149: The Church in Northern India (with Sonam)
Transformed & Transformational
Release Date: 05/17/2024
What’s Your Story? | From the Archives with Tosca Nathan
Transformed & Transformational
Kicking off 2026, we’re bringing back a favorite from the archives! Enjoy this 2024 conversation exploring how to connect with your own personal story. What’s your story, and why does that matter? Long-time educator Tosca Nathan shares about the significance of knowing your story and connecting to God’s bigger story, especially as teachers. “Like any story, our life stories have a path, they have a trajectory, and it’s full of meaningful events, defining moments, key relationships, trials and disappointments, dreams and aspirations, passions and discoveries.” “How coherent your...
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The Myth of Fleece Guidance | Spiritual Formation with Brian Delamont (Episode 202)
Transformed & Transformational
Have you ever found yourself laying out a fleece like Gideon, hoping God will make the way clear? Brian Delamont returns to the podcast for a thoughtful conversation about how God speaks to us and how we can posture ourselves to listen. Judges 6 “The problem isn’t with God, it’s that we’re not listening to what He has already told us, and we’re asking Him the wrong questions because of that.” Psalm 89:46-51 Isaiah 30:21 “I think everyone longs for this – for God to just tell us.” “My heart has to want to listen to God. There is a waiting posture. And then, my heart also...
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Moving the Family to Togo | A Calling Story with Chrischona and Koudjo Sodji (Ep. 201)
Transformed & Transformational
Hear the story of how a missionary kid from Austria met someone from a village in Togo, what it has been like to move their family from Chicago to Togo, and how God has given them a vision for transformational education in West Africa. “Once we got married, we sensed that we had been called to serve but at the same time, we didn’t really know what role we would be playing.” - Koudjo “I could have never dreamed up this job myself and the perfect fit, but God knows this.” - Chrischona “It was during those years of working with TeachBeyond that the vision for starting TeachBeyond...
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Christmas Around the World and in the Classroom | Our 200th Episode!
Transformed & Transformational
Tune in to hear about Christmas celebrations in different cultures and classrooms around the globe! What’s changing our lives: Keane: Playing board games Heather: Volunteering with Foster Love Project Weekly Spotlight: We’d love to hear from you! Podcast Website: Learn about TeachBeyond:
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Spiritual Conversations at Christmastime | Zoom In with Kevin King (Ep. 199)
Transformed & Transformational
Why do I always feel awkward sharing my faith? What could it look like to have intentional spiritual conversations? Author Kevin King shares about the power of living authentically and letting the Lord lead. by Kevin King Deuteronomy 6 Luke 10 “Living out loud is not living obnoxiously.” “If you’re not awkward about your spirituality, they won’t feel awkward about it.” Matthew 10:19 “This is not about a strategy for how to get to the Gospel. It will get to the Gospel for people who are interested. It’s just about feeling comfortable in our own spiritual skin, dismantling...
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The Myth of Being Perfect | Spiritual Formation with Brian Delamont (Ep. 198)
Transformed & Transformational
Are we really called to “be perfect”? Brian Delamont unpacks the meaning of “teleios” and how God’s own completeness becomes our refuge and righteousness. Matthew 5:48 Greek: teleios Colossians 1:28-29 “It’s the work of God Himself in Jesus on the cross and in His resurrection power, which enables us to be complete and filled with His Holy Spirit.” 2 Samuel 22:31 “God uses His perfection as a shield for those of us who come and take refuge in Him.” Deuteronomy 32:4 Hebrew: tāmîm “A perfect spotless lamb in the Old Testament points toward the perfect Lamb of God who...
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At Home in God’s Calling | A Calling Story with Rio Handley (Ep. 197)
Transformed & Transformational
Hear from Rio Handley, Associate Regional Director of East Asia and Oceania, about how God has been at work as she has lived in different homes and held different roles over the course of her years in missions. “I feel at home where God has placed me. I feel at home at the center of His will.” “I’ve seen the grace of God in my life, and I’ve seen how God moves.” “Missions is not just the missionary’s responsibility; missions is the church’s responsibility.” “We cannot put missionaries on a pedestal because we are all part of one Body, and when God calls people to...
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How to Navigate Staff Conflict in Schools | Teacher’s Desk with Lori Neumann, Peter Sargent, and Nate Cook of GDQ International Christian School (Ep. 196)
Transformed & Transformational
It takes humility, intentionality, and the power of the Holy Spirit to create a workplace of trust and unity amongst school staff. Hear from members of the team at GDQ International Christian School in Albania about their experiences with navigating conflict. “We want to have the school be a safe place so that people can voice disagreements that they have and know that someone will listen to them.” -Lori “One thing that helps to resolve conflict is, on some level, to expect there to be at least different perspectives.” -Nate “Continue to build into relationships among the staff so...
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From Gap Year to Founder | Zoom In with Katie Davis Majors (Ep.195)
Transformed & Transformational
Katie Davis Majors, bestselling author and founder of Amazima Ministries, shares about the experience of following Jesus one step at a time into a story she couldn’t have imagined. Hear the remarkable story of childlike faith and community impact through education and discipleship. “Meeting people’s needs is good and is right and is what Jesus calls us to do, to make sure that our neighbors do have access [...] but also, we don’t want to give people those things without giving them the hope and the truth of the gospel.” “Jesus says to have faith like a child, and I think as...
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The Myth of Calling | Spiritual Formation with Brian Delamont (Ep. 194)
Transformed & Transformational
Have you ever thought that “calling” was just for certain people or wondered if you had somehow missed God’s call for your life? Or, do you worry that God might call you to something you don’t want to do? Brian Delamont joins Heather and Keane to tackle the myths about “calling.” 1 Timothy 2:4 “God calls people to Himself.” “Once we know Him and His truth, we become a part of His body, a part of the Church, and as His disciples, we enter into a lifelong process of becoming who He knows we can be and doing what He asks us to do.” Matthew 28:18-20 “Calling rests on a lot...
info_outlineOur guest this week shares from his personal experience with and research about the Indian church specifically, as well as the global Church as a whole.
- To learn more about the International Day for the Unreached, listen to Episode 109: The Alliance for the Unreached.
- “The Church is influenced by society [...] and yet, we are also different because of the human-Divine meeting in the church. It is not just another human plane of belonging, but there is this coming together with the Divine in the church, which gives us another dimension of being.”
- “Ultimately, we are united through one Lord Jesus Christ [...] but we are also enlivened by the Holy Spirit, who is present everywhere, and He speaks to us all in our languages in our own spaces, and we are all adopted as sons and daughters of one Father.”
- “There is no other way for the Church to be but connected in the local and the global; if it’s not connected, then it’s not the Church because then there’s no one Jesus Christ, there’s no one Father, there’s no one Holy Spirit. And yet, we are also diverse and different also because of where we are.”
- “An ideal vision is that all would be equal - all would have equal opportunities, equal passports - but that is not the reality that we experience.”
- “If we are one Church, one people, one body of Christ, [we are called] to share and participate deeply in the needs, the pain, the joy of the other also.”
- “How does the Church reach out in mission? To be very simplistic, by being Church.”
- “If I were to point out one thing [that the global church could learn from the Indian church], it’s maybe the capacity to be okay with the knowledge that you will be persecuted. [...] Being okay with that does not mean that I am saying there is no pain, there is no suffering.”
- “Life has been difficult from a human perspective, but in the midst of all of this, I have experienced God in a new way.”
What’s changing our lives:
- Keane: A network of children’s museums
- Heather: Hard-boiled eggs
- Sonam: Watching his son grow and learning to be more flexible
Weekly Spotlight: TeachBeyond Opportunity Board
We’d love to hear from you! podcast@teachbeyond.org
Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast
Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/