John Klaassen was born in Colombia, South America, but grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. He married Shari in 1985 and they have two sons, Seth and Andy. Before moving overseas John pastored in the state of Kentucky.
John and Shari moved cross culturally to live first in Spain and then in North Africa from 1992 to 2010. John helped to direct their relief and development agency to national attention such that they were invited to work in communities all over their country of residence. In the end he supervised teams in three distinct regions of the country. That relief and development group worked in the areas of primary education, clean water and health education. Since moving back to the US, John and Shari have worked with refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Latin America now living in the Louisville area.
John is the Department Coordinator for Global Studies at Boyce College.