Local Stories
The Very Intentional Adams Family
Melissa came from Cape Town to visit her uncle in White River just before she turned 21. The idea was to spend a year here to ‘recalibrate’ after having been through a bit of a tough time. There was just one condition her uncle laid down and that was she would have to go to church with him.
Shaun slightly resembling a caveman, sporting an afro and a bushy beard, was woken by his mother one Sunday morning. She said “Shave that beard, you are going to meet your wife today!” With a bit of chuckle and thinking “Yea, whatever”, he shaved the beard.
Shaun’s mother clearly heard directly from God, because apparently Melissa hates beards and is very sure that she would not have looked twice at him had he not shaved it off. That Sunday morning Melissa gave her life to the Lord and when a lady in the church was praying for her she asked Melissa if there was something else she could pray for, Melissa said, “I need a friend”, and apparently turned around. In that very full church she just saw Shaun, right at the back in amongst the hundreds of people.
He was wearing a red satin shirt and a gold chain
He does admit though that he was wearing a red satin shirt with a gold chain and still had the afro. No, he did not have absolutely no taste and a dreadful sense of style, he was actually entertaining the young adults in the church, as Shaun so naturally does. What happened then is so supernatural! Melissa, who is by no means an extrovert, walked up to Shaun, took him by the hand, pulled him out of the group and said “Hi, I am Melissa” ….and as they say, the rest is history!
Most people that meet them now would find it hard to believe that this couple were adamant about never having children – their plan was to travel. They felt that they wanted to give everything to God and they were very committed to the church and the work they were doing. Shaun is the youth pastor at Church Unlimited and serves on various committees and boards.
Early on in their marriage they bought a few properties that they rent out and also bought their home. They finally reached a place where they broke even and had some money to save for travel. “We saved a whole year and booked our absolute ultimate dream holiday, backpacking in Thailand for a month, after being married for 10 years. In the fourth week of that holiday, while walking on the Pa Tong beach in Phuket, we started talking about our lives and our future plans.
If it was just going to be a different holiday every year what was the point?
In our ‘church life’ we had realised every milestone we had ever wanted. We thought what more is there to look forward to – we want to have the great holidays every year but right there on the beach we realized there was more – we wanted to start a family.”
They loved teenagers but were not so fond of small children
Most people who know this couple will know that they love teenagers, but what few know is that they are not that fond of small children and the chaos that comes with them…
