In Spain and Portugal, where Daphne and Dave have been for over a decade now, new people they meet ask where they are from, no UK/Irish accent being detected. “California” they say and the most common response is “why would you move here?! California is an amazing place!” Well, they moved here to reintroduce people to Jesus, the Jesus they have never known in their formal religious or non-religious or even anti-religious lives.

They have both swirled around evangelical and reformed environments as life-long believers and have never failed to be very involved in any church they were attending. There was youth and university age ministry, adult education, member care, and of course missions. Serving Jesus beyond their borders, and particularly in Europe, has been on their hearts from college days and was inspired in great part by Dr. Francis Schaefer and his Switzerland-based ministry called L’Abri. Europe was moving in an increasingly secular direction and he and his colleagues were taking that philosophical and cultural movement head on. Dave and Daphne have been paying attention to that throughout their adult lives and though much of their early mission focus has been south of the California border in Ecuador and Mexico, they made the move to Europe in 2007 with Christian Associates Int’l (Communitas In’l).

First as team members with Mountainview church near Madrid and then with Lisboa Matrix in Portugal and as leaders of Grace Community Church near their current location in Cascais, they have now been involved for the last several years in broader roles as leaders with Staff Care and Development (SCD) and the Europe Advancement Team. As of the end of 2020 Daphne will leave her role as co-director of Communitas SCD but will continue to follow her heart for the wellbeing of our staff on a more personal, less administrative level. Dave is continuing to focus on moving Communitas’ kingdom work forward in Portugal and France. Together they will continue to lead locally in a variety of ways that are helping people in their community get closer and deeper with Jesus and explore His desires and purposes for their lives.