Continuing a missions heritage

Throughout the years, Northside Baptist Church in Tifton has grown in reputation for sending its members out on the mission field.

Daniel and Sky Scott reinforced that tradition as the young couple was commissioned July 12 in Tyler, Texas. They will be serving through the International Mission Board as church planters in eastern and southern Africa beginning in September.

Bill Bangham

Sky and Daniel Scott of Tifton explain how God called them to overseas service in southern Africa during a July 12 International Mission Board appointment service at Green Acres aptist Church in Tyler, Texas.

“I’ve known Daniel since he was a little boy,” recounts Ray Hammonds, longtime member and church historian at Northside. “After he heard a foreign missionary speak at our church while in his late teens, he became more interested in the mission field.”

Scott’s pull toward missions can be attributed to his home, as well as church, family. His parents, Gene and Bonnie, regularly participated in missions domestic and abroad. The couple went on several foreign trips to Jamaica, accompanied by their children.

A native of Tifton, Daniel Scott graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in economics before going to Zimbabwe in 1997-1999 through the IMB’s journeyman program. Upon his return to the states he completed his master of divinity degree in missions at Southwestern Seminary.

Sky Scott is a native of Amarillo, Texas and graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University with a degree in music. She previously served as a children’s ministry intern at First Baptist Church in Amarillo as well as a summer missionary to East Africa.

The Scotts will begin by working in the far western region of Africa on the Zambezi River known as the Barotse Floodplains. There they will minister to the Lozi people, a group of about 1.5 million scattered throughout western Zambia, the Caprivi Strip of Namibia, eastern Angola, and northwestern Botswana.

The first year of the Scotts’ term will be spent learning the tribal Lozi language.

“God began planting seeds in my life at a very early age,” said Sky Scott in an email interview. “My parents are Christians and literally raised me in the church.”

She also credits a mission mindset placed upon her by her grandparents, who worked in China for two years as English teachers.