Southwestern Seminary, TBC graduates reflect on God’s leadership, lessons learned on Seminary Hill

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Baptist College (TBC) graduated 245 students during the May 6 commencement exercises held on the Fort Worth campus.

The spring 2022 graduating class included students from 26 states and 19 countries, including the United States. Students who earned Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Educational Ministry, Master of Divinity, Master of Arts in Christian Education, Master of Music, and Bachelor of Arts degrees from Southwestern Seminary and TBC shared their stories of being equipped to refine, live, and find their callings as their classes on Seminary Hill equipped them with scholarship and practical application for a lifetime of ministry.

Nirintsoa Mamitiana, a native of Fort Dauphin, Madagascar, earned a Doctor of Philosophy in World Christian Studies. Mamitiana, who earned a Master of Divinity from Southwestern in 2018, came to study at the institution after two seminary graduates serving with the International Mission Board in the African nation told him about the school and its degree programs. 

Prior to Mamitiana and his wife selling all their possessions to move to Fort Worth, a Southwestern Seminary mission team visited Madagascar on a mission trip. Mamitiana had been directing the work of Mission House, a nationwide ministry that works to improve the quality of life for disadvantaged people in Madagascar. However, he provided translation for the team who was working to reach his native Antandroy tribe with the Gospel. When he became a student at Southwestern, Mamitiana returned every year with the mission team who served in Madagascar to minister to the Antandroy tribe. God used the experience to develop a heart for reaching the tribe with the Gospel and his dissertation research focused on the Antandroy tribe of Madagascar.

During his time at Southwestern Seminary, Mamitiana said he has learned “the supremacy and authority of the Word of God” and that “God’s inspired Word is sufficient, inerrant, infallible, and the final authority for Christians for faith and godliness.” He said he is “thankful” God allowed him to study at Southwestern as daily he “learned, observed, and was influenced by men and women of God who are passionate about His Word and doing the Great Commission” as his professors taught him “about ministry, living on the Word of God, and doing what Jesus asked us to do.”

In February 2020, Mamitiana and his wife planted First Baptist Church of Fort Dauphin, Madagascar, where he now serves as the lead pastor. His wife, Toky, a 2019 Master of Arts in Christian Education graduate of Southwestern, helped start Shema Christian Academy to educate students from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade. In September 2022, Mamitiana will launch and lead the Baptist Seminary of Fort Dauphin to train pastors and church leaders. He concluded, “The degree I receive here at Southwestern is not a privilege; it is more of a responsibility to me.”

Gady Youmans, a Doctor of Educational Ministries graduate from Vidalia, Georgia, was the 2022 recipient of the R. Othal Feather Award in Educational Evangelism. The award benefits the Doctor of Education student doing research in educational evangelism. 

Since 2014, Youmans has led Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center, a ministry he founded that offers for-credit biblical counseling courses to public school students at Vidalia High School, Toombs County High School, and Montgomery High School in southeast Georgia. Youmans believes God led him to continue to study at the Fort Worth seminary following earning his Master of Arts in Christian Education and Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling at Southwestern, both in 2020.

“The Lord guided me in the qualities of a program I wanted to train and study in,” Youmans explained. Southwestern Seminary “fit everything that I thought was the best that could be offered.”

Following graduation, Youmans will continue leading Sweet Onion and pastoring Word of Life Baptist Church, the congregation he and three friends planted earlier this year in Vidalia. “I want to be a conduit of everything I learn to those whom I serve in my hometown,” he added.

Carlos Antonio Teixeira Filho earned a Master of Divinity with a concentration in missions. The Natal, Brazil, native came to study at Southwestern Seminary after spending time in prayer and conversations with others. “It became clear that Southwestern was the place God wanted me to go,” he explained.

Teixeira was the 2022 recipient of the W.H. and Melba Justice International Student Award which is given to the graduating international student who demonstrates high academic achievement, dedication to Christ Jesus, personal character, promise in ministry, and commitment in ministry to internationals in America or abroad. Following graduation, Teixeira will spend two years in pastoral ministry training at his local church before he begins another ministry assignment in Brazil or elsewhere.

The two-fold lessons he has learned at Southwestern are both practical and personal.

“I learned that theological education must lead to real-life application,” Teixeira said. “Each professor I had encouraged me in different ways to reflect on how what we learn affects people in and outside of our churches.” 

He said his time at Southwestern was used by the Lord “to work on my character, expose pride, and encourage me to rely fully on Him. My prayer was that I would leave Southwestern loving Jesus and His church more than I did when I came, and, by God’s grace, that is what happened.”

Teixeira encouraged future Southwestern Seminary students to belong to a healthy local church and to make their personal time with the Lord a priority because “we will never lack His provision when we walk in obedience.”

Bonnie Sue Jacobs is the 2022 recipient of the President’s Scholar Award for the School of Educational Ministries. The award is based on Christian commitment, personal character, and scholastic achievement. Jacobs, who earned a Master of Arts in Christian Education with a concentration in women’s ministry, moved to Fort Worth from her Augusta, Georgia, hometown two years after the death of her husband. The Lord’s leading her to study at Southwestern allowed her “to pursue a life-long dream of seminary education,” she said.

Jacobs, a retired United States Army officer who serves in disaster relief with the North American Mission Board, said “the most important” thing she has learned at Southwestern Seminary through classroom lectures and the example of the faculty is “how crucial humility is for anyone who seeks to serve God in ministry.” She noted the examples of Chris Shirley, associate dean and professor of educational ministries in the Jack D. Terry School of Educational Ministries, and Matt Queen, associate dean and professor of evangelism in the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions, that have impacted her life and ministry.

She explained Shirley’s discipleship classes taught her “that amid studying about God every day, the student must focus on knowing Him, walking with Him, and not merely assimilating facts about God, the Bible, and Christian education.” Her evangelism classes with Queen helped her “solidify how to lead someone to Christ” and as a result she has “been privileged to lead many people to the Lord privately and with disaster relief.”

Following graduation, Jacobs said she will continue to share the Gospel and “be willing to go where and when God says ‘go.’”

“Most of all, I want my last words to be that of sharing the Gospel with someone,” Jacobs concluded. “There is no retirement in the Christian life. I want to serve Him until the day I die.”

Yi Jessica Wang earned the Master of Music in Church Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy. The Piscataway, New Jersey native was also the 2022 recipient of the President’s Scholar Award for the School of Church Music and Worship (SCMW).

Wang began studying at Southwestern Seminary after working as a music teacher for several years following college. As she began to sense God was calling her to ministry, she “wanted to continue growing as a pianist and educator while becoming better equipped theologically to serve in the local church or mission field.” The SCMW is one of the only seminaries in America that offers a Master of Music program and she believed “this school would provide just the right combination of strong music and ministry training for wherever God would call me to serve in my next step.”

While Wang has grown in her skills as a musician, she has gained a “much deeper understanding of the Bible from the core theology classes” she has taken at Southwestern, including Old Testament, New Testament, and systematic theology. 

“My time at this seminary has been so valuable primarily because of the people I have met and encountered through this experience,” Wang added. “All of the professors in this school exemplify humble and genuine Christlikeness in their love for their students, their excellence within the teaching field, and their dedication to serving the local church.”

After graduation, Wang and her husband will continue to serve their church in New Jersey as they lead the worship ministry of the church’s English-speaking congregation. A goal of the church is to open a music academy that can teach classical and worship music to the families in their community. Wang said she is “also open to any doors God may open” for her and her husband to serve through music and worship overseas.

Walter Ayers, a Texas Baptist College student from Golden, Texas, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Biblical Studies. While a student, Ayers also served the larger Southwestern Seminary and TBC communities as a part of the physical plant staff.

“My professors have fostered and brought out in me a hunger to ask” questions, Ayers said. “They have made me a student.”

Ayers said his time of study in his degree program has prepared him to learn, interact and communicate, and to “perform with precision and efficient sufficiency.”

Prior to coming to TBC, Ayers’ goal was to “effectively preach the written Word of God and the Living Word of God, to any and all who would be within the sound” of his voice. His time at TBC has equipped him to do so.

Ayers, who met his wife Hannah while a student at TBC, was unable to attend graduation in-person as he and his wife anticipate the arrival of their second child, Jack.