Scott and Angie Bentley

“I’m tired; tired of the same rut. This can’t be all there is to life. I stink at living my own life. Just do it for me. Please, God?”

That was me (Scott) in 2006, three years after saying yes to Jesus. I was working a corporate job at a wireless internet provider. I’d always had this nagging feeling that I wasn’t doing what I was meant to do. I was completely dissatisfied in almost every part of my life, so I prayed to God. I had no idea what He had in store for me.

Compelled to serve and get more involved in church, I signed up to volunteer for Hurricane Katrina clean up in New Orleans in March 2007. It was the most amazing and fulfilling experience of my life, up to that point, because of the camaraderie and opportunity to serve others.

A month later, God brought Angie into my life. After our second date, she told me about the need at the Campus Crusade world headquarters for people skilled in computers. During trips to visit Angie in June and November, I met with staff members in Human Resources and also members of the IT (Information Technology) department.

After those meetings I knew God was leading me to serve with Campus Crusade on the computer team. (Kind of funny since I’d always thought missionaries served in the jungle or the inner city.) So, I applied to join as a missionary, was accepted, and Angie and I jumped in—along with 150 others—for the 5-week New Staff Training.

However, during the last week of training I became confused. I knew God had called me to become a missionary, but I wasn’t feeling the excitement like everybody else. I heard stories of those on the “front lines” of the ministry —on college campuses, inner cities or traveling around the world—and their amazing experiences. To be honest, I felt a little jealous.

The last week of our training, I asked God if I was truly following His will. In my heart, it felt like He said, “It’s okay, Scott. I don’t want you to be where they are. I want you in Orlando doing the very thing you know how to do.”

In an instant, my worry evaporated. And I felt honored that He would ask me to serve Him with Campus Crusade by just being me.

Praise:

• During New Staff Training, I (Angie) had a great opportunity to help with a focus group of our new missionaries. My role in communications is on the Staff Web team and, to take the next steps of improvement, we wanted to hear from the very people we serve. These “newbies” were perfect to ask! These 3 (see photo below) were at my table. I gave them 50 index cards. Each card had a task that staff members might come to the Staff Web to do. I asked them to discuss, as a group, what navigation button they’d assume they’d find the information for that task. Hearing them talk outloud about what they were thinking about where they’d find something was so helpful as we redesign the site. We want it to be intuitive for them so they can find what they’re looking for quickly and without frustration, helping make missionary life easier.

• The amazing (11th hour, too) way that God gave Scott peace and encouragement about His plans for Scott.
• Scott & I celebrated our 3-month anniversary on July 19. We love being married and being partners in life and ministry. What a unique privilege! Here we are, below, at the Cheesecake Factory on our “anniversary.” We invited 3 couples to join us for dinner–all newlywed couples with the husbands new staff members (like Scott) and the wives already missionaries with Campus Crusade.

Prayer Request:

• For us to rest in God’s power in ministry, marriage and all other facets of life. In busy seasons like this it’s so easy to default to our own strength and grunt it out. Yuck.

I just stopped crying from laughter.

This is Scott, in mid-sentence, as he was heading out the door to go get me a pop in case I have a low blood sugar in the night.

Now, understand that I am usually grateful that he’s my orange-juice-or-pop hero, making sure his diabetic wife has what she needs. (We realized at 11:37 p.m. that we had neither beverage option.)

But a key part of this story is that Scott majorly threw out his back tonight. After coming home after Jazzercise to find Scott like a moving-like-a-90-year-old man, I went back out to get him a back brace and a bag of ice at Walgreens.

What brought tears of laughter was seeing him walk toward the door, keys and wallet in hand. He was serious. The man who could barely move was going to maneuver and get in our truck and drive to 7-11.

And be my hero.

It was a sight I couldn’t take. I pleaded with him to stop, and even chased him out the door. (Ok, chasing implies a greater speed than was actually happening.) He was serious! I started begging him to stay and let me go.

Just seeing him in that back brace and barefoot sent me into an I-can’t-catch-my-breath laughter.

“It hurts, it hurts!” he bellowed. “Don’t make me laugh because it hurts when I do!”

Then, in a strange twist of events, we suddenly heard 3 gunshots (or so we think). We scurried (yes, this time) inside.

Scott got some water and realized God’s provision–we had a Dr. Pepper inside our fridge that we’d forgotten about. So, I’m provided for. How cool is that?

The superhero and his wife are calling it a night.

We finally got our wedding announcement in the Lincoln Journal-Star. Read all about it!