John grew up in Blumenort, then Wawanesa, Manitoba. In 1974 he moved to Abbotsford, BC along with his family

Debbie grew up near Chilliwack, BC

We were married in 1977 and several years later joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ

After a couple of years John began his studies at Mountain View Bible College which is now Rocky Mountain College in Calgary. During his training he briefly worked as a youth pastor at East Olds Baptist Church. While completing his final year of College he served as an associate pastor at the Church of God in Carstairs. From there we moved to Castor to pastor the Castor Missionary Church

Having moved to Westbank in 1992, John served as pastor of Powers Creek Community Church until the end of July, 2005. For the next year he worked on his Master of Arts in Christian Studies Degree at ACTS – in Langley, BC. In June, 2006, John began serving as Lead Pastor of Heritage Mountain Community Church in Port Moody, BC.

Debbie completed four years of working at Bylands Garden Centre in Westbank and while living in Port Moody worked at Blooming Buds in Coquitlam.

In April, 2008 John graduated from ACTS. After leading HMCC through a time of transition, John & Debbie left Port Moody at the end of June, 2008 and John began ministry as Associate Pastor at Zion Evangelical Missionary Church in Didsbury, Alberta. At the same time Debbie began working at Front Porch Realty.

On October 1, 2011 John left Zion Church to serve as Transitional Lead Pastor at Bethel EM Church in Three Hills, Alberta while continuing to live in Didsbury. This ministry concluded and John began to serve as Lead Pastor at Cross Connection Church in Chilliwack, BC until the end of April,  2016. In September, 2016 John began serving as Transitional Lead Pastor at River Of Life Church in Chilliwack and Debbie worked at Little Mountain Garden Centre.

In June of 2018 we moved to Blind Bay, BC and John began serving as Lead Pastor at Broadview Church in Salmon Arm, BC in July. In May, 2020 we moved into Salmon Arm. John retired as Lead Pastor at the end of August, 2022. After working at Hartty Clothing for just over a year Debbie is now employed with Doane Grant Thornton. John serves on the Board of Directors for Development Associates International Canada (DAI). He also acts as a course facilitator for DAI in  their MAOL program – having facilitated courses in India and Myanmar.