Tim Scarbrough's Story
I love the Lord Jesus Christ with every part of my being. As a young boy I grew up in church, giving my life to Him at a very young age, and experiencing the call of God into ministry when I was only 11 years old.
My life has been riddled with victories and failures. As an ordained minister with the Church of God (Cleveland, TN), and a graduate of Simpson University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biblical Studies, I have participated in many areas of ministry. I’ve served as a Youth Pastor, Associate Pastor, Administrative Pastor, Worship Leader and Lead Pastor. In each area of ministry, I have been blessed to witness incredible miracles of salvation, deliverance, and healing. I saw how God would take a small group of dedicated people and enlarge it into a vibrant influential congregation.
​
Personally, however, I experienced struggles in my marriage and family life. I was seldom fully prepared for the onslaught of the enemy’s attacks. Because of my marital failures, I believed the lie of the enemy that God was finished with me and that the call of God on my life had ceased.
​
It took a year of meeting regularly with a mentor and discovering who I really am in Christ. I also began to understand more about His grace and His restorative power. In the past few years, I have drawn closer to God through prayer and the study of His Word. I focus daily on laying my life down completely before Him.
In the meantime, the Lord blessed me beyond my imagination, by bringing a beautiful woman of God into my life. Fanny and I were married in the spring of 2023. Since that day we began to pray and imagine what God might have in store for us. As we continued to seek Him, it became clear that we were to sell nearly all we owned, purchase an RV and travel the highways and byways of America, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ as we go.
​
This is how Rising Rivers began. Two key passages of scripture seemed to jump off the page as we wondered exactly what this ministry would become. Ezekiel 47:9 talks about the deep water of the rivers, which bring healing and life wherever they flow. In John 7:37-39, Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as being rivers of living water flowing from our hearts. Rising Rivers is a ministry reflecting all of that and more.
​
In all of this, we are highly dependent upon the leading of the Holy Spirit. We might not always know where we are going from day to day, but He knows. He leads us to those who need the new life that is found only in Jesus Christ. We are humbled and honored by the mandate He has placed upon our lives. The life-giving rivers flow from His throne and from our hearts and they are rising higher every day.
