David W. Shenk was born and raised in a Christian missionary home in Tanzania. Shenk returned to Lancaster County at age 15. He graduated from Lancaster Mennonite High School in 1955 and from Eastern Mennonite University in 1959. He was ordained in 1963. Then he and his wife went to Somalia as EMM missionaries. When the Cold War forced Shenk and his family to leave Somalia in 1973, he moved on to Nairobi, Kenya, where he taught world religion at a university with Kateregga. He received a doctorate from New York University in 1973. For ten years he was involved in educational work in Islamic Somalia and lectured in comparative religion and church history at Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya for six years. Shenk returned to Lancaster County in 1979, serving seven years as director of domestic missions at EMM, in Landisville and 12 years as director of international missions, where he helps to coordinate interfaith commitments, specializing in Christian-Muslim Relations. He is the author of many books, including A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue and Surprises of the Christian Way. He then served four years as a missionary in Lithuania, helping to establish a liberal arts university. Shenk continues to work full time, visiting, by invitation, about 15 countries a year, many of them Muslim. No doubt, Shenk is an evangelical leader who was both an authentic peacemaker and a faithful witness to Jesus. He models an integrated commitment to the good news of peace and Jesus's teaching about the way of peace. Because of this, Peace Catalyst International recently presented him with the Legacy Award - reflecting a lifetime of peacemaking. <information from http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/369785_-A-Muslim-and-a-Christian-.html,
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