MISSION STATEMENT

The purpose of North India Missions is to evangelize the northern part of the sub-continent of India, leading men and women to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then assist in the start up of churches to teach and equip these to lead a solid spiritual life according to the Bible.

MISSION HISTORY

The vision of a mission to northern India to evangelize one of the darkest spots on earth was born in the fall of 1994 while I was at Texas Baptist Institute and Seminary in Henderson, Texas. It was the junior year of my Bachelor's degree. Late one evening, as I laid down on my bed, the Lord laid a heavy burden in my heart for the people of northern India. He pointed out how from first hand experience I was aware that the area desperately needed missionaries and that I was able to speak five of the languages spoken in the area. I can remember that growing up in Uttar Pradesh, I was 19 years old before I saw the first church building in  the big city of Bombay. By the Spring of 1995, I was confident the Lord had called me to be  a missionary to Northern India, and I spend the next year and a half preparing myself for the task. I continued in my study to receive my Master’s degree from Texas Baptist Seminary in 1996 knowing that once I was on the mission field I would not have the luxury of studying further or even calling on a fellow Christian for support.

   In the Spring of 1995, sponsored by Waterview Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas and then pastor Dr. Hoyt Chastain, my wife Elizabeth and I were able to make a survey of the mission field. After conducting a detailed survey over 6 weeks, I was led by the Lord to the city of Chandigarh that borders three states Haryana, Punjab and Himachel  Pradesh. After graduating in May 1996, I left for the mission field on August 10, 1996. The initial days were tough, as I began to preach the gospel one person at a time informing them of the good news. It was six months before we had our first Sunday worship service with nine people at my apartment. Through the earnest prayers of an army of Christian men and women back here in the United States, the Lord blessed the mission efforts tremendously.

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BIOGRAPHY

Bhrigunath R. Singh was born in 1946, in a small village in the eastern part of the state Uttar Pradesh in India. Born to orthodox Hindu parents, he was well versed in the deep truths of Hinduism. Finishing High School he joined college in the summer of 1963 and began his studies in Geography. He was interested in Engineering or another hard science, but being unable to afford high tuition for science degrees, he chose geography hoping to pave a way to oil exploration or some other exciting field. After completing his Bachelor’s degree in Geography and being unable to find a suitable job as he had hoped, and realizing his interest in people he decided to become an educator. This led him to pursue his Bachelors in Education. Finishing that, he decided to move westward to the big city of Bombay in search of better employment prospect. It was while making this trip to Bombay that he saw a church building for the very first time. Intrigued by the stark resemblance to pictures of churches he had seen in textbooks in his younger days, he didn’t think much of the ornate Catholic Church at that time.

In Bombay he began teaching Geography in schools and took up acting in commercial theatre during the evenings to supplement his higher cost of living in the big city. Theatre soon became very interesting to B. R.. Singh, so much that he decided to improve his language skills by pursuing a Master’s degree in Hindi (national language of India) and Sanskrit (the basic foundation language for all Indian/ south Asiatic languages.) He finished his Master’s degree from Bombay University in 1970 and began teaching Hindi at a high School in the fall of 1970. B. R. Singh met his wife Elizabeth "Sucy", a Biology teacher there and they were married on May 6^th, 1971 under Elizabeth’s strict wish that B. R.. embrace Christianity. When B. R.. Singh informed his family back at home about his plans, they promptly ostracized him. He has not been able to visit them since. On embracing Christianity, B. R. Singh was given the name John Singh as it was customary to give Christian converts a "Christian" name signifying their conversion.

With all things going well, John Singh, now began the Ph.D. Program for theatre at the University of Bombay. He was looking at an administrative position with the Government of India, Ministry of Interior and his theatre career looked promising with a few auditions for movies! In 1973, John and Sucy Singh were now expecting their first child. Since the pregnancy developed some complications and an American hospital in South India said they were equipped for such problems, urged by Sucy’s father George Wilson, the couple traveled to the city of Vellore (120 miles south west of Madras) in June 1973 for the brief delivery. Due to an error on part of the medical doctors at the hospital, the expected hospital stay of one week ended up being 9 months. John and Sucy were forced to resign their positions. Three years later in June 1976, they were blessed with their second child, Sarah.

After resigning their jobs in Bombay, the couple spent the next 9 years in the southern city of Coimbatore India holding various positions including Principal and Vice-President of many institutions. While serving as the Principal of one school in 1977, John was approached by an evangelical group in the city who were interested in starting a Sunday service in the suburban area were the school was located. Subscribing no particular religious fervor, neither Hinduism as he was converted out, nor the Christianity as proposed by the Anglican Bishop who officiated the conversion, John allowed them to use one of the class rooms each Sunday evening. The men would visit houses in the area each Sunday afternoon and invite people to attend the service at the school. One Sunday the crowd was rather large and to ensure the safety of the property John decided to go to the school during the meeting. He stood outside the classroom and listened to the speaker as he preached. The message was simple and short. It explained how to be saved. After the service he invited the men to the house for a cup of tea. There he welcomed them with a host of deep spiritual questions. Although the men weren’t educated to answer the deep spiritual questions, the simple gospel message they heralded worked its wonder and John knelt down that night and was saved. Immediately after that, unfortunately almost as if the Devil himself had vowed revenge, both the Singh and the Wilson families fell into hard financial times.

In March of 1983 the Singhs left for the tiny country of Qatar in the Arabian Gulf to take up positions as teachers in their respective disciplines for a large private school. A very unique and interesting experience began. Qatar, an Islamic country, basically outlawed any other religion. With life being a lot relaxed from the economic woes of the few years before and realizing the hand of God in their lives, John and Elizabeth were bent on worshipping the Lord anyway. They met a devout physician and his family who’s home served as the meeting place for about 40 believers who were like minded in their desire to worship God. John’s ability to speak several regional languages and his Master’s degree in Sanskrit quickly came to use in interpreting Worship messages that were primarily in English. Through the years following, John began to see a lot of things in the Bible he had seen earlier in his graduate studies of Sanskrit. His curiosity aroused, he spent several hours a day studying the scriptures. The job of translating messages too gave him a first hand analysis of various esoteric insights.

In 1988 John made the difficult decision of moving his family in pursuit of a college for his son Hitesh who graduated high school. After waiting on the Lord  and praying for over a year, the Lord led the family to Dallas, Texas. Hitesh, being underage at the time for an independent immigration status, the family’s decision to move to the US worked out. The only problem was neither John nor Sucy had a job. A year and half later, Sucy found a job as a biology teacher at a private school in Downtown Dallas while John spend several months negotiating his prior degrees with the University of Texas at Austin, foreign credentials department. Finally realizing he probably couldn’t find a comparable job with his previous degrees, John started out to get a degree in Computer Science. A semester into the degree, although faring well in the courses, John struggled without a "peace" about the plan. It was about that time that the family discovered Dr. Hoyt Chastain (former President of the American Baptist Association) pastoring Waterview Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas. Dr. Chastain’s superior experience and wisdom unequivocally proved the shinning truths in the Bible. Speaking at length with Dr. Chastain one evening about the "void" with his present study and the desire to study the Bible, Dr. Chastain quickly suggested the Texas Baptist Institute & Seminary in Henderson, Texas as a starting point to quench John’s desire for the Bible knowledge. Without hesitation later in the summer of 1991, John enrolled at the Texas Baptist Institute & Seminary in the Bachelors program. For the next 5 years he drove weekly 325 miles from Richardson, Texas to Henderson missing only one week as his car broke down in Canton, 60 miles outside Dallas. Through the prayers and support of the families at the Waterview Baptist Church – the Daileys, the Burks, the Scroggins, the Wades, the Martins among others, John successfully completed his Bachelor’s degree in 1995. It was during the last year in his bachelor’s program, John sensed the Lord’s direction to return to India and take the word to the area where he grew up. Following completion of his Masters Degree in English Bible in May of 1996 from Texas Baptist Seminary in Henderson, Texas John left for India with his commission that is now known as North India Missions.

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Contact Information

      Postal Address: P.O. Box 53534, Lubbock, Texas 79453