5 Minute Talk...

Minster, OH – St. Augustine Parish
March 15, 2014
5 minute talk during mass


Hi. My name is Scott Will and I bring you MANY greetings from my friends and family in South Sudan. I’m a 1997 graduate of Fort Recovery HS, and I went to Wright State University in Dayton. I worked for a few years and then went to graduate school at Arcadia University near Philadelphia and received a masters degree in medicine and a masters degree in public health, and then became licensed as a physician assistant. It was during my last year of graduate school that I first had the chance to visit Uganda, and Africa has been a significant part of my life ever since.

In 2008 I felt God calling me to long term mission work, and I’ve been with World Harvest Mission since 2009 first serving in Uganda and then moving to Sudan in 2010, which then became South Sudan, in 2011.

South Sudan is the newest and one of the poorest countries in the world, a place with no electricity, few paved roads, a dismal education system, and a struggling health care system where one out of every ten women die during child birth, and 25% of children die before the age of five. But it is also a place of hope, as people desire to improve their lives after 22 years of civil war. There have definitely been struggles, but it has been a joy and honor to serve there, and live life with the people there. I work at the local government run health center, where I primarily see children, all in a dialect of Arabic, I facilitate a sports program for the community, I have an agricultural demonstration garden, I lead a weekly Bible study, I preach every few weeks, and I do a lot of hospitality. My home is in the very center of town, and I live with a young South Sudanese man, John Kaya, so people are constantly in and out of my house, which is great by me. I am passionate about mentorship and discipleship, and love building relationships with people. My favorite thing to do is visit local people within their own mud and grass thatch roofed homes, and just sit with them on a mat on the ground and listen as they share their struggles, hopes, and dreams, and as I share my journey with them, I am able to tell them of the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ.

I am returning to South Sudan on March 25, and I ask you for your prayers. In December fighting broke out country wide in South Sudan and has lasted ever since. Thousands of people have died and nearly 1 million people have been forced to flee their homes. Many missionaries and foreigners have been evacuated, but I am choosing to return, to encourage the people there that have become my friends and family.  Please pray for the people of South Sudan and for me, that my faith would be greater than my fear. I have given up a lot of things in my life, including many of the American comforts, but I have gained so much more in return. My life is much more than me just trying to be a good person, it is about trying to glorify God and have enough faith to follow God to wherever and whatever he calls me to do.

Thank you for choosing World Harvest Mission and the work God is doing in South Sudan as your 2014 Lenten Mission project. Your donations will help to provide live saving medicines to children at Mundri Health Center, continue to build character, hope, and commitment through sports programming, and provide Bibles for individuals that have never owned a book in their lives.

Thank you and God bless. Shukran Ketiir, Araboya mbaa Miri.

2 Timothy 1:8-9: So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don't be ashamed of me, either, even though I'm in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from the beginning of time - to show us his grace through Jesus Christ.