Looking Eastward
Hello family & friends who are dear to the Lord & the Scotts,
We sent our last update on September 21st, the 4 month anniversary of our arrival to shepherd the flock & love the people & spread the Good News of Jesus Christ in & around Audubon, Iowa. Now we’re just past 6 months & all has been both rich & challenging at the same time. In the past few months, as we’ve faithfully done what we were sent by you & the Lord to do, the Lord has revealed to the church here, to Village Missions, & to our family that the church in Iowa needs some guidance the Lord has not chosen us to be the ones to deliver. We pray for them often & fondly & invite you to do the same even we GO again. Village Missions has asked us to move our family & ministry to Pennsylvania! Same Gospel mission in a different mission field. Wow. We make plans, but it really is the Lord Who directs our walk with Him through life toward Him in His perfect time & way we could never chose on our own (Proverbs 16:9).
We don’t know many specifics yet, but here’s what we do know that we’re honored to share with you:
• The church is in Mainville, in east-central Pennsylvania, about 130 miles NE of Philadelphia.
• The church’s beginnings date back to 1813, when James Madison was president!
• The town of Mainville is very small, just over 100, but is 5 miles away from the town of Mifflinville where just over 1,200 souls live, & is also adjacent to the town of Bloomsburg (5 miles away in a different direction), home to Bloomsburg University!
• These towns, their residents, & the college community & students, including international students, will be our main focus--but WHY go somewhere that is already “reached” with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
• As we’ve spent most 2019 learning about, living in, thinking through, & praying over rural communities in North America, we’ve realized that, perhaps, the best way to describe where we’ve been living in Western Iowa & certainly the Mainville-Mifflinville-Bloomsburg area is “formerly reached.”
• We’ve shared some of the stories of the people we’ve met, befriended, & shared the Gospel with in previous updates who have lived here all their lives & have told us repeatedly they’ve never heard the Biblical Gospel we’re sharing.
• There is a liberal, corrupted, cultural “church” presence in many communities in Iowa & in Pennsylvania that teaches salvation is being baptized & confirmed or that God is love, but not much more, but no Gospel witness that we are created, compromised by sin, completely helpless to get to God unless He makes a way for us to come to Him, reveals it to us, & moves us to call out for salvation, turn away from our sin, & love His John 14:6 Way—His Son Jesus Christ—instead of our sin for the rest of our lives as we are gifted & obligated & compelled by the Love of Christ to diligently & faithfully spread this Good News to others.
• At one time, this Biblical Gospel that saves MAY have been present & working in some discernable way, but if so, not any more. So, our mission in these places is the same as the one the Holy Spirit describes to the Romans through Paul, 2000 years ago: “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:14-15).
• So, our family has committed to GO to these “formerly reached” places, which in many ways is just like going to Europe. Places like England, France, & Germany all have rich Gospel presences IN THE PAST, but the generations that live there NOW have not believed & CANNOT unless we REACH THEM AGAIN. North America is not special, it’s normal. The people left in rural America where there’s a form of Godliness, but no power as the final words of Titus 1 describe NEED Him, too.
• Our family is willing to GO, but we unable to go alone.
• We must be SENT.
• Here’s where we NEED your help!
Friends, when we were launched from Kalamazoo back in May, we had raised about 70% of the monthly support we needed to stay on the field long-term. That’s BIG & nothing short of miraculous. We’re so in awe & thankful for the Spirit’s leading & moving in those of you who continue to make it possible for us to be doing what we’re doing. We’ve seen the Lord move a few individuals to join us since then, inching us up to right around 75% of what we need to stay long term.
As the Lord has now revealed this move of our ministry to Pennsylvania, we’re reminded of a few truths. We agree with Hudson Taylor when he said, “Depend on it. God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply. He is too wise a God to frustrate His purposes for lack of funds, and He can just as easily supply them ahead of time as afterwards, and He much prefers doing so.”
We believe we’re going to do God’s work among the people of rural eastern Pennsylvania, where we know that recent surveys show that 53.1% of people in Columbia County (where we’re moving) report they have no ties to faith or religion whatsoever. Of the 46.9% who connect with some religion, less than 5% are associated with the Biblical Gospel. The rest have a form of Godliness, but deny His power.
So, God’s work is real, needed, our family is equipped to do it, willing to go, & needs to be sent.
We believe we are doing God’s work God’s way in pouring our lives into equipping the saints of the local church, who have no other shepherd. Sheep without a shepherd were worthy of Jesus’ compassion. They’re worthy of yours & ours, too.
Here’s our unfiltered report on God’s supply & what being 75% supported means for life & ministry—
• Like any family living on a fixed income, we make hard choices.
• Out of the money we receive, we pay for everything—toothpaste, travel, taxes—everything.
• There is no margin currently for us to:
— Save any money for anything, including car replacement, repair, retirement, etc.
— To buy books, tracts, & ministry materials, including postcards & business cards,
— To replace worn furniture that’s 15+ years old,
— To be able to purchase a reliable second car that provides for flexibility in ministry,
— To invite folks we meet to coffee or meals that make room for Gospel conversations
— To travel anywhere, including aging parents, & the churches & people who support us…
• Just since we arrived on the field in May, we have experienced—
— Unexpected, unbudgeted car repairs totaling $1,431,
— Unexpected travel expenses that total just under $1,000,
— A tax burden greater than what we expected, more than $3,000,
— Our move to Pennsylvania is offset in part by Village Missions, but Dave’s bad back (scoliosis, a severe spine curvature exceeding 70%) limits how much he can move & drive long distances at one time coupled with the lack of the army of friends we had in Kalamazoo that helped us pack & load, we’ve had to hire movers. That expense exceeds the Village Missions allowance to move us by $2,930.
— We had approximately $10,000 in liquid savings when we launched in May. The above expenses coupled with a few lesser ones & the lack of ability to save anything more because we’re at 75% of what we need in monthly financial support has depleted those funds to nearly nothing.
We won’t pretend, loved ones, that it is easy to share this with you, as we’re tempted to believe we’ve failed somehow, but we know better—that God is not only providing us an opportunity to humble ourselves as we pray for grace so that we may receive it (James 4:6), but also giving the Body of Christ around us (YOU!) that the Lord has used to bless & equip us & that we’ve poured our hearts & minds into over these past years the opportunity to share in the eternal rewards of our work equally with us (1 Samuel 30:24). He really is orchestrating everything for the good of everyone involved (Romans 8:28). The senders, the goers, & those who will hear & believe the 1 Corinthians 1 “message of the cross” that powerfully saves!
How you can help & bless us if the Lord sets your heart to do so:
PRAY the Lord will provide for & use us to spread His Word & that it will be glorified wherever it goes (1 Thessalonians 3:1) & that the Lord will make those He sends us to the good soil Jesus describes in Mark 4. Dave will be preaching for the first time on December 22nd!
GIVE as love for our Lord leads you. Any type of gift (ongoing monthly, one-time, specifically earmarked, small or medium or big) can be offered at the link below. We are equally deeply thankful & humbled for them ALL & remind ourselves often of what Jesus said to His disciples about the woman who gave a little joyfully & sacrificially gave MORE than large sums given by others with hearts far from Jesus. We encourage you that giving is not really giving us or anyone else money, but rather an act of worship & exercise of the spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit.
https://give.villagemissions.org/donate/missionaries/missionary-detail/a-scott-dave-and-shannon
ENCOURAGE us! We LOVE your texts, emails, calls, letters, & packages. Our phone numbers & email addresses (below) will stay the same, & our temporary physical address in Pennsylvania is below, as well. John especially loves letters! We’re moving into an apartment the church means to be a temporary provision so we can begin working there ASAP. That means we get to move again sooner than later, so we’ll keep you updated!
Dave’s email address is TeachingSomethingGood@gmail.com
Shannon’s email address is VinitaReading@yahoo.com
Our PA mailing address is:
6695 3rd Street
Bloomsburg, PA 17815
We 3 Scotts are with you in spirit in a Colossians 2:5 way, living the 2:6-7 life, praying & rooting for YOU!
“For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:5-7).
Living for Jesus,
Pastor Dave, Shannon, & John