Last updated on: September 23, 2018 at 9:21 pm By GFA Staff Writer
A GFA-supported missionary
Jayin held a position of high respect in his community and was well on his journey to self-realization and ultimate reality. But Jayin was searching for something more. He was searching for God.
His role in the village was to share his spiritual understanding and enlightenment with those who came under his tuteledge in the hope that their experience will transcend his own. Jayin’s dilemma was that he had been unable to find the living God in his studies, his traditions or his rituals.
Realizing that all that he had learned and practiced had done nothing to bring him to the true God he was seeking, he became frustrated. It disturbed him deeply that he conducted and taught all of the physical rites and metaphysical ruminations to his students. If he couldn’t find God in them, how could they?
As he continued to struggle, he spiraled into depression and nearly lost his mind tilting at the windmills on his increasingly quixotic quest. He became so mentally and emotionally disturbed that his wife deserted him.
However, the living God had a plan for Jayin. Jayin’s parents loved their son and prayed that Jesus would reveal Himself to their son and deliver him from his confusion.
They arranged for a GFA-supported pastor to visit Jayin. As the pastor shared the good news about Jesus and His love for us, Jayin realized that this is the God he had been seeking. He understood that Jesus died for our sins, but that He rose from the dead and is alive, and that He is the only Way to God the Father.
Jayin came to the realization that he was a sinner in need of the living God who is the Light of the World. He gladly received the Word and committed himself to serve the Lord.
The love of Jesus began to fill the emptiness he had long felt in his soul. Eventually, he followed God’s call to enroll in a Bible College.
Today, he is a pastor to his own people. His heart is to share the love of Christ with people who have not heard.
Please pray for the Lord to bring much fruit through Jayin’s labors.
Pray, too, that he will stay close to Jesus and know Him as a constant Friend.
Last updated on: November 25, 2019 at 11:11 am By GFA Staff Writer
Tony and Kelly are partner-supported members of the GFA Mission Support Team.
I remember the first time I met Tony. It was late at night, and I had just arrived at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. I was standing at the arrivals curb waiting for someone I had never met to give me a ride to the GFA campus in Wills Point. (I could almost hear my mother’s voice telling me to never accept a ride from a stranger—especially in the dark of night.) Fortunately, the first and only person to offer me a ride was the one GFA had asked to take me to Wills Point.
Turns out that Tony is a member of the GFA Mission Support Team. The drive to GFA provided plenty of time to get to know him. You see, I had thought that Wills Point was a Dallas suburb. But it’s not. I don’t even know for sure how long the ride was or how far we traveled. I’m not saying that the GFA campus is at the end of the world, but in the daytime, you can just about see it from there. I’m almost positive that I saw a sign on the highway that said, “End of the World – 5 miles.”
Back to my story. Tony became my first in-person impression of GFA. He still is. He always will be. From my brief stay at the GFA campus, during which I met many staff members, I learned that Tony is an accurate representation of members of the Mission Support Team. You can read his GFA bio at this link, but the three things I learned about him are far more important than a bio on a website.
He is humble. Those three words will embarrass him if he ever reads them. The first evidence of his humility was his response when I asked him what he does at GFA. I realize that is a common question. I learned many years ago to ask more for personal insight than for information.
The most common response to that question is usually naming a job title—often with a pinch of pride. I still have no more idea what Tony’s job or job title is than what is published in his Mission Support Team bio. He did share some of the various things that he does, including material support and communicating with ministry partners to keep them informed and encouraged. His answer told me less about the specifics of what he does and more about who he is.
He is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. Somewhere out in that dark night, we stopped to eat at a world-famous restaurant. Actually, we didn’t go in. We used the drive-thru. When Tony paid for our meal, he handed the gentleman a Gospel tract, told him it was about Jesus Christ and asked him to read it. It was so natural, it was as though he had done it hundreds of times before, which he likely has.
What did I learn? Tony is not just a supporter of missions nor is he just a part of the Mission Support Team as a job. He is doing the same ministry as national missionaries on the field.
He is willing to do whatever is asked of him. That ride took a good-sized chunk out of Tony’s evening. Two days later, he returned me to the airport, keeping him from doing whatever was on his agenda to accomplish that day.
In fact, Tony left the car with me when he dropped me at the guest house. I offered to drive him to his home, but he would have none of it. He grabbed his backpack, and off he went. Early two mornings later, he was standing outside the door with his backpack waiting to return me to DFW.
He is a man of prayer. I can tell when someone is accustomed to talking with the Lord. You probably can too. We prayed together on at least three occasions, according to my recollection. Clearly, our conversation was with the Lord, not with each other, nor were those times meant to impress each other. We did it because that’s what we do.
That’s what I know about Tony. I don’t need to know much more than that. He loves the Lord, and he and his family have denied themselves of many of the so-called pleasures of life in deference to serving our Savior on the GFA Mission Support Team.
I was touched by Tony. That’s the reason that, once I submit this story for publication, I am going to begin contributing to Tony and Kelly’s support. We need more men like Tony serving the Lord like Tony does. I want to help to ensure that Tony and Kelly and their boys are able to continue their ministry with the GFA Mission Support Team.
Perhaps it is time you prayed about supporting a team member as well.
To learn more about the GFA Mission Support Team, visit this page on the GFA website.
To read more on Patheos on the GFA Missions Support Team, go here.
Driven by a passion to serve people Jesus referred to as “the least of these,” in 1979, Dr. KP Yohannan led a group of prayer believers to establish Gospel for Asia with a vision to turn the passion into practice.
Putting Our Passion into Practice to Serve the Least of These
While millions of people in North America were consumed with the debut of the Dukes of Hazzard, the release of The Muppet Movie, the introduction of the McDonald’s Happy Meal, and things on a more significant scale such as the American hostage crisis in Iran, the search for the Unabomber, and the peace talks in Washington between Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin, a small group of Christians had been fasting and praying in Dallas. They were praying that the Lord would open the way for them to reach “the least of these” in ways that would improve their living conditions and demonstrate the love of Jesus to change their lives forever.
Who are “the least of these?” There is no simple definition and there are even theological debates on the subject. The Lord referred to them as the hungry, the thirsty, the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned. The answer boils down to this – God has always shown a special concern for the poor and needy, so it should come as no surprise that He expects us to do the same. This is not a matter for debate. It is an indicator of Christ-mindedness.
A native of South Asia, Dr. Yohannan has always been acutely aware of the presence and needs of those whom we could call “the least of the least,” “the poorest of the poor,” and those without access to the common necessities for healthy lives or to an awareness of the Gospel.
Dr. Yohannan also understood that the leadership of the emerging nations, many of which had endured the commercialization associated with the colonialization of the British Empire, were wary of outsiders and their agendas. His ground-breaking book, Revolution in World Missions, pointed to the necessity and marked the beginning of reaching, training, and equipping local believers within their native countries who could reach their own people with the love of Jesus.
One of the ways that Gospel for Asia’s national workers serve “the least of these” is by providing care for women, the objects of culturally-based rejection and scorn in much of South Asia.
Serving Women Who Need Training and Assistance
Serving women who need literacy or vocational training minister to the least of these.
In 2017, Gospel for Asia (GFA) and its worldwide affiliates working in 18 Asian nations empowered more than 350,000 women through various ministry efforts.
In some areas where GFA-supported workers minister, women especially have it difficult. Some silently suffer violence at the hands of their husbands, their close and distant relatives and even strangers who exploit and abuse them.
In 2017, to make a positive difference, Gospel for Asia (GFA) helped provided free health care training to 289,033 women. This training focused on teaching women the basics of how to care for themselves and their families. They also learned how to keep a safe and hygienic home for their families and how to take care of themselves while pregnant. In addition, GFA taught 50,624 women in rural villages how to read and write, which will safeguard them from being cheated at the market and from entering into exploitative and usurious agreements with lenders. Another 10,965 women received vocational training that will provide them with valuable skills to make an honest living.
But more than this, as women experience the love of fellow human beings who are willing to serve and minister to them, their understanding of their worth and value in society is elevated. GFA-supported workers treat each girl and woman they meet with respect. They speak words of life into the hearts of women who’ve silently suffered violence, letting them know they matter, they have value and they are loved — even if the rest of society doesn’t think so.
As Dr. KP Yohannan noted, “It’s heartbreaking to consider the unthinkable struggles so many women go through, many of them unseen by anyone else in the world. We want them to know that they are precious in God’s sight, that they have unique value and worth as people created in His image, and that they are not forgotten.”
Providing Clean Drinking Water to Those Using Contaminated Sources
Another problem that plagues around two billion people worldwide – both women and men – is drinking water from stagnant ponds or water sources contaminated with feces. It is estimated that 502,000 deaths are caused each year by diseases, such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio, which are transmitted through contaminated water.
Providing clean water serves the least of these who are getting sick from contaminated water sources.
To meet the critical need for water in some of the neediest regions across Asia, GFA has spearheaded the “Jesus Well” project. In 2017 alone, Gospel for Asia was able to help provide 4,673 wells. That’s 4,673 sources of clean, fresh drinking water. One well typically provides clean water for at least 300 people and can last up to 20 years. GFA supporters around the world have allowed the rate of installation of Jesus Wells to continue and remain consistent, with tens of thousands of wells installed in the past several years. The Jesus Well project is one of the largest clean water initiatives in the world.
In regions where water might be accessible, but it’s just not safe to drink, GFA-supported workers provide BioSand water filters. These simple structures — locally built from concrete, sand, and rocks — filter water to remove 98 percent of biological impurities, providing safer water for drinking and cooking. In 2017, GFA helped provided 11,324 BioSand water filters for families and individuals.
As critical as these needs are, they are just a sampling of all that God has done through GFA in 2017. Around 234,300 families received much-needed income-generating gifts. GFA-supported workers organized 1,245 medical camps in villages and remote communities. They also helped install 6,364 toilets in communities desperately in need of safe sanitation facilities—and so much more.
“These statistics serve as an aerial view of what God accomplished in one year throughout communities in Asia,” Dr. Yohannan said. “God has done so much through His servants, who are faithfully ministering to the poor, desperate and needy around them. We praise God for giving us the opportunity to join Him in his work, and we are deeply grateful for the love, prayers and sacrificial giving of our donors so others may experience the grace and mercy of Christ.”
To learn more about all that God accomplished in GFA, click here.
About Gospel for Asia
Gospel for Asia is a Christian organization deeply committed to seeing communities transformed through the love of Christ demonstrated in word and deed. GFA serves “the least of these” in Asia, often in places where no one else is serving, so they can experience the love of God for the first time.
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Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.
This is Ralph and Sandy. With joy and steadfast hearts, they serve Jesus together, allowing many around the world to hear about the love of Jesus.
Sandy, a behind-the-scenes missionary with GFA, shares her family’s journey through 20 years of dedicated service. Still today, she and her husband Ralph face the unfinished task together, all for the sake of Christ and His love.
Although my husband Ralph and I were both raised in Christian homes, we had become very disillusioned within the church. We felt there had to be more to the Christian life than works and the fear that we would never be good enough for Heaven. After much prayer and searching, we discovered three things that changed our lives: grace, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We have not been the same since.
Desiring to Serve the Lord Together
In 1997, after my husband completed a degree in business information systems, it was apparent to Ralph and me that we needed to use this skill for God. But we had no idea how to even begin. All we knew was that we wanted to work together as a team for the Lord. We heard an advertisement on the radio about a national Christian job placement service that could help us. After applying for ministries all over the country and asking God to send us wherever He wanted, Gospel for Asia’s response was the only one we received.
We are probably one of the few couples on staff who had no prior knowledge of Gospel for Asia or national missionaries. When we found out we would need to raise support, it was very intimidating. But after reading Revolution in World Missions, we knew this was where God wanted us to serve and that He would provide.
God never ceased to amaze us and show us His faithfulness. Two weeks after returning home from our interview with Gospel for Asia, someone called us and wanted to buy our house. We had not advertised or listed it yet—we hadn’t even told anyone we were leaving! Now we had no place to live and still needed to raise our support goal. Then, in response to one of the support letters we mailed, a couple we had known only three months prior opened their home to us to live with them until our support was raised.
Dream Job or God’s Calling?
We had mailed letters and contacted everyone on our family list, our friend list, our acquaintance list and our friends-of-acquaintances list. Our support came in steadily for about five months and then seemed to dry up. Now we had to really put our faith out there.
I asked the Lord in my quiet time one morning to show us once again our calling and to do something to encourage our faith. I met a lady at the bank later that same day whom I had never seen or met before. After chatting, the lady asked a few questions, and I shared with her our calling to GFA. The lady said that the Lord had given her the gift of giving and she wanted to support us! For the past 20 years that we have served with GFA, she has supported us faithfully every month.
Ralph continued working at his job while we raised support. We were at 75 percent of our support goal when his company offered Ralph his dream job, as well as a huge raise in pay and grade level. There was a deadline to accept the job, and we didn’t have our support fully raised, so Ralph told me on Friday before the deadline to start looking for a place to live and settle down in again. That same afternoon we received a phone call from Brother K.P., the founder of GFA, informing us that a church we had never been to or contacted was going to support us for the exact amount we needed to bring our support goal to 100 percent. Talk about humbling!
The church we had been members of for 15 years wasn’t supporting us, so it blew us away that God would use a church body we had never met, to support us in this way. Once again, we were humbled by His faithfulness!
Now we continued on course, declined the job and were on our way to Texas! To think that God could use us to impact the world with Christ’s love was both exciting and fearful. Would we be good enough? Would we be spiritual enough?
Not a Matter of Being ‘Good Enough’
When we arrived in Texas, it was 110 degrees and everyone from GFA was there to help unload the truck. They actually thanked us for coming and for our hearts to serve the Lord and prayed for us! We quickly found out the answers to our anxious questions: It is not a matter of whether you are good enough or spiritual enough, but whether you are obedient to what He asks of you.
Prayer Always Comes First
Of everything we do at Gospel for Asia, prayer has impacted our lives the most. We pray as individuals, pray in the halls and offices and pray as a staff. No matter what is happening, prayer is what we do first. Ralph and I had never prayed together as a couple before coming to GFA. To this day it is still mind-boggling, humbling and overwhelming to think that the God of the universe bends His ear to hear our prayers..
I remember after we first got to GFA, I really messed up on a project and was crying as I told my leaders. I just knew in my heart that we would be asked to leave or, at the very least, get a heavy reprimand. After tearfully telling them what I had done, the first thing they said was, “Let’s pray about it.”
I thought they didn’t understand how critical this situation was and repeated what had happened. They said, “Let’s pray about it.” So, we did. Then I saw God turn the entire situation around and answer in such a way that had we done what was originally planned, it would have failed. He taught me that day to rely on His plan, not my own, and to always seek Him first!
The Privilege and the Challenge
Being called by God to serve at Gospel for Asia is a privilege. Unfortunately, some days it feels like it is just an ordinary job. It is difficult to stay in the battle day after day when it seems as though you have a target on your back for the enemy to mess with. Some days you can quickly lose focus on Who you are serving and then everything starts going downhill. Although you are working in a Christian environment, there is still the flesh to deal with.
At times like this, I have my rocks of remembrance of how God brought us here and the call He has placed on our lives. When I can “peel away the layers of the onion” and get down to the basic fact that God called me, not to what I want when I want it or how I want it, but to do it His way, then I can rest in Him.
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Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.
Eight years ago, I experienced just a taste of the mission field. I walked through grimy slum alleyways to reach a cheerful Bridge of Hope center; I walked along dusty village paths to a place known as “the miracle church” because of the mighty acts of God witnessed there; I pumped the handle of a Jesus Well that was the answer to many prayers; I worshiped alongside believers whose language I didn’t know, but whose God I did know.
Each of those experiences is precious, but the one that stands out most vividly, even years later, is an interaction I had with a missionary whose name I do not know.
I call him the brother from the window.
While in Asia, I visited a place that was familiar to me—not because I had been there before, but because I had prayed for that exact place just months earlier. We had received a report that a group of Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported missionaries had been attacked and beaten. It was due to some huge misunderstanding with the community, but it resulted in a few brothers being injured. We prayed, and then just three months later, I was standing among some of those same brothers.
These are just a few of the Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported brothers whom God is working through to transform lives. “The brother from the window” is pictured far left, in purple.
I heard the testimonies of a few who endured the beating—and they spoke with smiles on their faces. That experience was not something that made them bitter or hardened against those who hurt them. Rather, they overflowed with joy and thanksgiving that they had personal relationships with Jesus and could suffer for His sake.
Although the language and cultural barrier was quite real, I connected more with this place and these brothers than anywhere else I visited. I didn’t want to leave.
But I had to. I did not belong there. It was clear how inefficient I would be ministering in that area. My distractingly pale skin and total dependency on a translator would hinder their ministry more than help it.
As we were driving away from this place that had captured my heart, I remember praying a simple prayer, “Lord, I really don’t want to leave yet. Can’t we stay a bit longer?”
Then our vehicles got stuck in the mud from the recent downpour. Really stuck. My prayer was answered!
I had heard about these national missionaries my entire life. I knew how dedicated they were, how they endured hardship for the sake of their Savior, and how God was working through them so powerfully. In my head, I knew they were just human beings, but they still felt superhuman.
These humble servants of God are just a few of the national missionaries who are enabled to do ministry through Gospel for Asia’s National Missionary Program.
Now I saw these life-long heroes come running out of buildings, rolling up their pant legs and jumping between mud puddles to push our cars out. If you’re like me and have ever helped push a few cars out of the mud, you know how covered you can get as the stuck wheels spin. But I saw these brothers—these missionaries—joyfully laughing as they got muddy and wet from the rain, and I realized these are young men like we have in the States. They like getting muddy sometimes; they are strong; they revel in a challenge; they have a bond of comradery and love to aid those in distress, like this helpless American girl who was in a stuck car!
They got our vehicle free after a few attempts, and we drove a few yards to drier ground. Then I met the brother from the window.
While the other missionaries started heading back to the buildings (to clean up, I imagine), one brother ran up to my vehicle. He poked his head through the open window, looked me in the eyes and said:
“Pray for us. Don’t forget us! Pray for us.”
His words echoed in my mind as we drove away. Pray for us. Don’t forget us. The dots started connecting. I had been in America months earlier and had heard these specific brothers needed prayer, and I prayed. And now I saw the fruit of those prayers. I had been part of sponsoring missionaries through Gospel for Asia for years already, and I had been part of encouraging many other people to sponsor and pray too.
That’s what I was supposed to keep doing, that’s what my role was. Everything I had heard about national missions over the years was confirmed: My role—and many other people’s roles—was to support national missionaries as they did what I couldn’t do in Asia. And one day, probably in heaven, I’ll see the fruit of that too.
I left that precious place knowing that’s what God was telling me to do. Keep praying for these missionaries, and help others remember them too. Don’t forget them.
So I encourage you today: Pray for these men and women, and don’t forget them. And remember how human they are—humans doing extraordinary things for the Lord, by His strength.
What does God want to do through you?
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Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.
Last updated on: December 6, 2019 at 2:04 pm By GFA Staff Writer
If the greatest misunderstanding about leprosy is believing that it is a highly contagious disease, the second is misunderstanding its pain.
In fact, leprosy is highly treatable and curable, and nerve damage can be entirely avoided. Early treatment, in other words, limits leprosy to a minor skin disease. Even in people with advanced stages of leprosy, the likelihood of others contracting the condition is minimal at best.
As to the matter of pain, the nature of the leprosy bacteria is that it seeks primarily the cooler parts of the human body: the skin and the extremities. Once there, it can cause unsightly discolored lesions and nerve damage. The nerve damage compounds the damage by making the injuries, bruises, cuts and sores imperceptible to the victim. That unrecognized damage leads to more sores and, often, the eventual loss of fingers and toes.
Like many other diseases, the longer the disease is untreated, the greater the internal pain. But that is not the worst pain someone infected with leprosy a bears.
Leprosy, in its various forms and manifestations, has been viewed as an abomination in every culture in which it exists for more than the millennia. The common fear of contagion and the response to the repulsion of the external damage have typically cut off people with leprosy from society to spend the rest of their lives dealing with the pain and misery of rejection, shame and loneliness.
The unrealistic perception of the otherwise healthy population imposes medically irrational isolation on victims of leprosy. The path to the pain of loneliness looks something like this:
Leprosy: The Path to Pain (GFA)
It is part of the human condition to fear the unknown – and to fear that which is not visually appealing. Leprosy presents both conditions. Therefore, the uniformed response is rejection at the family and communal levels.
The scope of rejection, in fact, goes far beyond, as evidenced by the fact that World Leprosy Day is necessary to raise awareness of the disease. Our human nature, left untransformed, doesn’t even want to think about it.
In some developing nations of Africa and Asia, the misunderstanding of leprosy runs deep. Most, but not all, cases of leprosy appear in the poorest of communities, so victims may already be objects of derision living in slums and already isolated from the community at large. But people with leprosy are rejected by their own equally impoverished families and friends.
“While this ancient disease may be largely forgotten in many parts of the world, it’s an everyday reality for many in Asia,” said Dr. KP Yohannan, Gospel for Asia founder.
Left to fend for themselves, they are relegated to leper colonies where they can be amongst “their own,” often without treatment and without apparent hope. This is the pain of leprosy. Life separated from family and former friends. Life where the other residents bear the same “shameful” marks and disease. Life where all you see is the unsightly and loathsome ravages that others don’t want to see. Life in the pain of despair.
Through national missionaries and aid workers, Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported leprosy ministry provides practical relief services to these victims, including food distribution, medical aid, health and hygiene awareness programs, adult education and tuition centers for children.
The ministry also offers Sunday school and fellowship groups to those forced to live in leprosy colonies, giving sufferers the opportunity to hear about Jesus’ unconditional love for them.
During the week surrounding World Leprosy Day, Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported missionaries demonstrate Christ’s love through special one-day programs. Beyond their routine care for these leprosy patients, they also clean leprosy colonies and individual patient homes. Doctors will also visit the colonies to provide much-needed medical care. In addition, missionary teams will provide patients with gifts, such as blankets, shoes and goats, which can be used for individual or community income-producing opportunities.”
Prayer Point: Pray that people with leprosy will see the unconditional love of Jesus, as demonstrated to them by GFA-supported national workers.
Gospel for Asia deals first hand with the scandal of slavery and human trafficking by helping our field partners who minister among the poverty stricken in Asia, where over two-thirds of the worlds human trafficking victims reside.
The 2016 Global Slavery Index estimates that 45.8 million people are living in some form of modern slavery. Over 30 million reside in Asia. Five countries are home to 26.5 million men, women and children trapped in the grips of slavery and human trafficking.
Another source estimates 36 million victims worldwide, with 23.5 million in Asia.
Regardless of the exact number, any number of this magnitude is scandalous.
Many of the tens of thousands to whom Gospel for Asia ministers are victims of this scandal or of its results.
“The United Nations estimates that some 64% of human trafficking in Asia is for forced labor, servitude and slavery, while 26% is for sexual exploitation . . . In Asia, 36% of trafficked victims are children.”
The effects of slavery and human trafficking include destitution, poverty, humiliation, hunger and lack of access to nutrition and education.
The irony of the scandal is that, while millions suffer from its impact, others profit from its perpetuation.
Gospel for Asia understands that we cannot prevent slavery and human trafficking. Neither can we sit idle and do nothing. We, too, believe this is a crime against humanity and that it should be recognized and dealt with as such. That is clearly a governmental responsibility. But rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s does not absolve us from rendering unto Christ what is Christ’s.
Jesus said that while He was in the world, He was the Light of the World. When He has preparing to leave, He told us that we are now that light as we let His love shine through us.
He told us to love one another. He gave us a task to minister to the widows and the fatherless and all those in need. And so, we must go.
GFA-supported national missionaries witness first hand and minister to the deepest physical and spiritual needs of tens of thousands throughout Asia, many of whom are victims of the results of slavery and human trafficking.
GFA’s Bridge of Hope Program helps minister to more than 82,000 impoverished children in Asia, rescuing them from the effects of the scandal of slavery and human trafficking.
GFA’s programs to provide compassionate care and our community programs help tens of thousands to have basic necessities, which they would not otherwise have for a healthy life.
You can learn more about how you can help to support Gospel for Asia’s efforts to reduce the effects of the scandal of slavery and human trafficking in Asia by clicking on any of the above links.
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It’s Throwback Thursday! We’re going back to 2005 to a group meeting in Gospel for Asia’s old office in Carrollton, Texas, where people are discussing potential opportunities to help meet more needs on the field. A question is raised, “What if we made a catalog with high-impact gifts donors could give to families in Asia at Christmastime?”
The project was something new for the leaders at Gospel for Asia (GFA). Providing farm animals and sewing machines was so different from what the ministry was doing at the time—supporting and equipping national missionaries, educating underprivileged children, drilling water wells—but helping impoverished families in Jesus’ name truly complimented the ministry’s vision.
“The next year, we worked with the field with the idea of animals and other gifts,” said John, a Gospel for Asia (GFA) staff member since 1992. “It was exciting because it would give donors a whole new and completely different opportunity to minister to the poor while still sharing the love of Christ.”
In 2006, Gospel for Asia’s first Christmas Gift Catalog was printed. It’s aim? Encouraging believers in the West to celebrate Christmas by giving life-changing gifts to families in Asia that break the cycle of poverty and provide hope. As John says, “The gift of hope, I believe, is one of the greatest gifts we can give, as it comes directly from the Father.”
Gospel for Asia mailed out its first Christmas Gift Catalog in 2006! Here’s an array of the catalogs we’ve designed and mailed since then.
What People Thought of the Catalog
When the catalog started landing in mailboxes, Gospel for Asia (GFA) friends had the opportunity to give toward dozens of items, such as chickens, goats, water filters, rickshaws, winter clothing and church buildings.
“We were not totally sure what to expect, but our donors totally grabbed the vision and ran with it,” John recalls. “It was amazing to see the huge number of gifts that came in. We had to reorganize the work load just to manage it all.”
Heather, another Gospel for Asia (GFA) staff member, remembers the flood of donations received through the catalog.
“I didn’t anticipate such an overwhelming response! It was so exhilarating to watch the Body of Christ all come together for this endeavor. …
“That first year, I talked with someone who had given a Jesus Well. It was his first gift to the ministry, so I was curious how he’d heard about it. As it turned out, he was a postman and had been delivering catalogs all week. He was waiting for one to be undeliverable so he could look at it himself (standard procedure for catalogs and magazines), and when he finally got to see the inside of a catalog, he was so impacted that he responded by providing a well. I think that’s when I really realized this was something special.”
By God’s grace, the response to the catalog has continued to increase—with more than 1.7 million families in Asia receiving life-changing gifts over the years.
Christ-centered Celebrations
We’ve all been there. On Christmas morning, the toys and the presents are so exciting! And then one day the new toy monster trucks loses a wheel. Or the mechanical puppy starts to wheeze as its battery dies.
At a Christmas gift distribution in 2010, this man received a cow that would help him and his family overcome poverty.
Hope, who now serves on staff with Gospel for Asia (GFA), remembers how her family incorporated the Christmas catalog in their celebrations during her childhood.
“Every year when I received the catalog growing up, my favorite thing to give towards was the Widows and Abandoned Children’s fund. My family would save money in a mason jar, and we would fill it up throughout the year with our change. And then the day we had been waiting for came…the catalog arrived! Down from the shelf came the now quite-heavy mason jar, and we would dump out the coins and count them excitedly to see what we could buy that year! My family really loved to give Bibles, and I think one year we gave a sewing machine and chickens…always chickens.”
Seeing the Impact Firsthand
After years of donating toward the catalog, Hope and some other Gospel for Asia (GFA) staff members made the long journey to Asia. There, she saw a glimpse of the impact her family and thousands of other families are making through the Christmas Gift Catalog.
“When I was able to travel to Asia and see things like blankets and sewing machines [being used], it was like a light bulb flashed on,” she says. “I could see the benefit of these gifts in a new way. Through that experience, it has made the catalog and the prayers and the hard work everyone puts into it so much more exciting and beautiful.”
The gifts in this catalog are simple—yet their impact far exceeds their cost. Even a blanket or a pair of rabbits can make a lasting difference for a struggling family.
“I was staggered to learn about the impact of blankets,” Heather shares. “Such a simple and humble gift, but one that seems to have an overwhelming response. I remember hearing about GFA-supported workers going out on wintery nights and laying blankets down on those who were sleeping unprotected on the street. The workers said simply, ‘These people went to sleep never expecting to wake up. Instead, they’ll wake up and know that someone has seen them.’ What an incredible way to communicate that the overlooked and neglected are noticed and cared for by the Heavenly Father.”
In places where the poorly clothed, the malnourished, the bedraggled and the hopeless are extended little kindness, giving income-generating gifts or gifts that improve people’s quality of life carries a powerful message: You are valuable.
“I think that’s the thing I love about the catalog gifts: restoring dignity,” Heather explains. “Reinforcing innate human worth. Demonstrating to everyone in sight that this individual is so highly valued, so cherished and so very special in God’s eyes.”
This man and his family experienced the joy of giving after receiving a pig through Gospel for Asia’s Christmas Gift Catalog. Read his story.
Gifts Help Givers to Celebrate Christmas in Missional Way
A beautiful thing about this ministry project is how we’ve learned these gifts not only change the circumstances of the gift recipients, but they also impact the givers.
GFA’s gift catalog doesn’t simply provide opportunities for families in Asia to receive practical help, it also gives families in the U.S. and around the globe the chance to celebrate Christmas in a missional way.
“These gifts can be so much fun to give,” Heather says, “and the gifts each year are the result of many ‘cheerful givers.’ But what’s really amazing is that many of these gifts will actually position the recipients to be givers themselves, perhaps for the very first time.”
As you anticipate this Christmas and the many joys of the season, may you remember the amazing love God has shown toward you and know His will in how to show that love to others.
We hope you’ve enjoyed going back with us to the origins of our Christmas Gift Catalog and the impact it’s made over the years!
To see our current Christmas Gift Catalog, go here:
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Last updated on: November 28, 2019 at 11:54 am By GFA Staff Writer
Do you ever feel weary in the midst of serving the Lord? Have you spent sleepless nights crying out to God to give you strength? Have you come to the end of yourself over and over again only to find that the next morning you have to face another day in the battle? Another day completely dependent on the Lord for His strength?
Gospel for Asia-supported national missionaries are no different. They become weary, discouraged and overwhelmed just like the rest of us. But we also share something else in common: We are all more than conquerors through Christ. Even in those bleakest moments of pain, sorrow, confusion and weariness, we can rest in the hope of God’s promises that He is ever with us, and He will not leave us.
On the topic of suffering and persevering through weakness in ministry, Munay’s story comes to mind. This dear sister in the Lord poured out her life to serve others with strength, vigor and joy. But tragedy struck. Life was not beautiful or clear. It was in moments of fogginess and tireless prayers that God brought glory and honor to His name. Here is her story:
When Cancer Tries to Take Over
Tears freely tumbled down Munay’s cheeks and spilled onto her already soaked pillow. Cancer raged inside her body even though Munay had underwent surgery and eight chemo injections. Now radiotherapy attacked her cancerous cells. Too sick to move, Munay lay on her bed. Thoughts raced in her head, moving her past the physical pain—her heart was breaking. She couldn’t die now, not yet. There was so much work yet to be done, and if she didn’t do it, who would?
This is Munay. She journeyed through many struggles. After five years of ministry she found out she had cancer.
Finding Victory Through Prayer
Munay never experienced an easy road of ministry. She was not an eloquent speaker which made it difficult for her to convey the message of hope she carried. The individuals she served were highly educated and thought little of Munay, especially as she stumbled through her words. The youths also threw stones at her house as an attempt to scare her off. But all of this did not cause Munay to give up. Munay was convinced she was called by God, and she was prepared to face all kinds of adversity on her knees.
It was an uphill climb, but the more difficult the situations Munay faced, the more she was willing to bow her head. As a result, the Lord in His mercy answered her prayers and blessed her ministry. The local people mocked her little prayer fellowship. They tried to discourage the believers with sarcastic remarks, but Munay encouraged them and fixed her eyes heavenward alongside them.
Cancer Threatens Missionary’s Service
After five years of serving in this community, Munay found out she had cancer. This devastated Munay, but not for herself. She cried out to the Lord day and night, asking God to spare her life.
“Lord, please heal me, as I have much work remaining to do,” Munay prayed through her sobs. “I must do the work.”
However, Munay was not deterred from loving and trusting Jesus. She believed God would heal her body. Her ministry didn’t stop either. Munay encouraged her brothers and sisters in God’s Word while on her sickbed, praying and longing to be with them daily.
After a time, the Lord answered Maunay’s faith-filled prayers and brought her healing. Munay came through her terminal illness as one tried through fire!
“When you are in good health, do as much as you can for the Lord. Do not take your life for granted,” Munay exhorted her brothers and sisters, managing to stand before them as her body grew stronger. “Let us not grow weary, but let us be zealous in serving the Lord. And may the Lord not [have to] put you in a position to make you realize how little you have done. We must do the work. If we do not do it, then who will? Make the most of the life that God has given us.”
God has called many vessels who are willing to give their whole lives so others may meet the Savior. Munay’s life is one among many committed men and women who hand the Lord their very lives for the love of Christ Jesus.
Overcoming Obstacles
Munay’s life gives testimony to God and His strength in weakness. Munay was not eloquent but she was willing, and this made her useful in the hands of the Lord. Though she underwent much opposition from the beginning of ministry she didn’t allow her circumstances to sway her resolve. She knew following Christ meant sacrifice, tears and sweat. And she overcame. She held on and clung to Christ in the darkest hours.
The next time you feel ready to throw in the towel of ministry, remember Munay and the many who have gone before us as they followed the Lamb. Indeed, we are more than conquerors.
“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” —Romans 8:37
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Last updated on: December 3, 2019 at 3:15 am By GFA Staff Writer
God is using Gospel for Asia-supported national workers and the prayers of people all over the world to transform communities through His love.
Pastor Tamang has been serving the Lord since 2003. Throughout those years he’s experienced heartache in losing his wife, the devastation of a natural disaster and opposition from the ones he longs to serve. Yet through all this, he remains steadfast, depending on the power of prayer to help him overcome.
A Widower in the Wake
The earth rumbled. The ground shook. The walls rattled. Pastor Tamang and his houseguests rushed out of his home as the earthquake grew in strength. But before everyone could make it out, the walls crumbled under the intensity, crushing Tamang’s wife, Nirmala, beneath the wreckage of their home.
After the earthquake’s final tremor, Pastor Tamang found his wife lying lifeless in the rubble.
Many others perished in the 6.8-magnitude quake that shook parts of South Asia on September 18, 2011. Houses and churches also fell that night, leaving survivors without shelter to guard from monsoon rains or the coming winter.
Pastor Tamang lost his wife, home and church all in one night.
“I can never forget such a great incident, which changed my life completely,” Pastor Tamang says.
Tamang was left to carry on the ministry alone. The days were difficult—especially when he’d return home, half-expecting to see his wife’s encouraging smile. Nirmala actively worked alongside him, ministering to the women and children in their community.
Deep down, Tamang had a feeling the Lord had a purpose in taking Nirmala, and he knew he couldn’t give in to his loneliness. He knew he had to persevere, for there were still people living their days without knowing the One who sustains. He had been called here, and he would remain.
“It was the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the prayer support of my believers that helped me to stand firm after the death of my wife,” he says. “God comforted me so I can continue my ministry.”
In the years that followed, Tamang pressed onward. His congregation, made up of 66 believers, helped him whenever he’d go out for ministry. They’d talk to people and build relationships, hoping to introduce them to the love of the Savior. It wasn’t easy. Most people in the remote, mountainous region where Pastor Tamang serves aren’t open to hearing about Jesus.
“Because of the resistance we face from the people here, ministry here does not grow fast,” he says. “Because of this problem, we feel that by flesh and blood, we cannot conquer this. … I urge you to pray for our ministry here.”
Why Pastors and Missionaries Need Prayer
Pastor Tamang’s plea for people to pray for his ministry is a plea many pastors and missionaries in Asia can echo. They’re serving in territories long held captive by the spiritual powers of darkness.
They face resistance. As Pastor Tamang experienced, hearts harden at the mention of Jesus’ name. They believe that to embrace Christ would be to lower their social standing. It would also mean turning their backs on their ancestral faith.
They face persecution. Angry neighbors accuse them of disrupting the peace. Some missionaries end up beaten or thrown in prison for years.
They also face personal struggles. Many Gospel for Asia-supported workers have been disowned by their families that are staunchly against their decision to love and follow Jesus. There are others who have lost loved ones, like Pastor Tamang. Then there are others going through significant health problems.
Yet these brothers and sisters in the Lord willingly enter into the sufferings of Christ. And through the power of prayer and fasting, GFA-supported national missionaries and pastors are seeing tremendous breakthroughs in their ministries!
We Stand Beside National Missionaries
Gospel for Asia links believers from all over the world through prayer and its support program. For nearly 40 years, people have stood beside GFA-supported workers as they seek to share the love of God through word and deed with their fellow countrymen.
These national workers overflow with deep compassion for the people around them. They bring comfort, hope and peace to those who are searching for these very things. They provide income-producing gifts to poor and destitute families. They pray for healings, breakthroughs, deliverance—and they see God answer those prayers!
Like Pastor Tamang, GFA-supported workers know that their ministries are not founded in “flesh and blood.” They are founded in the power of Christ and prayer in His name. As men, women and children across the globe join them in prayer, they see breakthroughs in their ministries.
The Apostle Paul knew the truth of this mystery. He asked the body of believers in Colossae to pray for him: “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains…” (Colossian 4:24).
He also asked the believers in Thessalonica to pray for him: “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you…” (2 Thessalonians 3:1)
Will You Join Us in Fervent Prayer?
We at GFA pray constantly and fervently for our brothers and sisters in Asia, never faltering to drop to our knees so that the word of God may run swiftly and be glorified. Will you join us in praying fervently for our brothers and sisters in Asia?
We would love to know how you are praying for God’s work in Asia and around the world. Share your prayers in the comments below so others can join with you as we partner together to see the Lord’s name glorified.
* “A Widower in the Wake” first published in GFA’s magazine GFA World, March 2016.
fatherless and all those in need. And so, we must go.
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