Shawn and Jenn De Atley Just another weblog About
It’s comical to look back and see why both of us are now involved in missions. As kids, we both had drastically different opinions of missions. For Jenn, it was what she wanted to, “be when she grew up”, and had plans from a young age to live in a jungle somewhere and to have a pet monkey. For Shawn, it was the farthest thing from his mind. You see, as a kid, Shawn hated lima beans with a deep passion. His Mom, being a wise woman, wanted him to eat all of the lima beans on his plate. She would say to him, “Maybe someday you will grow up to be a missionary, and all you will have to eat will be lima beans.” Naturally, Shawn’s reaction was, “Yuck, I don’t want to be I want to be a missionary!” Time, teaching and experiences changed both of our opinions of what missions actually was. Jenn realized that there was more to it than living in a hut, with a pair of binoculars and a pet monkey around her neck. She realized that was not an accurate picture, that people are the heart of missions. That missions is God’s heartbeat. He died so that we could have life! Shawn still hates lima beans, and plans to stay far from them here in Africa. He did learn a lot about God’s grace, and the millions of people who still have NO access to the gospel.
OPPORTUNITY is something that we have both thought a lot about. We realize that we did not choose our place of birth. We have both been blessed to have been born into loving, Christian families. We have had the opportunity to hear of Jesus, and to even read the Bible in our very own language. BUT, what about the world? What about the entire language groups of people who have still never had the chance to hear the GOOD NEWS?
Where we are now…
We boarded the plane for Guinea,West Africa the 24th of June, 2009. It was certainly a new experience for us! We were welcomed by our host family and we were set up with a host church. We found an apartment, began making some friends, and adjusting to the culture and language differences. Due to some tensions within the country, we were advised to continue our NCLA (national culture/language acquisition) in Dakar, Senegal. After just a week’s notice, we packed up and followed God to our 2nd West African country! It was a bittersweet time to have to leave our friends, but we knew it was for the best, and we knew that God was in control. 6 months later… and we are well into our routine here in Dakar. We have found two great language helpers who are helping us get to the “capable high” level that we are aiming for. We have been spending a lot of time with our host church here in the area, as well. We plan to be in Dakar until around the beginning of 2011. From there, we plan to move into a village somewhere within West Africa!
