Introducing Kyle Scott
The World Mission Prayer League (WMPL), a Lutheran prayer and mission organization, has called and installed Kyle Scott, former Executive Director of WMPL, Lutheran Aid to Medicine in Bangladesh (LAMB), as the eighth Executive Director of the organization.
Scott comes to the WMPL Home Office with a vast array of experience. He and his wife Lois have worked overseas for most of his professional career. He notes, “Over the last 30 years, my wife, Lois, and I have only lived together in the U.S. for about a year and a half at one time, requiring some adjustment as we confront some reverse culture shock!”
Lois and Kyle Scott
Lois and Kyle being prayed for by family and members of the Board of Directors during installation service
Kyle addressing the audience during installation service
Scott succeeds Dr. Paul Gossman, Executive Director of WMPL since October 2017. Gossman anticipates returning to the Pacific Northwest, where he and his wife, Pris, love taking advantage of the hiking, beaches, and divergent culture of the Seattle area. A new ministry opportunity is still being developed but is greatly anticipated for his next chapter. Gossman has been instrumental in helping the Board of Directors move the Prayer League to Board-led policy-based governance.
Gossman’s other key accomplishments include instituting a team-based approach to the structure of the Home Office, refining operational policies, and instituting the Discipleship House (an on-site place for young adults to practice community living with a heart to pray and plan to go toward areas yet unreached by the Good News of Jesus).
In addition, Gossman has visited every global worker of the Prayer League during his six years in office, oftentimes accompanied by his wife, Pris. These onsite opportunities to see the work first-hand have been encouraging to the global staff and incredibly informative to the prayer and financial supporters of the Prayer League.
WMPL Executive Directors, l-r: Paul Gossman (2016-2023), Charles (Chuck) Lindquist (1997-2016), Kyle Scott (2023)
Rites of Passage
Gossman’s last foreign trip as Executive Director was to visit global workers in Africa in August 2023 to introduce Scott to church leaders there. While Scott has vast experience in South Asia, this was his first trip to Africa. In a recent article, Scott expressed that he “…was very grateful to learn from Paul’s expertise in missiology and his vast historical and contextual knowledge.”
He further elaborated:
“We were blessed by seeing firsthand the work among the Samburu and the sacrificial efforts of our workers to get the Word of God to the tribal people. We witnessed a ceremony that occurs every fourteen or fifteen years when Samburu boys become warriors. It was an enlightening rite of passage. It made me reflect on life-changing rites of passage, such as my decision to be a disciple of Jesus, my confirmation declaration, my commissioning in missions, and my marriage to my wife, Lois. I was reminded of the importance of gaining knowledge and perspective in preparation for what God has for us. I am thankful to have had the chance to study Intercultural Studies and Leadership to understand some of the nuances before me.”
International Career
Scott will draw upon his years (2015-2023, 1994-2002) as the Executive Director of WMPL, LAMB, a Christian organization in Bangladesh that is comprised of a 100-bed hospital, Community Health, & Development Program, a Rehabilitation Center, a Training Center (including a Midwifery & Nursing Institute), a 130-student English Medium School and a MIS-Research unit with many expatriate and several hundred national staff, located in northern Bangladesh.
Before that, he worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Afghanistan for almost five years, serving as a Senior Development Officer in various locations in Eastern Afghanistan and closing his time in the Office of Management in Kabul. Before that, he worked for about five years with Habitat for Humanity International, first as the National Director of the Bangladesh program, then as the Regional Program Manager for the South Asia region, and finally as Associate Director for Regional Programs for HFHI, Asia Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand.
Celebrating Bangladesh Victory Day with the LAMB school children in front of LAMB hospital
Fluent in Bengali, Scott began his international life as a child when his parents experienced a call to Bangladesh to help establish the LAMB Project through WMPL. Kyle met his wife Lois in boarding school in Pakistan, whose parents were missionaries with the Presbyterian church. After their graduation and two years with YWAM, they married and began their international career together.
Following training in YWAM’s Applied Cross-Cultural Training School in 1990, Kyle completed the 15-week Perspectives on the World Christian Movement series, furthering his knowledge and solid background in mission movements and the Biblical basis for mission. He was certified in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in 1991. While living in Albania between 2003 and 2005 as an Associate Worker of WMPL, Scott earned a Master of Arts in Global Leadership (emphasizing cultural anthropology, missiology, and developing learning organizations) from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. They feel blessed to have three married adult children walking with the Lord and six wonderful grandchildren.
Kyle and Lois Scott family
Kyle understands that directing WMPL is a responsibility too great for him to carry out alone. He is proud to join the dedicated national and global workers and members of WMPL who are committed to discipleship, prayer, the unreached, and mobilizing others in those areas. Thank you for joining us in praying for Kyle as he assumes this responsibility. We praise God for our partnership with the NALC.
