Barbi and her late husband Ernie met in Chicago, Illinois, while she was training to be a nurse. Ernie was a missionary with God’s Invasion Army. They were accepted as missionaries with Rural Bible Crusade before their wedding in 1957. They moved to Canada in 1969 to do church planting and were accepted as InterAct missionaries in 1984. They have four grown children. Ernie went to be with the Lord in November 2011 and Barbi retired in 2025.