God Call

My name is Scott Ward. I am married to Jennifer, and we have four boys and one daughter-in-law: Luke (26), Brennan (22), Joshua (16), and Samuel (11). Brennan married Hannah December 2021. I am the Mission Pastor at Grand Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Prior to that, my family and I served in Tanzania for about three years as missionaries. We ended up having to resign from the International Mission Board for medical reasons. Our second youngest, Joshua, was born three months premature, and while we were in Tanzania at the age of two he began to have some problems with his speech. We were not able to get the help that we needed for him in East Africa, so we returned to the US. He is now perfectly healthy. We later adopted a toddler, Samuel, from South Korea.

God really blessed us with this position at GABC. It really is my dream job. God has me in this position to be a mobilizer for missions during this season of my life, and I am really enjoying it. GABC is also my home church, and God has used the people here to encourage us during what was a tough time.

As you will see in my posts, I love photography. A number of years ago, one of my mentors told me that I needed a hobby to keep me sane on the mission field. He was into photography, and I picked it up as well. I really enjoy the opportunity of going to some of the most beautiful parts of our world, meeting the people, sharing the love of Christ, and taking pictures of it all. It just seems to go hand in hand.

I started this blog for a number of reasons. For one thing, I believe that there is a real lack of education about missions. I also believe that there is a real lack of obedience. Most every believer knows the Great Commission and has heard multiple sermons on it, but very few actually follow it. I also believe that there are those believers that are well-intentioned but just don’t know how to follow it. Therefore, I want to address many different topics about missions. For me, missions is God’s heart, and so it must be mine as well. It should not be a side ministry in the back room of a church, but the very life-blood and purpose of the church. My prayer is that my generation in America will wake up and realize that we are capable of completing the Great Commission and simply set our hearts and minds to do it.