North Texas church discovers its mission through Indian student

CELINA—A chance encounter on a seminary campus led a North Texas church to focus its mission efforts on India.

Jeff Carter, youth minister at Bethel Baptist Church in Celina, had trouble finding his class at Dallas Theological Seminary and asked another student for directions. He didn’t realize Godwin Simpkins was fresh off the plane from India.

Godwin Simpkins preaches the gospel to people in India. Bethel Baptist Church in Celina has provided prayer and financial support that enabled Simpkins to make two preaching trips to India, and the church has given him a monthly stipend while he attends Dallas Theological Seminary.(PHOTO/Courtesy of Godwin Simpkins)

“I asked a guy from India, who had no idea where Dallas was, how to get to class,” Carter recalled with a grin.

But that brief interaction led to a friendship between the two men and a relationship between Carter’s church and Simpkins’ outreach to his homeland. Bethel Baptist has funded two mission trips to India for Simpkins to preach to a portion of the millions of Hindus who live there.

Most recently, he preached at four open-air rallies when many made professions of faith in Christ, he reported.

On the first night of the preaching, a rich landowner’s bodyguards “thrashed the crowd,” Simpkins reported.

“I fled. I was so weak in that moment, I fled for my life. Luckily, I was on the stage, so they couldn’t get to me,” he said.

The next day, while he and other organizers prayed, Simpkins said, he was called to the hospital. He thought it was one of the worshippers from the night before, but it was the man who had commanded the beatings. A tree had fallen and broken his legs.

The injured man told Simpkins he now recognized the power of Christ, and wanted to give four acres of land for God’s work. Simpkins hopes to see a Christian school built on that land.

“Education is the way to spread the gospel in India,” he explained. “Education is a platform for missions. Education is a huge need and a huge attraction.”

As Simpkins has shared stories of persecution in India, Bethel Baptist has been moved to action, Carter said.

Godwin Simpkins baptizes a new Christian during a visit to his homeland in India. Bethel Baptist Church in Celina has helped Simpkins by providing him a monthly stipend while he is at Dallas Theological Seminary and by funding two trips to India, where he has preached to large crowds and has reported numerous professions of faith in Christ. (PHOTO/Courtesy of Godwin Simpkins)

“Bethel has been changed through exposure to his relaying these stories of persecution,” he said. “What he has told us has struck a chord in so many people’s hearts.”

The church also has helped Simpkins with a monthly stipend while he is studying at the seminary, Carter said, noting the deacons recommended a much larger amount than he requested.

“Unheard of, especially given the size of our church and its budget,” Carter said. “We don’t have that in the budget, but people began to give sacrificially to the India missions fund.”

Carter wrote about Simpkins to several area pastors, and two responded. As a result, Simpkins has preached at First Baptist Church in Tom Bean and First Baptist Church in Whitewright. Those congregations also helped support his latest trip to India.

“They both had been praying for something to do in missions,” Carter said.

As youth minister, Carter particularly appreciates the change he has seen in students at his church. While Simpkins is on his trips to India, his calendar is split up among various volunteers who make sure he is prayed for constantly.

He recalled one group who gathered for prayer in the wee hours of the morning because they realized with the time difference between Texas and India, that was when Simpkins would be ministering.

“Godwin needed the prayer, and we needed the practice,” Carter said. “And when he returned and gave his report, many of the things he told us correlated perfectly with when we were praying.”

Knowing Simpkins has made the youth group at Bethel Baptist more attuned to importance of missions, he continued. On a recent Wednesday night, he asked who would go to India to minister if they had the opportunity, and 15 of the 18 present raised their hands.

“That gives you an idea of how God has used the exposure and experience of a missionary like Godwin among us,” Carter said.

They have also put feet to their prayers. After talking about how far some people walked to get to the meetings, the youth group decided to gather at 6 a.m. and walk five miles to church. As they walked and prayed, they focused on the theme: “Still praying, still walking, still believing, because God is still saving.”

That experience illustrated an overall greater awareness of missions throughout the church body, he continued.

“It’s had a uniting effect for our church,” Carter said, “because we now have a mission.”