Dear Pastor,
Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are the Simmons’ family and we are missionaries to Senegal, West Africa. I had the opportunity to go to Senegal in February of 2020 on a survey trip. While there I preached, distributed tracts, and taught fellow believers under the influence of Bro. Josh Mead, a missionary who has been in the country for 14 years.
A little more about myself, I was saved at a young age when the pastor of the church I was attending and another gentleman came by on visitation after answering the questions regarding salvation; the Holy Spirit convicted my heart and told me I would go to Hell if I didn’t get saved. I then prayed and asked forgiveness for my sins and asked the Lord to come into my heart. I was called to missions when my former pastor had a week-long seminar for anyone interested in missions and I responded to the call to Africa. After high school, the Lord led me to The Crown College where I finished with a Master’s in Missions. Following college, I returned to my home church (Sunrise Baptist Church, Morganton, NC) and was involved in many ministries including VBS, preaching, teaching, soul-winning, and other church-related activities. Through a series of events the Lord led me to attend Camp BIMI twice and I met the African director and he put me in contact with Bro. Mead.
My wife, Hannah, and I got married in April of 2021. We had our son(Ezekiel) in January of 2022. She made a profession of faith when she was six years old,however, she didn’t realize she was lost until she fell under conviction at a campmeeting we attended last year and I led her to the Lord at the altar. She grew-up in more of religious home where church was attended out of convenience/need rather than a commitment to the Lord. She always had a desire be in church but was only allowed to go with her parents when they went. She has a desire to work with the women/children especially with pregnancy care.
We just returned from our family survey trip and the Lord opened many doors for us.
The vision for our ministry is that our first term will be spent learning the culture, language, and etc. We have been in contact with a professor who will be a tutor as well as we will live with a Senegalese family for our 1st term. Our eventual goal is to establish a church in Thies, Senegal, a city of over 600,000 people with no true Gospel message going forward . Isaiah 55:11 says “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void…” and my wife and I are convinced that there is not one person in this world that Christ didn’t die for and it is impossible to give the Gospel to the wrong person. We are currently trying to schedule meetings with New Testament churches in hopes of partnering with us to carry out the Great Commission in Senegal.
In Christ,
James and Hannah Simmons