My Dad and Disciple of Christ

Hey, and welcome to Journey with Jesus. I'm your host and author, Johnny Singh. And in today's episode, we've got a pretty special guest with us, my dad, and who's going to become a friend of yours, hopefully, by the end of this episode all the way from Guyana, South America, Samuel's single. So, hey, this is Journey with Jesus. Like I said, it's a podcast dedicated to Christian uplift in your encouragement. I've got a real good guest with me today, and I'm excited to have this episode with him. I've got some other cool folks that's going to be coming along, but today the emphasis is on him. This is my dad. So, if you didn't know him today, you're going to know him. I didn't used to have my hair like this. My hair was bigger and curly hair, but after I cut it, I think I kind of look more like him now. So, I don't know, maybe y'all can tell us. But this is my dad, and he's all the way from South America. We're recording this right now, while he's home there. My mom's somewhere in the back, seeing somewhere running around. You may or may not see her walk behind the camera. I don't know, but so glad that he's here with us today. So, I'm not going to do a whole lot of chattering for too long, but I do want him to introduce himself. I'll let him tell us his name and where he's from, and a little bit about himself before we get into a few things of discussion. Go ahead. Well, my name is Samuel Singh, and I'm from, of course, Johnny mentioned, I'm from Guyana, South America. I reside in the tongue of Niyam Saddam, and I've been here for a number of years, because I was born in the tongue of Niyam Saddam. Why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about your kids and your family? Well, you know, it's always a provision for parents, especially when we see our children grow up in the Lord. We are blessed with fortune. My wife and I are married. We celebrate, we just celebrate 36 years of marriage, but in our courtship, it would be four to one years. And I'm out of those four to one years into our marriage of 36. We together have four children, we have three boys, and we have one girl, and we are grateful for that, and they have given us three wonderful grandchildren. You know, we have Zedin, we have Caleb, and then Nova. So we have two boys in one girl. Yeah, yeah. And you know, something that somebody said to me recently, and I don't know that. I don't know if you and I, if you ever called me this when we were growing up or not, but I do know that I got it from my friends, and I just sort of let it stick when I moved to the US. But when I was in the school of preaching, and they were trying to figure out how they should put my name down, when I graduated, and I remember I told them, I said, you got to put my legal name, you got to put Jonathan Singh, because my mom's going to be reading this stuff. But I don't know, do you ever remember calling me Johnny when we were growing up? Or was it always Jonathan? Always Johnny. Johnny is always a short name, you know, you in other words, your name came directly from the inspiration of a missionary that was working with us in Guyano. His name was John Green, and so when you were born, we fasted into that name Jonathan Singh. So there's actually a little bit of a, I wish you could have my mom in the podcast. This is a, that's it. This is a running joke in our family, because a lot of us supposedly have been named or influences a result of different members and Christians that that's all molded my family and helped them in a lot of ways. Now, if you ask my dad, my dad's going to say that my name's an influencer. I'm one of his good friends. It's a missionary that we've all grown to love and meet. But if you ask my mom, my mom's going to say no, she always liked the name Jonathan, and that's why she wanted that name. So it kind of depends on who you ask, right? But so, you know, as we get into a few things of discussion, it's, it's really neat, because you've got a perspective that's a little bit different from other people. You know, I'm married now and all your kids are, we're all married now, but as a preacher and a husband and Lord's will and a father in the future, it's an interesting setup because you, you had to raise kids in the church and I know a lot of time when we talk about Christian circles, parents are always interested in ensuring that their kids are raising the church and that their kids turn out a way in which the Bible patterns them, but that's not always easy. And I know it's a, that it's a challenge balancing, balancing between husband, dad, preacher, and then of course this kind of godly parent that everybody would like it to become, but you know, you didn't come parent, you didn't become a parent overnight or a preacher overnight, and from what I understand growing up, you weren't raised in the church or had somewhat of a Christian influence at all. How did you exactly come to Christ? What was your life like? You know, for those that don't know you and would like to learn a little bit about your story, tell us a little bit about your childhood and your upbringing and what life was like for you and then eventually, you know, tell us a little bit about how you came to Christ. Well, there's definitely true Johnny. I never had any upbringing in Christianity. I didn't, you know, we grew up, we know that there was a God, but I didn't have any relationship with God. When we were very young, we were living in what was referred to as tenement yard, that is where people that were very, very poor and on the level of very low in the economic scale, we would live in very small rooms and in different areas and my mom had some upbringing under the umbrella Christianity and she would infuse that into us when we were young. But my life, as I grew up, I became an orphan at the age of actually 11 years old when my mom died and my father would have walked out on us and to that journey, a lot of stuff I learned and a lot of stuff happened. But myself coming to Christ would be late in my life and I met my wife now of which we have married for 36 years, I mentioned early and we were in what is called a religious organization and I had, we had announced our bond of marriage and we were waiting, it's actually three Sundays on the band marriage in La Zagayano and then you wait on the food Sunday, make a date and you don't marry, but it's so happening. Tell us a little bit about that, I never knew that. So now from what I understand, y'all were part of the Anglican faith, right? Or at least she was and then you came to know her there. Is it a part of the faith there? Is it a part of the laws of the land that that's how that works? Well, she was a part of the Anglican faith and then I follow her because of my love for her, I follow her when she was very young and court or and then I was converting the Anglican faith, I'd gone to three years of what is called a confirmation class and then after that I would have been conformed with a sprinkle little walk in your head, you dressed in a white shirt and a black pants and you would have to do, there's a whole also ritual you have to do including kiss and a cross kiss and the lead of the religious leader foot and things like that. We had announced our bond in that marriage, yes, the Anglican faith and and so it was the it was the year 1989 and it was sometime between the 10th of February to the 18th of February and that I was head in home, my present now wife, we were actually living together but I was head in home and I heard I saw a huge tent party in a part of our town and there was a lot of American people there and I heard a message that I have never heard before in my three years in the Anglican faith and I was convinced that that was something that I need to listen to. Yeah, yeah, wow. So was this something, now this wasn't something that was odd, now for those that may not have known of or know of the Anglican faith, historically this is a different name that's given to the Church of England or a deritative of the Church of England and Guyana is a country there. It was governed by the British and colonized by the British, so there was a lot of influence of European faiths and I don't think did do you know if we have any Orthodox churches in Ghana, like a Greek Orthodox or English Orthodox or Russian Orthodox, do you know if we have any churches like that? Yes, definitely. There is a English Orthodox, yes. Yeah, yeah, so I do know that there's a lot of presence there and the majority of people who had belonged to a Christian affiliation would have more than likely been brought up as something as a Catholic or a Anglican from the Church of Anglican and then later on I know there's a lot of different variations in denominations in Ghana. So now the tent meeting and for a lot of our listeners that are American and a bit aged, that's going to be something that they can relate to because they grew up in the 60s and 70s here in the US and of course the 50s and 60s was one of those moments where the churches had tent meetings all over in the US. So was it a was it an odd thing or was it quite common? Was there a lot of churches that would have gospel meetings, outdoor, intense and things like that? No, well this is the first time in my adult life that we have witnessed such a mass gathering in fact it was people from white within the tongue of Niams and I'm talking hundreds of people. Yeah, yeah, that would have ended and I was I was like 300 feet away on the road. They was like in a ball field and they had this tent set up and and and that what that message that I heard and I I remember and recall vividly the person that was speaking even though I have never had contact with him all these years in my life but I remember his name was Charles Baxon and that message was that that convinced me that this is what I need to go towards. Wow, yeah, yeah. So after you came in contact with that, what came next? What was going on with you in your life next? You heard that message, you visited that tent? What what happened next? What was like for you from there onward? Well, I went home the evening after I listened to that message and then I told my wife about I said there's a set of American that's was our loose loungers, a set of white people there and this gospel meeting their preach and I need to go and she need to go but you know she said I'm already in a church I don't need to go anywhere so I took her eldest brother who is now a disease And we went there and we saw spend the next eight days under that tent and we were introduced to a lesson called back to the Bible and on the 8th of February 1989, not only was I convinced but I was convicted based on the message and the lesson I became a Christian, I obeyed the gospel. Wow, what was that for life for you? When you say you obeyed the gospel and of course you've been in the Anglican faith and you did confirmation there. What did you mean by you obeyed the gospel? Well, this is the first time that I've ever heard the Bible in its simplicity and the power of that message back to the Bible teaches us about the Lord's Church, it teaches us about baptism, you know, and I was sprinkled, so there's the contradiction between the two, the contrast between the two and then of course when we talk about the plan of salvation and how Jesus came into the world to save us as sinners, I have never heard this in my three years, I've never heard anything and this gave me an opportunity for the first time to actually go into the Bible because I was very ignorant of God's what I didn't know to read Bible and anything never read it before. So as they give this poem, let's listen on multiple choice question back to the Bible, we went home, we had to go in our Bible and they provide you a soft cup of Bible, they give you a paper about Bible and so like that, you know, and I went into the Bible multiple choice and things like that, adding in less sin. I mean, I don't know how much that was true that I put in there the correct answer, but the encouragement kept flowing day after day and I would go to the nightly meeting and you know, and the last night, the last night on the 18th of February when the meeting was coming to close, this one guy came up after someone was preaching and they sang a song just as I am and myself and my brother-in-law who's now a deceased, both of us went to that gospel and they took us down to a canal in our area and we were baptized and we became a member of the Lord's Church, but there is other story to tell about that as well with the Anakin. Sure, interesting. Wow. Yeah, that's an interesting setup. So now, from what you're saying and I, I didn't, you know, y'all are learning as much as I am right now because my dad and I, we never really talked a whole lot about this before. So from that point to the time that mom became a Christian about how long was that in between? Well, my wife obeyed the gospel in the month of June because a dinner next and next campaign came back in June and they were donating June early July and my wife had an opportunity to study and and and those missionary visitors were home and we had already got married. There's a beauty about it. You know, we had already got married with the gospel in February. I obeyed the gospel in very gamma, got married in same eight to nine in April and she lived the only confete and obeyed the gospel laid June early July of 1989. Wow. So that's all the way from 1989. Now, from what point, from 1989 to when did you think about her had, you know, decided that, hey, I want to leave whatever I'm doing and I want to preach to other people how I was preached to you. How did, how did you get that moment in mind or you're like, this is what I want to do. I want to tell other people about Jesus. I want to be, I want to be a preacher or was it somebody else that said, this is what you should do. Like, how did that moment hit for you? Well, look, in 1989, preceding the years ahead of that, every year, this missionary group will come with different people will come. So in 1990 and the local preacher then would invite us to meet the local congregation. And at that time, we didn't have a building or anything. You know, we would meet at the hotel between eight and nine. As we enter into 90, we would meet at different places. And then when in 1989 of July, we were blessed with a building with a missionary bought piece of property. And that is still presently owned by the churches of Christ in New Amsterdam. We're presently the structure will have improved. But they would encourage us to go to these missionary shared flyers and truck. And this guy that I was introduced to at that time in 1991, of course, his name is John Green. And he had a lesson that was laminate and was like in a book farm and we were going to different home and he would read these lessons and ask these questions to these people. And you know, I would be in the backdrop just listening and observing. And one day, one day in that same period of time, I asked him if I can use the lesson. And I was able to use the lesson, using it from a stand pint of guinese. A guinese to use a guinese. And we baptized that family right away. And he was amazed. And that was the encouragement and the turning point in my life of start working with this missionary every year. However, I am in terms of my ministry starting to become a gospel priest that happened late in 1994 when I was invited by a set of missionary to go to Cernam for the first time. And then we went to Cernam and then they invited us to go to a place called Port Caitume in Guyana. We heard about Port Caitume. And we were like the Jim Jones slathering. So we went there, three guinese and about 17 American, 1994. And then they invited us to go across that place called Machu's Ridge. And at that time, I just had two kids, you know, my eldest daughter Natasha and my son Machu was born. So we didn't have a lot of other kids. You came late, Johnny, you was the last in the last. But that was a turning point. They asked me if I would consider staying in Machu's Ridge for three months and help this local congregation. I didn't know a lot, you know, but I recalled in the community center there, we had a prayer, Senate and invitation. And we said that people in the community responded to the prayer. That was a turning point in my ministry. Well, interesting. So it was a, it was an interesting turn around from you from one chapter to the next. Now, after having been a preacher for as long as you have, how many years now have you been pulpit preaching? I'm 31 years. 31 years. And I know that, of course, at least in my, in my, you know, 20 plus years alive that you've done a lot of evangelistic efforts. You've been all around the world, different Caribbean countries, different parts of Gaianne and different places as well, that you continue to preach and teach the gospel. In your ministry, how would you say you had to learn to balance, you know, being a husband, being a preacher and being a dad? Was that something that you ever struggled with or maybe still struggle with? Well, yes, definitely because there are times in your life when, when you would expect good, but sometimes good doesn't fall in the category of your life as a gospel preacher. And then there's a mindset of struggle between you coming home now. And those things, you have to weigh them out between your family life and your spiritual life, you know. And of course, you have, at that time, we started to get other kids, you know, we started to get the family started to grow. So yes, there is always that struggle, but we, we try to keep the chart. And because there was out of fastening our life, there was other influencing our life by that, by that time, that would have been a great inspiration to us that was able to keep us where we are. Yeah, why don't you tell us a little bit about that? What are some people that you know or might still be alive or not that actually help to influence where you are today, that influence you to be the kind of preacher and parent that you are? And how's that? Well, of course, well, yes, well, no doubt, Johnny, that it started off with a few people like John Green, he's from, he's from Keltonburg in Tennessee. As a missionary working with us, I had the greatest opportunity of visiting Tennessee, being in his home and having a common male with he and his lovely wife, Judy Green. And then of course, there was a lot of gospel preach that works in the mission field to gay enough, a number of years at his name is Don Gully, and he's from Smithville, Tennessee. And of course, I had that opportunity as well of going to his home spent in time, speaking of the Smithville congregation, men like Jerry Nash, but the greatest influence in all these missionaries life that I had was a man by the name of Glenn Wilcott and his wife Maryam Wilcott, because they had spent a number of years, they had a deep conviction and a great love for mission work and for the guidance people. And they moved from the US to the living gay and spend time. So they was that great inspiration in my life and the life of my wife. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll eventually just a bit of a teaser. We're going to eventually have Glenn Wilcott and the podcast in the future because yeah, he has played a significant role in not only my dad's life, but my life and many of my siblings, my siblings' life and my nephew and niece's life. I mean, they're family and we'll talk to him and hear a little bit about him in the future as well. Are there any places in the Bible that really keeps you grounded? For me, one of my favorite Bible verses are section and scripture that helps to keep me grounded is second Timothy chapter two verses 24 through 26. And if you've never read that passage of scripture, I encourage you to that second Timothy chapter two verses 24 through 26. Paul says that a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but be gentle to all and able to teach. He must be long-suffering and Paul goes on to say how he must be able to ultimately teach and correct others so that they could learn of the truth and escape the snare of the devil. It's a beautiful passage of scripture and it helps me to stay reminded of my role as a servant of God, my role as a minister and just as a Christian. Are there any places in scripture that sort of stands out to you like that? Oh, definitely, Johnny. But even before I answer that question, let me just interject this very thought that, you know, early you asked me a concern. Our children and the names are this. We have a son Glenn. His name is Glenn Adrian Singh and his name came from Glenn Wellcott because in the 90s, our country was going through a very tormile prejudice had raised high in the church. The church was facing a lot of prosecution from within and Mr. Glenn will cut at the time was a missionary working with us and he was physically beating physically abused and he was expelled from the country by influence within the Lord's Church at that time. All they was concerned about was themself. And so when when Glenn was expelled from the country, my wife was expecting our church child at that time and what had happened we had named he came as a boy we name him Glenn. So we have a son that named because we said you can take Glenn out of Guyana but you can't take his name out of Guyana and that is our son named Glenn yes. Definitely you asked me the question on a passage and I I like the Old Testament passage of Joshua 2415 because Joshua 2415 is a great inspiration to my life and it tells us that despite all that Joshua went true and the struggle with him leading the Israelite nation and everything that happened how they torn back against God Joshua said ask from me and my house we will serve the Lord and we are grateful we are not perfect we have not reached or attained that that that milestone in our life in terms of where we are to be in our relationship with God you know but our children are struggling every day to try to serve God and our grandchildren as well they are taking their children to serve God and so that is my inspiration text you know Joshua 2415 choosey this day who we will serve but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord and we have no greater joy than to see our children growing the Lord you know yeah yeah what kind of encouragement would you give to people and their spiritual journey as they journey with Jesus as they desire to meet and know Jesus in a way that maybe you have come to know him what are some things that you would like people to be reminded of or know maybe things that they haven't heard before something that they should consider something that keeps you motivated that could relate to them what would you tell somebody out there that would like to deepen their journey with Jesus well you know when we look at the Bible from the standpoint to the Bible it has all the answer to months questions that he questioned in relation to his spiritual walk with God and I love the account of Acts chapter 9 and I would have read that a quite some time as the Apostle Paul then saw was on that road to Damascus going there with the intent for a flun of crucifying and prosecuting in prison christians he encountered the Lord and wrote to Damascus and when he encountered the ruin to Damascus his whole life prospect changed he was convinced he was convicted and he was converted that is a good way to start off in Acts chapter 9 read the account of the Apostle Paul and even while Paul was convicted, converted and convinced that the Lord he had encountered that this is the life he used to live that he must live there's so much prosecution at the face and so much stril at the face but he continued to burst in fear yeah yeah so I suppose you would encourage people out there you know if they haven't learned about God as yet maybe open up their Bible stacks chapter 9 and see how Paul the Apostle came to his journey with Jesus and then of course even in the midst of persecution and trials still learned how to persist and be perseverant in some ways a lot a lot of peas and puffins all over place yes sorry definitely yes man it's been good and you know it's it's it's an interesting thing to be able to do this with you and to talk with you and still haven't figured out if I should say that or several but I'll say I'll say that and well we'll take you from there but it's it's been good and I hope that you were encouraged and uplift and I hope that somebody else that hears your story and journey with Jesus can relate and maybe learn something and see the different you know faucets that are expressed in Christendom and the kind of relationships that people get to experience as a result of being with Christ so thank you for joining us thank you for being with us today is there anything else you want to say to the listeners out there before we go well first of all Johnny let me just see how grateful I am I'm to be invited to be in your podcast I mean it's an honor for me even though I'm your father it's an honor from the standpoint to be in your podcast and able to share and my life journey with Jesus and then this journey is not an easy one but it's the best one is the blessed one to travel with you know and then we are proud of you as our son we are really proud of you and we are proud of the fact that you keeping the faith and that you're not giving up and that you're fighting the good fight every single day despite your own personal struggle that you face in life but I wanted to close by saying that Christianity is not a walk in the park and Jesus never promised us that everything is going to be alright so that when we obey the gospel it's like a free walk in the park and everything is going to be alright but wanting Jesus to promise us that he's gone to prepare a place for us and that he will come again to receive us there is the hope of eternal life when this life is over he promises that and he will never change from that the only time that that we can deprive of ourselves from that is based on the choice to walk away from the Lord so as we journey with Jesus my encouragement to everyone out there if you have not started this journey is to start it by opening God's word and being courage and use it's opportunity like this pop cast so that you can learn about Jesus and it can inspire you and of course I would always say this if you live in my area in New Amsterdam we invite you to come to the New Amsterdam church of Christ is located at an asylum street and Republic we're right in New Amsterdam come there and join us in worship and so we so that we can be an encouragement to you and your life can be encouragement to us is there any information people could reach out to you with that you know somebody wants to study the Bible or meet you somewhere in Gaien or in New Amsterdam how could they get in contact with you if you don't mind well we have a we have a active web page on Facebook that's caption under the New Amsterdam church of Christ alright hey thanks thanks for joining me thanks for joining us thanks for making this a reality and I hope that people get to enjoy this episode as much as I did hey appreciate you all joining us again with journey with Jesus I'm your host Johnny Singh in today's guest Sam will sing my dad so this was a really neat and interesting setup and I hope that you all are encouraged and uplifted as much as we are we'll see you in the next episode all right all right that's a wrap