Craig and Becky met their first day at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota. We'd both been interested in missions and went on short-term missions trips in high school. After we were married and graduated from college, we moved to Alaska where Zach and Sarah were born. Craig started working in the water and wastewater field and Becky worked as a nurse. We moved to Ashland, Wisconsin just before Jacob was born. Craig worked as the water and wastewater utility superintendent for the City of Ashland.

Our call to Spain was an amazing journey as God led us step by step. We went to SEND International's family missions conference in July, 2003 in Holland, Michigan to learn more about opportunities to serve with SEND. We had been taking classes through Moody Distance Education toward an Associate Degree in Bible, knowing that we would need it for missions work someday.

During our 4 days at family conference, God led to the job description and then to the location He sent us. We never thought that the "call" would come with such joy and anticipation. We were eager to complete all the preparation work so we could get there as soon as possible! Looking back over the year and a half before that, we can see how many books and bible studies we read helped prepare us for this, especially in the areas of possessions/materialism, trusting God with our lives and our children, and obedience to Him.

We arrived in Spain on April 20, 2005 for our first 4-year term. Our first year was devoted to full-time language school in Alcala, approximately 20 miles northeast of Madrid. We lived near there using public transportation until our Spanish was good enough to complete the rigorous Drivers' Education. During the remainder of our term, we worked with a new church plant in Azuqueca (pop. 33,000), focusing on evangelism, discipleship and leadership development. Craig was elected Area Director for the SEND Spain team of church planters in April 2008. He takes care of the administration, legal and financial oversight, planning team events and networking. Becky was involved in women's Bible study, and enjoyed teaching kids in Sunday School, weekly Kid's Club and during church retreats and summer camps. Our kids attended Spanish public school during our first term and are completely bi-lingual.

During home service in the USA, July 2009-August 2010, we visited our 14 supporting churches and some new churches to share with them highlights of our first term. We also are raising support to return to Spain in June, 2010.