Last updated on: November 28, 2019 at 12:38 pm By GFA Staff Writer
Gospel for Asia News, Wills Point, TX, USA
In Luke chapter 15 we find the parable about the prodigal younger son, who comes to his senses once he loses everything, and returns back home to a loving, gracious father. Kaling’s life is similar to the story Jesus shared with tax collectors, sinners, scribes and Pharisees.
The heart of our Heavenly Father remains the same through the ages. Even though we may wander far from home, God desires to redeem the past, and draw us close to Himself. And sometimes He may go to great lengths to show us that grace. Just like he did for Kaling through Gospel for Asia-supported Sisters of Compassion.
Gospel for Asia-supported Sisters of Compassion minister to the least of the least in society.
The Redemption of a Dying Man
Kaling never listened to his father’s instructions, even as a little boy. His father tried to teach him how to live a good life, but despite all the guidance he received, Kaling had a disobedient and unchanging heart. Eventually, his father would no longer endure his son’s shameful behavior.
Kaling was only a boy of 14 when his father disowned him. Because of his father’s rejection, Kaling decided he would run away forever. He moved to another country where he eventually married and settled down to raise a family of his own.
After nearly 30 years of residing in one area, Kaling sent his wife and children back to his own country, while he moved alone to a remote village several hours away. For eight years, Kaling earned a good income cutting wood from the jungle and selling it for house construction.
Even though Kaling prospered in material things and was strong and physically healthy, his life hadn’t changed from that of his rebellious teenage years. He wasted his income every week by gathering his friends to eat and drink with him. But just like the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable, Kaling would eventually face the emptiness of his pursuits.
Some time later, Kaling contracted a breathing problem after suffering from malaria. Kaling spent an enormous amount of money on medication and doctors, but nothing brought him relief or healing. And when he needed help the most, none his friends troubled themselves to be there for him. Kaling felt forsaken.
This is Kaling. He was dying when two Gospel for Asia-supported Sisters of Compassion found him and helped him.
Compassion Meets Kaling in His Time of Need
But one day Kaling’s life changed when two Gospel for Asia-supported women missionaries, Aadita and Risha, came to his remote village. As they visited the homes of the villagers to pray and offer encouragement, they heard disparaging remarks about Kaling.
“Kaling is severely ill, and he may die anytime now, and he does not have anyone,” people said. “If he dies, we have to just throw his body to the riverside.”
Sympathy for Kaling welled up in Aadita’s and Risha’s hearts. The sisters immediately made their way to his house. Ariving inside, they found Kaling lying on his bed, too weak to move.
Sisters of Compassion Aadita and Risha encouraged Kaling from God’s Word and shared with him – a disowned son – about God’s love and fatherhood for all people. After they encouraged him, they began to display God’s love by helping clean up Kaling’s house and by cutting away the foliage that was invading his home. The women also gathered water from the stream to fill Kaling’s vessels.
As Aadita and Risha lent their willing hands to Kaling, their simple acts of kindness deeply touched his lonely, forsaken heart.
“The good works and servanthood of these two sisters has shown to me the real love of Jesus,” Kaling shared. “I have found [Him] in them.”
After witnessing how love for Jesus prompted love for mankind, Kaling’s heart opened up to the Lord, and the defiant son committed his heart to Jesus.
“Now, I am not worried anymore,” Kaling said. “I know Jesus will protect me, and our church members will always be by my side.”
Kaling’s story is just one example of the deep love of Jesus for mankind. He sent His faithful daughters Aadita and Risha to be a demonstration of His vast love. And because of that, today Kaling has experienced the redemption of God, just like the prodigal son in Jesus’s parable.
We at Gospel for Asia long to see relationships with God restored as broken sons and daughters find the love of our Heavenly Father. We are motivated by God’s own deep love for mankind, and so are the precious sisters in Asia as they serve among the least of least.
GFA-supported Sisters of Compassion aid the broken, lonely, hurting and forgotten, like Kaling. Just as Jesus sat down with the tax collectors and sinners, our sisters pour out love to those who may have never experienced sincere love and care.
To read another report about Sisters of Compassion, go here:
WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, has been the model for numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to assist the poor and deprived worldwide, issued this first part of a Special Report on the unstoppable compassion force of national missionary workers.
To help a village on top of a Himalayan mountain, this Gospel for Asia (GFA) national worker rode a bus for hours, then hiked uphill for three hours more, to show the love of Jesus by meeting their practical needs.
A young Asian woman wearing a white robe and head covering cradles an elderly woman’s feet that are horribly deformed by leprosy and gently washes them in a bowl of water.
The old woman can scarcely believe someone is touching her, caring for her, loving her. Most people would recoil from this woman and avoid the leprosy colony where she lives. The colony is a place of disease, disfigurement and disability. Its residents are used to being treated as outcasts by others and viewed as cursed. They are used to their deformed bodies being seen as objects of ugliness.
Geeta (pictured), a Sister of Compassion, works in a leprosy colony where 30 families live. Many of the residents are unable to work, so the Sisters visit regularly to encourage them, clean their wounds, cut their hair and trim their nails, give them baths, wash their clothes, clean their houses and cook for those who are unable to do so themselves.
But to the young woman dressed in white, these feet are beautiful.
She and her companions, known as Sisters of Compassion, come here regularly to clean wounds, cut hair and trim nails. They see beauty amid the truncated limbs and deeply scarred bodies that few are willing to look upon, let alone touch.
As locals and neighbors, the Sisters fully understand the culture and customs into which they pour their compassion. They appreciate and respect the historical and religious traditions, speak the local language and know the nuances of the dialect. And they’re specially trained in leprosy wound care and family counseling.
To all this, they add the unspoken language of Christ’s love.
“We do all this because of the love of God,” says Geeta, one of the Sisters trained to care for people with leprosy.
No one else could have the impact these women are having on their own people, often their own neighbors. Their roots of love go deep, and their branches of compassion reach into places where no one else goes.
While their long white robes, known as saris, might appear like unusual attire to Western eyes, the significance in South Asia is huge. The Sisters’ simple handspun uniform mirrors the traditional sari once worn by the lowliest of servants in Asia. It says to the old woman whose body has been disfigured with leprosy: “I am here to serve you. I see your worth.”
People like Mungeli Das (above) receive help from the Sisters of Compassion. Says Geeta: “If we didn’t help them, no one would have served them or taken care of them … they would die without any hope. Whether it’s a literacy class or cleaning their wounds, we do all of this because of the love of God.”
Mungeli Das, who contracted leprosy as a little girl more than 50 years ago, was treated for five years, then cured. Because of the deformity left by the disease, the leprosy colony has been her home for decades. She clings to the help and hope that the Sisters of Compassion bring her. The Sisters follow the example of Jesus who, according to the gospels, touched and healed those, like Mungeli, with leprosy.
“Before the Sisters came, there was no one to help trim our hair, cut our nails or help us clean our houses and encourage us,” Mungeli says. “The Sisters help us by cleaning our wounds, and they make us happy and encouraged [us] all the time.”
In places where outsiders, foreigners and foreign mission workers are prohibited or restricted, national workers and national missionaries have much more opportunity to serve. These women and men are welcomed and considered trustworthy counselors and friends of the community.
Outsiders may come and go. But national missionaries, such as GFA World’s Sisters of Compassion, stand the test of time.
“Each woman who serves as a Sister of Compassion is full of sacrificial love, just like Jesus,” explains Gospel for Asia (GFA World). “They do the most unglamorous things, such as bathing someone … or feeding people who’ve been affected by leprosy [and] no longer have any fingers [to] feed themselves.”
Teaching practical skills to help struggling women make a living is just one of the many things Sisters of Compassion do as they serve their communities. In all they do, these national missionaries demonstrate the love of Jesus for the poor and impoverished.
Unsung Heroes of the Frontline
CT Studd was a foreign missionary to China, India, Sudan and the Congo who said: “Nothing in this world would last, but it was worthwhile living for the world to come.”
While Western workers often venture to far-flung places and do amazing things, it’s the unsung heroes of the frontline—the local, indigenous people—who consistently make the greatest impact and bring true transformation to their own communities.
In the past, missions trailblazers like William Carey from England in the 1700s, and C.T. Studd in the late 1850s and early 1900s, paved the way for swarms of foreign missionaries and humanitarian workers, mostly from Western countries.
But the tide has changed.
National workers are the “new pioneers” of the 21st century, and they’re proving to be an unstoppable compassion force.
Beauty of Local Mission Workers
On a worldwide scale, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC), there were 430,000 foreign mission workers overseas in 2021, compared with 13.2 million national workers (local citizens).
John Allen Chau was an American missionary killed by the Sentinelese, a self-isolated people, after illegally travelling to North Sentinel Island in an effort to preach to them.
That means national mission workers—those serving within their own culture and nation—now outnumber foreign workers by more than 30 to 1.
The CSGC predicts the number of national mission workers globally will explode to 17 million by 2050, while the number of foreign workers will increase to 600,000.
To be sure, Western Christians are still drawn to overseas missions in large numbers. But the exporting of expatriates to distant foreign fields can come at a high cost, potentially hindering progress.
In extreme cases, the quest of well-meaning foreigners with a zeal to exercise their faith and do good can end in tragedy, as in the headline-making case of a U.S. mission worker in 2018.
While attempting to make contact with the “unreached” indigenous people of North Sentinel Island, an isolated island in the Bay of Bengal, it’s believed David Allen Chau was speared to death. As of the date this article was published, his body had not been recovered.
Chau’s death was tragic and highlights the very real dangers facing non-nationals in remote areas. But it’s not only the safety of foreigners that’s an issue. It’s also the cost in dollars of sending Western workers and keeping them in their overseas assignment.
Counting the Cost of Foreign Workers vs National Workers
Missions Fest International, an annual global missions conference, spotlighted the financial cost of “sending” a Western mission worker compared with the cost of supporting a national worker in a provocative article on its website titled “Should We Stop Sending Missionaries?”
Author Julian Lukins, pictured in Kampala, Uganda, with archdeacon Stephen Kaziro of the Church of Uganda who oversees dozens of village churches, including several that also act as local health clinics in the rural Namutumba district.
While stating there’s still a great need and important role for foreign workers in many parts of the world, the article points out it typically costs more than $50,000 a year to support a Western family in a developing nation such as Africa and Asia—an annual sum that could help support more than 50 national workers, the article says. For example, based on my personal experience in Uganda, an American family of four living in Africa might pay $1,000 a month for expat health insurance coverage that includes emergency medical evacuation. Because of security issues, they might have to live in a secure compound at high rent and pay hundreds of dollars every month for guards 24/7. Legal paperwork and visas can cost hundreds, even thousands, of dollars every year.
Run the numbers and it’s perhaps no surprise, then, that national workers—willing and able to live far simpler and free of immigration restrictions—are increasingly seen as a wise investment.
More than 140 organizations “are now built on the premise of gathering and sending money [to support national workers], not people,” the article says.
In a village where not one person could read or write, this missionary is showing the love of God by teaching children how to read.
While short-term overseas missions trips still play a huge role in the West, the merit and value of supporting local, native workers over the long haul has become widely embraced as the most effective approach in the quest for the “holy grail” of missions: to bring long-term, total transformation to impoverished communities.
Certainly, over the past couple of decades, it’s become a trend in Western nations for people, especially young people in their 20s, to travel to places in Africa, Asia or South America to volunteer in orphanages, children’s homes and the like.
Photos of young Westerners cuddling babies and surrounded by excited children in Africa and Asia have flooded social media and reinforced the so-called “white savior” label, often unfairly attached to compassionate individuals from the U.S., Canada, U.K. and other wealthy countries who simply want to make a difference in the world.
But now, it seems, this missions phenomenon—undoubtedly impacted further by COVID-19 travel restrictions—could be in decline.
An article in The Atlantic put it like this: “Among the new generation of Western Christian missionaries, the so-called ‘white savior complex’—a term for the mentality of relatively rich Westerners who set off to ‘save’ people of color in poorer countries but sometimes do more harm than good—is slowly fading.”
If this special report has touched your heart and you would like to help national workers show Jesus’ love by meeting practical needs, then make a generous one time or monthly gift to support a national missionary in Asia or Africa.
GFA World (Gospel for Asia) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://press.gfa.org/news.
Learn more by reading this Special Report from Gospel for Asia on the Lord’s work in 2020 through GFA and the partnerships worldwide while following Him in His work in 16 nations, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Last updated on: September 28, 2023 at 10:48 pm By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, has been the model for numerous charities like GFA World Canada, reveals in a new report: National missionaries — those working in their own countries — are the “new pioneers” of the 21st century, and they’re proving to be an “unstoppable compassion force,” a new report reveals.“More and more, local missionaries are driving ministry projects in their own countries and transforming their own communities,” said K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan), founder of global mission organization Gospel for Asia (GFA World).According to GFA World’s new report, National Workers: Unstoppable Compassion Force, (www.gfa.org/press/workers) there’s a natural progression toward “indigenous” workers who understand their own culture, language, and neighbors far better than foreign missionaries.
In 2021, there were 430,000 foreign “expat” mission workers overseas, compared with 13.2 million national missionaries serving on their home soil, the report says.
National workers also serve in their own countries at far less expense — and with fewer restrictions — than expat Western workers who often incur costs associated with emergency medical insurance, security, and immigration, as well as safety restrictions on movement, says Gospel for Asia (GFA World).
It can cost between $50,000-$120,000 a year to support an American family in a developing nation — an annual sum that could help support 50 national workers.
“National workers live at the same level as the local people,” Yohannan said, “working alongside them, living among them in the villages and slums, dressing the same, speaking the same language, eating the same food, drinking from the same well.”
Today, 80% of the world’s countries are either completely closed or severely restricted to foreigners doing any form of religious work — Afghanistan being one example.
GFA World’s national workers run projects in more than 12,000 parishes — or local churches — across Asia. And the organization is expanding into Africa as well.
In South Asia, mission worker Rainer prayed for two years for a bicycle so he could encourage and help a cluster of villages nine miles from his home. Now his bicycle has become the local “ambulance,” transporting sick villagers to the nearest clinic.
GFA World’s Sisters of Compassion — teams of specialized women missionaries who serve in leprosy colonies — are uniquely trained in care and counseling. Geeta and her local co-workers clean the wounds of leprosy patients and wash their deformed feet.
“We do all this because of the love of God,” Geeta said.
About Gospel for Asia – now GFA World
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national missionaries bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news/.
Learn more about GFA World Compassion Services – comprised of four areas of ministry: slum ministry, leprosy ministry, medical ministry and disaster relief. Through these ministries, GFA missionary workers are relieving the burdened, rescuing the endangered and revealing God’s compassion to the people of Asia.
WILLS POINT, TX — Mission agency GFA World (www.gfa.org) is challenging people to “pray tenaciously for the world’s vulnerable women like never before” — including the more than 250,000 women and girls who’ve disappeared without a trace in the U.S.
WOMEN FACE DANGER FROM ‘WOMB TO WIDOWHOOD’: To mark International Women’s Day in March, GFA World (http://gospelforasia.net/) is challenging people to “tenaciously pray for the world’s vulnerable women like never before” — including the more than 250,000 women and girls who’ve disappeared without a trace in the U.S.
As the annual International Women’s Day takes place in March, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported 257,000 women and girls were missing across America in 2021, the most recent year for statistics.
For most of us, it’s a distant thought, but across America and around the world today, millions of parents, spouses and children live with the daily, brutal reality of not even knowing if their daughter, wife or mother is still alive.
Danger From ‘Womb to Widowhood’
Globally, it’s estimated up to 100 million women and girls are “missing and unaccounted for” — the victims of gender-selective abortions, female infanticide, slavery, human trafficking, and abandonment.
“Around the world, women’s lives are threatened from the womb to widowhood, and millions of precious girls won’t survive to become mothers,” Yohannan said. “It’s vital we combat the culture of violence against women and girls — and shower this broken world with God’s love.”
The mission pioneer — who inspired a wave of national missionaries across Asia — said: “The hurdles faced by women around the world seem insurmountable. But if the global Body of Christ is committed in prayer and action, we can see change in our lifetime.”
World Day of Prayer
The annual World Day of Prayer in March mobilizes Christians worldwide to pray for women in mission work — and GFA World’s Texas-based workers will participate with special prayers for the courageous women missionaries serving women and girls in crisis around the world.
Across Asia, GFA World-supports tens of thousands of girls at risk of abandonment, exploitation, trafficking, and the threat of vanishing without a trace. Projects also provide vocational training and sewing machines for thousands of women at risk.
The ministry’s Sisters of Compassion — specially trained teams of women missionaries — have a burden for serving vulnerable women, including widows and those with leprosy who are shunned by their wider community. By cleaning and bandaging their open wounds, the Sisters show women scarred by leprosy “they’re loved and have priceless value in God’s eyes.”
“Our Christian compassion should drive us to prayer and action,” said Yohannan, whose organization has “shown God’s love” to the extreme poor in Asia for more than four decades.
Last updated on: November 28, 2022 at 10:18 pm By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan, has been the model for numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, to help the poor and deprived worldwide, discussing Nevan and Kairah and their struggle in poverty to care for their disabled son, Jimi, and workers that help alleviate their burdens.
Though Nevan and Kairah’s son, Jimi, was 42 years old, they still provided basic care for him, such as feeding, clothing and bathing him. They loved their son, but his condition required constant hands-on care, keeping Nevan and Kairah from working regular jobs. It drained their energy and their resources, but what else could they do? He was their son.
Burdened by Care
The house Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers built for Jimi is on high ground to keep it safe from flood waters and has a ramp for Jimi’s wheelchair.
Jimi was born with physical and mental disabilities. He couldn’t talk, walk or do anything by himself.
In a society where such impairment often brings discrimination and shame, Nevan and Kairah did the best they could for Jimi. Still, managing all of Jimi’s care brought daily challenges. Navigating the wheelchair around their small house was difficult. The medications he needed were expensive.
Many nights, they couldn’t even sleep. Jimi would sometimes disturb others at night by shouting and spitting, forcing his parents to watch over him and attempt to calm their son. Sometimes Jimi soiled his clothes and Nevan and Kairah had to change his clothes in the presence of others, leading to everyone’s discomfort.
The couple’s two younger children, now married, helped financially support their parents and older brother, but it wasn’t enough. Then their riverside house was submerged in more than four feet of floodwater, adding to the family’s troubles. Fortunately, they had shifted their valuables to higher ground, but life was still difficult.
The burdens of these challenges pushed Nevan and Kairah to the brink of despair. Though weary, they held on to hope, praying for help. They loved their son, but as they aged it became only more challenging to care for him. Their small shanty was overcrowded, but it was all they could afford.
A Room of His Own
Jimi, pictured with his parents, is very happy to be in his new home provided by Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers.
Unbeknownst to Nevan and Kairah, local Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers had seen their struggle and sought to help. They requested financial support from church leadership to build an annex to the family’s existing house for Jimi. They even specified the structure should be at least three feet above ground level to protect it from flooding.
Soon, a 10’x16’ adjoining structure was constructed, complete with a ramp for Jimi’s wheelchair and passage to the bathroom. With the separate living quarters for Jimi, the family’s difficulties were alleviated. Joy abounded for Jimi and the entire family.
“We are very happy that we were able to build this house for our disabled son,” Kairah said. “After 42 years, we will take care of him in a new, safe and clean environment. We owe all our gratitude and thankfulness to [the church] for this wonderful gift.”
Through this gift, Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers demonstrated Christ’s love for people with disabilities—people whom society may disregard—and those who care for them. The burden Nevan and Kairah bear has been eased by caring neighbors willing to share the load in Christ’s name, and Jimi can live with greater dignity in his own space.
*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia World stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.
Learn more about the GFA World national missionary workers who carry a burning desire for people to know the love of God. Through their prayers, dedication and sacrificial love, thousands of men and women have found new life in Christ.
Last updated on: November 22, 2022 at 4:47 pm By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan, which inspired numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, to assist the poor and deprived worldwide, discussing the negative effects of poverty to the elderly and the care brought through GFA World Sisters of Compassion
Some of them still worked hard to support themselves, despite their aging bodies, having no pension or retirement plans to depend on.
At 60 years old, Adey still worked in the field until a bad fall rendered her unable to stand. She had a son nearby, but he neglected his mother, even beat her at times. With no one to care for her, Adey was injured and all alone, or at least until a daughter came to help her.
Aili, 61 years old, was fortunate enough to live with her daughter, but she was unable to work. She couldn’t walk and required constant care.
A group of Gospel for Asia (GFA World) Sisters of Compassion and Women’s Fellowship members saw the condition of elderly citizens like Adey and Aili. Their hearts burdened with the seniors’ plight, the Sisters sought to take care of them. They trimmed fingernails, massaged weary muscles and prayed for these precious people. The love shown by these Sisters brought tears to the eyes of the elderly as they thanked the team.
Adey had severe pain in her legs and hands. The Sisters tenderly applied oils and massaged her limbs. The caring hands of healing warmed Adey’s heart.
“I thank God for the Sisters of Compassion team and your ministry,” Adey said. “No one has ever come to know my well-being, but these sisters came and cut my hair, gave me a bath, and massaged my hands and legs. I am truly thankful to them.”
The Sisters also visited Aili, trimming her nails and encouraging her with kind words. Their thoughtfulness overwhelmed the elderly woman, who gave an emotional thanks before the Sisters moved on to their next stop, where they prayed and cared for more people.
The women’s ministry team was thankful for the opportunity to serve.
“I thank God for this privilege that I could do something for the needy people,” Sani said. “When I see these old mothers and fathers whose children have left them alone to struggle, my heart breaks.”
These sisters’ own hearts were warmed as God’s love flowed through them in practical service to aged community m embers in dire need of care.
“I feel so good to see smiles on their faces,” Dahiana said. “I thank God for this day.”
*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia World stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.
Learn more about the GFA World Sisters of Compassion – those who are specially trained woman missionary with a deep burden for showing Christ’s love by physically serving the needy, underprivileged and poor.
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan, has been the model for numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, to help the poor and deprived worldwide, discussing Gaetane, her longing to read and write, and her dream fulfilled through a literacy class for women led by GFA World Sisters of Compassion workers.
Gaetane, 45, looked wistfully at her children, wishing so desperately she could help them with their homework. She constantly felt ashamed of her inability to read and write and dreamed of one day being able to read God’s Word to her children. But Gaetane felt her desire was just that—a dream.
Longing to Read and Write
Through the ministry of Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers, women like Gaetane (not pictured) are learning how to read and write about God’s love for them.
One day, Gaetane met Raisie, Abarne, Pakuna and Abbatha, four Sisters of Compassion who were taking a community survey to see if there was interest and a need for a literacy class for women in the area. The Sisters explained to women in the community the importance of being able to read and write.
By the end of the class, Gaetane was able to read and write the alphabet and her name! She was also given a small book that she began reading every day to practice her new reading skills.
Gaetane was thrilled to finally be able to read and write. She began actively serving in her church and reading the Holy Scriptures in the Women’s Fellowship meetings she attended. Her shame over not being able to read and write was gone—replaced by joy and confidence in her newfound abilities. But the most rewarding aspect of Gaetane’s new abilities was her ability to help her children. Her ultimate dream had been fulfilled at last!
Through the ministry of Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers, Gaetane and countless other women are learning to read and write, learning about God’s love for them, and building confidence and hope for their futures.
*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia World stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.
Learn more about the Sisters of Compassion – those who are specially trained woman missionary with a deep burden for showing Christ’s love by physically serving the needy, underprivileged and poor.
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by KP Yohannan, issued a Special Report on the ugly truths of world hunger: “Scandal of Starvation” — world hunger is a long-term social and global crisis, directly or indirectly causing around 9 million deaths each year – more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
There are many things wrong with our broken world, from prejudice and violence to modern-day slavery. The United Nations has identified 16 top enemies of humankind, with ambitious aims to tame if not defeat them by 2030. But have you ever paused to wonder what subjects top Jesus’s list of great ills?
Hunger is one of them. Shortly before His betrayal, Jesus spoke to His disciples about the coming judgment, when everyone will appear before Him. He told of those who will inherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, and why.
“For I was hungry and you gave Me food,” he began (Matthew 25:35). He went on to name the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned. Meeting their needs was also a reflection of God’s kingdom, He said. But He recognized empty bellies first.
Perhaps that is because it is hard to hear anything else above the rumble of an empty stomach. Words of hope for a better tomorrow—whether practical advice or spiritual encouragement—tend to fall on deaf ears when someone has eaten little or nothing for too long.
Gospel for Asia (GFA) founder K.P. Yohannan said, “If you see a dying man begging on the street, how can you share the Good News with him and not give him something to eat?”
When hunger muffles your hearing, it’s not because of frustration but physiology. When you are hungry, your body starts to do what it can to conserve energy. Like a computer, it shuts down peripheral programs. In the short term, hunger makes it harder for you to concentrate. Over time, it makes it harder for you to understand. You go from not having the desire to learn to not having the ability.
Every day, many children around the world, don’t get enough nutritious food to eat. But kids enrolled at Bridge of Hope Centers throughout Asia receive a healthy, balanced meal every day, along with a daily education, school supplies, and regular medical checkups.
Consider the student faintings last year that became common at the Augusto D’Aubeterre Lyceum school in Boca de Uchire, Venezuela, in the wake of the country’s severe economic crisis. They occurred because so many students went to class without eating breakfast, or dinner the night before, reported The New York Times. At other schools, children wanted to know if there would be any food before they decided whether to go at all. “You can’t educate skeletal and hungry people,” one teacher said. Hence hunger is not just a desperate and immediate personal issue. It is also a long-term social and global crisis, directly or indirectly causing around 9 million deaths each year—more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. One report has estimated the annual impact on the global economy of malnutrition through lost potential and production to be as much as $3.5 trillion, or $500 for every single person in the world.
That is the financial impact of what Roger Thurow, a Senior Fellow on Global Food and Agriculture at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, has called malnutrition a “life sentence of underachievement and underperformance.” If you ask why some countries remain poor or why development aid isn’t as effective as possible and doesn’t have the impact many think it should, he said, “it’s because so many kids are getting off to a horrible start in life.”
COVID-19 Accelerates Starvation in Asia
600 migrant laborers in Punjab jobless due to COVID-19, get food from Bishop Martin Mor Aprem who tries social distancing. “We know the risks. But this is the only food they will get in 2-3 days.”
The global COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated hunger fears. Lockdowns and stay-at-home orders brought national economies to a grinding halt overnight, sending unemployment soaring, and instantly plunging hundreds of millions of families into survival mode.
At the grassroots level, millions of furloughed day laborers and agricultural workers—the backbone of the workforce in many developing nations—faced the grim threat of watching their families starve. “These nations are in the hands of God right now,” said Yohannan. “There is a real danger that millions could starve to death.”
In southeast Asia, hundreds of millions of children were immediately at risk, as the lockdown paralyzed entire nations. Huge numbers of street children—estimated at 70,000+ in some cities in Asia alone—had no one to beg from and no one to turn to.
“When a crisis hits, the children are always hit the hardest,” Yohannan said. For more details on this story, go here.
Food Insecurity, World Hunger Are Increasing
A haunting photo of little Meena in Bombay, India, standing in a sewer, a silent victim of poverty.
In the measured words of officials and academics, those who don’t have enough to eat are victims of “food insecurity,” not knowing if and when they will eat next or whether it will be enough. The impact of hunger is seen in what they call “wasting” and “stunting,” which describe the different ways lack of food keeps someone from developing physically as they should.
In the everyday world, hunger is 5-year-old Meena, who was reduced to begging for scraps from strangers and eating sewage-soaked dirt off the streets of Mumbai, India. Not long after her haunted image was photographed, she went into a coma and died.
It is not only an issue in parts of the world where lack is as clearly obvious, however. People also suffer from hunger in places like Liverpool, England, where one young boy chewed wallpaper at night, not wanting to tell his mother how hungry he was because he knew that she didn’t have any money for supper.
Concerted attempts to eradicate hunger are not new. Though he rallied the collective effort to put a man on the moon in the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy was less successful in achieving another ambitious goal he voiced.
“We have the ability, as members of the human race, we have the means, we have the capacity to eliminate hunger from the face of the earth in our lifetime,” he said. “We need only the will.”
Despite best efforts, from governments to the grassroots, it is not a problem that is going away. Worldwide, hunger increased in 2018 for the third successive year. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 820 million people did not get enough to eat that year.
The largest concentration of undernourished people is in Asia, especially South Asia, with the region accounting for two-thirds of all the malnourished children in the world. In India, nearly 200 million people are undernourished. The country was ranked 103rd of 119 in the 2018 Global Hunger Index.
According to the UN report, however, Africa “has the highest rates of hunger in the world and [these] are continuing to slowly but steadily rise in almost all subregions.” Indeed, more than a quarter of Africa’s population was classified as food-insecure in 2016, more than four times the rate of any other region. The Global Hunger Index includes six African nations among the ten hungriest worldwide: the Central African Republic, Chad, Madagascar, Zambia, Liberia and Zimbabwe.
“We have the ability, as members of the human race, we have the means, we have the capacity to eliminate hunger from the face of the earth in our lifetime, we need only the will.” President John F. Kennedy World Food Congress, June 4, 1963
One small indicator of the seriousness of hunger is that it gets not one but two annual days of international attention. This year’s World Hunger Day (May 28) will focus on “sustainability.” Organized by The Hunger Project, it will emphasize how long-term solutions must address issues interwoven with hunger, such as political instability, the environment and gender inequality. The U.N.’s World Food Day is to be observed October 16, marking the founding of the body’s food and agriculture organization.
Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers provide a free meal to those in a leper colony on January 1st, 2018 in Uttar Pradesh, India.
World Hunger’s Ugly Truths Revealed
Each year, Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers recognize the U.N. event with a host of special feeding programs. They take food packages to local communities in need—including homeless people who beg by railway and bus stations—and prepare meals for the residents of leprosy colonies who are ostracized and unable to find work.
Sisters of Compassion seen here are comforting a sad mother whose son is sick. After praying for them both, they will provide food or supplies to meet their specific needs. Through their loving kindness, lives are being given physical and spiritual nourishment in God’s name.
As Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers provide simple, nutritious food—such as bread, eggs, and bananas, pulse curry and vegetables—they extend a lifeline to people like Lalita. At 32 she had been living by the footpath near a railway station when some of Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported Sisters of Compassion arrived with food.
“I lost my husband six years ago, after which my family abandoned me, as I am blind,” she told the visitors. “Now, I cannot do any work. Today I am happy that I received this food packet.”
Hunger is ugly on many levels, not least because many of its root causes are human action and inaction—wars, corruption, and environmental mismanagement. Three additional realities make it even more difficult to swallow:
There is enough food in the world to go around.
A lot of good food just gets thrown away, some merely because it doesn’t look picture-perfect.
While millions go hungry because they can’t afford to eat, others spend large amounts of money following fad diets.
Pope Francis called out some of these wrongs in a 2019 World Food Day message: “It is a cruel, unjust and paradoxical reality that, today, there is food for everyone, and yet not everyone has access to it, and that in some areas of the world food is wasted, discarded and consumed in excess, or destined for other purposes than nutrition.”
Improvements in global food production mean that the world produces a harvest big enough to feed everyone on the planet one-and-a-half times over. Yet fully a third of all the food that is produced goes to waste—discarded in production, lost somewhere along the farm-to-table route, or thrown away by end-consumers: restaurants, institutions like hospitals, and families. It has been reckoned that, globally, around $1 trillion worth of food is lost or wasted each year.
Losses before food gets to the consumer are highest in Central and South Asia, reflecting the bigger challenges in the supply chain there. However, North America is high in the overall waste league—some 133 billion pounds each year.
And that’s just considering the immediate value of the food. The wider cost is “a major squandering of resources, including water, land, energy, labor and capital.”
Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report on The Scandal of Starvation in a World of Plenty:World Hunger’s Ugly Truths Revealed —Part 2, Part 3
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by KP Yohannan, issued this final part of the GFA Special Report update on the desperate plight of widows in both affluent and developing nations.
Widows like these from across South Asia need assistance to alleviate their difficult circumstances.
Persistent Superstitions
Many might think such marginalization only happened in centuries past, but these recent stories illustrate that ancient cultural customs, superstitions and prejudices persist. According to the Global Fund for Widows, not only do many nations prevent widows from inheriting her rightful assets when her husband dies, some allow women to become part of his estate.
This widow is living with her son, and his family in West Bengal India. Her husband was killed by a tiger while working. Some widows even witness those attacks and experience post-traumatic stress disorder while grieving.
Such realities emphasize the need for International Widows Day, 15 years after the Loomba Foundation established the first observance to draw attention to widows’ experiences and galvanize more public support.
They are “stigmatized, shunned and shamed” the UN says. “And many of these abuses go unnoticed, even normalized. International Widows Day is an opportunity for action towards achieving full rights and recognition for widows.”
Then there are the problems caused by war and other conflicts. To examine this, the UNHCR—the UN Refugee Agency—dispatched a reporter to Mosul, Iraq, near the end of the government’s three-year-long, on-and-off battle to overcome militant extremists.
The agency examined the impact of fighting, which continued long after the battle ended. Among the victims were Asmaa Mahmood, captured along with her husband and their two young daughters. Two weeks after their capture and separation, Asmaa learned her husband had been killed. As would be expected, she suffered from shock, psychological trauma and grief.
Policy reforms that can help address disadvantages to widows, the World Bank says, are regarding property ownership, inheritance rights, registration of customary marriages and widows’ pensions.
More than 900,000 fled after the final military operation began to retake the city in late 2016. At one camp operated by the UNHCR and its partners, female-headed households made up more than a quarter of the total: 1,250 out of 4,463 families.
Widows like 25-year-old Asmaa faced desperate straits. She hadn’t even told her children of their father’s death after arriving at the refugee camp, evading the truth by telling her girls he had been working and would soon return.
“I am so exhausted worrying about the future of my children,” she said. “Now I have no one to rely on. All I want is to provide a good living for my two daughters. I don’t worry about myself. I just don’t want my daughters to feel any different from other girls who have a father.”
These widows living in the slums of Mumbai gather together for support, prayer and practical assistance from the local pastors and Sisters of Compassion serving with Gospel for Asia (GFA World).
Given such earth-shaking situations, the 2019 release of a widow-linked television series may seem like a trifling thing. Yet, despite the six-hour series being primarily an adventure tale, the airing of The Widow on Amazon Prime shows a symbolic consciousness of the situation.
Co-produced by Amazon and Britain’s ITV, the eight episodes drew a critical review in the influential The Atlantic magazine. Yet reviewer Sophie Gilbert noted star Kate Beckinsale gave the main character a “confidence in her action scenes that’s intermittently thrilling.” In real life, widows’ courage is indeed something to behold. While a TV mini-series highlights their plight before viewers, widows require real substantive action by governments, NGOs and individuals like you and me to help them survive financially and emotionally, even as they suffer through their grief.
Quiet Help
While International Widows Day places a spotlight on the problems facing widows, much of the work being done to alleviate their suffering and deprivation occurs in quiet ways.
In 2018, Gospel for Asia (GFA) had 32 teams working across South Asia, where 22 percent of the global population of widows lives, to address widows’ specific needs.
In Asian cultures, many widows are seen as a curse and may be shunned by society, including close relatives.
The following facts show a sampling of what desperate widows face in this part of the world:
Widows are often forcibly evicted from their homes and extended families by the husband’s family after his death.
Widows are often erroneously accused of having caused the deaths of their husbands.
Since widows’ education level is typically much lower, 19 million of them live in extreme poverty, earning less than $2 a day.
Remarriage by widows in this part of the world is low, so street begging or prostitution often becomes a way of life for younger widows.
Many widows are left to care for their children with little help from relatives.
And sometimes children are forcibly removed from their moms.
When not removed, children from low-income families often have to enter the labor force to support their widowed mothers and other siblings.
Consider these practical examples of the impact of widowhood on real people in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and other parts of South Asia—home to 57.8 million widows. There’s Riya, who at 57 became shrouded by the shame of widowhood when her husband died from an unknown illness. Overwhelmed by sorrow and guilt, for three years she struggled to leave her bed.
Then there is Prema, the mother of two young children who suddenly found herself widowed and without a source of income.
And Amey, who struggled to overcome nearly insurmountable odds when riots touched her small village and those responsible tried to extort a fortune from her husband, a dry-fish vendor. When he refused, they killed him in his home. That left Amey with four children to raise by herself, forcing her to sell their belongings in a desperate struggle for survival. When she ran out of money and revived her husband’s business, her success sparked jealousy from other merchants, who harassed her and even tried to kill her.
I had to go through lots of problems after my husband passed away,” Amey (above) recalled. “To protect my children, I had to sell my belongings … Our economic situation went from bad to worse … I was mentally drained …”
In each case, help from Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers brought light and hope and shared how much God loved and cared for them. Thanks to a Gospel for Asia (GFA) initiative teaching women to develop skills and become self-supporting, Prema learned how to sew and received a sewing machine to help her generate income. After a neighbor invited Amey to attend church, she and her daughters found the inspiration and support to start a new spice business.
“I have no words to thank my Lord Jesus for the miracles that He has done in my life,”Amey says. “I am so thankful He has saved me and also protected me in order to be the strength for my daughters. Now we are living with God’s grace, and our lives have been blessed immensely.”
Besides income-generating gifts, Gospel for Asia (GFA) supplies widows with clothing and other essentials, comfort, encouragement and the vital link of prayer support. Gospel for Asia (GFA) also maintains a website, www.mygfa.org, that equips those who want to conduct grassroots fundraising campaigns. Those funds help the poor, including widows, and equip missionaries in the most difficult areas of Asia—where millions have yet to experience His love.
“The Bible says that true religion is to care for orphans and widows in their distress,” Dr. Yohannan says. “The challenge facing the Church around the world today is to not just read the Bible, but follow its teachings.”
These teachings apply the same today as they did thousands of years ago.
If you would like to do something now to help widows around the world, please consider one, or more, of the following ideas:
Raise awareness of the plight of widows by sharing this article with your friends and family via social media, email or a link on your blog.
Interview a GFA World representative on this topic for your podcast or radio show. To facilitate that idea, email [email protected].
Make a donation to help widows in Asia through a gift to GFA World.
Identify a widow that you know personally and invite her to lunch or dinner, with the goal to understand her and her needs better. Act on what you learn to make a difference for that one person.
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across Asia, especially to those who have yet to hear about the love of God. In GFA’s latest yearly report, this included more than 70,000 sponsored children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and spiritual teaching available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://press.gfa.org/news.
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by KP Yohannan, issued this Special Report update on the desperate plight of widows in both affluent and developing nations.
After two decades of fighting to eliminate the U.S. military’s “widow’s tax,” Cathy Milford finally succeeded, but she won’t benefit from that change for another three years. That’s how long it will take until she receives full survivor benefits instead of only partial. Though the U.S. Congress passed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the bill only phases out the tax by 2023.
Cathy Milford successfully fought to eliminate the U.S. military’s “widow’s tax”. Photo by Doug Jones, Medium
“This is just an awful thing to do,” Milford said at a Capitol Hill rally in May 2019, recalling her 25 years of pushing for repeal; her late husband, Harry, suffered a fatal aneurysm soon after retiring from the U.S. Coast Guard. “Every time I talk about this, I have to dig my husband up and bury him all over again.”
The dispute revolved around awards given to survivors of veterans who die of service-related causes (the Dependency and Indemnity Compensation program, or DIC) and a separate, life insurance-type program known as the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP). While individuals who qualified for either have received full payouts, those getting income from both saw SBP funds reduced by one dollar for every DIC dollar since 1972. The difference of up to $1,000 a month affects 67,000 surviving spouses.
“This problem goes back decades, but this year we finally solved it once and for all,” said Maine senator Susan Collins after the bill’s passage in December 2019.
That securing additional benefits for military survivors took such a protracted fight symbolizes the plight of widows worldwide. Whether husband-less females in Nigeria who have been branded “witches,” women in Asia blamed for their husbands’ deaths and other calamities, or those in South Africa who can lose inheritance rights when in-laws object, the world’s 258 million widows often face an uphill battle.
Women who lose a spouse can face difficult and complicated problems even in affluent societies, as the U.S. military widows’ battle illustrates.
Nearly one in 10 lives in extreme poverty, says the United Nations (UN). While widows have specific needs, their voices are often missing from policies affecting them.
“In some Asian cultures, when a woman’s husband dies, she is often stripped of her dignity, her worth and her human rights,” says K.P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA). “Many of these widows are deprived of their home, their property and their possessions—leaving them destitute. Lacking the ability to earn a living, and with no access to savings or credit, millions of widows all across Asia fight every day for their survival, all the while shunned and shamed.”
As the military widows’ battle illustrates, women can face problems even in affluent societies. Another example of the slighting of American widows surfaced in a 2018 report. The Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reviewed cases of dual eligibility, where a widow can receive her benefit or a deceased spouse’s. The OIG found that 82 percent of the time the Social Security Administration failed to follow its own procedures for spelling out maximum benefit options.
According to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Loomba Foundation’s most recent World Widows Report:
The United States ranks third in the world for the most widowed women with more than 14 million.
Forty-nine percent earn less than $25,000 a year, meaning “widowhood is often a ticket to poverty.”
In practical numbers:
More than 740,000 widows are unable to provide food, shelter and basic necessities for themselves.
Secondary losses often crush widows, who subsequently may lose homes, jobs, insurance or credit.
In giving 100 stress points for losing a spouse, the Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Scale ranks loss of a spouse at No. 1. Other losses can push a widow’s stress level near 300 points, meaning an 80 percent chance of serious illness.
Three Sisters of Compassion from Gospel for Asia (GFA World) were photographed for this disheartened widow who had recently lost her husband to a tiger attack — a common occurrence in the Sundarbans of West Bengal, India.
Worldwide Problem
Problems for widows exist worldwide. According to the World Bank, it is especially bad in much of Africa, where marriage is the sole basis for women’s access to social and economic rights, which often vanish after widowhood or divorce. Policy reforms that can help address disadvantages to widows, the World Bank says, are regarding property ownership, inheritance rights, registration of customary marriages and widows’ pensions.
Widows: Invisible & Excluded – Asli Demirguc-Kunt Photo by Worldbank.org
“In the face of divorce or widowhood, women often struggle with serious economic hardship,” said Asli Demirguc-Kunt, director of research at the World Bank.
For example, women frequently inherit nothing when a marriage ends. They can be shut out of labor markets, own fewer productive assets and bear more responsibility for caring for children or the elderly.
“Just as widows are often hidden from view in their own communities, the absence of data limits broader public awareness of the issue,” said the story “Invisible and Excluded.” “Quantifying the prevalence of widowhood and divorce requires information on both current widows and divorcees as well as the marital history of currently married women, and this is only available in 20 countries.”
Nearly one in 10 lives in extreme poverty, says the United Nations. While widows have specific needs, their voices are often missing from policies affecting them.
Such disregard can cut deeply, which one 49-year-old Nigerian discovered after her husband committed suicide in 2014. Four months after his death, Christiana came across his bones after searching through forests for three days. Afterward, his relatives summoned her and questioned her intensely, seeking evidence her husband did not die because of her witchcraft.
“They said that I killed my husband,” she told freelance reporter Orji Sunday, “and declared me a witch.” Sunday went on to chronicle how numerous Nigerian widows face similar challenges rooted in cultural practices. Many traditions force women to take an oath to prove her innocence when her husband dies.
“Others confine the widow in place for [a] specific mourning period and others shave her hair, yet others insist that the widow drink the water with which her late husband was washed. Some are given to the brother of the deceased,” Sunday wrote. “Legislation protecting widows is lacking in many states in the country, and in regions where the laws exist implementation is far from convincing.”
The earthquakes in Nepal left this woman as a widow with young kids. Like many others in her nation, she doesn’t know how to start her life again.
Similar stories appear well beyond Africa. In Nepal, a middle-aged woman was blamed for her husband’s death in 2014. Five years later, people in her village accused her of causing the death of a buffalo and beat and tortured her.
“This is a representative example of how a widow is mistreated and traumatized in the country, how widows are looked down upon and treated as inauspicious,” wrote Prakriti Sapkota in a 2019 report. “Widows are among the most vulnerable categories of people in the country. The social stigma attached to them deprive them of their basic human rights and freedom of speech. They are [the] prey of physical and sexual assaults and harassments, accused of various sexual misdeeds and are socially marginalized.”
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across Asia, especially to those who have yet to hear about the love of God. In GFA’s latest yearly report, this included more than 70,000 sponsored children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and spiritual teaching available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://press.gfa.org/news.
![“[National] workers toil to bring healing and hope,” GFA World says. “They touch thousands of lives with the tangible love of God through slum, leprosy, medical and disaster relief ministries. Thanks to them, men, women and children who otherwise might have gone without help … have been blessed with much-needed aid.”](https://wp-media.patheos.com/blogs/sites/792/2021/08/quote-graphic-sisters-of-compassion.jpg)
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