Called to the Harvest – An Indian Missionary Couple’s Story

00:27.78
Jenn Chen
Well, welcome to the Reflexio podcast. Today we have good friends, Chella and Newton with us. Welcome. Chella, we're just going to dive into our conversation today. We've had a little bit of getting to know you in the past, and I want to know, how did you discern God's call into full-time ministry?

00:53.55
Newton & Chella
Yeah, I was raised in a Christian home in southern Tamil Nadu.

00:56.04
Don
you.

00:58.97
Newton & Chella
Having grown up in a Christian school and being active in Sunday school and very religious, I was thinking that I was a very good girl. But one night when I was in my ninth grade in the month of January, I had a very distinct voice in my sleep warning me that I would die on April third

01:08.41
Jenn Chen
Hmm. Hmm.

01:19.67
Newton & Chella
It deeply troubled me. I lost my peace, couldn't sleep for many days. Then one day when I was alone at home, I was turning the pages of a calendar which had one Bible verse for each day.

01:35.14
Newton & Chella
And then i was so very curious to know the verse for 3rd April. And it read, the wages of sin is death.

01:45.98
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

01:46.07
Newton & Chella
When I read this, I was totally upset and angry with God. I started arguing with Him. aboard ah I was telling Him that I was very good and why do you want to take my life?

01:59.40
Newton & Chella
Then as I was crying bitterly, I got reminded of my sins, the sins of my heart. The Lord was beginning to show me how how wicked I was, my pride, anger, hatred.

02:13.82
Newton & Chella
jealousy, bitterness towards people, hypocrisy and such things. Then I knelt down and I found myself crying for my sins and asking forgiveness.

02:25.29
Newton & Chella
It was the very first time I realized that Jesus died for my sins on the cross and rose again on the third day. From that moment onwards, I felt a great relief and there and a renewed love for Jesus.

02:33.36
Don
Thank

02:39.04
Newton & Chella
Then I wanted to spend all of my time reading the Bible and praying and no more. I had the fear of death. Then the April 2nd came.

02:49.48
Newton & Chella
It was a Sunday. I went to church in the evening. As I entered the church, I heard someone one singing this song. Must I go empty-handed? Thus my dear Redeemer meet.

03:02.38
Newton & Chella
Not one day of service give him. Lay no trouble at his feet.

03:05.62
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

03:07.59
Newton & Chella
Must I go and empty-handed? Must I meet my Savior so? Not one soul with which to greet greet him. Must I empty-handed go? Then struck me that tomorrow I am going to meet Jesus empty-handed.

03:17.43
Jenn Chen
now

03:21.74
Newton & Chella
And then I say, Lord, I don't want to meet you empty-handed. I want to live for you and share your love with whoever I meet the rest of my life.

03:33.74
Newton & Chella
That's when I realized God is calling me for His service. And then He comes to me through many verses.

03:37.61
Jenn Chen
Hmm. Hmm.

03:40.61
Newton & Chella
And one particular verse which stands out to me is from the book of Ezekiel, which says, Son of man, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel. Since then, I started praying for people and sharing the gospel as and when I get an opportunity.

03:52.23
Don
Wow.

03:58.25
Newton & Chella
It's been over 35 years now and I'm still doing that. Thank

04:03.65
Jenn Chen
Wow, I am so touched by that, Chela, that God not only called you as a little girl, but you were listening. You were paying attention.

04:16.20
Newton & Chella
you.

04:16.77
Jenn Chen
And that is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that.

04:22.24
Don
I relate to that. I was called when I was a teenager.

04:25.97
Newton & Chella
oh

04:26.19
Don
Wow.

04:26.20
Jenn Chen
Mm-hmm.

04:28.32
Don
Newton, it's your turn. Can you just share some of these or how God called you into ministering, especially among remote tribal peoples?

04:37.08
Newton & Chella
Yeah, I'll also start with my salvation experience.

04:42.58
Don
Mm-hmm.

04:42.63
Newton & Chella
Then, oh God called me and led me to the islands.

04:43.15
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

04:48.25
Newton & Chella
um As we read in Ephesians 1, 4, God um chose me even before the foundation of the world. And even before my birth, God took my parents from a very um spiritually fertile land, the south tip of Tamil Nadu, to the north-western side of Tamil Nadu, where my parents were the only believers, only Protestant Christians in that coffee estate.

05:15.18
Jenn Chen
Wow. Hmm.

05:16.21
Don
Thank

05:17.96
Newton & Chella
and um there were a lot of hindus and a lot of muslims and very few catholics ah my parents were the only believers i grew up as a good child and slowly since started coming into my life i don't know to list out the sins which i did but i was a sinner and i and some sins became habit for me as i grew up since were also when i added up to my life in this time again my parents put me in the south tamil in a hostel in a boarding school there it's a christian school they took me to a student's camp there one preacher was preaching with his bold voice about death and

06:06.92
Newton & Chella
hell and he preached from proverbs 29 1 as a teenager sitting in a cold breezy evening i was afraid and i said lord i don't want to go to hell i want to come to heaven please accept me like that i don't remember what type of uh prayer i prayed and what change took me in my heart but something happened that day

06:08.20
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

06:17.31
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

06:33.61
Newton & Chella
Out of fear, I came to God.

06:35.58
Don
you

06:36.58
Newton & Chella
But as the fear went away from me, I went away from the Lord.

06:36.82
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

06:42.47
Newton & Chella
I started living a double life and then slowly I went away from the Lord.

06:44.93
Jenn Chen
Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

06:46.99
Newton & Chella
And then i joined my university. there i wanted to live a good life even before i joined the university i said that during my later days of the school life i wasted my life so i wanted to come back to the lot when i went to the college ah we found a prayer cell and i found a good mentor one professor karnaran who ah who was conducting students prayer cell there through interversity and he

07:18.35
Newton & Chella
invited us and we took a few of the first year students to a picnic spot and then he asked us to study ephesians chapter one two one to ten and ah we were asked to study under two headings old life and new life sitting on a rock when i studied god gave me the assurance of salvation through Ephesians 2.8, through grace, by faith, I am saved.

07:41.36
Jenn Chen
hmm

07:46.39
Newton & Chella
And from that day onwards, my life is totally changed. And I started following Jesus out of love on the basis of God's word.

07:50.07
Jenn Chen
me

07:54.45
Newton & Chella
And I wanted to live for the Lord. My life purpose was changed.

07:59.82
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

07:59.88
Newton & Chella
Then

08:00.12
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

08:01.32
Newton & Chella
ah That meant to produce a lot of cross-cultural missionaries from our place back in the 90s.

08:05.15
Don
Yes.

08:09.24
Newton & Chella
From Tamil Nadu, a lot of missionaries were going to the northern side where there were a lot of unreached places. And some of our college world students went there and two of our college world students went there as missionaries.

08:23.64
Newton & Chella
And we had a send off meeting for them. In that missionary send off meeting, we were singing a song ah saying that who will go to the northern side.

08:34.73
Newton & Chella
God has asked us to go to the every nations. And then we reached from God's word and he told a lot of statistics about India.

08:38.31
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

08:41.41
Don
Thank you.

08:43.72
Newton & Chella
And I was... uh i felt that god is calling me for full-time ministry but i didn't want to take an emotional decision so that day before going to bed i prayed like this lord

08:49.49
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

08:56.88
Newton & Chella
If it is your call, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to sacrifice anything.

09:01.85
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

09:02.97
Newton & Chella
Prayer was not a right prayer because we cannot sacrifice anything better than what God has done for us. But I prayed like that and I said that I'm available for you.

09:10.52
Jenn Chen
nine

09:12.94
Newton & Chella
And God's call is not a one-time experience.

09:15.92
Jenn Chen
No.

09:15.93
Newton & Chella
he called me through many circumstances yes especially through word when i read isaiah chapter 6 during my morning quiet time and jeremiah 1 through these things god confirmed that he has called me and my prayer cell gave me a lot of

09:19.43
Jenn Chen
Hmm. Hmm.

09:32.01
Jenn Chen
me

09:36.68
Newton & Chella
ah good lessons it helped me to take quiet time regularly morning quiet times are very important for our parents school students and i was very regular and god spoke to me through his word and our mentor asked us to pray for specific things in god's calling what type of ministry we should go we should do what people do we should go and when should we as i started praying

09:56.41
Jenn Chen
hmm me

10:00.39
Don
Wow.

10:02.63
Newton & Chella
God gave me through his word, Romans 15, 20, 21, that God has called me to go where gospel is not yet preached. Christ is not.

10:12.70
Jenn Chen
Mmm.

10:14.42
Newton & Chella
And so I realized that my calling is for full-time ministry among the unreached people. Then as we were praying, somehow I heard about a particular people group in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which is part of India, but very much away from the mainland India.

10:32.92
Newton & Chella
and ah we went there ah god called me and ah in the same way god called chela also i think she can share about how god gave her that passion and then we went there as god called us

10:47.82
Don
Wow.

10:49.31
Jenn Chen
Amazing.

10:49.66
Don
That's so beautiful to see the role of the scriptures in this and how we're in your scripture and God spoke to you through his word.

10:53.17
Jenn Chen
Yes. Yes.

10:57.22
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

10:57.32
Don
Yeah. It's such a typical but also important way that God leads us. Yeah.

11:05.55
Jenn Chen
Yeah. Yeah. I'm struck that just your decision to not want to just make an emotional decision that the Lord uses. he uses his word. He uses, yeah, the whole

11:18.17
Newton & Chella
Please that.

11:19.13
Jenn Chen
Yeah, everything to draw us to himself. and But your tender heart, I'm struck with both of your your hearts for the Lord and how ready you were to lists not only listen, but to obey.

11:33.19
Newton & Chella
school

11:33.85
Jenn Chen
um i know that there's a lot in that story. Thank you for sharing that.

11:37.40
Don
Thank you.

11:37.81
Jenn Chen
I have so many questions, but there's so much we want to learn from you Chela, as um Newton alluded there, God was stirring in you as well for this people. And I'm curious, you know, how did you even begin?

11:55.28
Jenn Chen
How did you even begin ministry in this place? What did it look like for you?

11:59.42
Newton & Chella
yeah i was working as a nurse in a renowned hospital here cmc velo that was in the late 90s after one busy day of work i went to my hostel room and i was reading the newspaper and there was one particular article with this heading the tribal trauma and it

12:21.89
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

12:23.64
Newton & Chella
ah to pray for this specific tribal people of our country. Since then, I was praying that they should be reached with the gospel.

12:33.68
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

12:33.57
Newton & Chella
And then in a couple of years, I got engaged to a man and to my surprise, he also wanted to serve the same people group.

12:42.77
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

12:43.77
Newton & Chella
He was getting ready um ah himself ah for that. And yes, it's a long story, but that's how we got married.

12:53.31
Don
Wow, beautiful.

12:54.52
Jenn Chen
Amazing.

12:56.51
Newton & Chella
yeah and But in the first few weeks, a few years of our marriage and ministry, we started ministry ah soon after one year of marriage, after getting trained for some time as cross-cultural missionaries.

13:14.66
Newton & Chella
Things didn't happen as I expected. i had even wondered if I had made a mistake by going for food.

13:22.02
Jenn Chen
Mm.

13:23.58
Newton & Chella
Because in the hospital where I worked earlier, on an average, I had an opportunity to share the gospel and to at least few people a day.

13:34.34
Jenn Chen
Wow.

13:34.45
Newton & Chella
had a meaningful conversation with some 30 people in my ward.

13:37.66
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

13:40.78
Newton & Chella
ah But here as cross-cultural missionaries in a remote place in a village with only 7,000 population, we were learning a new language then we struggled with health issues and unable to have a deep, but meaningful conversation with people.

13:52.01
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

13:56.91
Don
Thank you.

14:00.31
Newton & Chella
And above everything, ah we were also not able to make any connection with the ah with our targeted people group. yeah But God never makes mistakes.

14:09.42
Jenn Chen
Mmm.

14:12.28
Jenn Chen
That's right.

14:12.16
Newton & Chella
and We spent a lot of this time in prayer and and studying the Bible together.

14:15.39
Jenn Chen
Mmm. Mmm.

14:18.81
Newton & Chella
ah Slowly we started getting few contacts from various other people groups ah living in that area. i and and um some ah parents wanted us to teach their kids.

14:34.37
Newton & Chella
And that was a great opportunity for us also because we ah could learn that language, Hindi, ah from these kids.

14:35.18
Jenn Chen
Mmm.

14:43.22
Newton & Chella
So we gave all the time and energy teaching those kids.

14:43.68
Jenn Chen
a

14:47.51
Newton & Chella
And the kids also loved that ah the tuition class became a Sunday class on Sundays.

14:52.79
Jenn Chen
o

14:53.100
Newton & Chella
gradually And some of their parents also started attending a fellowship. Now, most of these kids are in their 30s and some are in their late 20s, married and building Christian homes.

15:08.87
Newton & Chella
And five of them are into full-time ministry.

15:09.40
Jenn Chen
Amazing.

15:12.83
Don
Wow.

15:12.94
Jenn Chen
That's so beautiful. I'm curious, Chela, you know, just you shared that it was hard. It felt like you could have all these conversations in the hospital and here you are starting again. And will we ever be able to have conversations? But I love that God brought you to children.

15:33.41
Jenn Chen
I love that. Can you just tell us something that you loved about the people that you you were called to serve?

15:43.23
Newton & Chella
and Yeah. yeah Yes, sir these ah people ah about the article which I read, Tribal Trauma, it said ah these people are ah ah primitive. They are living still living in the stone age.

16:00.08
Newton & Chella
And you know, the few photos of and no them, which I saw first, I was thinking, ah Lord, ah even Adam and Eve,

16:12.80
Newton & Chella
when they um after the fall they knew that they were naked but these people are there without any proper dress and um

16:23.18
Jenn Chen
Wow. Yeah.

16:23.97
Newton & Chella
no they are so primitive and a you know they are ah semi-nomadic people ah living huts and they are hunter and gathering tribe

16:31.06
Jenn Chen
e wow

16:36.46
Newton & Chella
And um we live in such, a ah with all technology, we are living here, but even in in the same part of the world which we live in, we have such people.

16:45.54
Don
Thank you.

16:51.57
Newton & Chella
So that moved me into tears.

16:51.91
Jenn Chen
yeah

16:54.83
Jenn Chen
Mm.

16:55.81
Newton & Chella
um you know um And I wanted that people those people um to be found in the kingdom of heaven.

17:05.64
Jenn Chen
Amen. So good.

17:06.64
Newton & Chella
We see, we read in Revelations chapter 7 and verse 9, all people from every term tongue, every tribe, every nation will be there.

17:14.20
Jenn Chen
Mm.

17:18.97
Jenn Chen
Yes.

17:19.100
Newton & Chella
that means people also will be there one day and so i got stirred up our hearts to work to pray for them initially

17:20.18
Jenn Chen
Yes.

17:23.81
Jenn Chen
Mm.

17:30.54
Jenn Chen
me That's so good. God gave you his heart of compassion and love.

17:34.77
Newton & Chella
yeah

17:38.16
Jenn Chen
Yeah, that has to be what stirs in us first. Yeah.

17:42.99
Don
So then talking with you before, you described this sort of decade or so as a really tough time.

17:51.72
Newton & Chella
Yes.

17:53.33
Don
Nugent, do you want to just share was some of the hard times? What was tough about that period?

18:00.100
Newton & Chella
is Yeah.

18:01.13
Don
What was the discouraging? Yeah.

18:04.20
Newton & Chella
Evan Chala told, she talked about two people groups. One is our target group, but the children with whom we served first are not really, we went far. But God showed these two people groups like ah Bengalis and Sadri speaking people.

18:21.22
Newton & Chella
And we used Hindi as a linking language.

18:21.45
Jenn Chen
Mmm.

18:25.15
Jenn Chen
Mmm.

18:26.01
Newton & Chella
um So then and now the toughest part of our ministry is we couldn't do much for the target group. though we spent 20 years in that area ah we had less chances of meeting them though we shared gospel few times we know that the language was not adequate to can convey and we couldn't see any discipleship and when we worked with other people groups bengalis and sadris

18:38.58
Don
twenty

18:38.74
Jenn Chen
Mmm. That's a long time. Mmm.

18:49.06
Jenn Chen
Mmm.

18:58.90
Newton & Chella
we started ah Sunday's class, we started going out of houses and started sharing gospel. And we used all the things possible. Like sometimes we used to help them in health side, health teaching or health screening.

19:16.06
Newton & Chella
And we made contacts and we shared gospel. Very few people came and we started helping them in discipleship. And we thought that um we were trained as traditional missionaries, but in a very effective way, like we learned how to learn a new language.

19:34.69
Newton & Chella
We learned cross-cultural communication by some experts from other part of countries, like a missionary who served in Papua New Guinea from US came and trained us with all these things. We went there.

19:49.88
Newton & Chella
But we had lot of struggles. The training and the practical life was very much different.

19:52.03
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

19:55.100
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

19:56.01
Don
Mm-hmm.

19:56.23
Newton & Chella
But thing we had, we learned somehow from somewhere that first we should help them to grow. And after they mature, we should train them in evangelism.

20:07.88
Newton & Chella
That's the plan we had.

20:09.86
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

20:09.78
Newton & Chella
so So as part of discipleship, we were talking about Great Commission and all. Some of the young boys came closer to God. They realized God's calling in their life and started going out.

20:19.73
Jenn Chen
me

20:22.21
Newton & Chella
But for others, for the for the big group of the people, we couldn't teach them to share gospel with others later after sometimes when we realized that now they are growing we started helping them to go out and share we even took them to villages and modeled them but they never got to share the gospel and

20:30.27
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

20:38.57
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

20:46.16
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

20:47.78
Newton & Chella
uh in these situations only we read david garrison's book church planch movements and that changed our thinking a lot and after that we started changing our methods

20:53.68
Jenn Chen
me

21:00.13
Jenn Chen
Mm. That's good. Yeah. So what changed? What did you change?

21:10.71
Newton & Chella
um yes earlier we were trying to oh help the people grow spiritually, then we wanted to teach them how to share gospel. But this book helped us with few things.

21:21.02
Jenn Chen
Mm.

21:23.03
Newton & Chella
One is believers reaching the other people or church planting churches, disciple making disciples.

21:30.15
Jenn Chen
Mm.

21:34.89
Jenn Chen
Mm.

21:35.82
Newton & Chella
Saturation of the gospel, that is very important. And the DNA of multiplication should be there from the beginning.

21:39.13
Jenn Chen
Mm.

21:43.05
Newton & Chella
We should teach them from the beginning.

21:45.18
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

21:45.30
Newton & Chella
So now what we do is the moment a person comes to Christ, we tell them, go and share with others.

21:51.27
Jenn Chen
It's good. Yeah.

21:52.54
Newton & Chella
We have some milk lessons when a new believer comes, we teach them some milk lessons.

21:57.85
Jenn Chen
Mm-hmm.

21:58.30
Newton & Chella
and when we teach the milk lessons we tell them we ask them with whom will you share this the very first person when they learn usually they learn the zakai story because it talks about the parents we ask them with whom will you go and share this so we try to help them to have the dnf multiplication right from the beginning and

22:03.51
Jenn Chen
Yeah. Yeah.

22:08.91
Jenn Chen
and

22:18.100
Jenn Chen
e

22:20.25
Newton & Chella
Earlier, we wanted to share the gospel and we were the center. Later, ah God and the other people became the center.

22:26.83
Jenn Chen
yeah

22:30.24
Newton & Chella
Like God's purpose should be done in their lives and we are only a catalyst. And and as the as God leads us, we go and work so that the gospel will spread rapidly among all the people groups.

22:34.96
Jenn Chen
It's

22:48.17
Jenn Chen
and so good.

22:48.18
Don
So after you left the island, you went back where you are now, I assume, somewhere in the south there. um But for the last number of years, you've been training people in other parts of the country in how to share the gospel and see multiplication.

23:09.37
Don
Can you talk about that a little bit? what What does it look like? like Do you go and live with someone for three months? Do you spend three days? How does the training work and what are you teaching them?

23:20.71
Newton & Chella
Yes. As I said, when we read the book Church Planting Movements by David Garrison, we understood that we should dead follow this method.

23:31.47
Newton & Chella
And we started our own method of training.

23:31.68
Jenn Chen
Hmm. Hmm.

23:35.83
Newton & Chella
um Then ah whatever we could understand from the book, we made it as a good training and we started training our people in the undermines itself. And then one person from ah outside the Andamans came there and he trained other pastors and we went there and we realized that that training is very good.

23:59.66
Jenn Chen
a

23:59.59
Newton & Chella
That training is called four fields training. ah That module was prepared by one Nathan Shank and we liked that very much and we adopted that training and we started training in Andamans.

24:11.79
Newton & Chella
Then we came back to mainland India and We started giving this training in the languages we know. We know Tamil, Hindi and English.

24:23.86
Newton & Chella
Wherever we get opportunity, we go and train. Sometimes we used to... Earlier we we were training for three days.

24:30.11
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

24:30.08
Newton & Chella
Then people very busy.

24:30.19
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

24:31.32
Newton & Chella
It became two days. And now mostly we train them for one day.

24:36.07
Don
oh

24:36.14
Newton & Chella
um And that four fields is, first field is an empty field, second one is seed sowing, sowing field, then discipleship, growing, then harvest field.

24:50.06
Newton & Chella
ah church planting so usually should we do at least two fields ah the second field talks about how to share gospel how to share our testimony and after that we send the people to go and practice it and then as they do they get the interest to learn more so they come back and we have some more training and we went to jharkhan that is in the um central india uh where we train few people and they started practicing it very well so we started going again and we are training them in every step

25:22.15
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

25:28.70
Don
So um yeah youre you're in the part, what used to be Bihar, or is that at a different state? Yes.

25:38.23
Newton & Chella
and <unk> now it's jarkan it is separated as bigger and jarkan

25:42.89
Don
Okay, that's where I was when I was 20.

25:46.41
Newton & Chella
Yeah.

25:47.65
Don
And I found that in that state, which was two states before, I mean now two states, that most of the fruit, of people responding were in animus tribal groups that were not Hindi.

26:02.35
Don
I mean, sorry, they were not Hindu. They were tribal religion, animus.

26:04.33
Newton & Chella
yeah

26:08.81
Don
Is that the kind of people you're working with primarily and doing that kind of outreach now?

26:13.63
Newton & Chella
yes especially we have around 30 13 churches and they are among a tribal group called ho ho and we have third generation church also among these people and they are from animist background but one thing is all over india now somehow they are into other ah religions like culturally

26:28.33
Jenn Chen
well

26:42.42
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

26:45.28
Newton & Chella
they they are unable to separate from their original belief and the outside the market religion whatever others practice they also start following

26:53.65
Jenn Chen
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

26:57.55
Don
So you go to this area, which is quite a distance from where you live and you train for one day, then you'd visit different leaders and you go back two or three times a year. I'm just curious how the.

27:07.75
Newton & Chella
yeah you um We were going once in three months, but this year we went almost every month till March. my January we went, February we went, March also we went.

27:18.13
Don
Okay.

27:18.17
Newton & Chella
then we train them for more than one day ah because these ah people are they have the thirst they want to learn only places like south india we don't have people coming every day but that we are able to train ah two days three days and also usually when we go we have two three types of trainings one for bill believers one for the leaders and

27:26.93
Jenn Chen
a

27:46.43
Jenn Chen
Wow. That's so good.

27:49.56
Don
Amazing, yeah.

27:51.43
Jenn Chen
So many questions around that because it's um a new new part of the world for me. So thank you for sharing that. Chela, we heard that you have started using social media as a means to reach.

28:05.59
Newton & Chella
you

28:07.65
Jenn Chen
And I am curious as I am you know, trying to learn myself. God's brought a lot of young adults in our life. So they're teaching us how to use social media. But I'm curious, like who's who you who whos whos interacting with you on social media and what platforms are you using?

28:25.54
Newton & Chella
Yeah, I'll share two incidents which motivated us for this outreach through social media. ah Usually we go by trains or buses

28:34.04
Don
Thank you.

28:36.91
Newton & Chella
um yeah and in within India. And during our travel, we share the gospel with our co-passengers.

28:47.88
Newton & Chella
um This was happening for a long time. But a few years back, I realized that it is becoming more and more ah difficult because people are immersed into their mobile phones and they are not interested in the conversations.

29:03.84
Jenn Chen
Yeah. Yeah.

29:04.65
Newton & Chella
so like yeah as So I thought in the future we can get into people's lives only through their cell phones.

29:05.03
Don
Yeah.

29:13.25
Newton & Chella
um

29:13.44
Don
Wow.

29:14.40
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

29:16.31
Newton & Chella
Another time after a Great Commission training, we asked our kids ah about ah their experience and our eldest son was telling that he is going to share the gospel with his friends.

29:29.69
Newton & Chella
And our eldest son, he's an introvert, and he said, I cannot share the gospel verbally, but I can text, he said. So that led us to pray about it.

29:39.68
Jenn Chen
Wonderful.

29:43.15
Newton & Chella
And eventually we were coached by the media to movements experts. And then now we place ads in the Facebook, mostly in the Bengali language.

29:55.28
Newton & Chella
And people who are interested in knowing Jesus, they strike a conversation with us.

29:55.86
Jenn Chen
Mm. Mm.

30:00.49
Jenn Chen
me

30:01.46
Newton & Chella
the messenger and our team of digital filters they prayerfully respond to their felt needs and then to their ultimate need and through these conversations god is drawing people to himself

30:17.41
Jenn Chen
I love that.

30:17.45
Don
Wow. And you you said you're just getting started, right?

30:19.84
Jenn Chen
You're right.

30:22.56
Newton & Chella
yeah

30:23.52
Don
Yeah.

30:24.78
Jenn Chen
You're right. You're meeting people in their phones.

30:28.15
Newton & Chella
yeah

30:28.42
Jenn Chen
It's so good. Yeah, that's wonderful.

30:30.19
Don
Yeah.

30:30.54
Jenn Chen
It seems to be a global phenomenon.

30:34.28
Newton & Chella
What? Yeah.

30:35.20
Jenn Chen
Yeah, that's wonderful.

30:36.70
Don
So you've got this ministry of training, church planting, DMM kind of stuff. And then you've got this social media reaching out to to Bengali Muslims, right?

30:47.97
Don
So that's not tribal people.

30:47.94
Newton & Chella
one yeah

30:51.15
Don
can you

30:51.14
Jenn Chen
Wow.

30:52.18
Don
Can you share ah story or two of to illustrate what God's doing? Just an encouraging story that happened yeah recently or a while back just to, as people are listening to this saying, God is faithful.

31:04.06
Don
at work. Yeah.

31:05.97
Newton & Chella
Yes, once we were ah ah we placed an ah ad about ah just a picture. ah It was Jesus calming the wind and the waves.

31:16.73
Newton & Chella
and so And we had asked Jesus, even today, He calms the wind and the waves which we face in our every everyday life. and would we like to ah Would you like to ah like for us to pray for you?

31:32.50
Newton & Chella
And then ah people started, we we got as we started getting a lot of responses. And one lady, she um was going through a lot of struggles.

31:44.40
Newton & Chella
and Her husband was an alcoholic and she was really facing a big straw storm in her life. And she requested our prayers.

31:55.61
Newton & Chella
And then, ah so as I said, we started with this felt need and we shared the gospel and she already heard about it some time back.

32:02.54
Jenn Chen
a

32:05.50
Newton & Chella
And so this was like a ah strengthening her faith and, you know, she received Jesus as her personal savior. and she started joining our online fellowship disciples fellowship that means once a week we gather through zoom and we study the bible and so she we were going through the book of first john so she joined us and she was very regular for that and she grew an interest um in reading the bible and um and understanding it

32:26.38
Don
Mm-hmm.

32:41.64
Newton & Chella
And then um and after a few days, ah she we were running out of people. We wanted more and more of digital responders.

32:55.87
Newton & Chella
So when we requested, she ah started functioning as a digital filter. So it's like from the harvest field, God has produced a harvester.

33:07.96
Newton & Chella
Yeah. a

33:09.45
Jenn Chen
Wonderful.

33:10.23
Newton & Chella
yeah

33:12.79
Don
Have you got a story to add, paul or Newton?

33:16.11
Newton & Chella
yes we have so many stories yeah yeah we involve in different types of ministry that's why we have different stories um recently we have become very close to the phd scholars of a premium institute in our city um we mentor them

33:26.11
Don
Yes.

33:26.35
Jenn Chen
Mm-hmm.

33:34.86
Don
Wow.

33:38.63
Newton & Chella
and they have different stories and they grow in the lord that's a happy thing and also i i preach in a church which is attended by super specialty doctors ah from uh from this big hospital here and students medical students and this technology students and all um But um I think one story which I can tell is about are how i how we first went to the Jharkhand place.

34:12.91
Don
okay

34:13.97
Newton & Chella
b Our only focus was Andaman's then. Though we came back to mainland India, we were always focusing Andaman's. We were trying our best to send Andaman.

34:23.32
Jenn Chen
e

34:25.77
Newton & Chella
But somehow nothing was happening. Then God told us that we should be involved in a broader area. That time we ah heard about

34:39.98
Newton & Chella
this one particular pastor in Jhark. And he was introduced by one of our Sunday school boys. who became a disciple maker and went to that place.

34:53.92
Newton & Chella
So these ah people who are mentored by us are the real great encouragement for us.

34:54.14
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

34:59.92
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

35:00.79
Newton & Chella
um I can remember two people, one girl. she was When we first met her, she was ah around five, six years. We asked her mother, can you send your daughter to our Sunday school? And she said, if you come and take her, we will send you.

35:17.92
Newton & Chella
And that was nearly three kilometers from our house.

35:18.13
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

35:21.95
Newton & Chella
Every Sunday after lunch, I used to walk three kilometers. We didn't have any two-wheeler or anything. So we used to walk three kilometers and bring

35:29.66
Jenn Chen
me

35:30.95
Newton & Chella
All good.

35:32.14
Jenn Chen
Wow.

35:33.29
Newton & Chella
She was regular and she had ups and downs and she accepted Christ and God called her for full time ministry. Now she is doing full time ministry and she's being married children.

35:42.62
Jenn Chen
Amazing. Wow.

35:44.68
Newton & Chella
And another boy who came to our Sunday school when he was eighth standard and he was doing his eighth grade and he was very fast in growing.

35:55.85
Newton & Chella
And also he started witnessing to others. He started conducting good news clubs wherever he went.

35:59.52
Jenn Chen
hmm hmm

36:01.85
Newton & Chella
ah And he brought one of his friends from his college and that boy accepted Christ and he brought his neighbor and all these three people are in full time ministry now.

36:15.75
Don
Wow.

36:15.87
Newton & Chella
That first boy's name is Masidas and he brought his friend Gabriel and hes he brought his neighbor Biswasi and all of them are in full time ministry.

36:17.15
Don
Yes. Yeah,

36:25.95
Newton & Chella
So these are all ah God's faithfulness.

36:29.73
Jenn Chen
Yeah, yeah.

36:29.85
Don
yeah

36:30.98
Jenn Chen
yeah

36:33.89
Jenn Chen
Yeah, I'm struck just as you as you began the call, you talked about the Lord's call in your life when you were young.

36:41.01
Newton & Chella
Thank you.

36:41.31
Jenn Chen
And then just these stories that you just have named are about children. and Jesus said, unless he is the kingdom of heaven belongs to kids.

36:52.46
Jenn Chen
And just how beautiful and just that story those stories are God calling children and then calling them to into full-time ministry. What a beautiful what a beautiful testimony.

37:07.58
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

37:12.29
Jenn Chen
Well, we've gone all over, Dawn, and all the questions. i We have so much that we want to ask.

37:19.35
Newton & Chella
Thank you.

37:20.53
Don
You were going to ask about a challenging season.

37:20.66
Jenn Chen
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, well, I wanted, i felt like, yeah, how do we transition? Because we're just, such a joyful story. But I wondered, you know, in all the years of ministry, um we spoke of just the beginning years being challenging.

37:37.92
Don
you

37:38.06
Jenn Chen
But we're in the in the decades that followed, was there a particular moment or a challenge that the Lord brought you through that you would want to share with us?

37:51.72
Newton & Chella
Yeah, for me, the most challenging season was i went through a kind of midlife crisis and emptiness syndrome ah quite early in my life ah because our kids were sent out to boarding school when they were five years

38:03.50
Jenn Chen
Wow.

38:09.17
Jenn Chen
Oh, wow. Wow.

38:12.29
Newton & Chella
And those days we didn't have a phone network in our village. We had to go to a nearby town to call our kids. Sometimes we came back home without getting to talk to them.

38:25.14
Newton & Chella
There were days where we couldn't go out for ministry because of a sickness or ah heavy rains.

38:25.62
Jenn Chen
oh wow

38:34.47
Newton & Chella
It was a wilderness experience, the first day. I can see and one of these days I was reading these words from Mark chapter 1 and it read John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him

38:40.54
Don
Thank you.

39:03.25
Newton & Chella
in in the river jordan confessing their sins and i prayed uh that the lord should be bring people into our wildness wilderness and we were busy at home ah hosting and mentoring people especially we could get to spend a lot of time with some of the youth and so god turned ah most challenging season to one of the ah most fruitful seasons

39:34.32
Don
Wow.

39:38.16
Jenn Chen
Wow. Thank you for sharing.

39:39.26
Don
You got something else there, Paul?

39:42.81
Newton & Chella
Yeah, for me, the most challenging season is the ah we worked with an organization for 20 years. And when we came out, it was not an easy thing.

39:56.79
Newton & Chella
And we had lot of bitterness, difficult times, and a lot of things.

40:00.05
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

40:05.14
Newton & Chella
But when we went through that painful situation, it helped us go back to God.

40:05.65
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

40:10.08
Newton & Chella
We went back to the basics.

40:11.02
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

40:12.51
Newton & Chella
And it's almost like a new beginning. As we started when we were young, we prayed for ah nearly one year, we prayed for our and next step.

40:25.26
Newton & Chella
And that helped us to look back and correct ourselves and also refocus where God wanted us to focus.

40:36.22
Newton & Chella
And now we're so happy for that period that helped us to come back. Many times in our busy ministry, we just go, go, go. We don't know where we are going. And sometimes we don't know the small deviations which we had taken.

40:50.58
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

40:51.10
Newton & Chella
it So difficult time with bitterness, betrayal and difficult things, losing lot of friends and understanding.

40:57.79
Jenn Chen
Mm.

41:00.41
Jenn Chen
Mm.

41:02.67
Newton & Chella
At that time, God brought us back to himself. And so we thank God for that experience too. Oh.

41:14.87
Jenn Chen
Wow. Thank you for sharing that.

41:19.92
Don
Just a different kind of direction question. I had the privilege and life changing experiences spending almost two years in North India when I was 20 to 22.

41:31.83
Newton & Chella
all

41:32.99
Don
And I have a good friend who's been working in India ever since I met him then, an American who's worked with Hindus.

41:45.39
Don
One of the big challenges that I hear about and have observed is the whole caste system among Hindus.

41:52.92
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

41:56.53
Don
You're working a lot with tribal people, which are not Hindus, so they don't have quite the caste system. But when you do this church planting ministry, is there some aspect of this approach to ministry that can help deal with the caste system or cross it or...

42:15.62
Don
Can you describe what you sense God is doing at that? Not in your ministry, but more broadly.

42:21.33
Newton & Chella
Yeah, we work among Hindus also.

42:21.81
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

42:23.93
Newton & Chella
We work among, only in Jharkhand, we work among the tribal people.

42:28.55
Don
Okay.

42:28.65
Newton & Chella
The yeah ministry is for Bengali Hindus and Bengali Muslims.

42:32.76
Don
Right.

42:32.83
Newton & Chella
And we, yeah here in the place where we live, we go for evangelism. And recently we met with a group of ladies. oh from little higher caste in their village.

42:46.85
Newton & Chella
So they were not willing to join other women in their village.

42:50.61
Jenn Chen
hmm

42:51.98
Newton & Chella
So we took them out to a nearby place and we started sharing the gospel. And we have a team and ah they were not accepted by these ladies.

43:03.42
Jenn Chen
hmm hmm

43:03.86
Newton & Chella
But they have accepted us um because they might have thought that we are in the similar ah category in the casteism. It's not only different, the gradation is there.

43:17.52
Newton & Chella
um It's a very sad thing that unfortunately, ah even after accepting Christ, ah people still hold on to their caste system.

43:26.79
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

43:27.04
Newton & Chella
It's not just two different things. It's like hierarchy. So that affects the ministry.

43:32.41
Jenn Chen
Wow.

43:32.72
Newton & Chella
In some places, the lower caste people came to the Lord first, so the higher caste people are not coming. In some cases, it's the other way around.

43:40.04
Jenn Chen
Wow.

43:42.63
Newton & Chella
One thing is... Father says very much which we have to pray for is um i can tell about my village i come from a village in south tamiladi 100 christians and just next to our village ah very close not even a kilometer a group of other caste people are living and another are half a kilometer other caste people are living none of our village people go there to share the gospel

43:58.19
Jenn Chen
Wow.

44:15.23
Jenn Chen
Wow. Wow.

44:15.74
Newton & Chella
But our village church sends missionaries to North India. They support missionaries to North India. But it's very difficult to our neighbors.

44:23.30
Don
but not the universe.

44:24.31
Jenn Chen
Mmm. Yeah.

44:27.89
Newton & Chella
And the same thing I have understood in our place also. Whenever we try to, where we live now, whenever we try to share gospel with some particular caste groups, other believers in this area are not interested.

44:40.83
Jenn Chen
Mmm.

44:44.39
Newton & Chella
So I think God has to break us, break the Christian community so that we will have a real discipleship.

44:45.55
Jenn Chen
Mmm.

44:49.35
Jenn Chen
Yeah. Yeah.

44:55.55
Newton & Chella
um And also when it comes for evangelism, we have to be sensitive. We have to go there as as they are.

45:06.93
Newton & Chella
We may have become like themselves.

45:07.08
Jenn Chen
a

45:09.99
Newton & Chella
ah whether we are cross-cultural missionaries or we live in our place.

45:12.25
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

45:13.82
Newton & Chella
But when it comes for discipleship, we should teach the Bible that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. We all are equal.

45:21.14
Jenn Chen
Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

45:24.54
Don
So we're still looking for those breakthroughs.

45:27.35
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

45:27.33
Newton & Chella
Yes.

45:28.56
Don
Amen.

45:29.58
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

45:30.55
Don
May God have mercy.

45:30.81
Jenn Chen
Wow.

45:31.98
Don
Wow.

45:32.35
Jenn Chen
That's right.

45:35.35
Jenn Chen
I think i have I have one final question because I think you have so much wisdom to share. um For a new worker that's starting out into full-time ministry who sends that call and they're ready to go and you have a moment to sit down with them and they're listening to this podcast right now and what would you say?

46:02.10
Jenn Chen
to new missionaries going out onto the field.

46:07.21
Newton & Chella
yeah One of the most important lessons I have learned is that prayer and complete dependence on God are absolutely essential for the fruitful and ministry.

46:20.11
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

46:20.15
Newton & Chella
No matter how much effort we put in, it is His work and we must stay connected to Him always.

46:28.87
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

46:29.93
Newton & Chella
and the One lesson I would share with new missionaries is this. Be faithful in small things and stay teachable. Ministry rarely goes as planned.

46:40.16
Jenn Chen
So good.

46:42.13
Newton & Chella
So it's important to keep learning and sometimes and we should be flexible. We should not marry the methods.

46:51.29
Jenn Chen
e

46:52.47
Newton & Chella
Often we should go back get back to the book of Acts. That has helped me a lot.

46:59.02
Jenn Chen
so good

47:00.18
Newton & Chella
That's the best strategy book. And we should go back to it often. For example, in the Acts 19, 9 and 10, we read about Paul's method of ministry, one of his methods.

47:13.03
Newton & Chella
He taught the believers in the hall of tyrannous. Because he did that for a little more than two years, the whole yes yeah the Asia, the present Asia Minor, was evangelized.

47:26.39
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

47:27.73
Newton & Chella
evangelized he discipled a group of people and people like epaphras went from that place and they evangelized the nearby places that's why we have the book of colossians we have philemon all this part of its faithfulness to god in ephesus and we learned that after many years because we went back to the book of acts

47:34.52
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

47:44.19
Jenn Chen
Hmm. Hmm.

47:53.52
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

47:55.15
Newton & Chella
So my sincere advice for new missionaries is

48:01.42
Newton & Chella
learn and obey acts of the apostles................

48:05.04
Jenn Chen
Mm-hmm. Such good wisdom, and I would echo that as well after many years of church planning in Asia for our family. Yeah. What is one thing that you wish you knew before you started out?

48:23.28
Newton & Chella
oh Yeah, I wish I had understood earlier and that success in missions is in mission by how much we do, but by how well we obey.

48:38.07
Newton & Chella
Early on, I focused too much on activity.

48:38.58
Jenn Chen
Amen.

48:42.81
Newton & Chella
I have seen that listening to God, following His lead and the empowering others to do the same leads to far greater and lasting impact.

48:53.42
Newton & Chella
and impact

48:56.23
Jenn Chen
so good. Thank you.

48:58.68
Newton & Chella
Earlier, I was the center.

48:59.04
Jenn Chen
Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. What about you, Chella?

49:06.61
Newton & Chella
Yeah. A few years ago, ago we learned the principle of MAWL, M-A-W-L, which is a model, assist, watch, and launch.

49:20.26
Newton & Chella
ah

49:20.60
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

49:21.52
Newton & Chella
Doing work ourselves, doing everything by ourselves, ah we began modeling the work.

49:26.100
Jenn Chen
Hmm.

49:28.35
Newton & Chella
others as they did and then watching them ah doing it and ah releasing them to lead that shift from doing ministry alone ah to training others to multiply healthy churches that was a turning point for us i wish we i had learned this quite earlier in my life

49:50.64
Jenn Chen
Wow. Thank you.

49:54.03
Don
We don't know exactly who's listening to this or watching it, but envisioning people like ourselves who are full-time ministry, but other people in church who are just trying to understand things.

49:54.73
Jenn Chen
Thank you so much.

50:09.21
Don
Any sort final insight or wisdom you'd like to share with but the those who are listening that God puts on your heart?

50:22.39
Newton & Chella
yeah the field is white and harvest everywhere we see people in need spiritually emotionally and There's so much of work to be done and at times it can feel overwhelming.

50:38.43
Newton & Chella
What helps us to stay focused is prayer. In John 4, Jesus said, my food is to do the will of him who sent me on to finish his work.

50:43.62
Jenn Chen
mmm

50:48.02
Jenn Chen
that's right

50:50.46
Newton & Chella
So speaking time with God in prayer helps us to filter all these noises and prioritize according to his will.

50:53.58
Jenn Chen
me

50:56.31
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

50:59.87
Jenn Chen
So good.

51:00.08
Newton & Chella
Along with prayer, Bible. Like these days, the right interpretation of the Bible is not seen much. Satan uses this strategy like diluting the truth or wrong interpretations.

51:10.69
Jenn Chen
Mm-hmm.

51:16.65
Jenn Chen
Mm-hmm.

51:19.12
Don
Thank you.

51:19.13
Newton & Chella
So we live in a time where we really lack Bible. So we whether we are believer or a pastor or a missionary or whoever we are if we are believers ah we should teach the bible and not only teaching the bible we should help people to study by the by themselves ah we should teach them to interpret the bible correctly and that will help them a lot and one more thing is

51:42.31
Jenn Chen
It's good.

51:50.72
Newton & Chella
uh dna of multiplication one word one thing which i like is healthydi multiplying to just healthy healthy churches multiply and multiplying churches are healthy so this is a repatter for this prayer and bible are very important

51:53.98
Jenn Chen
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

52:15.24
Don
really good well it's been great to talk with you it's uh we have to draw this to a close but may god continue to bless you as you serve and mentor and train and raise up new generation of believers uh from multiple from where you live in the south up with the gullies and with tribal people in the north quite a a

52:15.46
Jenn Chen
Excellent.

52:18.50
Jenn Chen
Wow.

52:20.91
Jenn Chen
Mm-hmm.

52:44.55
Don
International ministry within one nation because India is like many nations in one political block.

52:47.50
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

52:48.69
Newton & Chella
Yeah.

52:51.57
Newton & Chella
Yes.

52:51.75
Jenn Chen
Yeah.

52:53.98
Don
It's incredible. Yeah.

52:55.66
Jenn Chen
Yeah. Thank you for sharing your lives with us. And we just pray blessing over you, both in your marriage, in your family, and in your ministry.

53:07.37
Jenn Chen
The Lord bless you.

53:07.43
Newton & Chella
Thank you so much. It's real joy and privilege for us. Thank you. Thank you.

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