A Visit to Kalamazoo
Scott Family Missionary Update & SAVE-the-DATE for December 15th
Warm greetings to you, dear friends & family, from Eastern Pennsylvania! It's been an eventful few months for us & we see the Lord working! Here's how:
Update on Shannon’s Eye Surgery
For all intents & purposes, Shannon is back to normal functioning despite what amounts to a background level of pain & fatigue she's able to overcome a little more with every passing day. Thanks SO MUCH for praying & rooting for her continued healing!! We anticipate she'll be released completely from any treatment on her final scheduled appointment with the primary surgeon on August 10th.
December 2020 Visit to Kalamazoo – All 3 Scotts are excited to get to come visit Kalamazoo this December 9th-20th!
On Sunday morning, December 13th, we’ll be worshipping with the saints of Hickory Corners Bible Church, located about 3 miles east of the Gilmore Car Museum.
On Tuesday evening, December 15th, our family invites yours to join us at the Radisson Hotel in Downtown Kalamazoo (exact times & meeting room TBA) for an informal reception.
During the first hour, Dave, Shannon, & John will all tell stories & offer updates & answer questions about what the Lord’s been doing in, around, & through us in the 575 days since we pulled out of Kalamazoo on May 21, 2019 as a supported missionary family.
After that, we’d LOVE to just get to connect with your family, smiling & waving from 6 feet away, even though we long to hug your necks, so we can hear & celebrate what the Lord’s been doing in, around, & through YOU in those same 575 days!
There will be more details to come on this event as the time grows closer, but please SAVE THE DATE: A couple of hours during the evening of Tuesday, December 15th at the Radisson Hotel in Downtown Kalamazoo.
On Sunday morning, December, 20th, we’ll be worshipping with the saints of Good Shepherd Church, meeting at Kalamazoo Christian Elementary School.
NOTE: Proverbs 16:9 is an eternal reminder that while we can & should make plans the Lord will direct each step. As such, we all know the world, especially involving traveling & meeting together in groups, can change at anytime. The 3 events above are public meetings where we will be implementing precautions to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission as is appropriate at that time. We’ll keep everyone in the loop on the specifics of this trip by email as we go.
In addition to the 3 public events above, we would LOVE to meet with you, your family, group of friends, or any group that the Lord leads to invite us.
We plan to be in Kalamazoo & available to connect with you from the morning of Wednesday, December 9th through the evening of December 20th.
If you would like to secure a time for us to visit with you or your group, please either reply (not “reply all”) to this email or call us at our home #. I’ll be THRILLED to work to arrange to meet with you. Thank you!!
P.S. For those of you who are receiving this email & live somewhere other than Kalamazoo, we’d LOVE to PLAN to visit you in 2021! If you’d like to be a part of that visit, PLEASE send me an email or text or give me a call so that I can make sure our 2021 travel plans involve seeing YOU!
2020-2021 Gospel Works in Progress
While we’ll be able to offer a more detailed account in person, there are a few BIG encouragements that God seems to be laying the foundation for NOW. We want to share the big pieces of that because it brings us joy & we want to invite you to join us in that joy. Too, it’s your prayers, love, & gifts that the Lord has used to make every one of these opportunities & encouragements possible.
In the short 7 months we've been in Eastern Pennsylvania, Shannon has had the opportunity to meaningfully connect with 3 women, all of whom Shannon will be meeting with for various Bible studies & ministry opportunities in the coming months. One of those women is married to an unbeliever, but is pressing into a closer relationship with the Lord, asking all sorts of Bible questions, & even wanting to be baptized! She has received a love for the truth, as 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 describes is the hallmark of those souls the Lord has redeemed. Another is a seasoned education professional & even early conversations between her & Shannon have hinted at praying & planning centered around how to use their combined education, experience, talents, & skills to reach & bless parents & children that are needing guidance & doing it in the Name of Jesus Christ. We believe He may use them to draw MANY to Himself.
Dave has been enlisted by the local Gospel mission to teach classes centered around how to gain life skills that help bring families out of poverty. The class is ongoing, lasting 13 weeks each session, with several sessions & new groups every year. Those classes are suspended now, but are slated to resume in early 2021. As you may know, Jesus Christ has a special & deep compassion for the poor. We anticipate this class being a source the Lord will use to bring a new generation to the rural church Dave is pastoring now. I mean, can you imagine spending 13 weeks in a class with Dave without hearing the Gospel & getting invited to church?!
Finally, Dave has been writing a resource book over the course of many years that has the working title of Double-Digit Discipleship: A Curriculum Pathway To Humility, Happiness, & Holiness For Tweens, Teens, & Their Families. The book is nearing completion & its purpose is to equip parents to disciple their 10-18 year-old (double digits) children through systematic & cohesive exposure to Biblical thinking in academic areas such as literature, world history, composition, geography, humanities, & theology over a period of 7 years, with the goal of encouraging the children to learn how to be humble, happy, & holy. The project intends to offer a guide to the historical knowledge base necessary for understanding & adopting a Biblical worldview or PERSPECTIVE, a guide to the PRACTICAL application of that knowledge base in a modern life lived in the so-called information age, & a guide for families to access the POWER of prayer necessary to succeed in living lives that aim to please God & make disciples. Because of your Godly generosity, we intend to make this resource widely available, as quickly & cheaply as possible, with the Gospel embedded throughout! Given the current climate, there is a never-before-seen interest in education that happens at home. This resource will be offered as a complement to whatever other education children are receiving & saturated with the Gospel.
We’re praying that these education-related opportunities the Lord is laying in our laps after equipping us to run with them for over two decades is nothing less than a more-than-we-could-ask-or-imagine gift from the Lord, as Ephesians 3:20 describes. Please pray with us—EXPECTANTLY—as we obey & wait to see what He will do in the months & years ahead, as He opens doors & uses YOU to enable us to walk through them. We are here, sent by the Lord & you, to preach the Word & love the people. These opportunities seem to us to be big pieces of what the Lord will do here in Pennsylvania!
You know, the Scotts are normal Christians, not special. That’s true of all pastors, missionaries, & even the Old Testament prophets—James 5:17 says so! The Lord Himself equips the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12). What we’re describing here is how the Lord uniquely equipped our family for the work of a ministry that happens to be centered in Eastern Pennsylvania, but be encouraged! If you belong to Him, if He’s redeemed you from sin & shame, then He’s equipped you to do the work of the ministry where you are living now!
Supply Line Soldiers and Biblical Stewardship
Years ago, the Godliest Bible teacher & missionary I’ve ever personally met showed me an eternally valuable little verse in the Old Testament that many just read right over, if they ever notice it at all. 1 Samuel 30:24 records, “…The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.”
As most of you know, our family lives as supported Gospel-spreading missionaries to Eastern Pennsylvania—100% dependent on gifts given by individuals & families in Christ’s Good Name to do His Good Work.
My friend told me that verse, while recorded by Samuel in an ancient military setting, reflects a truth just as deep—that those soldiers who guard & maintain the supply lines to the spiritual battlefield of missions “will share alike” in the Heavenly rewards, just the same as the front-line missionary soldier on the field who receives that support. I hope that encourages you as much as it has shaped us! Jesus called it laying up treasure in Heaven. Your gifts over these past 15+ months have deepened our prayer lives in thank-FULLNESS, humbled us in ways that we have never experienced & didn’t expect, & have emboldened us to redeem the time because the days here in Eastern Pennsylvania are dark. And our whole purpose in life is to be lights in that darkness. Thank you!!
Have you ever thought of what being a light in the darkness really means? It doesn’t mean the darkness isn’t still present. Only the Light of Jesus’ return & remaking of the heavens & earth will accomplish the decimation of the darkness forever. We’re just to be faithful (FULL of faith) lights where there is darkness all around. We’re working, by grace through faith, to be lights in Pennsylvania’s darkness. You can do that where you live, too. If we can help you do that, please let us know.
From time to time we want to specially answer two of the most precious questions we ever get asked:
“What do you need?” & “How can we help you?”
Several of you have asked about our medical bills related to Shannon’s eye surgery. Thank you for caring & asking! It’s a miracle to us, but due to the wise system Village Missions has in place, we anticipate those bills to be 100% covered!! Praise the Lord with us for that!
In order to keep expenses as low as possible, we are a one car family. Our light blue 2007 Honda Odyssey is reliable daily, but due to the curse of sin, it’s also aging & breaks down a little more frequently as it ages. The battery & alternator had to be replaced this week, leaving us needing to rent a car. The total came to $1,308.51.
The church we’re serving was founded in 1813, when many of our country’s founding fathers were still alive, but has no way yet of communicating beyond a newly minted Facebook page (search for Emanuel’s Reformed Church in Mainville, Pennsylvania), nor does it have the financial resources to pursue such efforts. So, we’ve asked a professional designer to help us reach the younger generations here—as that is vital these days—with a website, logo, invitation cards & flyer design & so forth. He’s still working, but he’s estimated the total cost to be in the $1,000-$1,200 range.
Beyond those two one-time expenses, life continues normally, with all the normal expenses your family encounters. We are trusting the Lord to provide the normal travel expenses related to our trip to Kalamazoo in December as well as the costs associated with producing & distributing ministry materials such as paper flyers & postcards, digital copies of ministry materials (thumb drives, etc.) to those we encounter as we work.
If the Lord’s leading you to lay up treasures in Heaven by becoming a supply line soldier to the Eastern Pennsylvania front lines, you can do that most simply & easily at the link below: https://give.villagemissions.org/donate/missionaries/missionary-detail/a-scott-dave-and-shannon
In a previous update, we wrote “thank you” isn't nearly enough to express how we feel, so we just rejoice with you, love you from afar, admire the Spirit’s work in, around, & through you from a distance when you share what’s happening in your lives (we LOVE when you do), & trust Him all the more deeply with you as we continue to say “thank you!” It's still true.
Living for Jesus with you,
Pastor Dave, Shannon, & John
Pastor Dave’s email:
TeachingSomethingGood@gmail.com
Shannon’s email:
VinitaReading@yahoo.com