A New Road Ahead

June 12, 2026

Hello family & friends!

I’m writing to you from Oklahoma instead of New Hampshire this time & soon we’ll be moving to a different state. If you want to skip to the end to find out why, I understand, but I REALLY want to share one more story from New Hampshire first:

A man named Walter who goes to a church in a neighboring town came up to me recently & said he had a bone to pick with me. Now this man is a friend, but he’s also easily a head taller than me, so I looked up, smiled, & shared that I try not to have that effect on folks, though sometimes it happens.

He smiled back, explained it was a good thing, & began to tell me that while he’s been saved for many years, he’d never been baptized until just recently. “Praise God,” I said, “but what does that have to do with me?” He continued by sharing a part of his testimony that he’d shared at his baptism that goes like this—

“Last summer, a close friend of ours was baptized. Unbeknownst to anyone, I’d been struggling with being baptized for some time…

During that baptism last summer, one phrase the pastor spoke has been nagging at me these last 8 to 9 months...Delayed Obedience is Really Disobedience!

I thank GOD for the path He put me on those many years ago...As I stand humbly before you today saved by his mercy and grace, I can with confidence call myself a child of a loving GOD.”

Walter was baptized at his church 8 or 9 months after I baptized his friend! The Lord, along with Scripture & other circumstances, used Walter’s friend’s obedience & part of my mini-sermon explaining baptism to the gathered crowd in a way I wasn’t aware of at all! Wow.

That’s deeply humbling & just a taste of a deep truth I’m convinced works in, around, & through obedient believers more often than we can know—God uses our witness & our obedience to build His Kingdom. This is what He left us here to do—to be His witnesses. That’s what Jesus said as He ascended into the air in Acts 1.

There are so MANY other stories of God’s overwhelming goodness we could share if time & space allowed, but we hope you know the Scotts are thankful every single day to be sent by Him through you to places few others are witnessing.

I’m writing to you from Oklahoma in June because in May Village Missions & the lay leaders of Middleton Gospel Chapel agreed it was time for us to move to another missions field. Why? That’s a good question.

There’s a years-long story leading up to this point, but the short summary from our point of view, speaking the truth in love, is that it's sure been a sweet time of getting to be a light in the spiritual darkness of New England that we’ve described to you before with no exaggeration. For our family, these past 5+ years in New Hampshire have been much like Paul’s stop in ancient Thessalonica. When you read the Thessalonian letters it's clear that Paul & the believers there had a warm affection for each other & we leave many friends behind, just like Paul did.

But Luke's opening verses of Acts 17 also reveal Paul met such fierce opposition to his message there that it became unwise to remain. So it was with us. Still, the church has tripled in size these past five years & now those who opposed us have bold, Godly, discerning disciple-makers in their midst that were not there when we arrived back in 2020.

Some get to plant & some water. Others now get to water where we no longer are able & the church’s witness in that community is stronger than it was when we arrived, by grace alone. The Lord has chosen what’s best & we’re thrilled to have been a small part of God’s work there!

When Village Missions reveals where we’re headed, we’ll share that with you. For now, we’re staying through the end of July in an apartment in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with plans to make a few trips to visit friends in the Vinita & OKC areas, as well as a short trip to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

If you’re in or around those places between now & the end of July, we’d LOVE to connect with you face-to-face, as the Lord leads, if you’ll let us know you’d like to. The best is yet to come. With Jesus, that’s always true. Amen?!

Living for Him with you,
Pastor Dave for Shannon & John Scott
Colossians 2:5-7
MiddletonGospelChapel.org
ScottFamilyJourney.org
VillageMissions.org