Churches Raising Up World Changers

Cal and Courtney Herrmann are the kind of sharp young couple who could get six figure jobs in a company near home in Nebraska. Instead, they will be going to the Dominican Republic as missionaries later this year. Coming from small farming communities you have to wonder how this happened.

Cal described his calling as a teenager,

“I thought I wanted to become a priest. The question that plagued me as I finished college and began a career was ‘How do I know if I’m giving enough to God?’

I read the book ‘Radical’, by David Platt. I was struck by the mandate that God has given us to go and share the Gospel in ALL nations. I started looking for ways that I could serve God, maybe a short-term mission trip or something like that.

This searching led me to the World Race, and before I knew it, I was launching in January of 2017. While on the World Race, I consistently felt the Lord impressing upon me that I would be a missionary long-term.”

While on the field, Cal met Courtney, another World Racer from Nebraska. Courtney was being sent by Brookside Church in Omaha. Brookside Church has been partnering with Adventures In Missions for over 30 years to disciple their youth.

John Alford, the youth pastor who began that partnership in 1991, was thrilled to know that Brookside was still partnering with Adventures. Although he has moved on, he continues to focus on missions as a pastor at Journey Church in San Diego.

Cal and Courtney shared so much in common. He felt himself falling for her. They began to dream about a future together. They wondered what it would be like to share the love of Christ with those who had never experienced it.

Eventually Cal knew the time had come – he popped the question he’d been longing to ask, “Will you marry me, Courtney.”

Courtney was thrilled to say “yes!” Soon they were beginning to explore God’s direction as missionaries together.

After getting married, God pointed them toward the DR where they could learn from a missionary couple, Miguel & Kristen Shaul. The Shauls and their Dominican team have committed to plant churches in every village in the DR that didn’t have one. They’ve made great progress going into the poorest villages and developing relationships.

The Shaul’s ministry was compelling enough, but when they learned who Miguel’s original youth pastor and church was, it sealed the deal. It was John Alford from Courtney’s home church, Brookside!

Cal and Courtney are already mapping out their plans for what comes next. Cal shares that, “After the DR, we plan to move to Medellin, Colombia to work with a Colombian Pastor taking the church-planting model we learn from the Dominican Tierra Prometida team and applying it to the rural, dairy-farming areas in the mountains surrounding Medellin.”

Brookside Church in Omaha has been raising up world changers for decades. Looking at Courtney’s example, you see that the model still works.