![]() Here is some of their story: ...
within a few years all of the business entities had been sold and we as
a family were leaving our country to spend five months with Youth With a
Mission, completing a Crossroads Discipleship Training School in Kona
Hawaii (University of the Nations), the latter two months would be on
outreach in Philippines and Indonesia. At this
time our children were 16, 13 and 10 years of age, and really we had no
idea what was unfolding ahead of us. God had miraculously provided the
initial funding for this Crossroads DTS but we really had no idea what
the future held following this time. We did have our own home (freehold)
as well as the Trust Rental Property at Torbay but the Kiwi Dollar was
quite low at that time ($NZ 0.7500 against the US) and once our rent
arrived each month it did not provide anywhere near enough to live on. This
Crossroads Discipleship Training School was a totally incredible
experience for our family and following the outreach phase we returned
to Kona and immediately we stepped on to the Campus at the University of
the Nations, we were ushered into an office and asked to pray about
staying on Staff with the University. At the same time we were advised
that there was no housing available on the Campus and we would have to
find our own housing in the Kona community. This “staff” position was
completely volunteer work and the only money we had, was from NZ and the
dollar had already dropped several points at that time. We had no other
means of financial support and had no idea how to go about raising any.
Our church did not support us at that time (but would later on for a
season) but we felt before God that we were to press on and trust God
for housing and “our daily bread” so we offered ourselves. Within
three days we saw God begin to move on our behalf and housing opened up
in a condo next door to the University. Our NZ rentals would just cover
the rent and we could eat at the Campus so provided the food was OK for
the family we could survive it seemed. We set off on a financial (and
spiritual) roller coaster for the next period of our lives that was very
exciting, scary, humbling (and humiliating) at times. Almost
six years on, and we are still serving God from here. We have seen Gods
incredible provision for our family. We set up the Trust Mortgage in
such a way that we paid ‘interest only’ to maximise the amount of
funding sent across to the US each month. The first 18 months, we moved
house every three months and had a child in our bedroom for that whole
period. We could not afford a home with three bedrooms. This state is
the most expensive to live in the United States. This Campus is not here
because of the sun or the beaches. It is here because God said that it
was to be here, strategically established to send young and old out in
to the Pacific and Asia (and other nations) to disciple Nations as God
commanded in Mathew 28 “Go and make disciples of all nations…” We have
seen the NZ dollar drop to an all-time low. But have never missed a rent
payment in the time we have been here. How I never know. At times we
have been in debt (with bills still to pay) and someone has walked up to
me and said God has seen your tenacity and he is going to bless you
financially and the next day a fax arrives to say someone deposited
$2,500 in our NZ account paying all the bills and that months rent. We
have flown all over Gods earth taking teams for this University to
people who have never heard the Gospel. We have
been in debt $10,000 and a man walked in to my office and said you
cannot run your ministry with that hanging over you and the debt was
cleared. We have been flown to San Francisco, Texas and Colorado
(different times) to have a vacation when we were ready to pullout and
go home because we had no money and were exhausted, yet our incredibly
faithful God continues to meet our every need. We don’t understand His
timing on all these things, but maybe one day we will. So
what do we do today from a function perspective? Alison works in the
Healthcare College training Primary Healthcare workers to go to the
third world and teach the basic healthcare principles that we as New
Zealanders take for granted. She has led teams in the Philippines and
Honduras following the tragedy of Hurricane Mitch. Presently Alison is
working at home in her primary role as Mum to our three children and as
my wife. I am the Director responsible for Operations and Campus
Development. My responsibility oversees 18 different departments
responsible for the day to day Operations of the Campus, such as Food
services (10,000 meals per week) Computer Services, Grounds and Building
Maintenance, Transportation, Construction and Campus Development and
Master Planning etc, etc. I am also a member of the Kona Leadership
Team. I do spend time in other Nations however my primary call is here
on this Campus, to equip those to go out and reach His Nations
positively from a Biblical Worldview, in all seven spheres of influence:
the Arts, Church, Communication, (Family) Counselling and Healthcare,
Education, Humanities and International Studies, and Science and
Technology. We continue to live by faith and
God continues to touch people’s hearts to become a part of our “home”
team, both prayerfully and from a practical financial perspective. We
even have non-Christians who financially support us. God is sure
creative. By receiving the interest free
mortgage our monthly payments have actually increased but we are
believing that it is time to reduce this indebtedness and in a short few
years we will be debt free. This will mean the benefits to our family
can increase and further our work. From a
personal perspective I have watched the Liberty Trust work for the last
few years with a great degree of appreciation for the way in which the
Trustees have responded to their mission field. Many have been blessed
and many more will continue to do so in the years to come. I believe in
the principle of the Storehouse and would like to see it work in other
ways. Gregg Scott and Family |
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