Shannon Oakes sees stewardship as "the intentional deploying of the resources one is given in a responsible manner that serves to benefit others, without thought to personal gain." She has a great deal of experience with the stewardship of funds! She has been the Office Manager and Scholarships Coordinator on behalf of the Elkhart County Community Foundation for eleven years. This not-for-profit organization helps other not-for-profit agencies such as ADEC, CAPS, Boys and Girls Clubs, Bashor Children's Home and the food pantry at West Goshen Elementary, which is dear to the heart of SGC. Elkhart County Community Foundation regularly stays in touch with the agencies it helps, so the needs of the community are always known. Scholarships are another important involvement of the foundation. A favorite part of Shannon's job is to contact families who have been awarded a Lilly Scholarship, which offers its recipients a full-ride scholarship to any school in the state. "The worst part of my job," she admits, "is calling the runner-up because all these children are amazing and I wish I could give them all a Lilly!"
Shannon and her family began attending SGC in September of 2008. They had been members of a church in Bristol, where her husband, Tony, grew up attending, but, after two years of thinking and praying about it, they made the difficult decision to find a new church home. "Leaving our family and friends was difficult, but imperative for our own personal and spiritual growth," she says. One of the needs on their list as they visited churches was "no family." She explains, "I know that sounds a bit harsh, but at our home church our identity was linked directly to everyone else in the family. We were hoping to start off somewhere new as just Tony and Shannon and the kids, without all the family history."
They also decided they would visit several churches and not stop at the first one, no matter what. Sugar Grove was the first church they visited, and, ironically, twelve weeks and seven churches later, it was Sugar Grove that they decided was for them. In fact, they had bragged so much about what a great church SGC was after their first week of visiting, Tony's parents and his sister's family had already begun attending SGC! This fact caused Shannon to think twice, but she is so glad Tony and she decided to make SGC their home church after all.
Shannon describes her own walk with God as "hit or miss" as she grew up. She was baptized and had her first communion in the Catholic church, and then her parents fell away from their faith when Shannon was in fourth grade. She attended various Sunday services and youth groups with friends, but didn't understand the basics of faith, like reading and understanding the Bible, until she met her husband. Out of embarrassment over her lack of biblical knowledge compared to her husband, she sought out a mutual friend of theirs, Jennifer Leiby, to explain the Bible to her. Fifteen years later, Shannon feels indebted to her friend for helping her to understand the Bible without ever shaming Shannon for her ignorance of the Bible.
Children are very important to Shannon, and God has gifted her to interact with them well. She is involved with a program called CARE, a mentoring program which matches up students with adults who commit to spending a half hour per week with them. Shannon now mentors three children and is excited about being able to "follow" these kids up through high school. She believes it is important to put ourselves in the shoes of children, get down on their level and treat them with love and respect.
When asked about her family, Shannon comments, "If I believed in fairy tales, I would have to say that I am living my 'Happily Ever After.'" She met her husband, Tony, 18 years ago in San Diego, California. Tony was serving in the United States Navy and San Diego was Shannon's hometown. They met at a Halloween party neither had intended to attend. "Truthfully," she remembers, "I had a date that night, but my girlfriend begged me to go to the party instead. I agreed to attend for a short time, then had plans to leave for my date. I never did leave, and, well, here we are!"
Tony and Shannon dated four years before marrying. Tony, divorced, needed time to be reassured Shannon wasn't going anywhere. Shannon, on the other hand, knew Tony was "the one," and even wrote in her journal a few months into their dating, "I am going to marry Tony Oakes." The couple have now been married 14 years and have been blessed with three beautiful girls: Victoria (11), Sydnee (3) and their host daughter, Christine (22), who has been a part of their family for six years.
Shannon's favorite thing to do is read, and she makes weekly trips with her daughters to the library. She reveals a couple of her wishes as well. She would like to learn to fly. "I have always had a desire to get my pilot's license," she remarks. Another of her dreams, if she can ever convince her husband, is to learn ballroom dancing. "I won't be holding my breath for that, though!" :)
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