I feel so blessed to have been raised in a loving Christian home where I first heard the Gospel and had an opportunity to believe. However, it didn’t take long for the cares and sin of this world to creep in and crowd out my faith in Jesus. By the time high school graduation came around, I had no clue which direction to turn so I ended up running away – straight into the Army. This ended up being the best decision ever as my journey led me straight back into the arms of Jesus. During my time in Germany I got plugged into an Overseas Christian Servicemen’s Center where my faith grew through the teaching of the Word and fellowship with other young believers, like myself, who became a band of brothers for Christ.
While still serving in the Army, the Lord opened the door in 1990 for me to join a short-term mission trip down in Kenya, and for the first time my eyes were opened to the spiritual and physical needs of Africa. Later that year, when I was deployed to Desert Storm, images of Kenya kept flooding my mind. Upon returning to Germany I asked my mentor at the Servicemen’s Center what the Lord might be telling me through these thoughts I was having about Africa. He said, “Scott, it sounds like the Lord is calling you into missions and you need to get prepared.”
So at the end of 1991 I left the military in order to pursue a degree in Bible and missions. It was at Bible college where I met my wife, Susie, and soon learned that the Lord had already been calling her into missions through her own spiritual journey. After getting married in 1994, we began serious preparations for heading to the mission field, and in 1997 we embarked on a 19 year adventure of sharing Jesus with Africans through the ministry of Africa Inland Mission.
In 2016 the Lord led our family, now with the addition of three sons, to settle in Groveland, Florida so that I could fulfill a new role as managing director of our Mission retirement center in Minneola. We feel so blessed to be serving those who served Christ and His kingdom.
