About Us
Investing in Senegal since 2000
Corey
I was pulled towards cross-cultural work as a middle-schooler. During my time at Wheaton College I was fortunate to work and study in Tanzania for six months. This was my first overseas experience. Learning another language, accompanying Tanzanian extension workers far up into the mountains on their visits to families participating in projects, and living with a Tanzanian family at times pushed me beyond my abilities, but it also confirmed my future in service outside of my home culture. I returned to Wheaton knowing that I would return to Africa, and that I needed a good wife to be able to last any length of time at it!
Katie
My desire to live and work cross-culturally started when I was in the 8th grade. As I began studying French that year, I found that I loved hearing about other cultures and learning a new language.
In tenth grade a student from Ghana joined our family for a year and became like a brother to me; that was the beginning of my interest in Africa. So through the gifts and passions I saw in myself, and through people and circumstances, I slowly saw that my future was in French-speaking Africa. By the time I graduated from high school, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in teaching and serving overseas.
I went on to be certified as a foreign language teacher at Wheaton College, where I also got my first taste of cross-cultural life and ministry through a short-term experience in Honduras, a semester in France, and finally a semester student teaching at Dakar Academy in Senegal. Corey and I met just before I came to Senegal that first time in 1997, when he was just returning from an internship in Tanzania. We were both looking at a career in cross-cultural work in Africa and quickly decided to pursue this together; we married in 1998.
Our family
It was while Katie was student teaching in Dakar in 1997 that she first met some SIM workers. Through that connection, we ended up joining SIM and coming to Senegal. On Jan. 1, 2000 the two of us went to Quebec where Corey spent five months in intensive French language study before we moved to Senegal. We spent our first term in the small city of Thies teaching computer classes in French and studying the Wolof language and culture.
Our daughter Emma was born there in 2001; she was followed by Molly fourteen months later in 2003. Just six weeks after Molly’s birth we moved to the rural town of Kaffrine. Our third daughter Julia Wheaton was born in 2005. All three girls spent the vast majority of their childhoods in Senegal and speak English, Wolof, and French.
In April of 2018 we added our two sons by adoption, Jake and Will. They are a great joy to our family and add a lot of laughter and fun!
During our years in Kaffrine we primarily worked in rural areas in partnership with village leadership in areas as diverse as healthcare infrastructure, preventative health training, veterinarian training, clean water infrastructure, education, literacy, small business creation, and more. We also read the Bible with those interested in knowing more about our faith.
On our return to Senegal in 2023 we left the girls in the USA to pursue university studies and relocated to the capital city of Dakar. We are enjoying being a part of the big city. Katie loves teaching French at the same MK school the boys attend and Corey is working in several projects with SIM that serve to assist communities in healing and growth as well as publishing the Bible in the Wolof language in different formats.
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