Erika Scott (’16) grew up as a missionary kid in Chang Mai, Thailand, over 8,000 miles away from the small town of Abilene.
Several generations of her father’s family attended ACU, so she decided to follow in their footsteps and attend as well – she graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in communication, and now plans to become a missionary herself.
Erika and her husband, Tyler, will move to Stellenbosch, South Africa – about 30 minutes outside the capital city of Cape Town – in January with a close team of six others from ACU. The Scotts initially felt inspired to move after Tyler went on a World Wide Witness trip in the summer of 2014, a trip that changed his life and his passion for serving people and the Lord.
Their plan is to stay for a year – with the option of staying long-term if God prompts them to do so, Scott said – and work with Kingdom DNA, an organization that focuses on building Kingdom culture through church planting, discipleship, leadership training and outreaches.
“We’ll spend a lot of time in townships, which are very poor neighborhoods, playing sports and spreading the good news through sports,” she said. “I love to cook and I plan to start a cooking class once a week to give people a taste of other cultural foods.”
In order to raise enough money to support their mission, the couple is making and selling Thai cuisine – Erika decided to merge her love of cooking with her love of Thai culture to create an authentic Thai meal.
“It’s sticky rice and Thai style fried chicken,” she explained. “It’s a meal that is meant to be eaten with your hands. It’s similar to regular fried chicken but with a unique Thai seasoning added, along with a sweet chili sauce that makes the whole thing come together.”
There are two meals to choose from – the first includes sticky rice, fried chicken, sweet chili sauce, and cucumbers for $10. The bigger family set costs $45 and has four times the amount of food plus a gallon of Thai tea that can’t be found anywhere else. You can also order just the Thai tea by itself, $8 for half a gallon or $14 for a whole gallon. To order, you can contact Erika on Facebook.
In addition to the meals, the couple is also fundraising through a company called Thai Comfort and will be selling pants and jewelry from Thailand. Their website, thaicomfortpants.com, will be up and running in a few weeks but in the meantime, they’ll sell the products in the Campus Center during Summit next weekend and all profits will support their mission trip.
“The team and the work that we will be doing in South Africa is very exciting,” Erika said. “All of it put together was too good to pass up.”
