How it all works

So far we have been officially going as missionaries to Peru for one month now.  Praise God for his faithfulness through this month.  It seems that if you want a lot of trial in your life then the best thing to do is fully surrender to God and give your life to fulfilling the great commission to the end of the earth.  We have had so many trials since we have started this venture but our Sovereign God has sustained us through them all and we praise Him for that. 
I have been getting a lot of questions on how our donations are taken so I figure I better clarify.  When people send us money they do it by simply writing a check to Central Missionary Clearinghouse and sending it to:


Central Missionary Clearinghouse

Houston, Texas 77218-9228

P.O. Box 219228


It is important to mark on a separate piece of paper that the check is for the Doherty family in Peru.  You can also print out the individual or church donor form to send with your check if you want.  You can now also donate by credit card on our sacrifice page but it is not tax deductible because we can't figure out how to do that yet.  


Once your money arrives at CMC they put it in their account and at the end of the month they transfer it to our bank and mail us a report of giving.  So please forgive us if you have given money to us and we never responded with a thank you right away.  We just have no idea what money comes in or who gives until the end of each month.  


We want to thank the people who have generously sacrificed with us at home so we can give our lives in the field.  We thank God for His providence.

The state of the Church in Latin America

Here is and excellent blog from David Sills on the state of the church in Latin America, which is where we are going.  This will give you and idea of what we might be dealing with.  You can read the whole article at David Sills blog, Reaching and Teaching.

This concentrated and extended time in Latin America has shown me a great many things about the state of the church here and the region’s needs, challenges, and opportunities. Reading what much of the missions literature says about Latin America and traveling and ministering here makes me wonder whether we are talking about the same place. So often, Latin America is presented as yesterday’s mission field, a place that is now reached, so missionaries can turn their sights elsewhere. However, there are significant problems with this misinformation. First, is it is not reached. The International Mission Board estimates that there are 999 people groups in the Americas, and of that number, 690 of them are among the least reached people groups with less than 2% of their population being evangelicals. In addition, 356 of those groups are not only among the least reached, they are unengaged, which means that no one has been trying to reach and plant churches among them for at least over the last two years. Furthermore, 85 of those groups are also completely uncontacted; in many cases, missionaries simply know that they are, but not necessarily where they are or very much about them. There is much to do to reach all of the peoples of Latin American countries with the gospel. However, even though I’m advocating for the unreached of Latin America, please be very careful not to buy the lie that missions equals reaching the unreached. Yes, reaching the unreached is biblical and necessary, but the Great Commission is much broader and deeper than that, it is to make disciples among the nations (ethnic groups), baptize them, and teach them to observe everything that Jesus commanded.

The argument that Latin America is reached (which it is not) and therefore we should leave it with the national brothers and move on is misguided. Jesus did not send His church to reach and leave the nations, but to reach and teach them—everything He has commanded us. That remains to be done throughout the jungles, mountains, farmlands, banana republics, modern urban megacities, and seaport cities of that beautiful, resource-rich, and spiritually challenging area of the world that we call Latin America. Countless groups of indigenous peoples, mestizo Latinos, Asians, Arab peoples, Afro-Americans, and Jews live lost lives in a land that is counted as Christian because of the cultural Christianity surface statistics claim.

Another challenge in Latin America is the vast biblical illiteracy. Certainly, some of the most godly pastors, most well-equipped academicians, and most gifted Christian writers are Latin American brothers and sisters. However, they are faithfully serving in their ministries that demand as much of their time as the ministries of their USA counterparts do. They are both overwhelmed in the ministries they serve and are far too few in number for the task before them. Missionaries never concentrated their work on training more like them. The majority of pastors I meet acknowledge that they need training and they plead for it. It saddens me that pastors regularly ask me heartbreaking questions such as, Was Jesus saved before or after His resurrection? Which woman was it that saved Him? Is it okay for Christians to continue to venerate the earth goddess? Many churches here are steeped in animism but meet in buildings with crosses on the top so missiologists and researchers count them as Christian. I recently preached in an indigenous church that has been meeting together for 25 years. A mission agency built them a building 25 years ago, but they never returned to disciple the congregants, teach the leaders, or even to preach—they never set foot in the community again. It is no wonder that the church members still practice their traditional witchcraft and sorcery; they say that they never even knew that it was wrong to do so.

Many regions of Latin America that we have scratched off our lists as “reached” are Christian in name only; they have never been discipled but rather simply joined a church. Since the Spaniards, conquistadors, and Catholic missionaries came in the late 1400s, Latin America is the recipient of a form of Catholicism that is not only the product of the Spanish Inquisition, but is also pre-Reformational since the Reformation did not begin until 1517. And since the Reformation never made it south of the Pyrenees, even subsequent waves of Catholic missionaries were never tempered with the truth of Grace and the Solas. They imposed the harsh Catholicism that they brought with the point of a sword. Indigenous peoples became very adept at embracing the outward forms of new religions for personal gain and protection.

November Update

God in His providential care is so much better to us than we deserve.  I was invited to Fellowship Baptist Church in Sidney Montana last week to teach two sessions at their deacon training as well as present our ministry in Peru.  It was so refreshing to go to a biblical New Testament Church that has a love for Jesus Christ.  Pastor Jordan Hall and Fellowship Baptist Church were extremely hospitable and generous with everything.  Jordan and a few people in the congregation took me hunting for a couple days in some prime country.   At Fellowship they are very solid in doctrine, expository preach, have an elder led church, and are very focused on teaching within the family both at church and home through Catechism.   The people love Jesus and are dedicated to Him and the local body in Sydney.  It was just a pure pleasure to be with this church and to have them as part of our mission board.  I made many new friendships and look forward to keeping in contact with them.  Praise God for His providence!  Let God be glorified.

Provision through faith alone

As we have said, we are not raising our support for our work in the field by they typical means that missionaries use, which is calling churches and asking to present their ministry and then asking them to support them financially.  We are simply praying that our Sovereign God will raise up individuals and churches that will live sacrificially and support us.  We don't tell our needs or ask for money, we just wait on the Lord to provide through obedient Christians.  Men throughout time have did this same thing, men like George Muller, C.T. Studd, Hudson Taylor and present day men like Paul Washer and Heart Cry.  I was very much encouraged and our dependence on God alone was confirmed when I read what just happened with Heart Cry.  They told no one their needs but prayed and God raised up one single person to support 40 of their missionaries.  Here is the story:

Upon returning from the 10/40 window, the staff at HeartCry set themselves to praying for an advance. There were forty missionaries who were approved and ready, but the funds were needed. We kept the matter concealed among us and made our requests known to God. After two months of feeble praying and little faith, the Lord has done it! One family in the U.S., who desires to remain anonymous, contacted HeartCry with the burden to live the faith they professed, and to know the joy of disinterest in and sacrifice of self. Without any communication between us, they had been praying about supporting missionaries in India with the exact amount that was needed to support the forty new missionaries! Praise the Lord! God has moved them to support the whole group of men! We will soon be traveling to India to make the final preparations for this new advance.

We are looking forward to writing to you all about how our miraculous, Sovereign God, supplied all our support for us without us ever asking men or telling our needs.  We trust in God to provide through the people that He wants to give the privilege of sacrificing. 

Announcement Letter

Hello everyone.  Finally we can officially announce what God is doing in our lives.  As you know ever since God has saved me I have had a passion for sharing the Gospel with everyone, but the last few years God has been calling me to extend my calling to the nations.  God has given me an increased burden for foreign missions and has confirmed it inwardly, outwardly through people and providence, and through the Scriptures. Through the providence of God I met a man named Tim Killillay, now one of my best friends, at a conference in Cleveland, Ohio who was raising support to move to Peru as a career missionary.  Over the last few years we spent time together sharing the gospel and laboring in the ministry together and found we were very like-minded in almost everything and had the same philosophy on foreign missions, theology, and evangelism.  This summer Tim spent two weeks with us for the purpose of preaching and evangelism efforts in Montana.  At the end of the two weeks God confirmed to both of us that we and our families would be working together for the sake of the gospel in Peru as life-time missionaries. 

For the month after Tim left, God did so much in our lives that we sit daily in amazement of Him.  He confirmed our calling in so many ways including giving my wife Kim, not only peace about this move but an excitement about living in Peru.  Everything is now falling into place including homeschooling the kids, teaching the family Spanish, going through the checklist of the many things that must be completed before we leave.  God has even raised up other obedient Christians to give us some of the support we will need in the foreign mission field.   We are going to the mission field by faith, trusting in God to raise up obedient Christians and churches that are willing to sacrifice at home so we can sacrifice in the field. By God’s providence we were directed to a missionary clearing house called Central Missionary Clearinghouse who will handle all of the administrative work.  These people are true servants and take no money from us at all but rely on faith to supply their needs.  CMC is supporting, through administration, around 372 families.  At this time, more than 3800 churches are utilizing the services of CMC.   We are being sent out by our home church, Wolf Creek Baptist Church as well as Fellowship Baptist Church in Sydney, MT, Westside Baptist Church in Great Falls, MT and North Range Baptist Church in Colorado.  These 4 churches will make up our mission board and we will be held accountable to them.

God willing, we will first move to Costa Rica in August if everything falls into place or December of 2011 for a year of language school.  Where we are going in Peru there is not much English so learning the language is essential to survive.  After language school we will move to Peru in the area surrounding Cuzco to start our lives and work with a solid, biblical Peruvian church.  We have been in contact with a friend of ours named Walter Gammara, who is a Peruvian pastor.  He is 28 years old and on fire for God.  He will serve to help us get ingrained into the culture and learn the language specifics and government.  In return we will work with him teaching, preaching and doing evangelism.  He is so excited we are coming to work with him.  We communicate by email in Spanish.  He does not know any English and Spanish is his second language.  He speaks Quechua as his first, which is the native language of Peru and most people in the high Andes speak it.  I hope to learn Quechua after Spanish to preach to villages that you can only hike to that sit at 13,000 feet in elevation.  After we get settled in and ingrained into the new culture, the Peruvians, Tim and I will travel to some of the unreached regions that have no church of any kind to evangelize and, God willing, plant a biblical church.  Our vision is to help teach, preach and evangelize these unreached areas in hope that as the church is established God will save Peruvians and raise up Peruvians into teaching and preaching roles.  Our goal is to see indigenous people trained and sustaining their own biblical churches by the grace and for the glory of God.  Another major part of our ministry will be teaching the historical biblical truth and sound doctrine to the Peruvians as God saves them and calls them into their roles.

As we are in the process of getting rid of all our material possessions besides a couple suitcases each, we have so much joy and peace in storing up our treasures in heaven instead of earth.  We thank God for the privilege to count the cost of following Jesus Christ and for enabling us to give every ounce of ourselves for the sake of the gospel and glory of God among the nations.

We ask you to pray for us as we labor in Peru.  We also challenge you to die to yourself and live for Christ by sacrificing yourself by either going into the foreign mission field to proclaim the glory of Christ or by sacrificing all you have at home so you can send those who go to the foreign mission field.   Whether going or sending, we all have the same high calling to be involved in the great commission.  Both going and sending are equally high callings and both are needed and used by God as the means to fulfill His end of gathering His people among the nations and glorifying His name.

Sing to the LORD, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be held in awe above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.

(1 Chronicles 16:23-26)

Our blog will be frequently updated to track our progress and experiences as we labor for Christ.  Sign up on the blog to be updated by email or send us an email and we will add you to the blog update list.

If you have questions you can contact us by phone at 406-235-9061 or by email at scott_doherty@hotmail.com.  We will write a more personal and private newsletter frequently so If you want to be added to our mailing list, send us an email and we will add you.

Our church also has information about us and our mission to Peru at:  Wolf Creek Baptist