Nancy and Shelvis became friends as teenagers. They were two kids deeply concerned with the world’s brokenness and curious about making a difference for Christ. Their mutual admiration for each other blossomed into friendship, friendship to love, love to marriage, and marriage to a partnership in ministry. 

They first met at the Westminster Schools. Nancy, a widely touted soccer player, led their school to two State Championships and a top ten national soccer rankings. She was voted Team Captain by her peers and a North/South All-Star by the Georgia High School Players Association. In addition, she joined the nation’s top young talent in the US Olympic Development Program. She guided her club team to national prominence and a Region III Championship within the program. Nancy was a superb athlete and a brilliant student, maintaining an “A” average throughout high school and receiving several distinguished academic accolades. She also maintained an “A” average in college, completing double majors in Religion and Sociology. Furman’s Religion Department awarded Nancy the university’s highest academic distinction for student research. While in college, Nancy continued her athletic career, quickly winning the role as the starting Mid-Fielder for the University of Michigan’s Varsity Soccer team. She helped the Wolverines capture a Big Ten Conference Championship and the best NCAA women’s soccer tournament performance in school history. After her sophomore season, she transferred to Furman University, where she helped lead her new team to two more conference Championships and a national ranking. The team also voted Nancy “Team Captain.” A proven leader on and off the field, Nancy led Furman’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes while also serving communities plagued by poverty and racial injustice in the Greenville area. Members of the communities often inspired Nancy because of the tangible ways they exercised their faith through actions. After graduating from college, Nancy traveled to Bolivia, South America, where she once again witnessed Christian using their faith to address poverty and injustice. After returning to the US, she began seminary at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.

 Shelvis was a phenomenal three-sport athlete at the Westminster Schools. His notoriety came primarily from football as he was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame, but he was also the school’s Basketball Defensive Player of the Year and a track state champion. Shelvis also deeply loved music and served as President of the School’s Ensemble. In addition, he earned a spot in the Georgia All-State Choir and toured internationally with the Atlanta Boy Choir. Because of these accomplishments and his efforts in class, Westminster awarded Shelvis the top male student award. 

Shelvis often followed his youth minister into Georgia’s youth detention centers as a teenager. There he saw God at work in ways he had not imagined. He met incarcerated young men who radically followed Christ despite their previous gang affiliation and years behind bars. These experiences helped Shelvis better understand the transformative power of God in daunting circumstances.

Deeply curious about ministry, Shelvis completed a double major in Religion and Sociology with a minor in Classical Studies at Furman University. While at Furman, he led the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, sang in the university’s acclaimed choir, and was chapter president of his fraternity. A Team Captain and Honorable Mention defensive back, Shelvis anchored one of the top defenses in the nation. His play helped Furman gain two Conference Championships and a National Championship appearance, where he was named “Player of the Game.” Furman University also awarded him its highest male student award and inducted him into their Leadership Hall of Fame. After graduation, Shelvis completed two master’s degrees at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, where he graduated Valedictorian. While at Emory, Shelvis worked through the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, the National Black Presbyterian Caucus, the National Office of the PC(USA), and the National Council of Churches. 

Shelvis and Nancy married in 2005 and together accepted a call to ministry in East Africa (2008). During most of this time, Rev. Nancy Smith-Mather served as the Project Manager for the PCUSA South Sudan Education and Peace Project (SSEPP), the denomination’s most comprehensive educational effort in a country enduring famine, a national economic collapse, civil war, and Africa’s fastest-growing refugee crisis. Shelvis served as Principal of the RECONCILE Peace Institute (RPI) in South Sudan. Along with a team of inspiring South Sudanese peacebuilders, Shelvis contributed to building a nationally recognized peace institute proclaimed by CNN News as boldly “enriching the world.” National Public Radio (NPR) defines RECONCILE’s efforts as bringing peace and healing to communities hurting from decades of war.  

In 2016, the rise of civil war set 10,000 homes ablaze in our town and displaced 70% of the population. As a result, the Smith-Mather family and most of their neighbors moved across the border to Uganda. While living in a town outside the refugee camps, Shelvis and Nancy trained South Sudanese seminarians with skills in counseling survivors of war. Shelvis also worked alongside his South Sudanese colleagues and RPI alumni to facilitate peacebuilding and trauma recovery programs in the refugee camps, while Nancy led the SSEPP. 

 Nancy and Shelvis remain inspired by how South Sudanese Christians often put their faith into action. To build upon these lessons, Rev. Nancy served as a delegate at this summer’s Presbyterian General Assembly on behalf of mission co-workers working with partners across the globe. Rev. Shelvis, on the other hand, is researching the peacebuilding role of the local Church in South Sudan at the University of Oxford. Ultimately, the project allows him to collaborate with South Sudanese partners to create resources addressing the current civil war. Nancy and Shelvis have four children: Jordan (9), Adalyn (8), Nicole (5), and Alice (1 ½). The Smith-Mathers continue to marvel at God’s transformative power and how they get to work for change alongside Christians around the world.

To God be the Glory!