Stan & Donna Scroggins • Asia Pacific Coordinator
It has been a busy month. On May 1, we finally made it to our house in Bullard, Texas. (Yes, we are still living in a foreign country.) It was like a dream. Our daughter, Leslie Hale, had prepared everything. It was like that old show “While You Were Out” — a family goes away and, when they come back, their house is completely changed. Leslie had made it “move in ready,” down to the last detail.
But transition is so much more for us than moving into our new house. It is the act of slowing down and making a new life after literally going 100 miles an hour for 43 years. Donna and I have served on five fields — Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Chickasaw, Ala. for 2 years; Immanuel Baptist Church (now Oasis Church) in Camden for 6 years; Farmington Baptist Church in Corinth, Miss. for 5 years; First Baptist Church in Magnolia for 25 years; and as missionaries for BMA Global Missions in the Philippines for 7 years.
Leaving the Philippines also meant initiating our “exit strategy” — completing our exit strategy might be better terminology. An important missionary strategy we learned early on is that no matter how long a missionary stays on the field, an exit strategy should be in place and implemented from the very first day.
While it was hard, very hard, leaving our precious friends, our Filipino family, it was easier knowing most of the work we accomplished continues in our absence. You might have read an article I wrote for Mission World News, “Leaving Rake Marks,” (Find it at bmamissions.org/leaving-rake-marks) that is what we pray the Lord blesses us with in the future, that His work will be a continuation of what He gave us to do by those who follow noticing some “rake marks” in the field.
With our transition home comes changes in our field assignment. While we are no longer international missionaries, I will continue to serve BMA Global as Asia Pacific coordinator. With that, I will transition our monthly newsletter from being mostly information about our specific ministries in the Philippines to also highlighting the work of our Asia Pacific Missionaries and regional ChangeMaker Missionaries.
Beginning in August, we will begin taking invitations to visit our supporting churches. It is our dream to say “thank you” — a thank you tour you might say. We’ll probably make just a couple of appointments each month. I plan to start contacting you for availability if you don’t contact me first.
Once again, we do want to emphasize that we will consider all our supporters’ commitment to us to be finished as of Jan. 1, 2024. If we continue to receive undesignated support, it will be used to meet my responsibilities as Asia Pacific Director.
While geographically expanding into multiple world regions, the BMA Global Missions Asia Pacific Region includes 21 countries, with a BMA Global presence in 9 of these countries. It is easy to see the need for more missionaries to reach what is considered the most unreached people group in the world. Need to know more? Let BMA Global help you fulfill God’s calling in your life to “make His name known among the nations.”
This year, the annual BMA of America meeting was in Conway in what was, for Donna and me, simply the best association meeting in our 43 years of serving in the BMA. If your heart is about missions (and if not, why not) then you also recognize that this year’s meeting was all about missions. Churches and people from all over the world gathered for worship at Antioch Baptist Church and there was a “Meeting on the Grounds” with BMA Global missionaries, highlighted by the annual message by Missionary Buddy Johnson. After the association meeting, BMA Global hosted a Missionary Care Conference in Hot Springs. Missionaries prayed together, Asia Pacific Missionaries ate together and we celebrated Christmas in May together.
We have American missionaries in Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, of course, and in two creative access countries. I will be working to find new places for ministry in countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia, Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand and other Asia Pacific locations. We are searching for those God is calling to take the gospel to the most unreached people group in the world. Interested? Contact me and let me help you fulfill God’s plan in your life. Our work is completely focused on sending the gospel to Southeast Asian countries.
These are our Asia-Pacific Missionaries:
• Jeremy and Mandy Hambrice are finishing up their furlough and will return to Papua New Guinea in August.
• Sean and Jenny Richards have just returned to Papua New Guinea.
• B.J. and Jill Sanders are partners with the Hambrices in Papua New Guinea. They are currently working with the Wantakia tribe.
• Danny and Rita Ballard are serving on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
• Fil and Lisa Kakilala serve on the island of Pany in the Philippines. Fil is currently in Iloilo City, Philippines.
• Doug and Diane Lee serve with the BMA Bible College in Talisay, Philippines on the Island of Negros. They will return to the field in July.
• Cris and Alicia Samson are back to the Philippines, now with three boys.
• Stan and Donna Scroggins have made the transition stateside, visiting BMA churches around the country.
We love you all.
— Stay up to date with The Scroggins and their work in Asia Pacific by visiting their website and checking-out their blog — thescroggins.com. You can also partner with Stan and Donna by giving through your local church or the BMA Missions website (bmamissions.org).
Missionary Focus
B.J. and Jill Sanders are part of a three-family team working with the Wantakia Tribe in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. After seven years, the first church has been organized. Wantakian missionaries will begin spreading out to the other Wantakia-speaking villages in the surrounding mountains. Can you imagine learning a foreign dialect, creating an alphabet, writing a language for that dialect, teaching the people to read and write this new language and then the blessing of watching these people read God’s Word in their heart language? Praise God!
B.J. and Jill, along with their dedicated team members, spent over three years at Ethos 360 training, which focuses on teaching missionaries to live off grid. The bulk of the training centers around language acquisition, linguistics, Bible translation and teaching unreached people groups. Pray for this dedicated family and reach out to them through social media platforms.
