Watkin R. Roberts (21 September 1886– 20 April 1969) was a Welsh missionary responsible for the initial Christian converts among the Hmar and other sister tribes in the Churachandpur district and Pherzawl districtof Southern Manipur, India.
Over the northern border of Mizoram, people in the Hmar village of Senvawn, Manipur had heard of the Gospel.
[7] However, Roberts sent the Hmar village chief a copy of the Gospel of John translated into the Lushai language.
After a week of teaching, the chief and four other Hmar men announced that they wanted to make peace with the God of the Bible by believing on Jesus Christ.
Though Roberts only spent a total of five days with the Hmars, the converts grew in faith and became leaders of a new, energetic church.
There he met an English woman, Gladys Wescott Dobson, who also had a heart for overseas Christian missionary work.
After much prayer, Roberts and Gladys were married at Thoburn Methodist Episcopal Church on 8 March 1915 in Kolkata, India.
[5] Due to local believers aspirations to spread the Gospel to Burma, the organization was renamed again in 1930 to Indo-Burma Pioneer Mission.
The British Colonial authorities saw Roberts as a troublemaker who ignored the comity system in which mission organizations were assigned designated geographic regions where they were to be the sole Christian church.
For having stayed overnight in Hmar homes where he also ate their food, British authorities expelled Roberts from India.
In 1956, one of his original convert's son, Rochunga Pudaite, was studying at Wheaton College and translating the Bible into the Hmar language.
The film includes Roberts' meeting Chawnga's son Rochunga Pudaite who was translating the Bible into their language in Canada, 46 years later.