Rita traveled more than seven miles to attend the medical camp, which she heard about through Pastor Ganesh’s flyers. She had suffered numbness in her hands and legs for more than a month, forcing her to abandon her work in the fields. Even household chores such as cleaning and cooking became impossible. Desperate to see a doctor, Rita made a difficult journey.
On the morning of the medical camp, a brightly colored tent covered the courtyard of Pastor Ganesh’s church. A throng of people gathered under it. Sisters of Compassion patiently checked in fathers, mothers and small children wanting to see the doctors. Pastor Ganesh went from group to group helping volunteers and ministering to the sick.
That day, Dr. Aarpit Nipun and his colleague saw more than 200 patients and gave out free medication to those in need. When it was Rita’s turn to see the doctor, she told him the history of her symptoms. Dr. Nipun asked many questions and prescribed medications for her pain. He counseled her to seek treatment in the hospital if her condition worsens.
Giving careful, thorough examinations, Dr. Nipun (pictured) prescribes medication donated by a hospital. Dr. Nipun was impacted by the poverty and sickness he saw at the remote medical camp and offered to come free of charge to future Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported medical camps in the area.
Because of the medication prescribed to Rita at the medical camp, the pain in her limbs subsided. Rita was soon able to gather water and complete household chores that she had previously been unable to do.
“I feel very different,” Rita says.
“After taking the medicine, I don’t feel that much pain in my body. … We need this kind of medical camp organized in many [rural] villages where people do not have access to hospitals or health care centers. This is such a great help for the villagers.”
Unlike Rita, many other women waiting to see Dr. Nipun was too shy to share their symptoms.
“In rural villages, treating a female patient is very challenging for us because [there is still a] misconception that we should not allow any stranger, especially a male, to examine our bodies,” says Dr. Nipun.
“There were a few patients who had gynecological disorders and abdominal pain … and when I asked them, ‘What is your problem?’ they don’t openly tell us. … It is very difficult to find out their problems.”
Rita is grateful for the free medication she received at the medical camp. Because of the medicine, her pain subsided, and she is able to accomplish daily tasks that had been impossible before.
Because of these cultural obstacles to women seeking medical attention, Sisters of Compassion were available to listen to women’s more sensitive symptoms and complaints. They would then relay this information to the doctor on behalf of the patient. This helped many women get their health needs met while retaining their dignity.
At the end of the day, the doctors had seen more than 200 patients—patients whose basic health needs are often neglected. Medical professionals distributed medication, including vitamins for pregnant women and children. Dr. Nipun, touched by the poverty and sickness of the patients, volunteered to serve again.
“It’s my wish that in the future, wherever you happen to conduct a medical camp, and if I am around, I will be more [than] willing to be available and give free service,” Dr. Nipun said. “Thank you very much.”
Pastor Ganesh rejoiced that so many received the medical care they desperately needed. Grateful that God provided for the medical camp, he prayed God would touch many people’s hearts with His love. Pastor Ganesh also prayed people would experience the gift of eternal healing by the Great Physician, of which the free medical camp was a perfect picture.
Numerous studies have shown that the simple step of properly handwashing markedly reduces the risk of disease and infection. Unfortunately, many in developing nations around the globe do not know of this life-saving fact.
For this reason, the Global Handwashing Partnership (GHP) established October 15 as Global Handwashing Day. The theme for 2018 is “Clean hands – a recipe for health.” It particularly applies to this year’s emphasis on making handwashing a part of preparing to make or partake of every meal.
When the first Global Handwashing Day was introduced in 2008, the campaign focused on reducing child mortality rates by introducing behavioral changes, including handwashing. It was estimated that the simple act of washing one’s hands adequately with soap could reduce childhood mortality from respiratory disease by 25 percent and from diarrheal diseases by 50 percent.In fact, “Research shows that children living in households exposed to handwashing promotion and soap had half the diarrheal rates of children living in control neighborhoods.”
The World Health Organization recognizes World Hand Hygiene Day each May 5.
The need for each of these days is far greater than we might imagine. It is difficult for us to imagine not washing our hands. It’s just what we do. It was only about 150 years ago that washing one’s hands was not so common anywhere in the world.
It was not until 1846 that anyone recognized the value or virtue of washing one’s hands with soap. Dr. Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, who held a medical degree with a specialty in midwifery, became concerned about the prevalence of puerperal fever in maternity clinics.
Despite the abundance of incorrect theories of the day, Semmelweis theorized a common link between fetal and maternal childbirth deaths and similar fatal infections in people who had undergone surgery by doctors carrying infectious substances on their hands and surgical instruments.
Semmelweis’ hypothesis-proving experiments, in which his system of hand and instrument washing were used, reduced the puerperal fever mortality rate in his facilities from 12.24 percent to 2.38 percent. Twenty years later, his findings had still not become readily accepted.
Educating people with regard to the dangers of infection caused by dirty hands has dramatically reduced birthing and surgical mortality rates. And washing hands with soap and water has become as much a part of life in developed nations as waking up in the morning. So much so that the occurrence of bacterial disease is minimal in developed countries compared to those that are still emerging.
The task before us now is to educate the people who are living in remote villages and slums who have yet to understand the need for washing one’s hands. Gospel for Asia (GFA), its partners, NGOs, businesses and governments are working together to teach the necessity for handwashing as a matter of good health and hygiene. Together, we can:
Teach people to wash their hands with soap at critical times, especially before eating, cooking or feeding others.
Model good handwashing behavior and remind them to always wash their hands before eating.
Help them to make handwashing part of their family-meal practice.
Help them to establish places to wash your hands in the household, in your community, in schools, workplaces and in health facilities.
Promote effective handwashing behavior change.
Watch this short video (3:47) featuring Dr. Daniel Johnson to learn more about how some of our field partners teach proper handwashing.
This video is shown in thousands of rural villages and urban slums every year to prevent unnecessary disease and infection and improve the health and well-being of the poor and downtrodden.
Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing why women are targets of abuse and discrimination, and why there is violence against the girl child.
Geeta, a mother of two, lived in the slums and struggled to put food on the table every day with the meager 20 rupees her husband gave her. That amount equaled less than 50 cents at the time.
Geeta is one of many women in Asia who have experienced domestic abuse at the hands of her husband.
In the evening, Geeta’s husband would come home drunk, having spent most of his earnings on alcohol. When she did not meet his expectations for dinner, he’d bring out whatever stick, rod or bat he could find and beat her in his drunken anger.
What Geeta endured at the hands of her husband is the story countless women across Asia can share. The circumstances may be different, but the reality is the same. Throughout the centuries, women have silently suffered violence at the hands of their husbands who were supposed to love them, at the hands of their close and distant relatives who were supposed to care for them, and at the hands of strangers who were never supposed to have their hands on them in the first place.
Countless women across Asia have suffered in silence. This gender-based violence can take many forms, from female infanticide and domestic violence to trafficking and honor killings.
Violence against women stretches from country to country and takes on many forms. It is estimated that 1 in 3 women—globally—have or will experience abuse in their lifetime.
In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly defined violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
In 1999, it again reiterated this and established November 25 as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
The World Bank released a report in 2014 titled “Violence against Women and Girls: Lessons from South Asia,” which categorized the various types of abuse and discrimination women endure throughout the stages of their lives. Female infanticide, child marriage, dowry violence, domestic violence between spouses and family members, sexual harassment, trafficking and honor killings are only some of the violence reviewed.
Violence against women in South Asia is particularly high. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the prevalence of violence against women in this region is at 37.7 percent, compared to “23.2% in high-income countries and 24.6% in the Western Pacific region.”
Gospel for Asia (GFA) field partners see the effects of this violence firsthand as they minister to battered women, abused daughters and neglected widows.
In 2014, Gospel for Asia released a documentary film called “Veil of Tears,” profiling the gender-based violence that millions of women across Asia endure. It introduced us to Maloti, whose in-laws tried to kill her because she was of a lower caste than they; and Suhkwinder, who wanted to commit suicide because of the constant verbal abuse from her in-laws for not giving birth to a son.
These women, including Geeta, reveal the degrees at which a woman’s dignity is at stake—even snatched away.
Maloti experienced discrimination when her in-laws attempted to poison her because she was from a lower caste.
But why are women targets of abuse and discrimination? Why does it seem almost like a requirement for women to silently endure the violence done against them?
Gospel for Asia would like to suggest it begins when people no longer see others as made in the image of God, as “knit from the same cloth,” as fellow human beings and citizens with equal rights and values.
Throughout the countries that make up Asia, women have been regarded as inferior to men. Historical traditions and customs permeate and perpetuate the worldview that females are less than men and should be treated as such. This perception taints the way people look at women and girls. What’s tragic is that this discrimination starts at conception.
Violence Against the Girl Child
Dr. Daniel, director of Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported medical ministry in Asia
Dr. Daniel, director of Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported medical ministry in Asia, looked at the newborn bundled in her mother’s lap and knew this baby girl was in danger. She was emaciated. Her eyes sunk in their sockets. She struggled for breath, “as if someone had a stranglehold on her neck,” he said.
She wasn’t going to last long if they didn’t rush her to the hospital. He urged them to go, hurry, take her to the hospital. There wasn’t much he could do at this small medical camp in this rural village. Yet, even if she did make it to the hospital, Dr. Daniel wondered if it was just too late for this precious child.
A little later, he saw the mother again still holding her gravely ill newborn. She and her husband hadn’t gone to the hospital. He couldn’t comprehend why they still lingered; then the truth came out: They didn’t want to save their daughter. To them she was “a burden, another mouth to feed, an expensive dowry payment for a future husband.”
It’s widely known that Asia has a highly disproportionate ratio of men to women. The reason? Son preference.
Sukwinder was rejected by her husband and in-laws because she was only bearing girl babies, and was even pressured to abort her children. This drove her to attempt suicide. The irony is they were persecuting her because of a biological process that, from a medical perspective, she had no control of. The father is the one who contributes the genetic data the determines the sex of a baby.
According to World Bank’s report, “Some degree of son preference is evident in most societies. But son preference so strong as to cause daughter aversion and consequent sex differences in child mortality in excess of what is biologically expected occurs only in a few parts of the world, of which South Asia is a prominent example.”
Mothers and fathers want sons. Sons bring honor to the family. Sons carry on the family name. Sons will provide for the family. Daughters, on the other hand, only result in debt. Parents raise them, spend money on their food and maybe their education only so they can become someone else’s “property” after they marry. Then they require a dowry, an obligatory “gift” from the bride’s family to the groom’s family, which is typically determined by the bride’s soon-to-be in-laws and places the bride’s family at their mercy.
They didn’t want to save their daughter. To them she was “a burden, another mouth to feed, an expensive dowry payment for a future husband.”
To avoid the “problem” of having a daughter and the impending burdens they bring, many parents will either abort the girl child or neglect them once they’re born, like that mother at the medical camp had done.
Even before they take their first breath, females are denied the basic human right to live.
The shocking issue of gendercide was revealed in the 2012 documentary called “It’s a Girl.” As stated on the film’s official website: “In India, China and many other parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of this so-called ‘gendercide’.”
Think about it: 200 million girls and women who should be living and breathing right now, who could have made a contribution to their societies, who could have…changed the world. Yet they no longer exist, murdered even before they had the chance to live, or neglected without a care.
One nation in Asia (India) took a major step in preventing gendercide. In 1994, the government of India enacted the Preconception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act to address female feticide and sex-selection—prohibiting, in a word, “gendercide”. The authorities took it a step further in 2011 by condemning the “misuse of pre-natal diagnostic techniques for sex determination of fetuses leading to female foeticide.” Clearly put: Ultrasounds became illegal in India, if they were intended to determine the sex of the baby for the purpose of abortion. For one of the world’s most populous nations, these are great steps to prevent discrimination against women.
The Indian government also enacted various other laws that protect women and their rights, including the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, the Dowry Prohibition Act and the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, and many more.
Yet Gospel for Asia field partners still see the horrific results of gendercide: hospital dumpsters holding the dead bodies of newborn baby girls. They’ve seen the disregard—even hatred—some have for their daughters and have shared some of those stories with us.
One is the well-known story of Ruth, whose father despised her for being born a girl. Another is about a couple who threw their newborn baby girl in the hospital dumpster because she looked “abnormal.” And yet another is about a daughter who was called the curse of the family.
In each of these cases, these young girls faced discrimination and mistreatment on the sole basis of being female. The only thing they had done wrong is be born with the wrong anatomy.
Watch Ruth’s story of persevering through abuse and discrimination from her father because she was born a girl.
The infant mortality rate among females in South Asia is 38.3 per 5,000 live births. Compare that to 5.5 for the United States and United Kingdom put together. Oxfam International reported once that “One in six deaths of a female infant in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan is due to neglect and discrimination.”
The World Bank affirms this: “Much of the observed excess female child mortality is achieved not by outright infanticide or other physical abuse leading to death, but by more indirect forms of violence in the shape of neglect and discrimination resulting in death.”
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This Special Report has two more blogs coming — Targets of Abuse Part 2 | Targets of Abuse Part 3
Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.
When a woman in America is pregnant, she has multitudes of resources available to her. Rows of books at libraries, countless blog posts and magazine articles about the best way to prepare for labor and raise a child, many options for how and where she will deliver her baby, dozens of options for prenatal vitamins and various supplements to boost her health and help her baby develop.
But that’s not the case for many women in Asia.
Many have never been told some of the things we consider basic pregnancy information here, such as taking vitamins, resting extra and decreasing the weight of any loads they carry.
I’m six months pregnant, and I can’t remember how many times I’ve heard “Are you taking it easy?” or “Are you sure you shouldn’t be resting right now?” or “Here, let me carry that for you,” or “Are you taking your prenatal vitamins?”
I’ve thought often of the story Gospel for Asia shared about a mother in Asia who lost her baby because she never learned what pregnancy care should include. It’s tragic to consider the lives that are lost each year because of inadequate care and/or lack of education for pregnant women and their babies in parts of Asia.
This woman learned valuable health care information through Gospel for Asia-supported medical ministry, which protected her next pregnancy from miscarriage and enables her to care for her son every day.
However, on the flip side, how exciting it is to think about the lives being saved through simple education programs and initiatives!
Gospel for Asia partners with national workers to safeguard the health of individuals, families and communities in several ways: medical camps, health seminars, mosquito net distributions, clean water initiatives and more. There are so many aspects of life that impact our health. But during these months of my pregnancy, GFA-supported medical ministry to women—especially to expecting mothers—has become even more relatable and exciting to me.
Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers organize medical camps in hundreds of villages every year, and they attend to the needs of people with a wide variety of ailments. After receiving treatment at a medical camp, women also learn the importance of vitamins, nutrition, rest and medical checkups during pregnancy, which are often totally new pieces of information. In addition, many malnourished children and anemic mothers receive vitamins at medical camps.
Gospel for Asia also supports health seminars for women to learn basic principles of hygiene, childcare, first aid and food safety. Such simple gatherings can make such a powerful change in a family!
Women wait for their turn to see a doctor at a Gospel for Asia-supported medical camp. Seeing a doctor is a rare opportunity for most of the families in this area.
That mom whom I mentioned earlier, the one who lost her child? She got to attend one of those health seminars, and when she applied the information she learned, her next pregnancy carried full term. She and her husband are now blessed with a little boy!
If I was a first-time mom in Asia instead of in Texas, and if my mother and all other women around me knew very little about childbirth and pregnancy, how would I be living? I probably would go along with the common beliefs that vitamins and pills are harmful to my baby, that doctors and shots were scary and that I could still work as hard as I possibly could to help my family earn food for the day.
Maybe I would be fortunate enough to live in one of the hundreds of villages Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers have visited to hold medical camps—but maybe I wouldn’t. I might still be unaware of how I should be changing my lifestyle to protect the gift of life in my womb.
I’m so grateful to be part of helping moms across Asia learn how to protect themselves and their babies. Each life is a gift from God. I hope and pray many more mothers will have the chance to attend a medical camp or seminar to learn the things that will safeguard their children’s lives.
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On April 29, 2017, deadly tornados struck just a few miles away from Gospel for Asia’s U.S. headquarters in Wills Point, Texas. The GFA campus lost power for three days, but we were deeply grateful to be otherwise untouched by the twisters. However, our neighboring communities were reeling from the devastation. Homes had been torn off their foundations; a car dealership was in shambles—and so were many lives.
Local churches stepped up and organized groups of people to help clear rubble from broken homes and salvage whatever belongings could be found. Gospel for Asia (GFA) staff members quickly partnered with those churches and found ways to help serve the affected communities.
Gospel for Asia staff member helps clean up homes after a tornado devastated a nearby community.
I went with one group of helpers to a neighborhood that would have been sheltered in a beautiful wood just days prior. But now the trees were splintered, and logs and branches sprawled across lawns, cars, pools and bedrooms. The furry of the storm was difficult to fathom.
I talked with tearful home owners who had to start afresh overnight. I walked through pastures and retrieved photographs, clothing, books and even a portion of a social security card.
In a storm, suddenly everything in a person’s life is laid bare and exposed.
It was a sobering experience. Tragedy had struck, but in the midst of it, I heard beautiful stories of God’s protection over the residents of the homes I helped clear away.
One father told me he arrived at a shelter just after his living room door flew through his house, crossing the hallway he had just used. At another site, a family member told me how the house had been lifted off its foundation, and the wife flew out and landed a few hundred feet away—she survived, as did her husband. Both these families were Christ followers, and they testified that God worked miracles in the midst of their storm.
As Daniel Yohannan, vice president of Gospel for Asia, wrote, gratitude works wonders in our hearts, no matter what our circumstances.
There was such love being poured out from stranger to stranger. Prayers were offered, hugs were shared, meals were provided, sweat and labor was spent tearing out soaked drywall and removing glass, stones and trees from roofless homes.
Why were strangers so eager to help? Because of compassion. And for those who belonged to neighboring churches, it was because of Christ’s compassion.
When the horrific earthquakes in Nepal in 2015 killed more than 8,000 people in four nations, GFA-supported Compassion Services teams mobilized right away to organize relief work, rescue victims and care for the grieving. They stayed to help long after the news of the earthquake left the media.
A Gospel for Asia-supported Compassion Services team provides aid to villagers in Nepal after two earthquakes shook the country.
Like the local churches in Texas who helped their tornado-victim neighbors, these workers in Nepal ministered God’s love and mercy to people in their time of great need.
More recently, episodes of flooding in Assam, India, during 2017 and other severe floods in Sri Lanka prompted Compassion Services teams to rally together to aid their communities. Although many of the relief workers were affected by the flooding as well, they set aside their own needs and worked together to bring food and shelter to many villages.
I love these Compassion Services teams. They are used by God to save lives and bring hope into desperate situations, yet they themselves are simple human beings. They may be local pastors, students in a seminary, Sunday School teachers or Bridge of Hope staff. But when disaster strikes, they become vessels of peace and comfort during a fierce storm.
Disaster relief is one of the four ministries supported through Gospel for Asia’s Compassion Services fund. The other areas of ministry—Leprosy Ministry, Slum Ministry and Medical Ministry—hold a similar purpose: giving those who are in need the chance to experience God’s provision and care.
Do you have a story you’d like to share of experiencing a natural disaster or helping provide relief and help to those in need? Please share those stories with us in the comments below!
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Since 1979, Gospel for Asia (now GFA World) has been committed to serving 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. GFA supports national workers serving as the hands and feet of Christ in four main ways. Sponsoring national missionaries to minister to people’s needs, sponsoring children, investing in community development, and helping families in need of care or during disasters.
Gospel for Asia is about changing communities—both for this life and for eternity. We serve the Lord in more than a dozen Asian nations including India, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Laos, and Thailand. We have also recently launched our first-ever Mission in Africa, particularly in Rwanda.
Programs
National missionaries
GFA’s main focus is to train and equip national missionaries who come from different cultures and languages rather than nation-states. This selection provides GFA with people within a single nation-state who are specialized in the particular village that they are ministering to. Some of these missionaries actually belong to these villages which makes it easier for them to share the love of Christ. In 2018 GFA reported that they have over 16,000 missionaries and church planters in 18 Asian nations.
Church buildings, Bibles, and gospel literature
Part of GFA’s program for discipleship is the establishment of Christian worship centers in small villages. These centers also provide a visible meeting place for Christians. In major cities, GFA builds large cathedral-type buildings to cater to bigger congregations. Similarly, GFA distributes native-language bibles and evangelical Christian literature to the region.
Radio and television broadcasts
GFA provides biblical content through its radio program, Athmeeya Yathra (Spiritual Journey) and its YouTube channel, Athmeeyayathra Television.
Bible colleges
GFA has established 56 bible colleges in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. These institutions train native missionaries within their own dialects and cultures so that they will be effective ministers. The program includes three years of instruction, including field instruction and experience.
Bridge of Hope
Bridge of Hope is a child sponsorship program for poor families in underserved communities, especially lower-caste families and Dalits. The program offers education, physical and spiritual care, including healthcare training and vocational training for women.
Wells
This is a Jesus Well in a remote village in Asia.
In response to water shortage problems in communities, GFA digs wells for long-term use near churches, bible colleges, or Bridge of Hope centers. These wells are turned over to the local church and are maintained by a local pastor.
Leprosy Ministry
This ministry is also called “Reaching Friends Ministry” to help people suffering from the disease through social and relief work, medical aid, and health and hygiene awareness.
Expansion to Africa
In 2020, GFA started World Child Sponsorship in the slums of Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. It also include training national missionaries, clean water projects, medical ministry, education for the underprivileged, women’s empowerment, and community development projects.
Affiliate Offices
GFA has or had 14 known affiliated LLCs registered in Willis Point, TX as well as national offices in various countries in which they operate mission efforts.
Believers Eastern Church
Believers Eastern Church is administratively based in the state of Kerala in southwestern India. It was reorganizd in 2015 into 33 dioceses. Its membership includes over 3.5 million people in 10 countries speaking a hundred languages. The Church currently has 30 Bishops, and the current Metropolitan Bishop is Athanasius Yohan I.
GFA Canada
The GFA Canada office is registered with the Canadian government. It was established in 1986 and is located in Ontario. As a charity office, it provides disaster relief among other humanitarian efforts to communities.
History
Dr. K.P. Yohannan founded Gospel for Asia as a Christian NGO in 1978. In the US, the organization is located in Wills Point, TX. In 1981, a branch was established in Kerala, India. Another headquarters was set up in Tiruvalla in 1983. GFA has also established bible colleges, compassion and community development projects, and disaster relief operations. GFA is supported by donations and has been considered to be “one of the most financially powerful mission undertakings in India in the 1980s.”
Controversies
In 2014, a group of over 10 former Gospel for Asia staff members called the GFA Diaspora wrote two letters. While their concerns were mostly regarding GFA leadership,[44] they were also concerned for GFA’s donors. More info about this is provided here.
What Others Are Saying About Gospel for Asia
George Verwer shares why he stands with Gospel for Asia
“Gospel for Asia is not a movement but a phenomenon. GFA has become one of the most significant mission organizations of this century.
“I praise God for the great love and commitment of K.P. and Gisela Yohannan for the people of Asia. Millions have received the Word of God because of them and the ministry of Gospel for Asia.”
—George Verwer, founder of Operation Mobilization and world missions advocate
Ajith Fernando, teaching director of Sri Lanka’s Youth for Christ
“I am grateful for the training that Gospel for Asia has given to many evangelists who are effectively reaping the ripe harvest fields of Sri Lanka.”
—Ajith Fernando, teaching director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka
Paul Louis Cole, president of Christian Men’s Network
“Dr. K.P. Yohannan is a missionary statesman, a pastor to pastors, a mission leader to mission leaders, and a father to the fatherless. At Christian Men’s Network, we look for deserving men around the world to highlight as role models for our Global Fatherhood Initiative. My introduction to Dr. Yohannan was reading Against the Wind, Finishing Well in a World of Compromise, which stirred me deeply. In a unanimous decision, the CMN board presented Dr. Yohannan with the first annual Reggie White Fatherhood Award, to honor his demonstration for over 40 years of what it means to be a father by providing leadership to compassionate workers of faith and hope to the defeated.”
—Rev. Paul Louis Cole, D.Th., president of Christian Men’s Network
Francis Chan, pastor and author
“K.P. has been a mentor to me for years. The way that he speaks to God and about Him is different from anyone else I know. His words and actions have led to me loving Jesus more consistently and deeply. He continues to be an example to me. For this, I am eternally grateful.”
Gospel for Asia is also a community inspiring others in the West to be committed to Christ
GFA’s first Core Value is knowing the Lord Jesus more fully and intimately. This value is lived out daily by GFA staff and since its inception; GFA has provided ways for people to live out their commitment to Christ.
GFA School of Discipleship in Texas
GFA created an immersive, authentic discipleship program for youth ages 18 – 27. Daily students are challenged to “die to yourself” while living in a community of believers who love Christ and serve others.
The foundation of GFA’s ministry is prayer. We know nothing is accomplished without prayer, and therefore, we give it a place of priority. GFA-supported missionaries and GFA staff around the world pray consistently and with great fervor for those who have yet to comprehend the depth of God’s love and grace.
The state-of-the-art medical facility and training center — being constructed in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali — will serve the poorest of the poor, and train new African doctors and nurses, the organization said.
GFA WORLD LAUNCHES MAJOR MEDICAL PROJECT IN EAST AFRICA: Scheduled to be up and running by the end of 2025, a new 450-bed hospital, medical school, and training complex in Kigali, Rwanda, will act as a hub to launch medical missions across Africa, Texas-based GFA World (www.gfa.org) says.
GFA World aims to have the multi-specialty facility up and running by the end of next year. It will be one of the largest and best-equipped hospitals on the continent, according to the organization.
“The need for affordable and accessible healthcare and medicine in Africa is overwhelming,” said GFA World founder K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan), who launched the organization — previously known as Gospel for Asia — in 1979. “I’ve never before seen suffering on this scale.”
The new 17-acre campus will launch medical missions across sub-Saharan Africa and into North Africa, “where millions have yet to hear about God’s love for them,” Yohannan said.
Telemedicine is a ‘Game-Changer’
A major thrust will be the expansion of telemedicine, enabling people in isolated villages without any healthcare facilities at all to get medical care remotely online.
“Telemedicine is a game-changer that will save thousands upon thousands of lives, enabling people to have health conditions diagnosed and get professional help quickly,” said Yohannan. “With so much suffering in the world, now is the time to demonstrate God’s love.”
Medical teams will focus on preventing and treating diseases like malaria which claims more than 400,000 lives every year, equivalent to the entire population of Tampa, Florida.
While medical infrastructure in the region is perilously overloaded, Rwanda is considered one of the most stable nations in Africa.
African healthcare workers trained in Rwanda will lay the foundation for long-term community transformation, Yohannan said.
“The reason we’re here is because of the love of Christ,” he said. “There’s no more powerful example than going to the poorest and neediest right where they are and being as Jesus to them.”
About GFA World (formerly Gospel for Asia)
GFA World is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Africa and Asia, and sharing the love of God. In a typical year, this includes thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 880 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 163,000 needy families, and teaching to provide hope and encouragement in 110 languages in 14 nations through broadcast ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit the Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.
WILLS POINT, TX — It’s one of the most remarkable stories in the colossal quest to provide clean drinking water to every person on the planet.
The “Jesus Wells” project, a monumental undertaking of Texas-based mission agency GFA World (www.gfa.org), is 25 years old this year — and on the cusp of delivering safe, clean drinking water to its 40 millionth beneficiary.
CLEAN WATER AVAILABLE FOR MILLIONS: The “Jesus Wells” project, a monumental undertaking of Texas-based mission agency GFA World (www.gfa.org), is 25 years old this year — and on the cusp of providing safe drinking water to its 40 millionth beneficiary.
“As we mark World Water Day this month, we’re grateful for all who have sacrificed and labored to make the Jesus Wells project what it is today,” said GFA World founder K.P. Yohannan, also known as Metropolitan Yohan.
So far, the project has supplied reliable, clean drinking water to more than 39 million people in some of the world’s poorest communities — often in remote, parched areas — through a combination of new wells, water pipelines and filters.
This year, it aims to surpass 40 million beneficiaries, launching hundreds of new projects across Africa and Asia.
They’re called “Jesus Wells” because they display a plaque quoting Jesus in the Gospel of John: “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.”
‘Hidden Catastrophe’
According to UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, 2.2 billion people worldwide — more than 1 in every 4 — lack safe drinking water.
Every year, it’s estimated more than 500,000 people worldwide die from diseases such as cholera and dysentery due to drinking dirty water.
“It’s a global catastrophe that’s largely hidden from us in America,” Yohannan said.
In Asia, GFA World’s team constructed an almost two-mile-long water pipeline through a mountain rainforest infested with blood-sucking leeches to rescue villagers whose water source was swamped with mud, feces, dead snakes and rotting animal carcasses.
The pipeline feeds water tanks that supply filtered spring water to every home. The organization has installed a similar water system in nine more villages in the area.
Since then, the attitude toward Christians in the area has “completely changed,” Yohannan said.
“They welcome the missionaries into their homes to share God’s love,” he said. “They witnessed for themselves how Christians love and care for people, regardless of their religion or social background.”
About GFA World (formerly Gospel for Asia)
GFA World is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Africa and Asia, and sharing the love of God. In a typical year, this includes thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 880 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 163,000 needy families, and teaching to provide hope and encouragement in 110 languages in 14 nations through broadcast ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit the Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.
WILLS POINT, TX — Can a chicken really change someone’s life? It’s happening all around the globe, according to mission agency GFA World (www.gfa.org).
The Texas-based organization has launched its annual Christmas “Chickens & Goats” campaign on WAY-FM Radio — an opportunity for people to buy life-changing gifts, such as chickens and goats, for families living in extreme poverty in Africa and Asia this festive season.
The campaign includes a “Chicken Challenge” to donate a pair of chickens every month for a year, for the cost of two lattes per month. Chickens multiply quickly and produce fresh eggs almost every day, a life-changer for families battling hunger, the mission agency says.
HATCHING HOPE: ‘CHRISTMAS CRITTER’ CAMPAIGN BACKED BY TOP CHRISTIAN BAND: Hit-making Christian band We Are Messengers is supporting mission agency GFA World’s annual “Chickens & Goats” Christmas campaign — an opportunity for people to buy life-changing gifts, including chickens and goats, for families in Africa and Asia living in extreme poverty. (Photo Courtesy of We Are Messengers)
The Christmas campaign is being supported by top Christian band We Are Messengers and its lead singer Darren Mulligan. The award-winning band has had 11 Top-10 radio hits, including the multi-week/multi-chart #1 radio single “Come What May” and the Gold-Certified “Maybe It’s OK.” You can find out more info and tour dates from the band at www.wearemessengersmusic.com.
Hatching Hope
“We see time and time again how the simple gift of a pair of chickens completely transforms the life of someone living in deepest poverty and gives them hope,” said GFA World founder K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan).
Mayra, a widow who received two chickens that helped her out of hunger, told the organization’s workers, “I’m so happy because of your love and concern for me.”
“Our aim is not only to help people like Mayra and their communities escape hunger and poverty, but also to show them the love of Christ — the one who’s able to give them hope for eternity,” Yohannan said.
Other livestock gifts include pigs and water buffalo. Alternative gifts include mosquito nets that prevent malaria and other diseases, income-generating sewing machines, clean water, blankets, and Bibles.
Challenge to Impact Eternity
GFA World national missionaries share with people who’ve never heard about Jesus that they’re “created in the image of God.” They often trek many miles on foot or bicycle to some of the remotest places on earth to provide practical help and “show God’s love to the forgotten and abandoned,” such as outcast widows and those living with leprosy.
“This is the challenge to us all — where will we be in 100 years’ time?” Yohannan said. “The only thing that will matter is what we did to impact eternity.”
About GFA World (formerly 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 Africa and Asia, and sharing the love of God. In a typical year, this includes thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in hundreds of villages and remote communities, over 40,000 clean water wells drilled since 2007, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 150,000 needy families, and teaching to provide hope and encouragement in 110 languages in 14 nations through broadcast ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit the Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.
WILLS POINT, TX — A U.S.-based global mission agency says several of its partner churches were left “broken” by a devastating earthquake that struck remote Western Nepal Nov. 3, killing more than 150 people.
“We have also lost cherished members of our church family in this heart-wrenching tragedy,” said K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan), founder of Texas-based GFA World (www.gfa.org). “Our prayers are with all the affected families, and we share in their grief during this most challenging time.”
GFA WORLD, LOCAL CHURCHES RUSH TO AID NEPAL QUAKE SURVIVORS: Local church teams in remote Western Nepal are desperately trying to reach villages flattened by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake last Friday night that killed more than 150 people and left thousands without shelter. GFA World (www.gfa.org) is asking for prayer and support.
According to news reports, the magnitude 6.4 quake flattened mud-and-brick homes in the rugged Jajarkot and West Rukum districts, about 300 miles west of the capital, Kathmandu. It hit just before midnight local time when most people were in bed. Tremors were felt as far away as Delhi.
GFA World reported three churches were badly affected, and in one village three church members were killed.
One Nepalese church leader told the mission organization that local Christians were “broken” by the loss of life and many severe injuries.
Local Church Members Rush to Aid Survivors
“Just like when a quake rocked Nepal in 2015, our teams immediately mobilized. Local church members are actively involved in rescue and relief efforts in the region, with thousands of people in need of food, blankets and tents after their homes were destroyed,” said Yohannan.
Because many affected villages are in remote areas impassable by vehicles, church workers have to use motorbikes to reach them, a local church leader told GFA World. The organization supports national missionaries and helps millions of the poorest people in Africa and Asia.
Within hours, one church team reached a devastated village and began distributing food.
It’s estimated in some areas up to 90% of the simple mud-and-brick dwellings collapsed.
Yohannan urged Christians to pray for those suffering and those who’ve lost loved ones in Nepal. “Let our faith guide us in extending God’s love, aid, and hope to the people of Nepal,” he said. “Together, we can help them heal.”
About GFA World (formerly 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 Africa and Asia, and sharing the love of God. In a typical year, this includes thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in hundreds of villages and remote communities, over 40,000 clean water wells drilled since 2007, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 150,000 needy families, and teaching to provide hope and encouragement in 110 languages in 14 nations through broadcast ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit the Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.
GFA World’s Compassion Services is bringing Christ’s love to the suffering and needy in very practical ways. GFA-supported missionaries and volunteers assist survivors of natural disasters by providing food, water, medical care, clothing and even shelter. Teams also minister to slum dwellers and leprosy patients in some of Asia’s major cities. And all is done with a clear Gospel witness.
In 1993, the 
Think about it: 200 million girls and women who should be living and breathing right now, who could have made a contribution to their societies, who could have…changed the world. Yet they no longer exist, murdered even before they had the chance to live, or neglected without a care.
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