She and her husband, Gavin, worked with World Mission Centre for many years providing healthcare training to missionaries. Gavin and Marlien founded and ran Partners in Grace, a ministry that forms cross-cultural partnerships between wealthier Christian congregations and poor Christian congregations with the further goal of community development through church partnership. They now reside in Cape Town, South Africa, and often travel around the world to train missionaries in community health through their next ministry, God’s Vision-God’s Mission.