Rev. and Mrs. Fishman were appointed to foreign mission service in 1917 and designated to Kavali, South India. They sailed to the field in July 1920. and after four months of language study, they went to the Kavali settlement to fill in for someone on furlough. In 1924, they were transferred to Ongole. Here, as elsewhere, Fishman's agricultural training served him well. He became general assistant, conducting the agricultural fair, visited stations for consultation, installed a windwmill, etc. He also took charge of the high school for seven months.

In 1925 they were transferred to Nellore where he became the principal of the high school and the supervisor of manual training, bookbinding, weaving, etc. With the help of the dormitory boys, he cultivated the 12-acre farm connected with the school.

Both Fishmans taught in Nellore in the 1940s, at the school for missionary children, and Eleanor's official position for over a decade was field missionary to the Baptists of Guntut Talug (county), comprised of 35 village churches and congregations. At that same time, she worked with the Lone Star Union, an organization of college students. She headed the Christian Home Movement Committee of Andhra Christian Council.

The Fishmans retired in 1962.