WAYNE ALLEN

PDT Staff Writer

Three stylists from Deb’s Guys and Gals of Minford want to travel to Africa in the near future to cut hair at the Senegal Missionary Women’s Retreat.

The three stylists, Deb McGlone, Angie Clark and Angee Commeans outline their journey in an open letter to the community.

“Jenn (DeAtley) and her husband, Shawn have been in our prayers for along time. They came to us about four years ago when we were doing a cutting event at Christ’s Community Church. Jenn asked if someone could teach Shawn how to cut her hair because they were going to Africa and she would not be able to get it done. So we gave Shawn a lesson in cutting hair,” the letter read.

Shawn and Jenn DeAtley of Portsmouth have served as missionaries in Senegal, West Africa, for the last five years.

The couple serves with a mission organization called New Tribes Mission, which focuses on planting a church in unreached tribes around the world.

They have been working throughout west Africa for three years. Shawn has been working with the New Tribes Mission for seven years. Jenn has been serving for about five years.

“They were home this past December for Christmas and Jenn said ‘you need to come to Africa and do the hair care for the Senegal Missionary Women’s Retreat.’ We all just giggled and said, OK, let us know,” read the letter.

DeAtley has sent the stylists a letter inviting them to travel to Senegal, Africa.

“Every November there’s a missionary Women’s retreat here in Senegal, at a resort just outside of Dakar and one of the things missionary women most look forward to about this weekend, aside from spiritual refreshment and singing in English is hair care. The women that come to do hair are volunteers, and this year, they don’t have any volunteers lined up. The retreat committee heard that Shawn cuts my hair, and they wanted me to ask if you ladies would be interested in serving missionary women in this way,” DeAtley wrote.

She wrote the retreat will take place November 9-11.

“Now comes the hard part for us, we can only go it we can raise the funds. We need to raise $3,000 a stylist. Our goal is to get 30 people to donated $100 each to get one stylist there. We would need 90 people for all three of us,” the stylists wrote. “Please pray for us as we go on this adventure to help the women in the mission field look good for a little while.”

For more information or for ways to contribute call Deb’s Guys and Gals at 740-820-3570 or visit them at www.debsguysandgals.net.

Wayne Allen may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 208, or wallen@heartlandpublications.com.