In December 1974, I joined a youth outreach ministry in Amsterdam called Dilaram—a branch of Youth with a Mission (YWAM). There I met Debbie Bryan (from Canada), and we were married in 1975 at our new training center, Heidebeek, in Heerde, the Netherlands.

Having received a calling to full time inter-cultural ministry, we moved back into Amsterdam with Floyd McClung in 1980, to help him pioneer Urban Missions in Amsterdam as a ministry of YWAM. After learning Dutch, we then picked up some Moroccan Arabic as part of our efforts to reach out to our Moroccan immigrant neighbors in Amsterdam (up until 1998). In 2000 my first book of stories, Abu Sharif: The Mystery of the Hundredth Name was published (2^nd edition 2003). Translations of this book of stories are being made, or have been completed, in 9 different languages, including an audio version in the Fulfulde language.

A second book of stories for Muslim immigrant youth, Rode Dromer  (in Dutch) was published in 2008, and then translated into Norwegian in 2011. English, French and Arabic editions are expected to be available in 2016. A harmony of the Gospels that I wrote as a companion to Abu Sharif, entitled, The Good News of the Messiah: by the Four Witnesses, was first produced in the Jula language in Ivory Coast in 2002. In 2014 it was finally published in English. Both a revised English edition and a Dutch translation of it are due to be published in late 2023 or in 2024.

While we were building friendships with our Muslim neighbors in Amsterdam, I pioneered a 2-year degree program in Intercultural Studies for the University of the Nations (U of N). Since 1985 forty students (from five continents and fourteen nations) have earned either an Associate of Arts (AA) degree, an AA equivalency certificate, or a BA degree. Until 2013, I served as a member of the International Committee for the U of N college of Humanities and International Studies. For more than twenty years I also served on the local YWAM leadership teams, first at Heidebeek and then in Amsterdam. In addition I have taught for over 40 years in many YWAM schools and seminars in the Netherlands and in 28 other countries on 6 continents, as well as for 25 other organizations and churches both in the Netherlands and in 11 other countries on 4 continents.

Debbie and I served together for five years as leaders in the Frontier Missions family of ministries for Europe (2002-2007). We also served together in leadership roles for over a decade (1995-2006) in the Dutch NGO, ACORN (A Community Oriented Rehabilitation Network)−which served handicapped children and provided both physio-therapy training and resources to health-professionals in Northern Iraq and Siberia. During those years, I also earned a Masters (MA) in Cultural Anthropology from the VU University (Vrije Universiteit) in Amsterdam (2005).

Our family applied for and was granted Dutch citizenship in 1994. We have two grown children: one lives in Canada with her husband and five of our grandchildren; and the other lives with his wife and our two other grandchildren here in the Netherlands.