by Rich Obenschain
This past summer, La Vida lost one of its founders, Scott Dimock, a long time advisory council member and great friend and mentor to Rich Obenschain who brought La Vida to Gordon College. Scott was one of those friends like Jonathan was to King David, who was gifted at helping friends discover their calling and encouraging them to use their gifts to serve God faithfully. Scott helped start Young Life in Northern Virginia in the 60’s and was one of the primary initiators of La Vida in 1970 as a wilderness discipleship program. He later helped Young Life develop the ministry to urban youth in Washington DC and mentored many Young Life leaders. Then in 1995 he was one of two men who founded the Southeast White House and DC Dream Center, a ministry seeking to inspire youth and adults to dare to dream, equipping them to reach their God-given potential.
On July 28th Steve Oliver and Rich traveled to Fairfax Station, Virginia for a Celebration of Life service and what a celebration of life it was. There were many testimonies of how Scott had impacted and encouraged the lives of a great many people in his 50 years of ministry. It is estimated that Scott helped to officiate over 100 wedding ceremonies (including Rich and Katherine’s) of those he had befriended and actively encouraged. Scott was especially helpful to Rich in the early 1980’s when La Vida was being closed down and did not have a home for two years. Scott was on the original advisory board who helped facilitate the move to Gordon College in 1982 to give La Vida a year-round base of operations. Thanks to Scott’s ability to connect and support those called to ministry, many thousands of young people have been impacted over the last 47 years.
