Dan and Estela are American Baptist missionaries in the Bahamas where they began serving with the Mission Baptist Consortium of Churches in November 2000. They are the first missionaries to represent American Baptist International Ministries in this new field of service.

Estela serves in the area of general ministry with the Mission Baptist Consortium's seven Haitian congregations that are located in the Nassau area. Due to impoverished conditions and political instability in Haiti, there are now over 50,000 Haitian immigrants residing in the Bahamas, most of whom are undocumented. Like many other immigrant communities throughout the world, Haitians in the Bahamas face severe discrimination and often do menial labor for substandard wages. In the midst of such injustice, Estela hopes that her own experience as a Haitian in the Dominican Republic will help her to identify with the people and bolster the work and testimony of Haitian Baptist believers in the Bahamas.

The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Estela was born in La Romana, Dominican Republic where she was raised in the First Haitian Missionary Baptist Church and accepted the Lord at twelve years of age. The following year, the deacons of Estela's church invited her to go with them to the bateyes (migrant villages for Haitian sugarcane cutters). There, she saw for the first time the impoverished conditions of the Haitian migrant workers who cut sugarcane in the Dominican Republic. She was especially concerned about the children of the workers and in each place she went with the deacons, she taught Sunday school classes for the children. Estela's love for children led her to pursue a career in education while improving her ministry skills through courses at the local Bible Institute. While employed as a teacher, Estela was also active as a lay missionary to Haitian migrant workers in the nearby sugar cane plantation villages. Following her marriage with Dan, she acquired additional teaching, ministry, and cross-cultural experience in Puerto Rico and Denver. Most recently, she has worked as a bilingual teacher with Mexican children in the Denver Public Schools.

Estela earned her B.A. in Early Childhood Education from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. She also completed three years of theological studies at the Center for Biblical and Pastoral Studies in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Dan works in the area of theological education at Atlantic College and Theological Seminary in Nassau. His work continues the long standing commitment of American Baptists to prepare national leaders to more effectively serve their local churches and communities.

The grandson of an American Baptist pastor, Dan was born and grew up in the Denver area and committed his life to Christ at Crossroads American Baptist Church at a young age. At fifteen, he became interested in missions work through a series of Bible studies led by his youth pastor. During the remainder of his high school and college years, short-term missions trips to Mexico and San Francisco, active involvement in campus ministry, and volunteer tutoring served to confirm his call to teaching and missions work. Following his graduation from college, Dan served for two years with American Baptist International Ministries as a volunteer ESL instructor in the Dominican Republic. It was during those years that he met and married Estela Luisima, an active leader in the congregation where he volunteered. Subsequently, Dan has continued his teaching career while completing graduate studies in Puerto Rico and Denver.

Dan holds M.A. degrees in Teaching English as a Second Language from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico and Urban and Intercultural Ministries from Denver Seminary. He completed his undergraduate degree in humanities at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.