A Little (More) About Us

Since we are just starting out this blog, we thought we’d take a little time to share a little more about ourselves beyond our little blurb on our About page.

Boy Meets Girl

Both of us knew, relatively early on, that we wanted to serve God in ministry. For Dan, this was in high school; for Vera it was in college. When we first met in 1992, we were preparing for a summer overseas missions trip. (Everyone asks this question, so that’s the answer!)

Though Vera grew up in California in an Asian-American non-believing household and Dan grew up in Oregon in a Christian home, we both were passionate about serving the Lord with our lives. After serving together as small group leaders on said missions trip, we returned home. The following year we began dating while Dan finished his last year of college and Vera finished a one-year graduate-level Bible certificate course.

Discipleship Through Campus Ministry

The following year, in 1994, we got married. Amidst the wedding planning, we talked often about where we wanted to serve. Dan’s background was in youth ministry while Vera’s was in teaching preschool. After some prayer, we landed on campus ministry: mature enough to have good conversations and young enough to still enjoy goofy games.

Though we did Bible studies and training, it always struck us that what our students remembered most were the times around our table, the long conversations while our young kids played nearby. They remembered cooking lessons with me or learning how to drive with Dan.

Discipleship in the Church

After seven years on campus, Dan took a position at our previous church. There, he spent 17 years as an assistant pastor, focusing on discipleship ministries. It was during this time that we began to recognize the need for rest in the midst of ministry. Though it might be easy to assume that ministry families have got it together, we can attest that this is not so. We are also human. We get tired too. Just because we serve the Lord doesn’t mean we don’t get weary.

This led Dan to develop day retreats for our church family, with the desire was to provide time and space for our church family to find rest for their souls in Christ. These events provided opportunities to turn good intentions for rest into reality. When we could, we’d serve together to minister to souls with food for the soul and a homecooked meal for the body, all over thoughtful conversation and fellowship. Even today, this is one of our favorite forms of ministry.

Discipleship Through Biblical Counseling

Along with our ministry at church, we sought to minister to our children at home. In 2003, we began the adventure of homeschooling our children. While Dan honed his teaching skills in the pulpit, Vera honed hers through educating our kids at home. We graduated our oldest in 2014, our second in 2019 and look forward to wrapping up our homeschooling journey in 2026 with our youngest.

Along the way, we also embarked on our greatest challenge ever: the adoption of our daughter from China in 2012. She was 7 years old at the time and is diagnosed with Down Syndrome.

The first few years after her adoption were the lowest time in our marriage. Managing the needs of our daughter was exhausting us and we entered into a season of burnout and depression, which deeply affected our marriage and our family life.

Though we (all right, I’ll confess, it was Vera) resisted it at first, in God’s sovereign plans, pursuing biblical counseling was the best step we took. As we underwent counseling, we received God’s comfort in our suffering as well as gentle correction as He confronted our sinful beliefs. (If you’re interested, you can check out this link for a video that we shared with our church family.)

Discipleship Through OakHaven

We are far from perfect, but trust that even in our struggles, God has been equipping us. In 2022, we believed that it was time for us to start OakHaven. Later that year, Dan registered our organization. At the end of the year, we transitioned out of the pastorate at our previous church and began serving part-time as one of the staff counselors at our current church. The rest of his work hours are spent building up OakHaven Ministries.

We hope this gives you a little glimpse of who we are, where we’ve been, and how God has been working in us. Thank you for reading!