My Beginning-Scott

I was raised in a Methodist Church in Jacksonville, NC. I wouldn't say that we were very active in missions, although we heard the occasional missionary story and gave to UNICEF every year. it was really something that other people did.

After coming to Cornerstone, I began hearing more about missions and it was from the point of view of people who were actually planning on Doing. For several years missions was still something that other people did.

Our family participated in a construction/VBS mission trip to Maine with Cornerstone. I wasn't completely sure that this missions thing was for me but I was willing to go along. I loved the trip and ministering to Christians needing love and support in Maine.

I later felt a call to participate in a planned mission trip to India. This trip was canceled due to the tsunami of 2004. I eventually began to discuss going on a mission trip to Ukraine with Marsha Judy. I had no idea what I had obligated myself for. The trip was a conference for pastors in Ukraine and the surrounding areas. The goal was to encourage and uplift the pastors so that they would be rejuvenated for service in their own ministries. I thought I had volunteered for some sort of background or support role. Before I knew it, I was "preaching". Marsha has a knack of getting people to do things that they don't believe themselves capable of doing.

God blessed me through our Ukraine mission trip and I was changed in ways that I didn't quite yet understand. Over the next year or so I began to understand that I was experiencing a call to full time missions. I was still a very immature person and Christian. I wasn't really ready to go at that point but God knew His timing. Cindy really wasn't ready at that point either.

Cindy and I have joked about the idea of going to the mission field for a couple of years, but I don't think she really took me seriously. I eventually understood that this was a calling experienced by a couple and that she couldn't or shouldn't be rushed into it by me. I was convicted to wait for God's time for her. In October 2008 we took a family vacation to Myrtle Beach and the subject of missions came up. I said something about going and Cindy realized for the first time that I was serious. The next 24 hours was a blur for both of us as we began to seriously consider making the idea become reality.

We committed to pray about the idea for a month. It took about two weeks for us to realize that we really had been called and it was time to do something about it. The month since then has been a blur. The idea has gone from abstract to concrete. We are now trying to get our house ready to sell. We are listing our possessions for sale. We are considering who we need to tell now and who we should wait to tell. (If you are a friend reading this and you weren't one of the first ones we told, please don't take it personally! We know you all love us. We are sometimes concerned about our employment situations and how this knowledge might affect our jobs.)

God has been very good to me. He has held my hand and comforted me throughout this process. I'd like to say I never had any doubts, but that would be a lie. I've worried about how I would take care of my family. I've worried about how past sins might affect my ministry in the future. I've worried that I'm not going to be "good at it". I've even worried about some of the things I knew I was going to have to give up. But mostly I've been filled with joy at the prospects of serving God with my life. I am beginning to feel a fulfillment that I've never known before.