Each year I try to reflect on the events of the past year and recall details that keep a pocket in my memory bank. I also like to share what’s new, old, or interesting in my ministry. This year isn’t much different than the year before in my personal schedule of life. Work schedule is similar though we’ve had some changes in the makeup of our Avant Communications team. I’ll go through in bullet point fashion and fill you in on the highlights. Then as usual, you can see a photo gallery recap at the bottom of the page.
Avant Ministry 2025 Overview
- SiteStacker Conference in April (near Orlando, Florida). Six of us attended… Our Avant president, our communications director, two of the IT staff, me and the Director of Communications for Crossworld (they share our campus in KC). SiteStacker is the software platform Avant uses for donors, our missionary database, and our website. Since we have plans for an update to the website, I attended the conference with other key members of our tech and development teams to make sure we have an understanding from all perspectives. We were hoping to have begun the “remodel” process by now, but things have been a little stalled. As I wait for this project to begin (which will take a large part of my time), I continue to help with design and layout tasks for social media as well as my regular maintenance tasks on the websites in other languages.
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Group selfie in front of Kauffman Stadium. Annual Communications Team meeting in Kansas City the week after the conference, I went straight from Orlando to Kansas City to participate in our annual in-person team meeting. This meeting included our entire communications team from Mexico, Guatemala, and the US. It was so much fun and we were able to plan a year’s worth of content and attend a Royals baseball game during our week-long work conference. I shared a blog post about our time here: Third Culture Team.
- Team Member Juggle: If you remember, last year one of our team members moved into a new ministry and several of us have absorbed his responsibilities. In April 2025, our Communications Director began a new job at a university and we have done a little restructuring to handle the load. Thankfully, the former team member has stepped back in to provide oversight while our leadership makes decisions about the director position. We seem to be keeping it together well, and our processes haven’t suffered much. Please keep us in your prayers as we move forward so we won’t lose the momentum we established last year. Our social media team is amazing! If you’d like to follow us on Instagram, you can keep up with all the places we send missionaries to and the different types of involvement opportunities there are! English Instagram; Spanish Instagram. Both accounts display the extensive creativity of our team.
- Avant Homecoming Celebration: In September, Scot and I were able to attend a major appreciation banquet held for our donors and any missionaries who find themselves state-side at the time. Nearly 500 participated (including almost 100 Avant missionaries and staff) in our “Avant Around the World” global market and banquet. We saw snapshots (booths) of every Avant field region specifically geared to show our supporters and ministry partners what God is doing around the world through our ministries/missionaries, and to spend time thanking them for their engagement in the Great Commission with Avant through going, praying, and giving. It was an inspiring evening and I’m glad we were able to join in on the celebration.
- Assisting our missionaries: Part of our work on the communications team is to assist our missionaries in their tasks of sharing information about themselves and their ministries. We have biographical web pages for them and we (I) set up their prayer cards and other items they may need for raising support and updating their donors. In this vein, I’ve also begun helping missionaries with websites that may support the work they are doing as part of their bigger picture ministries. My hope is to help them share information and stay on brand with their own websites.
Personal 2025 Overview
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- Les Miserables in San Antonio with my kids: My kids grew up going to musicals, so we took a fun weekend (late birthday present for Natalie) and met in San Antonio to see a classic. It wouldn’t matter what we did, any time I get to spend with my kids is a win! While there, Amanda and I were walking to grab some lunch and were caught on camera by the Texas Bushman. This guys hides himself as a “bush” and startles passers-by. You can watch our reaction on his YouTube video (at the 9:26 time stop).
- BBQ and more: I can’t say it enough… and my social media mentions it a lot… but I have been truly blessed with a husband who loves to feed me. He is always experimenting and perfecting his masterpieces! He got a pellet smoker early in the year and boy has he been smokin’ some great food!
- Lilly update: She is three now and doing well. Doctors are still monitoring her health and Amanda has to keep a close eye on her ketone and glucose levels. They still don’t have answers, but at least they have a workaround to help keep symptoms at bay. Please continue to pray for her until more information becomes available.
- Weekly babysitting of the grandkids: I still enjoy spending every Tuesday with Winry, Alphonse, and Lilly. It’s a sweet time of bonding and gives Amanda a day of kid-free work at her job (she’s able to take them with her on the other days and works from home a few days too). They are homeschooling, so I get to be their Tuesday teacher as they work through the curriculum. It’s amazing to see how much they learn and watch them help each other in the process.
LSU vs. DBU. I’m not happy with the results of the game! - Baseball disagreement: If you’ve known me for any length of time, you know baseball is my favorite sport. Especially live, in-person games. I’m not a fan of watching any sport on TV. Scot, on the other hand is a major football fan (especially college). And he will watch it anyway he can. Thankfully he humors me and takes me to baseball games when we can work it in. In this image, his favorite team (LSU) is beating my alma mater (DBU) when they played in Arlington. Obviously, I wasn’t happy about that. We also got to make a Rangers game for my birthday.
- Nerdy recognition: Although my work with Avant is full time, I still maintain some freelance work. I’m a member of a network of other nerdy techie people and was interviewed as one of the member spotlights. If you want to read about my background that led me into working on the Avant Communications team, you can see that article here.
- Joe and Edith: Last year I mentioned that Christmas photos showed an extra person. Well those two love-birds got engaged in June! We are beyond excited. Plans are to tie the knot sometime this Fall.
- Country Bible Church ministry: I’m still facilitating women’s classes and helping with the church’s website. After missing a few years of Vacation Bible School, I was able to participate in 2025 as the recreation leader. That’s my first time in that role (I usually teach a Bible lesson or two). It was really fun and I got to see the kids in a different setting than usual.
- CBC Brazil: In July, we took a short-term ministry team to Brazil. We went to encourage and serve the staff and children of the Lar Davis orphanages in Fortaleza, Brazil. It is an organization focused on restoring and preparing lives of displaced children living in socially vulnerable situations, providing them with dignified housing, good nutrition, education, care, and protection… but most of all, the love of Jesus. I was excited to lead a part of our team in painting several murals. We were so blessed to server along side those who care for these kids. You can read the full update if you get my ministry update emails.
- Angel Fire, New Mexico: after a few missed years of visiting this beautiful place, we were able to make time for a time of real rest and vacation. Scot’s brother and his twin teenage boys came along with us and we enjoyed the cool summer weather and beautiful views.
- Veggie garden: This year was an amazing one for gardening. I don’t really think it had anything to do with me. The weather was just perfect and we had an abundance of tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. My winter garden is still producing some nice herbs to enhance our cooking.
- Take Heart Family Ministry: I was asked to serve on the executive board of a ministry that I’ve already done some volunteer work for. Since I’m not able to physically volunteer for meetings and events anymore (since moving to Kaufman), I am able to help with remote responsibilities and advising. It is a non-profit ministry dedicated to supporting and empowering teen parents in North Dallas. We walk alongside these young moms, their children, and the fathers with long-term, responsive, relationally-driven care and support.
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Nancy turned 89 years young! Celebrated 89 years for my Mom. Mom’s energy is amazing. Still active and having fun at the age of 89. Life does have it’s challenges, but she meets them head on and keeps on movin’!
- Childhood group of girlfriends trip to Isla Mujeres (Mexico). I have this group of girlfriends that have been together since grade school. We’ve played together, cheered together, gotten in lots of trouble together, and we still do much of life together when we can. This year we decided to be much more intentional with our time. We’ve started a once-a-month meal to spend quality time with each other. You’ve probably seen photos of our annual Christmas Eve Scurry Girls Breakfast. Well, now we want to take some time each year to get away together. This year we did a beach vacation and had an amazing time (even though we’re missing a couple of us for this trip)! If you have a group of friends that you’ve been meaning to spend more time with, I encourage you to make sure that happens and make it a regular thing. I don’t know many people who have a close knit group of friends that go back as far as we do. I praise God for their friendship and help in times of need.
- Natalie turned 40! I just can’t believe it. We celebrated her with a big party of Corpus Christi friends (thanks to her hubby Carl for planning everything). I did a 40 years in review video to commemorate the event. It’s kinda long, but full of some sweet memories if you’d like to watch it… Natalie 40 Years of Memories.
- All the holidays: We did all of the normal holiday activities (Thanksgiving, Natchitoches Christmas with Louisiana family, Christmas cookies and family celebration with my kids, Christmas Eve breakfast with my girlfriends, Christmas Eve at my mom’s, and our new tradition of New Year’s Day Brunch at our home). I also took a drive down to Austin to do Christmas day at Joe’s. He and Edith weren’t able to make it this year and I didn’t want to miss seeing them. We did some cookie decorating and they are both so creative!
- Surgery: Yes. Another surgery. On December 30, I had some stuff removed (you don’t want to know details). Nothing serious, but it was definitely a major procedure. Thankfully they were able to complete it laparoscopically. I did have to stay in the hospital one night for observation, but went home the next day… on our 11th anniversary. Scot tried to bring me flowers, but I was in the wing that didn’t allow them on the floor. But I got to see them when we got home. I’m still in recovery mode, with several weeks of limitations and taking things slow. That’s really difficult for me to do!
Photo Summary
So there you have it… the quick version of a year in our life and ministry. I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of details, but you can tell a lot from the photos below (click an image to open a lightbox for the full size). Thank you all so much for your financial, spiritual, and emotional support! We are forever grateful and praise God for your participation in His Great Commission.
