our testimonies
Galen:
I was born into a wonderful Christian family. My father, V. L. Hertweck, was a successful pastor and District official with the Assemblies of God. He had been an A/G pastor for 18 years when I was born, and for a while as a child I lived on the same block at the Assemblies of God USA Headquarters in Springfield, MO, so I have Assemblies of God blood flowing in my veins! My mother, Erma Hertweck, was a saint. I am thankful for my rich Christian heritage.
But it was when I was a junior at Southern California College (now Vanguard University) that I took a course from a young professor named Dr. Gordon Fee, and my life was transformed. In that course I discovered grace. And, even though I was already a Christian, that discovery made a huge difference in my life.
I met a young lady there named Brontë McGuire, and we were married. I went to Fuller Theological Seminary and got my Master of Divinity degree before spending 3½ years as my father’s Associate Pastor in Costa Mesa, CA. There we had two children, John and Jill. While there I taught my first college course, Introductory Theology, at Southern California College. Then I returned to Fuller to work on my Doctor of Ministry degree. After I graduated we moved to Springfield, MO, where I worked on the pastoral staff at Evangel Temple. Some time later I became pastor of King’s Chapel in Springfield where I served for almost 14 years. I then pastored in Lake Forest, CA, for almost six years.
In my younger life I never felt a call to missions. It was in the 1980’s that I first taught at a foreign Bible college, and it was a wonderful experience. A few months later I taught a course in Singapore, and it was another wonderful experience. Later I taught a course at Asia Pacific Theological Seminary (APTS) in Baguio City, Philippines, and again I could feel God’s blessing upon it, and I felt that God was perhaps calling me to do missions teaching full-time. At that time it was not God’s timing, but I never got away from that feeling. In the late 1990’s Brontë and I met with the leadership of the Division of Foreign Missions Asia Pacific Region about the possibility of teaching. The plan that we came up with was that I would teach a course at APTS, and we would try to confirm our call in that way. But two months later we discovered that Brontë had cancer, and she passed away in less than five months. I pursued what God had laid on our hearts, and the Assemblies of God accepted me as a missionary. The next year I met Dickie Riley, and we fell in love. Six months later we were married, and the rest is history.
I was born into a wonderful Christian family. My father, V. L. Hertweck, was a successful pastor and District official with the Assemblies of God. He had been an A/G pastor for 18 years when I was born, and for a while as a child I lived on the same block at the Assemblies of God USA Headquarters in Springfield, MO, so I have Assemblies of God blood flowing in my veins! My mother, Erma Hertweck, was a saint. I am thankful for my rich Christian heritage.
But it was when I was a junior at Southern California College (now Vanguard University) that I took a course from a young professor named Dr. Gordon Fee, and my life was transformed. In that course I discovered grace. And, even though I was already a Christian, that discovery made a huge difference in my life.
I met a young lady there named Brontë McGuire, and we were married. I went to Fuller Theological Seminary and got my Master of Divinity degree before spending 3½ years as my father’s Associate Pastor in Costa Mesa, CA. There we had two children, John and Jill. While there I taught my first college course, Introductory Theology, at Southern California College. Then I returned to Fuller to work on my Doctor of Ministry degree. After I graduated we moved to Springfield, MO, where I worked on the pastoral staff at Evangel Temple. Some time later I became pastor of King’s Chapel in Springfield where I served for almost 14 years. I then pastored in Lake Forest, CA, for almost six years.
In my younger life I never felt a call to missions. It was in the 1980’s that I first taught at a foreign Bible college, and it was a wonderful experience. A few months later I taught a course in Singapore, and it was another wonderful experience. Later I taught a course at Asia Pacific Theological Seminary (APTS) in Baguio City, Philippines, and again I could feel God’s blessing upon it, and I felt that God was perhaps calling me to do missions teaching full-time. At that time it was not God’s timing, but I never got away from that feeling. In the late 1990’s Brontë and I met with the leadership of the Division of Foreign Missions Asia Pacific Region about the possibility of teaching. The plan that we came up with was that I would teach a course at APTS, and we would try to confirm our call in that way. But two months later we discovered that Brontë had cancer, and she passed away in less than five months. I pursued what God had laid on our hearts, and the Assemblies of God accepted me as a missionary. The next year I met Dickie Riley, and we fell in love. Six months later we were married, and the rest is history.