Daily Faith with Philip Cameron: Special Guest pastor Ed Newton
About this episode
Pastor Ed Newton of Community Bible Church in San Antonio, Texas joins Philip Cameron for a deeply personal conversation about identity, divine calling, and overcoming the lies of the enemy. Ed grew up in a deaf home — both his parents were deaf — and from childhood he served as their interpreter everywhere they went. But the story goes even deeper: Ed's mother, unable to have children, attended a healing service in Charlotte, North Carolina hoping to be healed of her deafness. Instead, an evangelist prophesied over her that she was pregnant. That child was Ed — and he didn't learn this until his mother passed away four years ago. Ed shares how his father's answer to the question "Do you wish you could be healed?" became one of the most powerful moments of his life. His father signed back simply: "You." God had used their deafness to train Ed to be His voice. "God was training you to be his voice," his father told him — a truth that now fuels Ed's forthcoming book and sermon series, Why Not You? The conversation turns to how Satan — and often we ourselves — become the greatest accusers of our own potential. Ed challenges believers with a question posed by a new member of his church: "Is it a sin not to believe what God believes about you?" This episode is a powerful call to receive your God-given identity. Learn more about Ed Newton and Community Bible Church at communitybible.com.
Part of our Identity collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“He said, God gave you to us to be our voice, to be our ears. And he said, what God did in your life is he taught you to be able to talk to so many different people, older, younger. You are our voice to the electric company. You are our voice at the restaurant. You are our voice buying a house. You are our voice buying a car. You are our voice. And he goes, and now I know that God was training you to be his voice.”
“There's a gentleman that's in our church that's a brand new believer, older. And he said this to me — he said, Ed, is it a sin not to believe what God believes about you? And I paused and I said, yes. Yeah, absolutely. Because he has said this about you. And when you choose not to receive what he says about you and reject it, you're calling him a liar.”
“My mission is to help people understand they're not the underdog. If God's on your side, David was not the underdog with Goliath. When God's on your side, you are the giant, not the Goliath. And David was able to see himself bigger than Saul saw him, bigger than his brothers saw him, because he knew that the God whom he served was bigger.”
What's Discussed
Pastor Ed Newton of Community Bible Church in San Antonio, Texas shares the remarkable story of growing up as the hearing child of two deaf parents. His mother attended a healing service in Charlotte, North Carolina, and rather than being healed of deafness, an evangelist prophesied she was pregnant — that child was Ed. His father later told him God used their deafness to train Ed to be His voice to the world. Ed recounts a social experiment where he dressed as a homeless man to test his congregation's compassion, and previews his forthcoming book Why Not You? — a challenge to believers to stop self-accusing and receive what God declares about their identity and worth.
- Ed Newton's Deaf Parents and Upbringing
- Prophetic Word Over Ed's Mother
- Childhood Interpreter and God's Training
- Father's Answer: God Made You Our Voice
- Why Not You — Overcoming Self-Accusation
- Is It a Sin to Reject God's View of You
- Homeless Man Social Experiment at Church
- Heart for the Marginalized and the Underdog
Episode Transcript
Auto-generated · click any timestamp to jump the video
Intro
Philip:Hey, welcome to Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron. If I was an Irishman instead of being a Scotsman, I would say top of the morning to you. But, well, you know, we are just so delighted to have you. We've got a great guest today, and as we warm up, if you could, if you've got a pastor that you love, call your pastor right now, because Ed Newton is with us, a pastor of a great church in San Antonio, Texas. And he's gonna be sharing with you today a word from the Lord.
Philip:Daily Faith is here to be a support, just an affirmation of your everyday walk with the Lord Jesus. I've learned one thing — that Jesus lives in the practical. I don't know whether my background is, I don't like fancy stuff. Just tell me the basics. Tell me how to get on with what I'm doing. And when you do that, then God sends extraordinary things in your path. So whatever you're doing just now, whatever circumstance you're in, first of all, it's temporary. It's never as bad as it seems. And many times it's never as good as it seems. But if you're faithful unto God until the end, he's gonna give you a crown of life.
Philip:And we are just so excited to have you with us. If you wanna hit share on social media, you can turn on your notifications, you can go and watch us on YouTube — very simple, YouTube slash Daily Faith. And our base for all the programs that we do is called Daily Faith TV. And all of the programs, hundreds of them, are there in the catalog. You can go back and we've kind of talked about every kind of subject you could imagine. And I believe that God can use Daily Faith, and we want Daily Faith to be a part of the affirmation of God in your life on a daily basis.
Philip:He loves you with a love that will never let you go. Your friends may desert you, but God never leaves you alone. He's never tired of pursuing you. He loves you so much. He's fascinated by you. And we are gonna have a great program today. I can't wait for you to meet my guest. I'm glad you're here. Welcome to Daily Faith.
Philip:Hey, my friends, welcome to Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron, and God has got you here for a purpose. He wants to speak to you. I had a friend many years ago called Arthur Burt, a great man of God, a real unusually usual person. He'd just show up on your doorstep and spend a few days with you and then move away somewhere else, preach all over the world. He died when he was almost a hundred years of age. And I remember him one day speaking in our church in Scotland, and he said, you can't fix the fixer.
Philip:And I'll tell you what — God has a way of getting you where he wants you to be, to tell you what he wants you to know, to open things up, to reveal to you the plan and purpose for your life. And I believe that you're gonna hear some stuff today that will encourage you to believe God and continue pursuing after him. Every day isn't an Olympic gold medal day. Every day isn't, you know, ice cream and cake. But I'll tell you what, if you're faithful every day, you're gonna get a crown of life. I promise you this. And he's never finished with you. He's never done.
Philip:You may have made the most ridiculous mistakes in your life. And you may have watched this program today thinking, well, what's this? God wants you to know that he's got a plan for your life. Your name is written on the palms of his hands. Nothing can separate you from the love of God, nothing. And we just believe that God has a purpose for us meeting together on this program.
Philip:Ed Newton is with us today. He pastors a ridiculously incredible church in San Antonio, Texas. And I think he's as surprised at what God's doing as, you know, because God uses the most unlikely folks. Availability is the biggest thing that God's looking for. When you see Jesus, he won't say, well done, a good and intelligent person, or you educated person. He says, well done, a good and faithful person. He's looking for you to get up again after you've fallen down. And that's what it's all about.
Philip:We also have mission work in Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova. I adopted Louis, a baby in Romania, 30 odd years ago — a little boy in an orphanage in Timișoara, Romania. And I had no idea when I held him up in that crib and said, I'm gonna make him a son, it would take me a year to do it. And that year we rebuilt the whole orphanage. And by doing so, I was addicted to caring for those that could give you nothing back. A lot of times we do stuff because we're hoping there's a return in it for us. But the real blessing is when you do it as unto the Lord. And he is the reward of them that diligently seek him.
Philip:So we began an adventure 35 years ago, and we ended up in Moldova where there's a horrendous trafficking problem. Young girls in the orphanage at 16 are put on the streets, traffickers get them, offer them fake jobs, and then use them 30 to 50 times a day until they kill them. And each girl will make $300,000 a year for the trafficker. It's unbearable. I've got two young daughters of my own and I had to do something about it. So we had a great place called Vara Village. It's a village of homes right on the largest lake in Moldova.
Philip:And our kids come to us — instead of being put on the street, we take them to Vara Village. And that was meant to be a rich folks' enclave of vacation homes. And they poisoned that lake with chlorine to kill algae, and the whole project fell apart, and it sat unfinished for nine years until we bought the place. And every girl you see in this picture is $300,000 for their trafficker. And every year these kids come to us as orphans, they find the Lord Jesus, they become missionaries.
Philip:And they work in Ukraine. They have feeding programs all through the summertime, do camps. And one of the things they've done over the years is they've developed video and they do their own videos. All the videos you're watching just now were made by them, sent to us — it's something else I've never seen the like of in my life. And one of the girls, Emma, she was deaf until she was five years of age, came from a horrendously abusive family, had no hope until she came to Vara Village. And her whole life has been transformed by grace and the power of God. Here's Emma's story. Watch this.
Emma:My name is Emma. And I was born in a family with many children. My father was drinking a lot, and this made him aggressive. I remember sitting in our room with my siblings and we couldn't go to the kitchen because my father was there, and we would go to sleep hungry.
Emma:I remember one evening I was at home alone with my younger brother and we were getting ready for bed when my mother came. She told us to quickly leave. I didn't understand why. I was in my pajamas. I remember asking her why. She didn't know how to answer. We went to church and slept there because my father was drunk and wanted to beat us. My mother wanted to protect us, so we slept on the chairs.
Emma:And the next night at some friend's house, I remember my father was pushing us sometimes and was saying bad things to my mother. I couldn't do anything to help. And in order for my mom to avoid that, she would take us and lock ourselves in one room and stay there with us. If he was drinking one night, that meant a week for us to go into hiding.
Emma:I became very shy. I was scared to talk to others. I never had a hug from my father. I have no idea what that is like. I saw that in others and I always wanted that, but I never had the chance to have that. He only called me once, and then he told me that he had mistakenly called me.
Emma:I watched others becoming successful and I saw that they can. So I asked myself, why can't I do that? Maybe I'm not as privileged as they are, but this does not discourage me to work hard and get somewhere far in life. I would like to thank those who are helping me to fulfill my dream and continue my studies — economic studies. And I would like to encourage others to work hard and not be overwhelmed by your past.
Philip:We have a motto in our ministry in Moldova and Ukraine. We also have a home in Ukraine. We've had a home there for six years. And the kids there are going through exactly the same experience as the girls in Vara Village. In fact, the girls in Ukraine had to spend a year in Moldova because of the war in Ukraine. They're back there just now, but it's still a very tenuous situation.
Philip:But we have a motto, and this is what the motto says: if you are born, God has a plan. You're not a mistake. And no matter what adversities you come through — in fact, sometimes adversity is the thing that strengthens you to make you who you are — and the tough time you're going through just now, if you'll only trust God in the process, he's gonna help you and grow you through your pain. The scriptures say, even in my distress you enlarged me. And we are taking in 25 more girls in the next few weeks.
Philip:We're looking right now, and we've just — in fact, the board has approved buying two new homes and a farm with an orchard in it, right on the Romanian border, where we can take in — well, there's gonna be 12 more bedrooms in that place — so take in 20 or 30 more young folk there. We are expanding and we need your help. Everything we do in this ministry, all of the day-to-day experience, all the stuff that we do, is done by folk giving a dollar a day. You can change a life for a dollar a day. You can totally revolutionize that girl. You've just seen Emma — because of coming to us, she'll marry someone different, she'll have a different life, she'll have a different experience.
Philip:And God's gonna change her life forever because someone just like you gave a dollar a day. And we need 300 new sponsors as we're growing, and we can only grow as far as we can reach through your grace and kindness. So let the Lord speak to your heart. Very simple — PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee. You can make a check out to Orphan's Hand or Daily Faith, it doesn't matter. 37716. And by being part of this, you are expanding your world. You are changing your world.
Philip:You've got prodigals you're praying for God to bring home. This is how you do it. When you cast your bread upon the water, it shall return back to you in your life. And you can also go to dailyfaith.tv — that's our main base. Our giving page there, you can give. And also we have an 800 number to make it real easy for you — just 833-Daily Faith. And if you could help us today, I believe that God could bless you in return, because when you give to the poor, the Bible says you lend to the Lord. And I believe God's no man's debtor. So please do that and be a part of a miracle.
Philip:I am delighted to have with us today Ed Newton. He pastors Community Bible Church in San Antonio, Texas. And he's not with us today because he pastors a great church. He's with us today because I have a relative, a young man called David, who started a church on the wrong side of the tracks in San Antonio. And this man, with a big church that doesn't have to spend time with the little people, found my relative — I call him my nephew — and loved him and supported him and cared for him and has mentored him. And anyone that has that kind of heart is someone that I love already. And Ed, it is so good to have you with us on Daily Faith today.
Ed Newton's Deaf Parents and Upbringing
Philip:And you're finally hitting a meeting — a camera that talks properly — because that David doesn't know, he talks funny. How are you doing, my friend?
Ed Newton:I'm doing so good. And I wanna say thank you, Pastor Philip, for allowing me to be on your show today.
Philip:Oh, it's my delight. My delight. You have an amazing story. I read just a wee bit. You are the product of a deaf home. Now that girl you've just seen, Emma, was deaf and mute until she was five years of age. And so you understand what she's going through. Tell us your background and just bring hope to folk watching this program today.
Ed Newton:Well, let me say this, Pastor Philip — the moment you shared that story of that precious young girl, immediately I felt the Holy Spirit of God in my own heart with a divine appointment. Of all the days and all the segments, that you have a young girl who was deaf — it's crazy. And no, it's true. I just got off a call with a deaf pastor in Dallas, Texas, signing with my hands. And so to jump onto this show, it was just the Lord bearing witness in my spirit that this was divine.
Ed Newton:So let me just go ahead and say this — this is not just a regular recording. This is a moment that God has orchestrated our lives to be together. And I grew up — both my parents were deaf. My mom and dad have since passed away. My mom passed away four years ago. My dad passed away two years ago. But my mom had cerebral palsy. So my mom was deaf and had cerebral palsy. My dad was deaf. My dad went to Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine, Florida. My mom went to North Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind.
Ed Newton:And they met after they came through that school. They ended up getting married. My mom was unable to have children. And I'm just gonna jump into this, Pastor Philip.
Philip:Go ahead.
Ed Newton:When my mother passed away four years ago, I knew that my mom — my mom always told me I was the miracle — because I have no brothers and sisters. And I knew I was the miracle because my mom had told me that they weren't able to have children. So I'm born, I'm not deaf. I have no genetic challenges, and because my mom had cerebral palsy, I wasn't a carrier of that as well. And that's a miracle.
Ed Newton:But then when my mom dies, I actually read my grandmother's journal. My aunt — my mom's sister — sends me a journal entry from my grandmother about my mom that I did not know until my mom passed away. That my mom went to a healing service in Charlotte, North Carolina to be healed of being deaf. She'd been married to my dad for just a season. She walks forward in a healing service, wanting to be healed of her deafness.
Prophetic Word Over Ed's Mother
Ed Newton:She approaches the altar. The evangelist speaks right to my mom, and he's speaking. But my mom is deaf, so she doesn't understand what he's saying. She looks at my grandmother — and this is the sign for, what did he say? So what did he say was the sign. And my grandmother looks at my mom — and you gotta see this, Pastor Philip — my grandmother looks at my mom and says, he just told you you are pregnant. That's the word for pregnant.
Philip:Oh my goodness.
Ed Newton:And that was me, prophesied over my mom.
Philip:Oh my goodness.
Ed Newton:That she was pregnant — told she'd never have kids, she went forward to the healing service to be healed of being deaf, prophesied over that she's pregnant. And that was me. I didn't know that till my mom died.
Philip:Whoa. What a story. It's incredible.
Ed Newton:So I grew up in a deaf home. I'm fluent in sign language. When I was 10 years old, I was at a McDonald's in Orlando, Florida. Everywhere I went, I had to interpret for my parents. And I just ordered for my parents at McDonald's. And an African American woman approached me. She put her hand on my shoulder and she asked me a question. She goes — I'm 10 years old — she goes, do you do this everywhere you go?
Childhood Interpreter and God's Training
Ed Newton:I said, yes, ma'am. She goes, I just want to tell you this — one day, God's going to greatly use you. I wasn't a follower of God. I didn't know Jesus until I was in high school. But she spoke into my life words that now, almost 50 years old, I still can hear in my soul and spirit. So I know my journey has been the hand of God absolutely orchestrating the details of my life. And I'm honored to be on the show. So thank you for letting me be here.
Philip:My story — I was 13 years of age in Peterhead, Scotland, in my class. And one of the older students came in and said, Cameron, the rector, the principal wants to see you. And I thought, oh my goodness, what have I done wrong? And I went down and I looked through the glass and my dad was sitting with Mr. Geddes, the principal. And Mr. Geddes was a foreboding man. I mean, you got the strap on your hands if you did something wrong. And to go to his office was at the end of the world — to have my father sitting in there.
Philip:And I walked in, and Mr. Geddes pointed me to a little stool. And he sat down, I sat down. Mr. Geddes was on one side of the desk, my dad on the other, and I'm on this little stool. And Mr. Geddes said to my father, well, as I was saying, Mr. Cameron, I just want you to know that this — and he pointed to me, he didn't look at me — he says, this will never be anything. And my dad says, well, we'll have to let God decide that, Mr. Geddes. And he took me out of school at 13.
Philip:So I never finished high school, didn't go to college, didn't go to Bible school, but I built a Bible school. And all of my life, you have that nagging thing inside you saying, you're not good enough, you're not smart enough, you should be more educated. And I've sat with Oral Roberts, I've been on all their shows and programs and preached in front of them all. But yet the devil is always trying to undermine who you are and what you are capable of doing in the kingdom of God.
Philip:And so when you're a kid of deaf parents, and literally — I'm sure them being deaf and needing you to interpret, you being their ears — that must have seemed almost like a sentence to you, that this is what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna be stuck here communicating with my mom and dad with the outside world. But God always has a bigger plan. God always has a bigger plan.
Ed Newton:He sure did. And matter of fact, to illustrate that — I asked my dad on one particular occasion, I said, dad — and I'm signing this, of course, to my dad — I said, do you wish that you could be healed by Jesus? And my dad, Pastor Philip, emphatically goes, no.
Father's Answer: God Made You Our Voice
Philip:Wow.
Ed Newton:And I go, tell me why. And Pastor Philip, this is what he did. He goes — man, I'm getting emotional — he said, God gave you to us to be our voice, to be our ears. And he said, what God did in your life is he taught you to be able to talk to so many different people, older, younger. You are our voice to the electric company. You are our voice at the restaurant. You are our voice buying a house. You are our voice buying a car. You are our voice. And he goes, and now I know that God was training you to be his voice.
Ed Newton:So no, I don't wish I was healed, because of you and watching how God uses you.
Philip:Gosh. That's so powerful. And I know watching this, I'm so aware that someone's watching us right now. And the devil comes along — he's the accuser of the brethren. He gets you in a cul-de-sac and you're stuck. And you're thinking, my God, why am I carrying this burden? Why is my load so heavy? If I could just escape this thing, then I'd be all right. And what you don't understand is that's what's making you who you are. That's the thing that's making you grow and deepen and put roots down and struggle through. The thing that you hate most sometimes is the thing that God uses to grow you the most.
Philip:I know there's folk watching just now. And the question is, why me? How can God use me? And what you're saying is, why not? There's no reason for God not to use you.
Ed Newton:What a word. I just finished preaching a sermon series. I have a book coming out entitled Why Not You? And it has come out of a discovery process in my own heart. You said it — the accuser of the brethren. Satan accuses us day and night, day and night. But one of the things I've realized about my own life is I've been more of the adversary of Ed than the devil has.
Why Not You — Overcoming Self-Accusation
Philip:Guilty.
Ed Newton:I've been my own worst enemy. And I'm telling you, Pastor Philip, listen to this. There's a gentleman that's in our church that's a brand new believer, older. And he said this to me — he said, Ed, is it a sin not to believe what God believes about you? And I'd never heard that question before in my entire life.
Is It a Sin to Reject God's View of You
Philip:Wow. What a question.
Ed Newton:And I paused and I said, yes. Yeah, absolutely. Because he has said this about you. And when you choose not to receive what he says about you and reject it, you're calling him a liar. And who knows you better? And then the moment happened where I went, how many times with my own children — we have four children — how many times with our own children do I try to get them to believe what I believe about them, but they don't receive it.
Ed Newton:I said this to my son — he's a sophomore in high school. I said, how many times have I told you I believe in you more than anybody else ever will? He said, dad, you tell me that all the time. And all I could think of is how many times has the Lord, through the power of the Holy Spirit, tried to tell me that he actually believes in me more than I believe in him.
Philip:That is the truth. That is the truth. I've got four kids, nine grandkids. And I encourage them all the time — God's made you unique, you're special. And right now, when they come back home from school, I go through it with one of our kids — Rowan, one of my grandkids is called Rowan. And I'm trying to get him to read more. And I'm telling him all the time, if you learn to read, it opens your mind. Readers make leaders and stuff. And he's nine and he doesn't see it. And I see all the potential in him. I see all the worth in him — this amazing little man that is just so kind and loving. And I see his potential and he doesn't see it.
Philip:And I wonder how God looks at us so many times and thinks, if only you knew what I've put in you, if only you knew that I've invested myself, that you have my DNA inside you. And the devil comes along and he tries to devalue you. These kids that live in our homes in Moldova, they come having never heard a kind word. That girl Emma has never heard a dad say he loved her, never been cuddled, never hugged by a dad. And to overpower the negativity of that experience, I believe, is the challenge of all our lives.
Philip:Because I saw something online with you and a fellow called Anthony that came and caused a disruption in your church and stopped the whole service. And I was waiting for you to say, throw that man out. And you didn't — you took him to the front and hugged him and loved him. And I thought, wow. Now there is the heart of God in manifestation.
Homeless Man Social Experiment at Church
Ed Newton:Amen. Well, I did a social science experiment about four years ago, Pastor Philip. I hired a professional costume artist that dressed me up as a homeless man. And I wanted to see how our church would respond. And without telling the whole story of that, because I know we're limited for time, one of our services I was picked up by a man in our church that was a 47-year heroin addict who just got out of the hospital, and he picked me up and sat with me on the back row, didn't even know I was the pastor because I had a professional costume on.
Ed Newton:And he said, there's gonna be a guy that stands up on this stage in just a few minutes, and you're gonna love him. He's our pastor. He doesn't even know he is talking to me. And he goes, afterwards, I'm just telling you, I'm gonna take you to get a hamburger, and I want you to come live with me. I'm gonna make sure you're taken care of. And I thought to myself, I will never forget that. Because that's the positive story, but there's a lot of negative stories of being ignored and not received and rejected.
Ed Newton:So that marked me four years ago. So when you talk about that moment of that interruption, there's a pre-story that helped me see people the way that God wants me to see people, because I tried to put myself into that situation. It goes back to being a son of two deaf parents. I grew up in government-subsidized housing. All my neighbors were handicapped. So that was eye-opening and revelatory. I've always had a heart for the marginalized, the outcast, and the underdog.
Heart for the Marginalized and the Underdog
Ed Newton:And my mission is to help people understand they're not the underdog. If God's on your side, David was not the underdog with Goliath. When God's on your side, you are the giant, not the Goliath. And David was able to see himself bigger than Saul saw him, bigger than his brothers saw him, because he knew that the God whom he served was bigger. Can't wear somebody else's armor, Pastor Philip. Can't wear Saul's armor. Somebody's watching today — stop trying to wear somebody else's anointing.
Philip:Absolutely. God's got one for you. Listen, whenever you get this book written, please come back on Daily Faith. In fact, you've got an open door invitation anytime you want, because I love hearing what you're saying. And I think it's Scottish too — I'm Scottish. Well, that's the best bit of you, I promise you.
Philip:Now, Pastor Ed Newton — listen, if you are anywhere in the San Antonio area, Community Bible Church — very simple, communitybible.com — or Ed Newton, get in contact with this place. They love you for who you are. Thank you again for being with us, Ed. We love you so much and honor you for your kindness. We'll see you again. Thank you for watching Daily Faith. Bye-bye for today.
For over 25 years, the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova — from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They champion the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons. And in the process, orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus.
God help the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. The Orphan's Hand equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hand homes in Moldova and Ukraine.
If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 833-Daily Faith. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
What is Ed Newton's background growing up with deaf parents?
Ed Newton grew up in a home where both of his parents were deaf — his mother also had cerebral palsy. He became fluent in sign language and served as his parents' interpreter everywhere they went, from restaurants to car dealerships. His father later told him that God was using that experience to train him to be God's voice to the world.
What is the story behind Ed Newton's birth being prophesied?
Ed's mother, who was told she could never have children, attended a healing service in Charlotte, North Carolina, hoping to be healed of her deafness. Because she was deaf, she couldn't hear the evangelist, so she signed to her mother asking what he said — and her mother signed back that the evangelist had just prophesied she was pregnant. Ed only discovered this story after his mother passed away, when his aunt shared their grandmother's journal.
What did Ed Newton's dad say when asked if he wished Jesus would heal his deafness?
Ed's father emphatically said no. He explained that God gave Ed to them to be their voice and their ears, and that through serving his deaf parents, God was training Ed to speak to all kinds of people — and ultimately to be God's voice. His father saw Ed's role not as a burden but as divine preparation.
What is the key message behind Ed Newton's upcoming book 'Why Not You?'
Ed says the book grew out of a personal discovery that he had often been his own worst enemy — more of an adversary to himself than the devil ever was. A newer believer in his church challenged him with the question, 'Is it a sin not to believe what God believes about you?' Ed concluded the answer is yes, because rejecting what God says about you is essentially calling God a liar.
What was Ed Newton's homeless man social experiment at his church?
About four years ago, Ed hired a professional costume artist to disguise him as a homeless man so he could see how his congregation would respond to someone in need. In one service, a 47-year heroin addict who had just left the hospital sat with him on the back row, not knowing Ed was the pastor, and offered to buy him a hamburger and let him live at his home. Ed said that moment — alongside some negative reactions — shaped how he sees and approaches people on the margins.
Topics
ed newtonidentity in christdivine callingself-doubtprophetic testimonycommunity bible churchpurpose