Dear Brothers and Sisters, as Ariel's first missionary couple we started the work in Baltimore, Maryland October, 1978 A.D. We do Jewish evangelism and discipleship following Ariel Ministries’ emphasis of teaching and grounding the people in the Scripture from a Jewish Perspective. We work with individuals and small groups. Since 1990 A.D., we have had an emphasis on Russian Jewish people.

The LORD has blessed this ministry through the years! We presently have a Friday morning breakfast Bible study at a Jewish deli in Pikesville. We also have a Russian Bible study on Sunday evenings in Ellicott City. You are invited to come join us for a wonderful time of fellowship and study. Please write to us at our Parkton, Maryland address or call Ariel's Home Office for more information.

Love in our Lord Jesus,

Daniel and Arlene Rigney

Daniel C. Rigney was born on October 31, 1936 in Baltimore, Maryland in the home of his Gentile parents. Daniel grew up in the Jewish community of Pikesville and, although not Jewish by birth or heritage, learned much of the Jewish culture. Most of his schoolmates, friends, and even a business partner were Jewish. Little did Daniel realize while growing up that these people would be the same people that God would later call him to minister to.

As to Christianity, the Rigneys were members of a liberal church where Dan sang in the choir. He always thought that he was a "Christian" because he was not Jewish, wore clothes (not a heathen), and attended church. He had some exposure to evangelical Christians at the auto repair shop where he worked as a mechanic. This would later be an influence to his becoming a believer.

He graduated Mergenthaler Technical High School in 1954 in the automotive field, his trade until 1965.

He served as sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1953-1961.

On September 1, 1956, Daniel married Arlene Joan Physioc, also of Baltimore, Maryland.

The next six years was a time of accumulating "things" that hopefully would satisfy; a time of interesting developments and discouragements that would climax in Dan and Arlene finding the Lord Jesus.

On Christmas Eve, 1962, Arlene was the first to accept the Lord. Meanwhile, Dan had taken a traveling job selling auto parts, which took him more than 40,000 miles in Eastern Pennsylvania over the next ten months. He saw and meditated on the many Bible road signs on trees, barns, etc. These were the prime source of bringing him to the place of the need of the Savior. On November 3, 1963, Dan and his mother both accepted the Lord Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Immediately, there was a drastic change in Dan and Arlene's goals and interests. While driving in Pennsylvania, Dan received a call to serve the Lord via Gospel radio. In 1964, to prepare for this call, Dan enrolled at the Baltimore School of the Bible. During this time the Rigneys were used in many ways in evangelism and received a sound basis for their faith.

In the fall of 1965, the Rigneys enrolled in the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Here Dan was challenged by a Hebrew-Christian student, also from Baltimore, to pursue the field of Jewish evangelism. While attending Moody, the Rigneys also took some summer school training at Wheaton College. They graduated from Moody in June, 1968: Dan in Jewish Studies and Arlene in Bible Theology. Dan was ordained to the ministry by the Crawford Bible Church in 1969.

From 1968 until 1970, they both served as missionaries with the American Board of Missions to the Jews in New York City. From 1970 until 1975, they directed the Baltimore branch. During their Baltimore ministry they also served as camp directors of ABMJ's Camp Sar Shalom.

In October 1975, the Rigneys accepted a call to minister with Jews for Jesus in San Francisco, California. Dan served as an adjutant to the director until August, 1978 when the Rigneys moved back to Baltimore.

Having known Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum for many years and being in agreement with the unique goals of evangelism and discipleship of Ariel Ministries, the Rigneys applied for missionary service and were accepted. They pioneered the first Ariel branch in Baltimore in October, 1978 in the same home where Dan was born and raised. The Lord has blessed this ongoing Ariel Baltimore Branch with home Bible studies, men's breakfast studies, Hebrew Christian celebrations of Jewish holidays, street evangelism, and one-to-one evangelism and discipleship in Baltimore.

Dan and Arlene helped Dr. Fruchtenbaum initiate the first Hebrew Christian discipleship camp in the Adirondack Mountains of New York in 1973, which has continued as Ariel Ministries' Camp Shoshanah. Dan has been the camp director at Camp Shoshanah since 1979. Arlene serves as the "camp mother." Camp Shoshanah, which continues to develop and expand, has influenced many Jewish and Gentile believers over the years.

Since 1968, Dan and Arlene have had a burden for the freedom of Soviet Jews. They prayed, had petitions signed, and attended rallies for Soviet Jewish freedom in New York and Baltimore. God answered these prayers and efforts! In 1990, Ariel sent Dan and Arlene to Italy to work with Pastor Joel McElreath of the Conservative Baptists to help him with the thousands of Soviet refugees going to the U.S.A., Canada, and Australia. This broadened the Rigneys' outreach. Many came to faith and are continuing on with the Lord. There have been several successful Soviet Jewish camps at Camp Shoshanah. The Rigneys have an ongoing ministry to Soviet Jews throughout the U.S.A. and Canada. The Lord willing, Ariel Ministries plans to send Dan and Arlene to the Commonwealth of Independent States (formerly U.S.S.R.) for short-term missionary outreach to many friends and family of the Rigneys' "Soviet Jewish family."

Although the Rigneys have not had any physical seed, the Lord has abundantly blessed them with those whom they ministered to over the last twenty-plus years. At least fourteen young people have gone to Bible schools and are serving the Lord around the world. This is an encouragement to the Rigneys since they can rejoice at the great things that the Lord has and is doing in their witness to Jewish people.

Dan and Arlene share a common burden of proclaiming the Lord Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, as found in Luke 2:32: A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.