Dan is a native of Cameron, Missouri, but he left Missouri to join the Marine Corps in 1976.  He served as a Marine for twenty years until his retirement.  Karen was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, and has ten years of experience in engineering and software development. They met in college while both pursuing engineering degrees, and were married in March of 1986.

Both gave their lives to Jesus and were baptized at Calvary Chapel of Oceanside, California - Karen in 1987 and Dan in 1988.  After that they served in various ways at churches in California, Virginia, and Okinawa, as the military moved them from place to place.  In Fredericksburg, Virginia, Dan and Karen were blessed by the opportunity to participate in the Walk to Emmaus, and then as part of Fredericksburg's Emmaus community, Karen served on an Emmaus team and Dan served in the Kairos prison ministry extension of Emmaus.  God has gifted Dan in teaching, and he has led several home Bible study groups, started and led a Bible study at his workplace, and taught in other settings such as Sunday School and special events.  He has also filled other roles such as usher and sound technician, and served in leadership as a member of the Board of Directors and treasurer at Monterey Assembly of God.  Karen has been gifted in music, and after giving her life to Christ, left her secular music ambitions to subsequently serve on the worship teams of several churches and to play for other ministry and outreach events.

In 1994, the Lord called Dan and Karen to mission work in Japan, with a focus on the Burakumin.  Their preparation for the mission field included in-church training, Bible school correspondence courses, and classes conducted by the U.S. Center for World Mission and MUP.  In April of 1996 they moved to Hiroshima, Japan where they served for six years as cooperating evangelists with a Japanese church, while also studying Japanese language and culture.  Dan also at the same time took some distance-learning courses in inter-cultural ministry and theology from Fuller Seminary.  In August of 2002 they moved to Osaka City to begin planting a cell church, but the Lord surprised us by also putting Dan into the pastoral role of Osaka International Church, and he served in that role (Karen assisting in several of the church ministries) until 2014.  Currently their main focus is the development of a variety of resources to assist the ministry of churches and Christians throughout Japan. Dan is working on a pre-evangelistic book, and has written a couple of unique tracts and produced pre-evangelistic YouTube videos. Karen has produced a series of praise DVDs, built a number of ministry websites, and develops and manages two online database services that keep her busy.

Their original sending church was Christ Fellowship Church in Fredericksburg, VA, but since Christ Fellowship Church closed, Grace Fellowship Chapel in Westminster, Maryland has graciously adopted them and is now their sending church.