Minneapolis couple Jamison and Kathryne Pals were planning to move their family of five to Nagoya, Japan in the hopes of becoming missionaries, but their dream to spread God's Word never materialised after they were tragically killed in a car crash just before noon on Sunday.

Jamison and Kathryne, together with their three children—Ezra, 3, Violet, 1, and 2-month-old Calvin—died on Interstate 80 in western Nebraska, according to The Daily Mail.

They were travelling from their home in Saint Paul going to Palmer Lake, Colorado for a five-week session on language learning that would prepare them for their ministry at the Christ Bible Institute in Nagoya, Japan.

But four miles from Brule, they were hit by a semi-trailer and their vehicle was forced along the path of three passing vehicles.

The driver who crashed into them, Tony A. Weekly from Florida, was arrested on charges of vehicular homicide. He was reportedly "inattentive and distracted by outside influences" when he rammed into the Pals' minivan "at a high rate of speed," a Nebraska State Patrol said, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

Dennis Vogan, vice president of personnel development of the ministry organisation WorldVenture, was devastated by the Pals family's deaths.

"The Palses fit perfectly within our organisation," Vogan said. The missionaries in Japan "were thrilled and looking so forward to their coming," he said.

Andy Carr, vice president for the Christian non-profit organisation Feed My Starving Children based in Eagan, Minnesota, called the couple "amazing people" and good friends.

"They were the most humble and selfless people that you could ever meet," he said. "In today's world where it's so much about me, me, me, it was never about them. It was always about others."

Jamison's father Rick Pals hopes his son's legacy will continue to live on as he planned on building a foundation that will continue the missionary work the Pals' envisioned for themselves. A GoFundMe website was created—www.gofundme.com/joyofjapan—to serve that purpose. So far, $17,000 has been raised out of a $20,000 goal.

"The generosity has been wonderful," Rick Pals said. "Those donations and prayer are really what people can do to help us right now."