Benjamin Rees is a second-generation Christian missionary. His parents, William O. and Melba (Palmer) Rees, served as missionaries in Tibet, West China, South Africa and Hong Kong. Ben was born in Kunming, West China, and grew up in South Africa and Hong Kong.

He has two bachelor’s degrees from Ozark Bible College (now Ozark Christian College) in Joplin, Missouri, and a master’s degree through an extension program of Azusa Pacific University in California.

Karen (Davis) Rees was born in Cushing, Oklahoma, and grew up near there. She has a degree in elementary education from Oklahoma City University, and taught sixth grade in Carl Junction, Missouri for four years. She has also taken classes at Cincinnati (Ohio) Bible Seminary, Ozark Bible College and Missouri Southern State College. Her parents, Loren and Doris Davis, served as Ben and Karen’s forwarding agents for the first 25 years of their work.

Ben and Karen were married in 1971. They have two children, both born in Hong Kong. Their son Matthew, born in 1976, is teaching in Hong Kong, and their daughter, Megan, born in 1980, is pursuing her master’s degree studies at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas.