Experiences That Reorder Everything: Brant Hanson & Sherri Lynn

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Experiences That Reorder Everything

Guests:Brant Hansen and Sherri Lynn

From the series:Real Relationships Get Messy: The Unexpected Gift of Honest Friends (Day 2 of 2)

Air date:July 14, 2026

Sherri (00:04):

I remember walking out of that room and starting to walk down a walkway. I did a video with my nieces, and I said, “I can’t remember what I used to complain about in America.” Any fear, anxiety that I had seemed ridiculous just in that moment. I thought “This is a place where Jesus is tangible. I can see Him.”

Dave (00:31):

Welcome to FamilyLife Today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I’m Dave Wilson.

Ann (00:37):

And I’m Ann Wilson and you can find us at FamilyLifeToday.com. This is FamilyLife Today.

Dave (00:50):

As I think back as a dad, one of the best things that we did was take our boys on mission trips.

Ann (00:55):

I agree. I feel like it was life-changing for us, and it was also life-changing for them, because it gave them a global perspective of what God was doing.

Dave (01:05):

Yeah, that was our hope. It’s like, man, we got to get our kids and ourselves to see the world. And when you come back, I’m not kidding. I remember going to the bush in Africa. Scary, very scary.

Ann:

In Kenya.

Dave:

—in Kenya. And then coming home and sitting in my master bedroom and then remember looking over at my master bath and going, “I used to complain that the master bath that’s few feet from my bed is not big enough, when I spent the week with people in a hut, whose kitchen bathroom, everything is within three feet.” I’m like—

Ann (01:38):

I remember when we took another son to South Africa.

Dave (01:40):

Why are you laughing? You’re laughing.

Ann (01:41):

No, I’m laughing because remember when we took him to South Africa and then we’re in this mountain chalet, this little chalet with these animals on this prairie and we’re standing on this balcony and our 11-year-old says, “We don’t have TV this week? What are we going to do without video games?” And it was the best week of his life.

Dave (02:04):

Yeah. So the reason we brought that up was we’ve got Brant Hansen and Sherri Lynn in the studio with us. Why don’t we talk about a mission trip that you guys had an experience on. Welcome back to FamilyLife Today.

Sherri (02:14):

Thank you.

Dave (02:15):

I don’t know all the details of your trip, but you guys host a radio show that syndicated all around the country called The Brant Hansen Show, which is really The Sherri Lynn Show but—

Ann (02:25):

Sherri’s the producer.

Sherri:

Oh, come on guys.

Ann:

And then you do a podcast together called

Brant and Sherri:

Brant and Sherri Oddcast.

Dave and Ann:

Oddcast.

Dave (02:33):

And it’s great.

Ann:

It’s so good.

Dave:

We love listening to it.

Sherri:

Thank you.

Dave:

But one of the things we haven’t talked about even this week with Brant, and Sherri was here just yesterday, is Cure International, and that’s a big part of your heart.

Brant (02:46):

It is. Well, so what happened, I was emceeing a concert which is I’m the worst emcee of all time.

Ann (02:54):

Oh no, I am. So bad. I bet you are way better than I am.

Brant (02:58):

No.

Sherri (02:59):

Do you have a moment to tell a story to show her just how horrible you are?

Brant (03:03):

I would tell you the worst.

Ann (03:03):

Yes. Tell me. It’ll make me feel better.

Brant (03:05):

This wasn’t my fault.

Dave (03:06):

Of course it wasn’t.

Brant (03:07):

This actually happened. I was an emcee for a Toby Mac show in Miami.

Ann:

Oh, that’s big time.

Brant:

Yeah, it’s outside amphitheater, like the grass.

Ann (03:15):

We’ve been to those.

Brant (03:15):

Thousands of people, yeah.

Dave (03:16):

You don’t want me to get the guitar and do some Toby, do you?

Brant (03:18):

No, don’t do it right now.

Ann (03:19):

But there’s a lot of energy going on.

Brant (03:21):

There’s a lot of energy. Then there’s the parking lot behind the band show, right? Well, I get up there to introduce to everybody. They’re like, “Go ahead and introduce him.” I’m like, “Okay, everybody, please give a big Miami welcome to Toby Mac.” And the crowd goes wild. He did not come out.

Ann (03:36):

Oh no.

Brant (03:37):

I was backstage. I’m like, “What’s going on?” They’re like, “Well, we’ve miscommunication. We’re sorry.” They’re on these radios like, okay, Toby. He’s just getting another donut. Okay, well let’s get him out here. Okay. Go, go ahead, go ahead. So I go back out a second time. I feel sheepish. I’m like, “Hey, I don’t know what happened, but let’s do it up real this time. Put your hands together—Toby Mac!” And he did not come out again.

Ann:

No.

Brant:

It wasn’t his fault.

Ann (04:00):

But it’s not your fault either.

Brant (04:01):

It wasn’t my fault either, but the crowd doesn’t know that.

Sherri (04:04):

They’re blaming you.

Brant (04:05):

So I’m sheepish, back and backstage.

Ann (04:07):

Did they boo you the third time?

Brant (04:09):

Well, no, they were just silent. And they were like, “No, seriously, we’re sorry.” The promoter. So he sent me out a third time and I was like, “I’m really sorry. The crowd was not responding to me at this point.” I was like, “Give it up for Toby Mac.” He did not come out again.

Dave (04:26):

What?!

Brant (04:27):

So what the crowd saw was me walk off that stage, grab my keys, and they saw me walk into the parking lot, and I drove off.

Sherri (04:37):

And they could see it all because—

Ann:

The parking lot is right there.

Sherri:

—the parking lot is right there.

Brant (04:41):

It’s like, I’m not doing this again.

Sherri (04:43):

There goes our emcee.

Dave:

You better get somebody else.

Brant (04:47):

So it still makes me hurt to think about that.

Ann (04:50):

That doesn’t mean you’re bad at it.

Brant (04:51):

No, that wasn’t my fault but anyway.

Dave (04:53):

Did he ever show up? Did you ever know?

Brant (04:55):

I presume he did.

Ann (04:56):

But you were scarred. You’re scarred.

Brant (04:58):

Well, that really hurts. Thanks for giving me a safe place to talk about all this.

Dave (05:02):

That has something to do with Cure International?

Brant (05:05):

Well, okay, yes. So I was emceeing another show and they said, “Hey, can you say something about Cure International?” I’m like, “What’s Cure?” Like they wanted me to give an announcement off the stage and text to give or something. And they said, “Well, you know how kids have disabilities they can be born with or they have something happen to them, in this country it’s just taken care of. Well, there’s millions of kids that have correctable disabilities around the world, so we just decided we’re going to heal them in the name of Jesus and tell them and their families about Jesus. So we started these hospitals.” It was an orthopedic surgeon that did it and I was like, “Really? How come I’ve never heard about this before?” And they said, “Well, we’re kind of busy. We don’t have a big PR department. We’re doctors. We’re doing surgeries.” So I said, “Can I visit?” They said, “Sure.

(05:55):

We’re planning to build a hospital in the Holy Land here pretty soon. You can come to it.” I thought that was cool. Then they changed it up. That hospital didn’t happen. “Would you come to our hospital in Afghanistan?”

Ann (06:04):

Wow.

Brant (06:05):

And my wife and I had to sort through that, but eventually I did. I went back three times to this hospital and it’s remarkable. So what Cure does is orthopedic surgery so kids can walk. They’re 15 years old; they can’t walk. Now they can thanks to Jesus. They get up and walk. They’re told they’re cursed and that’s why they have a disability. And the mom is always blamed. This is worldwide. Mom is blamed. “You must have done something immoral and that’s why your daughter can’t walk.”

Ann (06:34):

And then family members won’t even want to marry into that family because of the curse.

Brant (06:40):

Usually dad walks off because he’s like, “I didn’t do this. You’re cursed. This kid’s cursed. I’m not going to be saddled with this.” Because the child thinks they’re a curse. Well, they walk through the door at Cure. People have been running away screaming because they don’t want to get the curse on them. Again, this is a worldwide phenomenon. I’d had no idea. When they walk through the door at Cure, the staff is instructed to run towards them, grab that baby, say, “Oh, what a beautiful girl.” They’ve never heard that before. Never. We do these surgeries for free. They can’t believe that. They will come from hundreds of miles around. People don’t talk about that, but I was so drawn to it because I was like, “That sounds like Jesus to me.” It’s just one Cure hospital. There’s a waiting list. This is the one in Ethiopia.

(07:24):

We have a waiting list of 5,000 families with kids with disabilities just waiting to get surgeries.

Dave:

Wow!

Brant:

That’s at one. And it’s just a matter of funding it. So what I try to do is I use my radio platform and my books and whatnot to tell people about CURE. And we’ve seen some surgeons come on board who’ve learned about it from the show or people that go be nurses or to train people. But I’ve been to a lot of the hospitals now, but Sherri just took her first trip to Niger, which is a very tough West African nation to be in for your first foray. It’s 99% Muslim. And we’re there healing their kids in the name of Jesus and telling people about the gospel and they let us do it because we’re healing their kids.

Ann (08:08):

Brant, is it dangerous for you guys to travel into these? I mean, Afghanistan—

Brant (08:12):

It can be, yeah. In fact, Afghanistan—yeah. The guy I stayed with, Dr. Jerry Umanos out of Chicago, hilarious. You would’ve loved this guy. After I’d left one year, he was shot and killed in the parking lot at Cure by one of the guys who was supposed to be doing security, and he killed another doctor.

Sherri:

That was in Afghanistan.

Brant:

Yeah, in Afghanistan. Yeah. So it is dangerous.

Ann (08:38):

Yeah. So Sherri, Brant’s like, “Hey, you should come.”

Brant (08:41):

Well, it’s a different environment.

Sherri (08:44):

Yeah, but he still was like, “Just go.” I was always fearful of international travel. And so in our job people will say, “Hey, come see this mission, come see that mission.” And one time someone said that to us—I don’t know what mission it was and they said, “It’s Peru. We’re going to go and you have to go.” And I said, “I don’t have a passport.” And they were like, “Oh, okay. Well, we’ll get so-and-so to go.” And that became my thing.

Ann (09:09):

That was your excuse?

Sherri (09:10):

Yes. “I don’t have a passport. I just don’t have a passport.” So I actually didn’t.

Ann:

Yeah.

Sherri:

And for this trip, Brant was like, “Just go. It’s life changing. Just go.” But the fear was, the anxiety—I mean, if you travel like you guys have, Brant has. He was so sweet towards me because—and he said to me, “I don’t quite get what you’re going through, but just keep taking each step.” Because the fear was debilitating to me, but I was determined to do it. Because we had raised money for Cure for how long?”

Brant (09:41):

Yeah, a long time.

Sherri (09:42):

Yeah.

Brant (09:43):

I wanted her to see; it’s an embassy of the kingdom of God. I can’t describe it. I know her passion for the kingdom of God but actually seeing this place of healing and joy where people who feel cursed are told “You’re not cursed. God loves you. He draws close to the broken-hearted. He knows your tears, mom. He sees your daughter, and now she’s going to dance.” I wanted Sherri to see it. I want everybody to see that, but especially somebody I’m working with every day and we’re talking about this. I’m like, “This is the best expression of Jesus I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Ann (10:14):

Sherri, what were you afraid of?

Sherri (10:16):

I don’t know. It was the unknown. It was the unknown, and I didn’t know what to expect, and it just continued to overtake me. But when I got there and I felt the joy of that place, the kids dancing. There’s a story we told about three sisters who had brittle bone disease, and so they were constantly breaking their bones and couldn’t walk. We had told that story for so long. We had made a video about it. I talked about it on the radio and everything, not really putting together that it was this hospital. So the one day I’m in the ward and we’re praying for the kids who are going to get surgery and they said, “Hey, on the other side is where rehab happens and all that.” And as I walk around the corner, I see one of the sisters walking towards me.

(11:04):

They couldn’t walk before and I was like, “Is that one of the sisters?” And they said, “Yeah.” And then the other one came around walking and to me it was such like a Jesus biblical moment. We had talked about these sisters; we had talked about healing. That’s what that trip meant to me is that I believe so much in the mission, but when I felt it and saw these little girls—and I didn’t want to be the big blubbering lady from America—I just felt like I was crying all the time. I’m not a crier. I felt like I was crying all the time.

Brant (11:35):

That’s what happens.

Dave (11:36):

Was it tears of joy?

Sherri (11:37):

It was tears of joy. It was tears of “God, I can’t believe You let me intersect with this. God, these lives are changing.” Healing is forever. They’re learning about Jesus too. So their lives are changing in that way. It’s everything I talk about, but I saw it and it’s real. It’s tangible here now.

Brant (11:59):

We use this language to describe it. It’s an advanced trailer of Heaven.

Dave (12:03):

Wow. What a great, great—

Brant (12:06):

It is. That’s what healing is. So this is why when Jesus is doing these miracles, He’s not doing random stuff and like 70-some percent are healing. He’s showing us the Kingdom is here, where the lame will leap like deer, and the death will hear, and eyes will be opened. Like this is an advanced look. That’s what healing is showing us, right? So we get to see a glimpse of it. But I think when we see the kingdom of God in action, even people who aren’t believers, the reaction to it is goosebumps or crying.

Sherri (12:32):

Yeah.

Brant (12:33):

Because you recognize something’s deeply right, almost you’re nostalgic for Heaven, even though you haven’t been there yet, but you recognize “That’s my home.” So when you see these—and it happens every day. The Cure did like 20-some thousand surgeries last year.

Dave:

Really.

Sherri (12:47):

Tell them you cry too.

Brant (12:49):

I cry.

Ann (12:51):

Who wouldn’t.

Brant (12:52):

I don’t because I’m a total rock, but I can see where a weaker person could. No, just being in the OR.

Ann (13:01):

Oh, you’ve been in an OR.

Brant (13:03):

Oh yeah. You stand there, and they pray over the kids. It’s just you got a child who’s been nothing but mocked—maybe eight years old, maybe four, maybe 14, maybe 18—lying on the table asleep and their life is about to be changed. They’re going to finally have their legs straightened or something. The surgeons pray over them with the techs, and so you’re all praying for this child, and then they go about their medical business of healing. Oftentimes they’ll listen to worship music in there. I was in there for one neurosurgery on a baby in Uganda—no, this was in Zambia at the time—and the surgeon is singing along with worship music as he’s finishing up brain surgery. That’s the best worship service I’ve ever been to. If people associated the church with that, they’d have a pretty good idea of what Jesus is like.

(13:54):

It’d be pretty tough to walk away from that. When people are writing their manifestos about “why I’m leaving the faith” or something, and I’m like, “Yeah, but you should come to Cure. You should see that.”

Ann (14:06):

We had one of our sons, I think he’s in his 20s. He went to Egypt with a ministry over there and the same thing was happening where he met this family. They would have a party for the disabled.

Brant (14:19):

Perfect.

Ann (14:20):

He was sharing about a mom talking about—it makes me teary—the dad left, and they had a son that had Downs and they kept him in the backyard with a leash on his neck like a dog, and he was chained in his backyard. The mom was ostracized. No one came to, no one talked to them because they were cursed. And so she heard about the party. She didn’t know it was a Christian. She didn’t know. She just thought they want to have a party for my child. She’s all alone. And so she takes her son and the same thing. They run, they laugh, they’re like, “This is your son? What a joy and a delight to meet him. Oh, it’s such a privilege to get to meet you.” And the mom is like, “Where am I right now?” They put hands on him, they pray, they delight in him, they help meet needs.

(15:16):

Our son came back like, “What just happened?”

Brant (15:19):

He saw the Kingdom in action is what happened. Where the first are last, and the last are first, and these people become VIPs. And you can also find out, too, which is striking in Niger or wherever. I mean, people will come from a thousand miles away. They will spend their life savings on a one-way bus ticket to get their kid to that hospital. And then you can think, “That’s just like how they got to Jesus. They would come from everywhere.”

Ann (15:41):

They’d open a hole in the ceiling.

Brant (15:44):

Right. And He honored that desperation.

(15:46):

But to me, it’s like healing’s not just another thing. We have all these things and, oh, there’s some good stuff here and some—yeah, it’s another good thing. No, no, no. This is Jesus sent out His disciples to heal the sick and proclaim the Kingdom. In Luke 9:2 that’s what it says. The idea to me is really encouraging at Cure, as a believer, because it’s not just the surgeries where you kind of hope that they know that God loves them. Maybe they’ll ask. No, no, it is intentionally telling them and their families about the Kingdom of God and explaining the gospel to the kids and the parents. So everybody who comes through Cure’s doors gets to hear about a God who loves them, gets to hear about Jesus, and gets healed. They don’t have to become Christians, but something like 20-some thousand did last year in the Cure hospitals.

Dave (16:32):

Really?

Brant:

Because we explain the gospel and we’re healing their kids. They’re told by faith healers in their communities like, “You did something wrong. Your ancestors are upset at you,” and then they’ll have to give them all their money, and it doesn’t work. And then they come to these strange Jesus people, and they’re loved like never before. “It’s not your fault. It costs zero, and now look, your boy can run.” To me, there’s nothing else like that.

(16:57):

Like your story from Egypt, there’s one boy, just very common, he’s running on all fours, 15 years old and they called him “the baboon” in his own family because of his own bone issues. And he had someone find him on a mobile clinic from Cure in this remote village where they brought him in with a distant relative. He could not understand why people were talking to him. People are joyful and happy with me. They’re smiling at him. He didn’t know how to relate to that. Well, he’s now upright. And I saw the video not that long ago. He’s on the therapy bars. He’s standing up beaming. It’s one thing to heal somebody, but to also say—his name’s Adam—“You’re not the baboon. God knows who you are. You have a name.” Seeing that, and coming from a background of religious stuff, where I’m like, “What in the world’s going on here?” I needed to see Jesus at work, and this is the best example I’ve ever seen.

Ann (18:04):

As a mom, have you ever lost your temper and thought, “Wow, how did that escalate so fast?” Because mom anger usually isn’t just about the spilled milk or sibling arguments, and that gets you angry, but there’s often something deeper going on.

Dave (18:21):

We have been there and guess what? We’ve got a five session video series from author and mom of four, Janelle Breitenstein. And let me tell you, she gets real. She gets real about her life and her anger and her own struggles with anger and what God has taught her through them. And let me tell you, you’re going to discover practical tools, biblical encouragement, and you’ll get insight into the fears and triggers fueling your reactions.

Ann (18:44):

It’s so good. So you can sign up today at FamilyLife.com/MomAnger. Again, that’s FamilyLife.com/MomAnger.

Sherri, you’ve got some nieces that you’re really close to.

Sherri (19:04):

Yeah.

Ann (19:04):

Did that make you want to allow those people that you love in your family to even see these kinds of things?

Sherri (19:11):

I did. I made videos for them every day and I sent it back to them. And so they would watch them and then they would respond, and then I would do another video. I’d just go around. They had this beautiful mural of animals painted for the playground, but all the animals have a little disability. The little giraffe has a little crutch or something and I thought, “Yeah, I want them to see this. I want them to understand it.” So I did do videos for them. It’s so funny because someone at Cure was doing a story and was asking me about what I went through and everything, and they were going to do a story about it. They said, “Do you have any pictures of you with the kids and everything?” And I said, “Sure, let me get back.” And I have so many pictures, so many videos, none of me.

(19:57):

And the lady said, “You were so caught up with—” And I was with everything I was seeing, all the kids. I just have pictures of kids and kids dancing. At one point there was a little party there. Some of them hadn’t had their surgery yet, so they’re in their wheelchair dancing and everything. And it was such a joyful party. I remember walking out of that room and starting to walk down a walkway. I did a video with my nieces and I said, “I can’t remember what I used to complain about in America.” I don’t know what I was complaining about. Whatever that was, that was those kids and the reason why that joy is there because this place has given them a place of beauty that looks like Jesus.

Brant:

Right.

Ann:

Hope.

Sherri:

And yes, hope and joy and it was breathtaking. Any fear, anxiety that I had seemed ridiculous just in that moment. I thought “This is a place where Jesus is tangible.

(20:52):

I can see Him in their faces.”

Dave (20:54):

When they get healed, is there a community after? Are there moms coming together? I mean, what happens after?

Brant (21:01):

Well, Cure tries to do an outreach with local churches in communities they’re in. Sometimes it’s really far away or something, but they still have developed networks for that. Each hospital has pastoral staff for that purpose so that they get integrated. They also get sent home with materials about Jesus, coloring books and things for the kids, Bibles and whatnot to continue that relationship. The impact though—there’s been situations, not exaggerating here. This will remind you of the New Testament, but somebody comes back into a village that they were like, “Your kids cursed because you did something wrong. The faith healer here that said that’s the case, couldn’t heal you. ” Kid comes walking back in and people are like, “Who did this? ” Well, this Jesus loves us. They told us there’s a God who loves us and so we became Christians and we’ve had entire villages get baptized as a result.

(21:56):

Because their thing didn’t work, but then they found healing through this. Well, what’s real? To me, it’s the sweetest thing. I even can understand Scripture better now because when they brought that blind guy to Jesus, they’re like, “Is it his fault or his parents?” Because that’s still going on. It’s like somebody did something wrong, that’s why this happened. And then His response was that this happens so that God could be glorified. So at these hospitals, being able to be involved with it, helping fund it or whatever, I get to be a part of glorifying God by taking these kids that couldn’t walk and now can run and dance and play. That’s pretty cool.

Ann (22:41):

That’s really cool.

Dave (22:42):

Now is there something our listeners could do?

Brant (22:45):

Oh yeah. If you’re a brain surgeon, please apply. Well, like cure.org, you can actually see the kids that are in the hospital, see their back story. You’re going to be blown away, but you can give to cover a surgery, you can give on a monthly basis. It’s a matter of funding. I’m happy to tell people that again, like having 5,000 people in the waiting list, just a matter of funding it.

Dave (23:08):

Now, can an average person do what Sherri did? Can they go, and see?

Brant (23:11):

Oh yeah. Yeah. And if you go to cure.org, you’ll see you can go. When people say, like when stuff happens, tragedy happens, people are like, “Where’s your God now?” I have an answer. Follow me in one of these hospitals, I’ll show you where He is. I will show you, because these are people that are the rejected of their own, not just poverty-stricken, rejected by their own families and communities locked away finding new life and hope and joy. It’s brightly lit, and it’s beautiful colors, and the people are wonderful. People don’t want to leave.

Ann (23:45):

I wish you guys were excited about this a little bit.

Brant (23:47):

You know what? Anybody that goes becomes a raving lunatic.

Sherri (23:50):

Yeah. I definitely thought that.

Dave (23:51):

I was just thinking where we started is I would say to a mom or dad, “Take your son, take your daughter who’s a teenager, and change their perspective on all of life, to one of these. Have the trip Sherri just had.”

Man, loved having Brant and Sherri on today. And again, Brant’s book is called The Truth About Us: The Very Good News About How Very Bad We Are.

Ann (24:16):

You can get your copy by clicking the link in the show notes at FamilyLifeToday.com.

Dave (24:22):

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Ann (24:34):

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Dave (24:45):

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