In 1984 Donald left the States for Europe, working with Arab World Ministries, then studying theology at the Faculté libre de théologie réformée (now Faculté Jean Calvin), in Aix-en-Provence, France. Claire-Lise is from Switzerland. They met in 1990 and were married in 1992. After seminary, Donald taught at a Bible college in Switzerland then, after moving to Florida, became a teaching elder in the PCA. 

The Cobbs have been with Mission to the World since 1996, first serving in the Middle East with an indigenous Presbyterian church. Donald’s focus there was on pastoral training and church planting. They then returned to France, joining a church-planting team in Bordeaux. Since 2004, Donald has been teaching New Testament and church planting at the seminary in Aix, today one of the few evangelical seminaries in Western Europe. He is also involved in church-planting facilitation through the Conseil national des Evangéliques de France (CNEF). His burden is to instill in his students a vision for church planting and a desire to see God’s kingdom moving forward in French-speaking Europe. Claire-Lise teaches in a private Christian school in Aix, and they are both actively involved in a local church.