“We’ve a Story to Tell”
Joan Scott – Adult Reading and Writing
By Erica Harms
Greenville resident Joan Scott wasn’t ready to walk through death’s door when it opened itself to her. Struggling with a heart condition,
she found herself laying in a hospital bed hearing news that she was too weak to be airlifted where she needed to go.
“I asked the doctors and nurses to pray, and the power of prayer did more in two and a half minutes than doctors had been able to do in
hours,” she said.
Now a living miracle, Scott has left her 30-year background in criminal justice and is serving as the Literacy Missions Director for
Washington County association.
“Something has to stop you from what you’re doing to free you up to go in a new direction that God has for you. I was in a job where God
used me, but He was freeing me up to do something else,” she said. “Faith is walking to the edge of all the light you have and taking one
more step. We have to be the light in this dark world.”
That next step led her to her new venture in literacy missions, a ministry that started when she read a letter to the editor in her local
newspaper that blamed law enforcement for the high crime rate in her community.
“I was convicted and began to think about how many of those who were called criminals could read God’s law,” she said.
And it was that conviction that led Scott to begin teaching Adult Reading and Writing (ARW) classes six years ago and ultimately find
herself on the Literacy Task Force for Mississippi.
“The Literacy Council in Washington County gave me $2500 and all of their literacy materials. I literally backed a truck up to their
warehouse, filled it with the materials, and immediately began hosting workshops,” she said.
According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, more than 64 percent of Mississippi adults are in the lowest two levels of functional
literacy proficiency, 90 percent of inmates in Mississippi prisons have never completed high school, and over 50 percent of those inmates
cannot read.
“These statistics represent a cross section of most of the communities around our churches and translates to the fact that approximately
one in five adults cannot read the Bible. The illiteracy rate in the Delta is unimaginable,” Scott said.
Scott noted that many of the adults who have enrolled in ARW classes have indicated that their main purpose in learning to read is to be
able to read from God’s Word. She recalled one particularly special student who was growing bored with his lessons. One day while tutoring
him, she put down her lesson plans and picked up a hymnal. The student chose to learn to read the words of “Victory in Jesus.” The following
Sunday as the church sang that very hymn, he took Scott’s hand and raised it as he prayed.
“He thanked God for teaching him how to read. He didn’t thank me. He didn’t thank God for me. He thanked God. A good teacher teaches the
student to go beyond the teacher,” Scott said.
The Mississippi Literacy Missions ministry utilizes the Laubach Way to Reading and Writing and also includes Bible material to enable
students to read and understand the Bible in the process of learning to read. The course is designed as a one on one tutoring program with
one teacher to every student.
“Kids that don’t learn to read grow up to be adults who don’t read. The need is so tremendous that we desperately need more trainers like
Joan who will invest in these individuals,” said Paula Smith, language and literacy consultant for the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board.
“Christians today have to let the pages of the Bible come to life so that other people can see that God still moves,” Scott said.
ARW is one of five literacy ministries in Mississippi, including English as a Second Language (ESL), English as a Foreign Language (EFL),
Tutoring Children and Youth (TCY), and Chronological Bible Storying (CBS). Combined, these ministries have had students from more than 75
different nations attend classes. For more information concerning literacy missions, contact Smith in the wMu office at 800-748-1651, ext. 336.
Other Literacy Missions pages