Missions - Dave & JoAnn Harthan

Dave was born on a dairy farm in northern Minnesota, the oldest of nine children. He accepted Christ at the age of six, and basically grew up in the church. His little country church, West Cohasset Chapel, was not only the spiritual center of his family’s life, but the social center as well. Through his high school years Dave felt a call into the ministry.

In order to prepare, he attended Oak Hills Bible Institute following high school. There Dave met JoAnne Tutt, who was to become his wife.

JoAnne was born on a dairy farm in southwestern Minnesota, one of 13 children. She also came to faith in Christ at a very early age.

While at Oak Hills Dave and his wife-to-be, JoAnne were asked to lead a European prayer band. Every two weeks they had to research a different country of Europe to present for prayer. God used this to open their eyes to the tremendous spiritual needs of Europe.

Following graduation from Oak Hills, Dave and JoAnne married and moved to Letts, Iowa where they pastored the Letts Independent United Brethren Church for two years. During this time they also attended the Eastern Iowa Community College. God continued calling into missions, and in 1968 Dave and JoAnne applied to TEAM for service in Austria and were appointed. At the end of that time they moved to Dayton, Tennessee to attend Bryan College. Dave majored in history and JoAnne finished up her B.S. in Elementary Education. Dave and JoAnne moved back to Minnesota to get a job, pay off their school bills, and raise support for the mission field. God had other plans. Dave’s home church called and asked him to be their pastor. God opened the door to be there for two years. During this time their first two children were born (Eric and Christine).

In 1972 Dave resigned as pastor of the West Cohasset Chapel and began deputation. Dave had known Grace Bible Chapel all his life. It is almost like a second home church to him. The church became a supporter of Dave and JoAnne’s ministry and has supported them now for 35 years.

In January of 1973, Dave and JoAnne and family headed off for service in Austria. After two years of German language study, they began a ministry of church planting. During the 20 years Dave and JoAnne were involved in three church plants. Their main ministries were in the area of discipling and training leaders for the churches. In all three churches they installed elders before moving on. Through the years Dave was also involved in the field leadership on the field council. In the last years he was Field Chairman for Austria, Germany, and Turkey.

In 1993 God used family circumstances to lead Dave and JoAnne back to the U.S. where Dave became the North Central Church Relations Representative for TEAM, based in Minneapolis, MN. In this job he consults with and helps churches in their mission’s programs. He speaks at mission conferences, encourages pastors, and meets with missions committees to share with them ways to do missions in our changing age. His main job now is as TEAM’s Follow-up Coordinator. He follows-up on all people who contact TEAM who are interested in long term missionary service. He also conducts TEAM’s Explore Workshops. TEAM offers this 2 ½ day workshop all over the country. It is for anyone who is seriously considering missions, and is asking the question, “Am I ready to go or are there some things in my life I should be working on to better prepare myself?” We help the person look at their life in the areas of spiritual health, physical health, mental health, work experience, and education. At the end of the time we do exit interviews with each one and write up a summary, which then goes to the person with a copy to their missions pastor. Dave is especially excited about the results of this ministry in lives. Much fruit is coming from it.