Hello! We're The Shanklands
Join us as we take a year to explore this amazing world while giving back and creating community along the way.Choosing family, community and encouragement to impact the world, one adventure at a time.
We are a family of six from Calgary, Alberta getting ready to live our most wild adventure yet, traveling the world as a family. Barry was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in South Africa while Jenna is origionally from the US. All of our kids have been born and raised right here in Canada.
With a love for adventure and a heart full of love, it is our mission to explore this crazy beautiful world while partnering with organizations and people along the way. We want to show our children, and others, that no matter your age, we can all make a difference.
Countries
Cities
Continents
blog posts
It all started with a dream.
In 2009, only two years after we were married, Barry and I had a dream to take a year off and travel the world. This was long before we new of anyone else doing it yet, alone famous Youtube families. And considering Barry and I met while he had taken a year off to to travel, the idea didn’t seem too crazy.
In 2009 we welcomed our first son and soon after, three more amazing kiddos would follow. Having four kids in 4 1/2 years felt like a wild adventure of it’s own. With a growing family, changing careers and moving cities, we put our dreams on pause.
In 2012 we took a trip to England for Barry’s brother’s wedding. Our kids at the time were 3, 18 months and 3 weeks. While some told us we were crazy, we knew we never wanted to look at our kids as a hinderance. Moreover, we wanted our kids to have a passion and curiosity for the world around them. Sure, traveling with kids required more work, but we always felt the benefits outweighed the negative.
Already being so close to Europe, we decided to hop a ferry to France to meet up with my close friend and her family who was also traveling. After departing the ferry, we headed to the train station. During this time that we met another family who were heading in the same direction. It wasn’t long before we learned that they were a family of five traveling the world with their kids. Not only that, but they were also from Calgary, Alberta, our hometown! This not only reignited our dream but also showed us that it wasn’t so far fetched. It really was possible to travel the world as a family!
There have been many ups and downs over the years wondering if our dream would ever be realized, but we never gave up hope. One thing we have learned is that God is faithful to the dreams He places in your heart. The timing may look different but His goodness never changes.
So hear we are, a family of six getting ready to embark on the greatest adventure of our lives. Some may call it risky or even foolish but we are following PEACE and the adventure that is sure to follow!
On the Blog
Durango, Mexico
Call me crazy, but quitting our jobs to do missions while traveling the world to spend time with our kids is the best decision we have ever made. When we started off with this dream 16 years ago it looked nothing like what it does now. It's more incredible than we...
Welcome to Outreach
It's amazing what can happen in such a short amount of time. These last eleven weeks on the ranch have proven to be a combination of some of the most wonderful and yet challenging moments we've ever experienced as a family. I look around at the other families...
Life on the Ranch
A Living in community with others is one of the most wonderful and challenging experiences we have ever walked through. Barry and I both have spent 1-3 weeks, at different times in our marriage, living in community prior to our YWHAM experience, but never as a family...