Who is Pastor Dan? 

Dan Grocott attended Orland High School, then went off to Word of Life Bible Institute and School of Youth Ministries in Pottersville, NY where he graduated in 1987.  While there, he met Linda Armstrong and the two eventually married and moved back to California.

Although Dan was raised in a Christian home and attended church regularly, he was far from perfect and didn't place his faith in Jesus Christ until he left home.  God used the circumstances of Dan's life to instill within him a passion to reach teenagers with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

In Sept of '89, the Orland Evangelical Free Church voted to hire Dan as the Youth Pastor.  Dan did the best he could with the limited knowledge he had about ministering to youth... after all, he was one of them just a few years earlier!  For nearly eight years Dan and Linda worked hard to build a strong youth ministry in Orland, and together they saw some great successes but also some great disappointments.

After reading A Critique of Modern Youth Ministry by Christopher Schlect, Dan's philophy of youth ministry had begun to change.  Because he felt so strongly about this new philosophy, he came to the conclusion that what the church needed was not a Youth Pastor as he had been doing for the past eight years, but a Family Pastor - someone who would not just teach and train youth, but teach and train families who would in turn teach and train the youth... beginning with their own first.

Because Dan didn't see himself fitting into that role at the age he was, he and his fledgling family moved to Pennsylvania where they began training with New Tribes Mission in hopes of one day working in a remote tribal area.  The Lord answered their prayers and the Grocotts sold nearly all of their worldly possessions and flew to Venezuela where they began learning Spanish.  After completing the Spanish course, they joined a team of 3 other families and moved into the Amazon Jungle to work among the Yuana Indians, also known as Joti Indians.

Linda homeschooled their three oldest Children (Timbo, Kimberly and Audrey, at that time ages 14, 12 & 7 respectively).  Mishaela was too young to begin school but was content to be the little curly-haired cutie who ran around gathering hugs from everyone.

In 2006, after being gone from Orland for 10 years, (six being in Venezuela with the last two in the jungle), they were expelled from the Jungle by President Chavez along with the rest of the missionaries with New Tribes Mission for various allegations - none of which were true.

During the time that the Grocotts were in Venezuela, the Orland EFC formed a search committee in hopes of hiring a Pastor of Family Ministries.  When they were notified that the Grocotts would be returning to Orland, they contacted Dan and asked him to consider applying for the position and begin seeking God's will regarding where he would work.

(If you've read this far you are doing great, so I'll do you a favor and not make this longer than it has to be!)

The philosphy of Family Ministry hadn't dwindled a bit in Dan's mind, but rather had intensified with the raising of his own children and observing numerous other youth groups over the previous ten years, so his heart was already geared for this type of ministry.  After much thought, prayer and counsel from godly men and women, both the church and the Grocotts realized that he had been being groomed for this position, so in May of 2007 he was officially hired as the Pastor of Family Ministries.