Global Missions Fellowship (GMF) is praying that 200 new churches will be formed during the 2005 Collegiate QUEST for the Nations, when up to 1,000 college students from across the U.S. and Canada will visit eight countries in Latin America May 18-30, 2005.

The first three days of QUEST will include worship, team building, and training in Dallas, TX. Following the meeting, different student teams will go to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela to spread the Gospel to partnering churches with GMF.

“Our prayer is that God will birth 200 new churches during the week of the Quest,” said Frank Banfill, GMF’s Director of Mobilization.

Students will work in the host churches and disciple new believers. The QUEST trip and GMF’s partnership with local churches is part of The Plan of 1,000 Days, a larger effort to reach Latin America for Christ over the next three years, which has shown promising results.

“On average, we see three nationals mobilized for every one North American who goes on our teams,” Banfill said. "This means that the Collegiate Quest should mobilize more than 4,000 believers all sharing the gospel at the same time in these eight nations."

Following the mission trip, students will return to Dallas for two days of debriefing and exploring ways that they can be better involved in ministry on their campuses and home churches.

GMF is calling on North American churches and campus ministries to join the effort in training and recruiting students for QUEST. “Our goal is to have all of our U.S. partnerships in place before school resumes this fall,” said Joel Reeves, GMF’s Next Generation Ministries Director.

Churches and organizations interested in the QUEST partnership can contact GMF’s Mobilization Division at 1-800-542-2646 for details.

According to Reeves, campus student leaders will be able to sign up for the trip on the website beginning August and the general population in September.