My name is Dan Shogren and along with my wife Karen we are coaches for The World Race.
By way of quick background, by far and away our greatest accomplishment in life so far (in my humble opinion!) is that we’ve raised three great kids. Our oldest, Jonathan, and his wife Katya and our granddaughter Emilia recently moved back to Georgia from Chicago. By the time you read this our daughter and her Army pilot husband, Capt. TJ Menn will have both completed their Master’s Degrees from Harvard and will be moving (moved?) to West Point where TJ will be an instructor for the next three years. Over the past 7 years they have shared 18 foster children with us (No, not all at once, although they have had up to five at a time). And our youngest son Bobby lives in Atlanta with his wife (just married in 2015!) Rachel who is an Art Teacher. And we can’t forget Kat – a young lady who joined our family at the start of her Junior year in high school and lived with us for about 5 years.
l to r back row: Kat, Derby (black puppy, no longer part of the family), Jon, Katya, Jenny, TJ. Front row l to r: Karen, Dan (me) and Bobby. Missing (not yet known at the time of the pic!) are Emmy our granddaughter and Rachel, Bobby’s wife. New picture in the planning stages!
We’re originally from the Chicago area but work brought us to Atlanta about 15 years ago and not having to shovel snow since (well – twice now, but not yet habit forming!) I’m inclined to stay, earning us the title of Damn Yankees. (Yankees are people from up North who visit the South. Damn Yankees are those that stay.)
In my 40 or so-year career (wow – where DID the time go?!?) I’ve held a wide variety of jobs:
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CPA (but I keep messing up my own tax returns so don’t even think of asking for help!)
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Headhunter
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HR Director
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General contractor (carpenter)
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Association Executive
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Instructional Designer, Leadership Trainer and consultant
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VP of Services at Logical Choice Technologies
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VP Finance and Operations at Alive Studios, LLC – a spin-off of sorts from Logical Choice Technologies. Alive Studios is the world’s 1st augmented reality learning company, offering research-driven curriculum & teaching tools, backed by a method that teachers and kids love.
The funny thing is that it seems everything I did up to now has put me in a unique position to share my experience and help guide the racers during this next year. Knowing some of the younger coaches it’s clear that God can raise up coaches sooner than He did me; some of us just needed a bit more time to let it all soak in! I’ve now completed my rookie year coaching for the World Race and am looking forward to many more.
Finally – at least in terms of background, Karen and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary while in the field with U Squad in China in 2013 and looking forward to more celebrations with our Squads in the future.
The World Race is a mission trip through Adventures in Missions. For the participants (ages 20-35) it is an 11 month journey to 11 different countries. Simply put it is a chance to serve the “least of these.” Ministry from month to month (day to day!) will look very different, but “racers” could be doing anything from working in orphanages, construction, teaching English, prison ministry, street ministry, church/missionary support, hospital ministry, door-to-door witnessing and encouraging, etc. It all depends on where the Lord feels they can be best used that month! At any given time there are about 1,000 Racers out in the field around the world!
As their coaches Karen and I initially met the racers at their Training Camp a few weeks before they Launch, and because they usually launch from Georgia we get one more chance to connect here in the States just before they leave for their first country. We get a chance to meet them several times overseas during the course of their journey to debrief and provide advice and counsel.
Here’s a picture of U Squad at Training Camp in July, 2013
If you feel led to help financially in this mission, please go to the “Support Me” link to the left on my page or make a check to Adventures in Missions with “ShogrenDan&Karen” in the memo line and send to Adventures in Missions, P.O. Box 534470, Atlanta, GA, 30353-4470. Every penny we raise is spent on pampering the Racers when we visit them – bringing a taste of home or a cup of coffee at the local McDonalds (found one in EVERY country we’ve visited so far!). Any little bit can be a great blessing!
Please subscribe to this blog so I can continue to share this important part of my life; I’m honored to share this experience with you!
I look forward to impacting the world for God’s kingdom together!
Thanks for your loving attention,
Dan Shogren
