Who Are These Guys???

As you read our posts here at One Village Life, you may start to ask yourself:

"Who are these guys that talk sooooooo much about missions?"

Are we qualified to speak on the subject of missions?

Are we writing personal opinions, or informed commentary?

Here is a little bit about me (Matt) and missions (we’ll introduce Erik in the next post) - you can decide 👍

Matt Scott - Born 1960 in Martinsville, IN

My experience with missions growing up was pretty typical for a small town church in the 60s and 70s. Our church had a missionary in Africa who we sent $50 a month.

His name appeared in our weekly church bulletin, we got a few updates, but in over 20 years of attending the church, I never met him.

Our Intro to Missions

I basically checked out from church during the 80's, but in the 90s, as our two children grew, God started putting it on my heart to return to my "first love".

So I started taking my kids to church. Then my wife joined us, and was baptized.

Long story short, as our family became more and more dedicated to Christ, we felt ourselves being drawn into missions work.

Short-Term Missions: Dr. Scott 👩🏻‍⚕️🩺

While our dedication to Christ grew, Leonia finished medical school and became a family physician. This made it very natural for her to go into medical missions.

She spent almost a decade working with Teams for Medical Missions in Jamaica, where she served as the Medical Director her last few years.

Every 90 days, TMM sends teams of doctors, nurses, and evangelist into the mountains of Jamaica to give free medical care and share the love of Christ.

I (Matt) floated in and out of missions in Jamaica and Haiti logging 12 short-term missions in short-order.

I worked hard, but my approach was not coherent. I went where I saw the work.

Long-Term Missions: 16 Years at Purdue

In 2005, Leonia and I felt God might be wanting more from us than our 2 or 3 mission trips a year.

Instead of going and helping missionaries, we felt He might actually want US to become full-time missionaries!

So we prayed 🙏 and God answered 👉👉👉

Soon, we sold our company, quit our jobs, and moved to Purdue University where for the next 16 years we worked with international students as full-time missionaries with the Greater Lafayette Chinese Alliance Church, and then at Faith Church.

Dozens of Bible studies a week, small groups, prayer meetings, worship times, lunches and dinners at our home, students living with us, marriages, babies, holiday parties, counseling - all at the same time!

Utter CHAOS! 🤪

And it was AMAZING! ☺️

God allowed us to witness over 600 students give their lives to Christ during our time at Purdue.

But mission fatigue was started to set in and Leonia's parents were aging ("take care of your own families... " 1 Timothy 5:8) so we hung up our missionary sandals and moved to Florida to start a new chapter in our lives.

One Village Group - Working With Erik

But God has a funny way of not letting you go until HE is ready.

As my son Erik was moving from Active Duty Air Force to the Air National Guard in 2022, we talked about his next steps. His number one priority - get into missions!

I thought to myself: Oh my - here we go again!

So in late 2022, we formed One Village Group with the goal of helping missionaries around the world become visible in a world of overwhelming digital information.

Today - Everyday is Missions Day!

Today I spend anywhere from 20-25 hours a week working with missionaries online, from around the world.

One day I'm helping with marketing, the next I'm helping someone build a blog page, other days I'm editing posts, sometimes I'm just praying with missionaries...

It is always something! And it's always something GREAT, even when it's not!

I also make sure I spend 2-3 hours each week in wonderful discussions with Missions Directors, Pastors, Elders, Missionary Sending Agencies, and other Missions group leaders around the globe, trying to keep OVG's fingers on the pulse of what is going on in missions TODAY!

Opinions?

So that is my story - so far. 🖼️

When you read posts from me, I'm sure they contain my opinions - but I hope these are "informed" opinions:

• A culmination of almost 30 years of personally engaging missions from every facet possible
• Daily discussions with current missionaries
• Ongoing weekly input from some pretty Godly missions leaders

These are the basis for the posts you read on our blog - Onevillage.life.

There are some fundamentals to missions that never change, but there are also new technologies and approaches that need to change if missions is going to remain relevant in the hearts of Christians and local churches. ❤️ (see post: What 74% of Christians Don't Know)

That's where One Village Group comes in - Helping missionaries advance the timeless message of Christ with the latest in communications technologies.

We hope you stay tuned!