged to stop in and see him. His mom surprised by making a great lunch which kept us from having to buy another meal on the road, and Boot called a few of our buddies and they came over at the drop of a hat. It was so cool to see them after 3 years. 3 years! Thats too long for friends, but hey, sometimes thats the way it is. We were sad to leave but after an 1 1/2 hours we had spent all the time we could and kept driving.
We drove all day and made it to my Uncle Ted and Aunt Janie's house by 9. They graciously opened their home to us to stay while we look for a place to live. They are the first thing that has worked out for us so far in this trip. Things just seem to be falling through all around us with jobs and apartments, but at least this has worked out. We don't know what we'll find tomorrow but we know that God is watching out for us as always so we are at peace.