Dan & Jana

Discipleship Group Leaders, Mentors, Instructor

Dan and Jana have spent over fifteen years living and ministering overseas. Mentored by their longtime friends Rob and Kara, they served twelve years in rural East Africa in church planting and leadership development. They raised their children amid the challenges of a fishing-village context, welcoming a steady flow of guests and sharing the gospel among people with low literacy and largely animistic beliefs. After returning to the U.S., Dan served on the pastoral staff of their Minneapolis-area church before they were sent to join the Safir Global Training team.

Dan serves as the Culture and Language Acquisition Instructor for Safir. With a focus on second-language learning, cultural anthropology, and intercultural preaching, he is passionate about helping students develop the mindset and skills needed for effective language and culture learning.
Dan and Jana work together to mentor students throughout the nine-month program, equipping them for cross-cultural life and ministry. Alongside their training roles, they are a few years into learning the local language and culture in the urban, developed context where Safir is located.

Having raised children and ministered cross-culturally in very different environments and through various schooling paths, they bring both experience and transparency to the program, inviting students into their lives as they walk this journey together.