A service to recognize and honor the contributions and ministry of Dr. John C. and Ida Newkirt will be held at 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 5 inside the Statesboro Mission Outreach Ministry’s Timothy Badie Center on Hwy 301 North. The community the Newkirts served over the years are invited and encouraged to attend.
Before retiring recently, John C. Newkirt served as pastor at Johnson Grove Missionary Baptist Church for more than 23 years.
Newkirt has a rich and fascinating history of more than eight decades of life. He grew up on a farm in Garfield and met his wife Ida Belle at Aaron Industrial School in Jenkins County while both were in junior high school.
“When I was 8 or 9 years old, I heard a man’s voice ask, ‘Won’t you preach for me?’” Newkirt said.
He said he had walked down the dirt road to the mailbox – something he did every day while taking care of the cows. “I looked to the right for the man. But there was no one there. I started crying and ran home, but I didn’t tell anyone.
“All I wanted to do was play church. I would ask my little sisters to play. I preached to the dogs and cats and my four brothers and five sisters.”
It would be several more years before he would see that dream come to fruition, however.
Newkirt said he left the farm without a penny in his pocket to seek work elsewhere.
Headed to Savannah
“I borrowed 35 cents from two men in Twin City and bought a ticket to Savannah. I slept on the floor of a friend’s house, and the next day, his uncle took me to the labor board.
“I stood in line – there were two lines at the Labor Board, the whites in one line and the coloreds in another line. The Labor Board had one opening on Jekyll Island as a bellhop. Back then, the richest men in the world lived on Jekyll.”
Newkirt took the job, which meant he journeyed to the island by boat.
The first night of work at the Jekyll Island Hotel, Newkirt said he earned $5.30 in tips. “It was steel money and rattled in my pockets.”
The man who left Garfiled without a penny in his pocket said that the heavy coins he toted in his pockets nearly pulled his pants off before the night was over.
Newkirt, who remembers names like Morgan and Rockefeller, said that while he was there, he would often spend time with the nighttime front desk man.
“Mr. Sikes was the white Baptist minister of Brunswick. He took a liking to me, and I would sit and listen to him talk about the Bible.”
Newkirt didn’t stay at the hotel long, but it wasn’t because of his work qualifications, as he had an impeccable work ethic and was often praised by patrons of the hotel. It was all about love.
“You could only come to Jekyll if you had a job,” said Newkirt. He left the island to marry the love of his life, Ida Belle, and the two went to Miami for work for a bit, and then to Detroit.
While in Detroit, he felt called into ministry and found time after work to attend Tomlinson College in Tennessee for seminary. His first pastorate was in 1953 in Detroit, then served two churches in New York beginning in 1963.
In 1981, he was called into international ministry and served in locations like the Caribbean Islands, England and seven other countries. After a stint in Washington DC in 1985, the Newkirts found their way back to Georgia.
A varied work career
Even while full-time pasturing in some of those areas, Newkirt worked other jobs. In Georgia, he worked with the USDA Rural Development, helping senior citizens who lived in deplorable situations; in New York City, he worked as security chief and obtained his real estate license. Also while in New York, he worked for the Federal Reserve as a carrier and often hand-delivered millions of dollars worth of cash certificates in a briefcase.
“I traveled from JFK to O’Hare (in Chicago) with a Samsonite briefcase and I was the only black man trusted to do that at that time,” Newkirt said.
Newkirt said he was honored by the mayor of New York during his tenure for work he did with helping start several churches in the area.
John C. Newkirt let nothing stand in the way of success – not lack of funds when he left the farm as a teenager, not a lack of education during his early work experiences nor the color of his skin at a time when African Americans were often discriminated against for prominent positions.
Upcoming service
John C. Newkirt succeeded at practically everything he put his mind to, and for that, many in this community plan to honor him with an upcoming service.
Craig Tremble, pastor of Second Saint John Missionary Baptist Church and funeral director of Craig R. Tremble Funeral Home spoke highly of his longtime friend and mentor. “Pastor Newkirt has been like a father to me, someone I could lean on. He’s a huge spiritual influence to me and that’s rewarding from one pastor to another.
“He’s like a Moses to me. My youngest son, Jordan, who attends Clark Atlanta University, once said to me, ‘Daddy, it seems like you’re talking to a man who is getting info from God, like you’re sitting right next to God talking to him.’”
Tremble said his son’s words gave him chills and reminded him that Pastor Newkirt gives wisdom and spiritual advice to the young and old. “He’s a great man of God.”
Bishop Virgil Badie Sr., pastor of Statesboro Mission Outreach Ministries, said that Newkirt was instrumental in the founding of Mission Outreach.
“When he came into my life, I had just gotten saved,” Badie said. “He did everything a father would do to help a spiritual son. I was young and didn’t know much about anything.”
When Badie first met him, Newkirt was a traveling evangelist with Church of God Prophecy. Badie and his wife, new in the faith, hosted a Bible study in their home, and Newkirt visited one evening with a friend.
“He saw in me what I didn’t see in myself,” Badie said. “At that time, I just knew I loved the Lord and wanted to know his word.”
When Badie’s group outgrew their mobile home, Newkirt encouraged the group to meet at his home. “He told me one day, Brother Badie, this has grown out of just being a ‘mission’ and it should become a church.”
Newkirt helped Badie locate a former church building on 301 that would become the original Statesboro Mission Outreach Ministries.
Bishop Larry Jones, overseer of the Whitesville Full Gospel Church, spoke of Newkirt’s influence:
“In my early years of ministry, I worked under him as an assistant pastor. He taught me how to study the word of God, as well as how to carry and conduct myself in ministry. He was a great example to me, and I will always be appreciative of Pastor Newkirt.”
The community is invited to attend the service honoring Pastor Newkirt. For more information, contact Minister Sandy Miller, one of the organizers of the event, at (912) 425-2594.