Looking back, I'm amazed at how richly Armstead Herndon's life intersected with the missions programs while he was a student at Beeson. The godly and unassuming older gentleman with the infectious laugh walked into my office in spring 2016 to talk about the missions certificate. I didn’t want to disrespect him by acting surprised he was signing up, so at first I just answered his questions. But in fact, I was surprised and pleasantly so. He was no spring chicken, mind you, and yet he was making plans for a six-week trip to West Africa and a future in missions. Eventually, I paused to ask him how God led him to this place.
Armstead, MDiv ’19, told me it started while he was overseas, before retiring from the military. God had placed in him a love and burden for people from other cultures. The calling grew more intense while at Beeson. A regular attendee of Global Voices lectures, Armstead heard from Dennis Aggrey, MDiv ’99 and his wife, Vania, about their work in Liberia and then had dinner with them to learn more. Before the evening was over, Armstead was already convinced he would spend six weeks with the Aggreys. Since that time frame met our cross-cultural ministry practicum requirements for the missions certificate, he decided to go all in. He has now been to Liberia at least four times.
Armstead served his supervised ministry practicum with me at Shades Mountain Baptist Church here in Birmingham, helping to teach English and the Bible to internationals, mostly from Asia. He worked with Milt and Anne Chamberlain, whose decades-long ministry inspired a donor to establish the Chamberlain Scholarship for missions students at Beeson. The Chamberlains loved Armstead—his easygoing nature and joyful spirit attract people to him. I wasn’t surprised when he continued to serve at the church long after his official practicum ended.
After Armstead and a few other Beeson students attended the annual National African American Missions Conference in 2018, he said, "I didn't know there were that many African Americans involved in missions." Since graduation, he's had the opportunity to teach missions and has even become an officially certified teacher in the globally recognized Perspectives USA courses. He especially loves teaching the history of African Americans and missions.
Today, Armstead is better known as Dean Herndon to his students at Birmingham-Easonian Baptist Bible College where he serves as academic dean. Alongside the college’s president, Wilson Fallin Jr., he helped start their first annual missions conference last year. For Armstead’s students, it was inspiring to see someone who looked like them serving so passionately in a place so far away.
What a joy it’s been to watch people from Beeson impact Armstead, and for him, in turn, to be a blessing to them and to the nations.