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Light of Togo
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The family and ministry blog of Jesse, Tiffany, and Joshua Shanks, missionaries to Togo, West Africa.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'jesse'
Teaching the Word.
WIth the recent arrival of Jon & Heidi Huff, the Bible institute is undergoing some small changes which will hopefully lead to its growth and greater effectiveness. One of the adjustments recently made was to allow any church member who wants t...
Kabɩyɛ
Have you ever heard one of those “strange sounding” African languages that has all kinds of “strange sounds” that seem impossible for you to pronounce? Â Well, that pretty much describes Kabiye. Â When I first heard it I thoug...
An unusual opportunity to share Christ
A couple weeks ago as I was returning from a walk in the neighborhood, I met a 10-12 year old boy named Calbert who is from Burkina Faso. Â We talked for a little while, then he came to church with us the following day. Â He said that he’s a Ch...
Our belated but great anniversary
August 3rd was our 8th wedding anniversary. Â Because of it falling in the middle of the pastors’ conference, we decided to hold it off until the following week. Â My original plan was to surprise Tiffany on Thurday morning by having the house ...
Shanks vs. Malaria: Round 1
In one corner, the unsuspecting missionary. Â In the other corner, the heavyweight champion of African sicknesses. Â In the first of many bouts to come, Malaria threw the first punch and knocked me flat on my back for 48 hours, but thankfully due to...
Saying goodbye to Oregon
During the past several days we’ve been saying goodbye to all our friends and family who mean so much to us. They will, of course, leave the biggest void in our lives. But, one other thing that the three of us will miss a lot is the great outdo...
Never ending boxes
The other night as I was moving all our boxes from upstairs to downstairs where they’d be loaded on the truck the following day, I thought to myself, “Hey, why not have some fun while I’m giving myself a ruptured tendon?” So,...
Christmas shopping with Joshua
It thrills me to be writing this, and any parent will understand why. You see, Joshua decided a couple weeks ago without any suggestion or coercion from us to spend his own money and buy Christmas presents for everyone in our family and extended fa...
A great vacation
We returned last Wednesday from our 5 days in Boston with my cousin and his wife. We had a really wonderful time, and we hated having to say goodbye to Ryan and Janelle. But, it is good to be back home and have things almost back to normal. Here&...
Webdev weekend
WARNING: Do not read any farther unless you want your GeekFactor to be raised by approximately 17.82 points! Ever since coming to Quebec, I’ve been wanting to help out the church here by redoing their website, which the pastor has been wanting ...
Sermon audio
Here it is at last. Sorry that it took so long, but there was a little trouble getting the audio file off of the church computer. I know that you were all anxiously waiting to listen to me speak in French for 25 minutes! Try not to fall asleep!...
Catching up on a busy summer
It seems that ever since the summer started, we have been going non-stop. In all the busyness though, we’ve managed to take advantage of the sometimes nice weather and do some really fun things together. I fully intended to write blog entries...
Thanks for praying
There were many of you who were praying for my first sermon in French, which I preached on Sunday night. It actually went much better than I thought it would. Sections that were tripping me up in practicing (yes, because it was in a different langu...
Update - June ‘08
Click here to download a printable PDF copy of this letter: June ‘08 I’m not sure that we’ve ever talked so much in all our lives. In the past month, it seemed that every day was spent with friends, our tutor, conversation partner...
The official start of summer break
Today I had my last tutoring session with Suzanne until September, and tomorrow Tiffany will have her last one. Suzanne takes off the months of July and August for a summer vacation, so for the next couple months it will just be Tiffany, me, and a ...
Our camping trip
Wow, I can’t believe it’s been a week since Joshua’s and my camping trip. I really wanted to have the video done and this entry written right after we returned last Saturday, but between lots of work to catch up on, taking longer o...
A very excited little boy
Ever since we moved to Quebec, I have told Joshua that we would go camping together. Unfortunately, by the time our schedule settled down last Fall and we were ready to go, all of the camping locations were already closed for the season. So, ever...
364 days and counting
It’s amazing to think that we have been living in Quebec now for almost one year. We have been thinking a lot lately about our first few months here and the amazing ways that we say God work in our lives. Here’s a brief summary: May 6...
The beginning of the end
Well, yesterday was my final day of studying French at Laval University. It feels very nice to be done, but I realize that there is a LOT that I still need to learn. On Monday, I begin my theological course with Tiff’s tutor, which I’...
The next step
It’s hard to believe that we’ve already been here in Quebec for almost a year now! In another week, I will be finished with my classes at the university and will not continue studying there because of the rise in tuition rates. What i...
Some goodbad news
If you’ve read our updates over the past several months, you probably already know that Quebec passed a new law that raises tuition rates…no, let me rephrase that…skyrockets tuition rates for non-Canadian students. We were told th...
New Family Photo
Several times a year, people and churches ask for our family photo. Why, I’m not too sure, but I suppose it’s because of Tiffany and Joshua being in it. A black marker can easily fix the ugly third of the family! Anyways, on Easter Sun...
The thingamajig goes in the doohickey
Today I was looking forward to a nice Saturday around the house catching up on homework and some personal work. However, our washing machine had other plans in mind. We were surprised to hear an unexpected doorbell ring, and looking through the pee...
The Great Recapitation
Following the ancient Scottish traditions of our Shanks forefathers, Joshua and I constructed quite a handsome snowman a little over a week ago. We had been waiting all winter for the perfect snowman conditions, since they are very picky as to the t...
