Nicole Parks had already said yes before she knew what she was saying yes to.
That’s the thread running through this conversation on the SO THAT Missions Podcast — a thread that connects Nicole’s journey from mobilizer to VP at Cafe 1040, Brittany’s own story of showing up to Perspectives class with a fading business and a burning heart, and the 70% of Cafe 1040 graduates who come back from the field with their yes on the table.
Most people, Nicole says, ask God for clarity before they’re willing to commit. But when the yes is real, the path tends to get clearer.
What Cafe 1040 Actually Does
Cafe 1040 isn’t a sending agency. It’s not a training program in the traditional sense either. For 25 years, it’s been doing something more specific: helping young adults ages 18–29 gain the clarity and confidence to pursue long-term missions among unreached people groups.
The centerpiece is a three-month overseas mentorship program — three months of pre-field preparation, three months on the ground paired with a long-term missionary in a closed-access country, and three months of post-field coaching. The long-term missionaries on the field don’t just host students; they shift their entire focus to them. It’s structured, intentional, and remarkably effective.
Seventy percent of Cafe 1040 graduates return with their yes on the table.
The organization targets the 18–29 window not because older adults can’t go, but because that season is uniquely mobile — often no mortgage, no spouse, no kids — and research shows that most long-term field missionaries felt called by age 14. The window between that early call and actual deployment is where clarity and confidence either form or get buried under the American Dream.
The American Dream Problem
Nicole once wrote a blog post called “The American Dream Is a Lie.” She says it’s not that the dream is inherently wrong — it’s that it keeps people chasing something that was never meant to satisfy, and in doing so, it quietly crowds out the purpose God put them here for.
That purpose, she says, is the same for everyone: glorify God and advance his name throughout the nations. The Great Commission isn’t a specialized calling for a small subset of Christians. It’s not even just one verse in Matthew. Paul calls the Abrahamic covenant — the foundational thread running from Genesis 1 through Revelation — the Gospel itself (Galatians 3:8). The Great Commission is the whole Bible.
Perspectives, the 15-week course on the biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic dimensions of God’s global purposes, is what helped both Nicole and Brittany see that clearly for the first time.
Brittany’s Story
Brittany showed up to Perspectives week two with a successful business she was losing passion for, an Acts 20:24 life verse she’d memorized but couldn’t figure out how to live, and a quiet sense that something was shifting.
“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work of telling others the good news about the wonderful grace of God.”
By week three she was praying: God, whatever you put in front of me, my answer is yes. By week seven, Nicole walked in to teach lesson seven. By the end of the year, Brittany had been to Malawi, left club volleyball behind, and applied to join Cafe 1040’s stateside mentor team — the same role Nicole had held years earlier.
That’s what a real yes looks like.
Raising Global Christians
For parents wondering how to raise kids who care about the Great Commission without it feeling like a guilt trip or a recruitment pitch, Nicole offers something more practical than a curriculum: make it part of daily life.
Her family uses a VTech globe with a stylus pen — when a country comes up in conversation, they find it. When they cook Thai food, they find Thailand. When they find it, they look it up on the Joshua Project, a research tool tracking the least-reached people groups in the world. The goal isn’t a lesson. It’s a posture — curiosity about the world, and awareness of who still hasn’t heard.
Discipleship, she says, happens all day, not just around a breakfast table.
Your Role Doesn’t Require a Passport
The five habits of a global Christian: go, pray, give, welcome, mobilize.
Not everyone crosses the ocean. But everyone has a role. You can pray for unreached people groups by name. You can give to organizations sending others. You can welcome internationals in your community and in your church. You can encourage someone else to say yes.
The Great Commission was never just for the ones who pack a bag.
Nicole Parks is Vice President of Mobilization and Strategic Relationships at Cafe 1040. Her books — For God So Loved and Chosen — are available on Amazon. Follow her at @nicoleParksWrites on Instagram. Learn more about Cafe 1040 at cafe1040.com.
Listen to the full conversation on the SO THAT Missions Podcast, Episode 85, Part 2: available below, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.
Go, Pray, Give, Welcome
These stories are one expression of what it looks like to take the Great Commission seriously — not just as a concept, but as a way of living. At FBC Boerne, we believe every follower of Christ is called to play a part: to go, to pray, to give, to welcome those who’ve been brought close. Faith is doing all of it.
If her story is stirring something in you — questions, curiosity, maybe even a little fear — that might be worth paying attention to.
Interested in learning more about missions at FBC Boerne? Visit fbcboerne.org/missions to learn about upcoming trips and the Perspectives class.
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If this conversation stirred your heart for the nations, share it with a friend, your small group, or someone exploring global missions. Let’s pray and move together — so that the world would know Him.
