Gospel for Asia Examines the Impact of Faith on Modern Medical Approaches (Part 3)

March 9, 2020 By Karen Mains

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan issues an extensive Special Report on the deadly diseases brought by the mosquito and the storied impact of faith-based organizations on world health, fighting for the Kingdom to “come on earth as it is in heaven.”

Bangladesh—Samaritan’s Purse treats Rohingya refugees affected by the diphtheria outbreak. Photo credit Samaritan’s Purse

This is Part 3 of a Three-Part Series on FBO Initiatives to Combat Malaria and Other World Health Concerns.
Go here to read Part 1 and Part 2.

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No Mosquitoes in the Room Now: A Quick Look at the Impact of Faith on Modern Medical Approaches

One of the most succinct summaries of the role of faith-based activity in relationship to ongoing health needs worldwide is a paper by Matthew Bersagel Braley, “The Christian Medical Commission and the World Health Organization.” In it, the author outlines the collaborative work done between the CMC and the WHO in the 1960s and 1970s. They both, concurrently and intentionally aided by the proximity of their headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, sought to address many of the deficiencies that were (and still are) growing apace modern Western medicine with its rapidly increasing dependence upon expensive diagnostic and curative technologies.

Braley’s abstract explains, after referencing the existence of two previous international consultations organized by the World Council of Churches out of which grew the Christian Medical Commission: “What followed was a theologically informed [italics added] shift from hospital-based tertiary care in cities, many in post-colonial settings, to primary care delivery in rural as well as urban communities.”

They saw the mandate of the church as being that of working to restore (as much as is possible) the world to God’s original design.

The early consultations, Tübingen I (in Germany) and Tübingen II, had developed a theology of health that eventually culminated in a mutual understanding. Looking as they were through the lens of health and defining health as the kind of flourishing that God intended for His human creation, they saw the mandate of the church as being that of working to restore (as much as is possible) the world to that original design. Wholeness then is a kind of health—an “at oneness” with God, with fellow humans, with our communities and with our environment. As believers work toward this goal, despite the fact it will never be ultimately achieved until Christ returns, they consequently become healers or health-bringers with an emphasis on flourishing.

Health was also redefined as the ideal that God desired for the people of the earth, one that will probably not be achieved completely, but will have periodic breakouts in time. Health was seen not simply as the “absence of disease” as defined traditionally by the medical establishment, but the presence of ecological health, harmony within the community, at oneness within the individual and in his or her relationships. It was a presence of peace and a lack of warfare; it was an insistence and concern that the neglected, the poor and the oppressed should even be given preferential treatment because of the systemic unfairness, lack of parity and often true evil exercised by the powerful over the powerless.

David Mains, Karen Mains, 1983, at Mount Hermon Conference Center in CA — David and Karen Mains, 1983 at Mount Hermon Conference Center, CA

Personal Reflections

These theological comprehensions and conclusions have personal meaning to me, because I’ve seen firsthand the importance of working together to help others achieve this all-encompassing health. In 1967 we planted a church on the near west side of Chicago, across the expressway from what is now the Illinois Medical District. At that time, we knew it was one of the largest medical centers in the world; now it consists of 560 acres of medical research facilities, labs and a biotechnology business incubator, four major hospitals, two medical universities and more than 450 health care-related facilities. Needless to say, our small but rapidly growing congregation consisted of many medical grad students, nurses and doctors, and social workers.

There must have been something in the international waters, because totally unaware of the groundbreaking conversations going on among the professionals concerned with health impacts on the other side of the world, David Mains, my husband and the founding pastor of our church, discovered Christ’s major preaching theme was the Kingdom of God. Salvation, or being saved, was entry level to an understanding of that preeminent theme. If the predominance of this message was correct, then it totally shifted our thinking from an individualistic interpretation of faith lived out among private lives to a corporate identity framed through the mutual understanding of Scripture’s teaching of this breakthrough concept. Our salvation was worked out in dialogue around Scriptures and in community with other spiritual pilgrims.

“How important it is when members of faith-based consultations … across the world put aside their differences and … design outcomes that have the possibility to alter … whole nations for the good.

There were places in the world, I discovered as I traveled in the role of journalist, where the people used the word “I” but really meant “we.” I began to understand the Epistles often addressed readers with the word “you.” This was not an individual personal pronoun; in most cases, it was a plural pronoun requiring group action, as in “you, the people of God.” David preached a sermon series titled The Christian, the Church and Society including Christ’s two-part summary message, “Unless you are converted and become like little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” The dialogue of those Christians, listening to David’s sermon in that place and that time in history, when a whole revolutionary resistance movement was rising in our culture—against the war in Vietnam and against injustice, racism, sexism and government corruption—forced upon us a theological conversation that just didn’t happen in other places.

In addition, David, in his 30s, became the head of the Greater Chicago Ministerial Association, and we learned to dialogue across the whole body of faith-based confessions. So, we understand how important it is when members of faith-based consultations here at home or far away across the world put aside their differences and in respect and with deep listening capabilities design outcomes that have the possibility to alter cultures and societies and whole nations for the good.

A part of Samaritan’s Purse relief efforts, these men and women helped fight the Ebola pandemic that swept across West Africa in the spring of 2014. Photo credit Samaritan’s Purse

Conclusion: Our Part in World-Changing, World Health

Matthew Braley’s chapter, taken from the book Religion as a Social Determinant of Public Health, is filled with theological terminology such as epistemology and eschatology, but for the average layperson, what is most important is the Christian Medical Commission’s (CMC) understanding that God’s desire for humankind was that humans flourish in environments most optimal to health as defined not by the absence of disease but by a growing wholeness, and that the thrust of Christ’s ministry and preaching demonstrated the ways to achieve this, aptly summarized in His explanation that we are to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. The CMC’s struggle to understand redemption as a growing wholeness eventually resulted in the “game-changing” 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata, the conference out of which the Millennium Development Goals proceeded.

All eight of those goals, delineated earlier in this article, are undergirded by and initiated from a theological understanding of the health emphasis, the redemptive purpose, the salvific meaning demonstrated by Christ and often emulated (though not often enough) by His followers. The MDGs are basically communal in the fact that they bring healing in the large sense of being at peace—or at home—with one’s self; with one’s family, friends and community; and with one’s place in the world. And they cannot be accomplished in a village or a nation or globally without the commensurate communal action of as many entities as possible, giving whatever they can to eradicate whatever suffering can be done away with through these human initiatives.

The participants at Tübingen I and II, the emergent Christian Medical Commission, and thousands of others of us who have, as the Jewish phrase states, worked at “repairing the world” for most of our lives would insist this is God’s work, in God’s way and with God’s help. Fortunately, as Bishop Tutu of South Africa said when he addressed the 2008 61st-annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization’s governing body, “It is a godly coincidence … together WHO and WCC share a common mission to the world, protecting and restoring body, mind, and spirit.”

As Sharon Bieber responded: “Surely the relief and development organizations that are out there in the world can come to the same conclusion on this one thing—everybody is needed in order to fight diseases such as Ebola, HIV/AIDS or tuberculosis; every agency has strengths that will add to the synergy of the whole.”

So when we see groups like Gospel for Asia (GFA) working to hand out hundreds of thousands of mosquito nets to fight malarial infection, when we know tens of thousands of wells have been dug to provide clean water, and when we understand that the effectiveness of the message of Christ can often be measured by how many latrines have been built in a village or a city, we understand that this is what is necessary to help the participants in our world discover true, full health.

Gospel for Asia-supported Moquito net distribution — This family received a mosquito net at a Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported Christmas gift distribution. Now they have protection from mosquitoes while they sleep.

Who knows what consultations among desperate folk with common passions are forming even now that will salvage our world at some future critical juncture?

Perhaps you would like to be part of that network of people determined to spread goodness (God-ness) throughout the world. First, begin by educating yourself. Read the book Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, which includes a compendium of organizations seeking volunteers. The authors do not hide how impressed they are with conservative faith-based organizations doing work in the world. Another book to read is To Repair the World by Paul Farmer, a medical doctor many consider to be a modern-day hero.

“This is a bold read by a humble visionary. For those who care about humanity, this is a handbook for the heart,” reads a blurb on the back cover written by Byron Pitts, the chief national correspondent for CBS Evening News.

Then circle one of the volunteer efforts that seems to be calling your name. Become an activist. No need to travel overseas (although that is highly recommended). There is plenty of work to do at home, wherever home may be for you. Just don’t only think about doing something: Do it! (I’m going to look up volunteering for disaster-relief training with The Salvation Army—or the American Red Cross—and I’m 76 years of age!)

At the end of the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus says to the young lawyer, “Go and do likewise.” No, there’s no danger pay for the faith-based health worker. I don’t know of any who have become wealthy. Most of them belong to the league of the nameless. For these, fame is not a motivator either; it generally gets in the way of doing the job.

But mercy? Compassion? Daring to go where others dare not go? Becoming more and more like Jesus? Yep, these are where most of those I know find deep satisfaction. A remarkable man once said, “Go and do likewise.” And they do.

Is that a mosquito I hear buzzing above my ear?

It only takes one mosquito bite to raise a welt.

It only takes one mosquito to kill a child.

It will take a multitude of innovators (believers or nonbelievers) to fight for the Kingdom to “come on earth as it is in heaven.”

It Takes Only One Mosquito — to lead to remarkable truths about faith-based organizations and world health: Part 1 | Part 2

This Special Report originally appeared on GFA.org.

Learn more about how Mosquito Nets offer protection for families, saving them from the sickening agony or death from malaria.

Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.

Gospel for Asia Living out the Great Commission for the Least of These

December 22, 2019 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) – Discussing the world’s worst tsunami that wreaked havoc along the Indian Ocean coast, and the first Bridge of Hope centers, providing help and care in the midst of tragedy.

Maachah, 13, lives in a small coastal village in Asia, where she also attends a Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported Bridge of Hope center. This particular center was one of the very first and was built in response to a tragedy.

On December 26, 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake shook the island of Sumatra. The aftershocks wracked the Indian Ocean, producing the world’s worst tsunami. By the end of it, more than 200,000 had died.

Providing help and care in the midst of tragedy: Discussing the world's worst tsunami that wreaked havoc along the Indian Ocean coast, and the first Bridge of Hope centers. — At 13 years old, Maachah (pictured) has a future in store for her.

Communities all along the coast of the Indian Ocean were left to pick up the pieces. Hit especially hard was Maachah’s village. People’s homes and their livelihoods were gone, and they didn’t know what to do next. Men, women and children filled relief camps.

Parents worried for their children; schools had been shut down. They didn’t know how they would provide for their little ones.

Hope in the Midst of Tragedy

It was here that Gospel for Asia’s Bridge of Hope Program opened one of its first centers. It offered supplementary education, health care and warm food, while instilling within children hope, peace and a vision for the future—something the children of Maachah’s village desperately needed.

“When this disaster happened, these people had nothing,” said Jakki, the head of the center. “They were rendered homeless.”

Born after the tsunami, Maachah doesn’t know the struggles many people, like her parents, faced.

“I don’t know what happened to my parents during that time,” she said. “They didn’t share much about those things to me.”

However, Dania, one of the tutors at the center, recalls the children’s plight: some were orphaned; others were homeless.

“Many children were [left] without anything,” she remembers. “They lost their fathers, they lost their mothers. They were left alone… These children did not know from where their next meal would come.”

Seeing this, Bridge of Hope staff immediately began admitting children into the center who were most in need. They supplied children with food and hygiene care, and they offered comfort and hope in the tsunami’s wake.

The help and care brought by the center and its staff radically transformed the village and its inhabitants. Hopelessness gave way to optimism and anticipation for the future.

“The Bridge of Hope center has brought a great impact in the families and community and in the lives of their children,” Jakki says. “All the community people like our work and appreciate us.”

Changing Communities, Changing Families

Jakki has served at the Bridge of Hope center since it opened. As its coordinator, Jakki has seen hundreds of children helped through the program and the blessing it brings to the community.

“Through Bridge of Hope, communities know that we have to live together in peace and help people in need,” Jakki says. “That’s what the community people see and feel about Bridge of Hope.”

That’s how Maachah’s entire family feels about Bridge of Hope as well. Maachah isn’t the only one in her family experiencing the blessing Bridge of Hope brings. As her father is ill, he has trouble working. Most of the time, they have very little money and struggle economically.

“My family is benefited through [the center] because my family condition is poor,” the young girl says.

The center provides “bags, clothes and other utensils to us,” Maachah explains. “It helps to save a lot of money.”

The Vision

Currently, 70,000 children like Maachah attend Bridge of Hope centers across Asia, receiving care and hope for their futures. And it started with a dream.

In his book No Longer a Slumdog, Dr. Yohannan details a dream given to him by the Lord. He stood across from a field filled with countless people who desperately needed the love of God. A wide river separated him from the masses.

“Was I only going to look at these needy and suffering people but not be able to help them?” he writes.

Then a bridge appeared, spanning the river. Thousands of children, from all across Asia, filled the bridge.

“I woke from my dream and realized the Lord spoke to me about something incredibly significant,” Dr. Yohannan explains. “If we follow His instructions, our care for these children in need will be a bridge for so many people to find the hope and relief they have been looking for.”

This heaven-sent dream inspired what is now known as Bridge of Hope.

Their Future, Their Purpose

Through the hundreds of centers all across Asia, children are coming to realize they have a future. Jakki has seen dozens of graduates go on to higher education, pursuing their dreams.

For the 123 students currently enrolled in the center, their future is already beginning to take shape.

“My ultimate goal and purpose in my life is to become a leader for society,” says Maachah, “I want to help many people, like how Bridge of Hope does. … To become an able leader is my ultimate goal.”

Maachah isn’t alone in wanting to change the world around her.

Many children have already graduated through this Bridge of Hope center and many others across Asia. They’ve gone on to become doctors, engineers and teachers and are transforming the world around them.

“My dream is to add many more children to the center,” says Jakki. “My wish is to sharpen and shape the lives of these poor children.”

Learn more about how to sponsor and help the children from families stuck in generational abject poverty who need a Bridge of Hope.

*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.

Source: Gospel for Asia Reports, For the Least of These

Read the Poverty: Public Enemy #1 Special Report – Eliminating Extreme Poverty Worldwide is Possible, But Not Inevitable.

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Evangelical Atheism: Evangelical in Word, Atheists at Heart

March 24, 2019 By Karen Mains

Years ago, friends and I experimented with designing listening groups. These small groups with three or four participants met once a month for seven months. Basically, we listened to one another for two hours. After a time of centering prayer where we became stilled and focused, the first person would begin and share where he or she was in life. When the first person was done, we would go back into silence, and the only way we could respond to the one who had spoken after those short moments of quiet was to ask questions. This pattern continued until we had gone around the group. Over seven years, I led some 250 people in listening groups and was amazed by the remarkable growth I saw in many of the attendees. I also was transformed in unexpected ways; I certainly became convinced of the healing power that exists when humans feel heard and understood. We always take the first session of a listening group to get to know one another a little so that we are not complete strangers. One woman sitting in my living room started her story with these words: “I guess you could say that I was raised by parents who were Evangelical atheists…” Whoa, I thought. Now that’s strong! Evangelical atheism?

The woman explained that her parents adhered to conservative Christianity but that their lives were a dysfunctional antithesis to what Scripture explains are the fruits of belief. Over the next month, I kept mulling over this apparent oxymoron: Evangelical atheism. Evangelical atheism.

Evangelical Atheism

Could that be one of the reasons our spiritual fiber is weakening in the West? Are there too many of us who really don’t believe what we say we believe and our dysfunction in living is proof of this personal dissembling? Do the words we say; the thoughts we act out; and the way we function with family, friends, neighbors and work colleagues belie the faith system we say (or in some cases fool ourselves into thinking) we are following? Are many of us really closet Evangelical atheists at heart — at least in part?

I often examine why so many Western Christians wonder, Is this really all there is to Christianity? What’s wrong? Why am I so ineffectual? With so much religious feeding going on, why am I still hungry? Polls released about the time of this women’s statement revealed that 10 percent less Americans claimed to be Christian than what was revealed in previous polls. Statistically, this is a huge shift and indicates a frightening trend. We all need to be asking ourselves, “What is really happening?”

The website “Real Clear Politics” (www.RealClearPolitics.com) reprinted an article from the Christian Science Monitor website (www.csmonitor.com) titled “The Coming Evangelical Collapse.” In it, the author, Michael Spencer, a writer who describes himself as “a post-evangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality,” predicts the demise of evangelicalism as we know it due to seven predicators.

The first one:

“Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism.”

The second reads,

“We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught … our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.”

Check out the website if you are interested in reviewing the rest of the seven predictions. But let’s concentrate on only one of the predictors: In the years going forward, will that second prediction be one of the evidences of a heretical fissure? Will younger generations hold to a form of godliness but as Scripture says, “without the power thereof”?

“The woman explained that her parents adhered to conservative Christianity but that their lives were a dysfunctional antithesis to what Scripture explains are the fruits of belief. Over the next month, I kept mulling over this apparent oxymoron: Evangelical atheism. Evangelical atheism.”

Paul wrestles with this type of spiritual split personality in his second letter to Timothy, a young man he mentored and loved. He says, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come …” He continues with a list of disturbing characteristics: self-adulation, money motivation, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. His conclusion after this disturbing list is “… having a form of godliness but denying its power” (see 2 Timothy 3:1–5).

I would maintain that one reason the local church is bleeding millennials, and that so many of them are often spiritually adrift, is that their own parents are living out a faith where religious activity has more to do with form, not with a “Jesus-shaped spirituality.” According to Pew polling,

“Almost every major branch of Christianity in the United States has lost a significant number of members, mainly because millennials are leaving the fold. More than one-third of millennials now say they are unaffiliated with any faith, up 10 percentage points since 2007.”

In the documentary “An Unreasonable Man,” which chronicles the remarkable consumer-safety record established by Ralph Nader, the principle reveals how, when coming home from grade school one afternoon, his father, an immigrant to this country asked,

“Well, what did you learn in school today? Did they teach you how to believe, or did they teach you how to think?”

Have we been teaching ourselves how to believe without also emphasizing how to think about what we believe, and then, how that thinking belief works itself out in the proof of how we choose to live? Are we passing this intellectual and theological knowledge on to the next generation in such a way that they one day will look back and recognize the power of previous spiritual models? Will those younger than ourselves identify and remember our belief linked to lifestyles in such power-filled ways that our example will continue to be a motivator for their belief and lifestyle for decades beyond the span of our own lives?

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy

There are two great rulers by which insidious, private heresy can be measured. One is orthodoxy, right theology. The other is orthopraxy, right living. Scripture is clear that the marriage of both is the cornerstone of Christian faith. Christ is stunningly clear that belief and living must be in sync. He is particularly livid over the empty performance orientation of religious leaders.

“Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” — Matthew 7:15–17.

The way we live is evidence of what we truly believe. Or another way to look at this is in the simple statement that Christ also makes:

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (see Luke 6:45).

What an indicator of orthopraxy! Our tongues tell.

The Apostle John picks up this theme in his first letter: “If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth,” (see 1 John 1:6) and “He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in darkness until now” (see 1 John 2:9). Orthodoxy, what we believe, and orthopraxy, how we live it out, must be in sync. Otherwise, our Christian confession is obliterated by our actions.

Not only should individuals be wary of their own hidden heresies in belief or in practice, religious organizations can become horrific examples of incomprehensible splits between living and doing as well. My husband and I have been in ministry throughout the full five decades of our married life. We were in youth work, planted a church in the inner-city of Chicago and pastored an inter-racial congregation, spent 20 years in daily radio outreach, seven years producing and hosting a daily television show, and sponsored 132 pastors’ conference annually. Together we’ve written dozens of published books, traveled on the speaker’s circuit for 20 years and served as directors of various not-for-profit boards.

We are well aware that the demands of ministry are such that it is more than easy to do God’s work, using approaches and techniques that are not God’s ways. Spiritual schizophrenia is all too easy to slip into. Let’s look at a couple of examples of ministries that have worked hard to prevent evangelical heresy.

Preventing Evangelical Heresy

Gary Haugen, a lawyer formerly employed in the civil-rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice, who was also the director of the United Nations genocide investigation in Rwanda, took a huge lifestyle leap, committing what is essentially professional suicide by resigning his high-powered government positions in order to live out a Jesus-shaped spirituality. He and dedicated colleagues have founded and formed the International Justice Mission, which confronts, rescues and protects those women, men and children who are held in thrall to the deeply entrenched sex slave industries in the world.

In the name of the God of justice, legal expertise is leveraged to combat illegal evil. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 provides the tools to combat trafficking in persons both worldwide and domestically. IJM leverages these legal means to combat illegal evil at home and in the world.

In his book Just Courage: God’s Great Expedition for the Restless Christian, Haugen talks about being haunted by John Stuart Mill’s 1859 essay “On Liberty.” (Mill was a philosopher who argued in this essay that “over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”) The thoughts that gnawed at Haugen were those where Mill examined how words lose their meaning, using Christians as the prime example, since they seemed to have a remarkable ability to say profound things without really believing them. This is evidenced by the way they act and behave.

Haugen writes,

“What became more disturbing was his list of things that Christians, like me, actually say — like, blessed are the poor and humble; it’s better to give than receive; judge not, lest you be judged; love your neighbor as yourself, etc. — and examining how differently I would live my life if I actually believed such things. As Mill concluded, ‘The sayings of Christ co-exist passively in their minds, producing hardly any effect beyond what is caused by mere listening to words so amiable and bland.’”

Perhaps this is a 19th-century prognostication of an approaching 21st-century Western spiritual malaise: Evangelical atheism. Yet, Scripture’s warnings against this divide, writing centuries before the analysis of John Stuart Mill, indicate that heresy is endemic to the human character. All believers have the potential of failing while at the same time priding themselves on exterior mental assent to biblical principles of belief.

Need we (need I) begin asking ourselves (asking myself),

“Am I really an unbeliever in church clothes?”

Or perhaps a better question would be,

“Where are the areas of faith in which I am practicing disbelief? Where am I really NOT seeking a Jesus-shaped spirituality?”

The Cure for Evangelical Atheism

I often pause in the outside lobby of bookstores because many of them stack their really bargain books in enticing displays that catch the attention of an avid book-lover like myself. A while back, I picked up (for $5) 7 Minutes of Magic: The Ultimate Energy Workbook. A blurb by Deeprak Chopra graced the cover, “A perfect blend of Western and Eastern fitness to jump-start your day and help you relax at night.” Since I am working at getting eight hours of sleep per night as part of my aging-gracefully attempt, I thought I might pick up some tips for evenings when I need to begin incorporating the 7 minutes of relaxing techniques for those mornings when I can’t afford the hour that visiting an exercise class would take.

The book has sat, unopened, on my bedroom chair for several years.

This 7-minute approach of flow exercises and stretches is supposed to give me a “lightning flash of vitality” after a long night of inactivity. Somehow (isn’t it strange?) that book hasn’t done a thing for me … just sitting on the chair with the cover photo of some well-toned practitioner stretching from spine to flap.

Get the picture? We must do what we know is good for us — or at least we must try to do what we know is good for us. Thinking things are so is not enough to establish a reality that things are so.

When starting the International Justice Mission, Haugen and his colleagues put themselves in a place where they were utterly dependent upon God. Perhaps you can imagine the reality of this need if you think about the way they spend the majority of their time fighting sex trafficking all around the world, going into brothels and dens of human slavery and freeing young girls from their bondage to enforced prostitution.

“This is why I am so grateful for my experience with IJM,” Haugen writes,

“Because it gives me a continual experience of my weakness in which God is delighted to show his power … We are forced by our own weakness to beg him for it, and at times we work without a net, apart from his saving hand. And we have found him to be real — and his hand to be true and strong — in a way we would never have experienced strapped into our own safety harnesses.

“In concrete terms, what does that desperation look like? For me, it means being confronted with a videotape of hundreds of young girls in Cambodia being put on open sale to be raped by sex tourists and foreign pedophiles. It means going into a brothel in Cambodia as part of an undercover investigation and being presented with a dozen girls between the ages of five and ten who are being forced to provide sex to strangers. It means being told by everyone who should know that there is nothing that can be done about it. It means facing death threats for my investigative colleagues, high-level police corruption, desperately inadequate aftercare capacities for victims and a hopelessly corrupt court system. It means going to God in honest argument and saying, ‘Father, we cannot solve this,’ and hearing him say, ‘Do what you know best to do, and watch me with the rest.’”

Because of this dependency and because of the intransigency of the evil that is being confronted, IJM staff begins the first half-hour of the day in quiet reflection, to listen, to be still, to sort things through. Then, they gather again — every day at 11 a.m. — to pray about the life-and-death situations they are facing.

That’s a cure for Evangelical atheism if I ever saw one — a long dose of Jesus-shaped spirituality; a contemplative discipline observed before entering into International Justice Mission’s particular daily dangers of holy mission.

A Jesus-Shaped Spirituality

Through the years, David and I have also been impressed with the ministry of Gospel for Asia (GFA). The visionary founder, KP Yohannan, connected with us early in his ministry. We were drawn into his vision and passion to help the people in Asia. K.P. has truly been a pioneer in challenging the Western-missionary effort to understand that brown-skinned brothers and sisters might be better equipped, less costly to underwrite, already familiar with customs and languages and filled with a passion for their own lands that lead them to willingly undergo beatings and persecutions for Christ’s sake, than many white-faced brothers and sisters.

Gospel for Asia’s initial drive to establish local fellowships has blossomed into 3–4 million or so believers who are being pastored and discipled by Indian nationals.

In addition to local fellowships, Gospel for Asia-supported workers have responded to the most hopeless of social situations with practical and effective ministries: student sponsorship to educate some 70,000+ children; medical teams working with health issues and teaching the basic preventive measures that ward off 80 percent of those physical problems, which usually are present in the long lines at local clinics. GFA’s field partner is one of the largest installers of clean water wells and filters among the development organizations worldwide and, in addition, provides means for micro-businesses, which give initial start up tools to create sustainable incomes. Widows are tended to, children are invited to after-school programs, families are strengthened. The list of good works goes on and on.

Many fine relief and development organizations do the same; the United Nations, for example, sponsors excellent social outreaches in most of the countries of the world. The difference, I would maintain, however, between Gospel for Asia (GFA) and other large, well-known operations is that GFA doesn’t just deal with the physical failures caused by poverty or ignorance or natural disasters, it deals with the spirit of the dilemmas:

What is it in the human heart that also leaves people vulnerable in the machinations of systemic exploitation? What is the spirit lacking in the heart and soul of this child, this man or woman, this family or this community?

Gospel for Asia (GFA) understands that it is facing more than surface difficulties; there are deep endemic prejudices, racial and tribal injustices and institutions adamantly committed to keeping others entrapped by the economic failures that benefit others. Gospel for Asia (GFA) comprehends that it must get to the spirit of the matter, and since its inception, that fight has been accomplished through committed and regular and unusual amounts of time that its home offices in various centers and among its staff within 14 Asian countries spend in dedicated, determined prayer.

This is not an organization that mouths the belief that prayer is the basis for ministry, for touching the heart of God, for receiving direction and guidance without also activating a systemic organizational commitment to hours of prayer for its work in the world. Gospel for Asia (GFA) is a praying organization.

David and I, personally, have often been shamed by GFA’s commitment to a kind of prayer that we have not activated nearly as well in our own ministry outreaches.

So, what do you think about all this? What would happen if we Evangelicals, all of us, sincerely asked the question:

“If I really believed what I say I believe, how would it radically change what I think and speak and do?”

I’m looking at my own heart, conducting an honest self-examination, quietly considering my own bent being, finding hypocrisies I haven’t wanted to face, and with God’s help, yanking out those insidious roots that lead to hidden heresy, to actions and attitudes that are decidedly unchristian. I am examining the heretical possibilities in my own approach to living out my faith. I desperately do not want to die having a form of godliness but denying the potential power of it to change my life and the lives of those around me. And I want to concentrate my prayers on the younger generations — on grandchildren and millennial friends — in such a way that they can identify some kind of radical difference in my life. I do not want to leave a legacy of being an ordinary, everyday Christian.

How about you — are you willing to search for and possibly find any hidden closet evangelical atheism? Then, let us both deal earnestly with the following question asked by Christ of His followers:

“But why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do the things I say?” — Luke 6:46

Sources: Pew Research, Religion Among the Millennials

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Saving Lives at Risk from Open Defecation (Part 1)

October 20, 2018 By Karen Mains

Wills Point, Texas – Gospel for Asia Special Report (GFA) – Discussing the troubling problem of open defecation and the lack of basic sanitation facilities for millions throughout the world.

Saving Lives at Risk from Open Defecation (Part 1) - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — 2.3 billion worldwide lack basic sanitation facilities and 892 million still defecate in the open, according to World Health Organization.

Karen Mains, author — Karen Burton Mains, author

For much of my adult life, it has been my privilege to hang out with the “renegades” of Christian missions, that relief-and-development crowd that rushes to help during natural disasters, struggles to alleviate the suffering and abasement of refugee displacement, and pays concerted attention to the everyday struggles of everyday living in the developing nations of the world.

The first trip I made around the world was at the invitation of Food for the Hungry, and I traveled with Larry Ward, the executive director at the time, and his wife, Lorraine. It was on this trip I became convinced this particular crew of crisis-ready, crisis-solving, crisis-adaptive humans was fueled solely by adrenaline (“When does he sleep?”).

The purpose of the trip was an international field survey with an emphasis on the refugee crisis in the world, which at that time in the 1980’s was the largest since World War II. We started in Hong Kong and ended seven weeks later in Kenya, Africa. My assignment was to observe with fresh eyes and to write about what I had seen.

The book I wrote, The Fragile Curtain, with the help of daily briefings from the U.S. State Department and the excellent international reporting of “The Christian Science Monitor” (as well as some generous coaching from a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper reporter) won a Christopher Award, a national prize for works that represent “the highest values of the human spirit.”

Eventually, I brought the accumulated exposure of my world travels—some 55 countries in all—and the learning I had gathered through journalism research and the actualities of dragging through camps and slums to the board table of Medical Ambassadors International (MAI), a global faith-based health organization.

The former international field director of MAI, now working to create a coalition of some 250 mission groups and development organizations implementing the MAI teaching methodology, made a statement I thought about for years:

“I never realized,” he said, “that I would eventually measure the impact of the Gospel by how many toilets had been built in a village.”

Women and girls are often at risk when open defecation - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Women and girls are often at risk when open defecation is the only option for relieving themselves. Thankfully, these precious faces can smile because a toilet facility was recently built in their village.

GFA’s Story: Fighting Open Defecation, Helping to Improve Sanitation in Asia

So what does Christianity have to do with the defecation problems of the world?

Gospel for Asia (GFA) is an organization close to the heart of my husband, David Mains, and to myself. We met K.P. Yohannan, GFA’s founder, when it was just an impelling vision in the heart of a young Indian man—one of those divine nudges that simply would not stop pushing at him. Since then, David has traveled to Asia at the invitation of Gospel for Asia (GFA) some eight times; I have visited Asia under their auspices once. We’ve watched as K.P.’s vision grew from a dream to an actuality with numbers beyond anything we could have considered possible.

GFA’s website tells its story, and its story is vast:

In 2016, some 82,000 impoverished children were fed, clothed and schooled;
829 medical camps provided hundreds of people with free medical care and advice;
10,512 latrines with dual-tank sanitation systems were constructed.

Family in Asia next to a sanitation project from Gospel for Asia - KP Yohannan — This family stands in front of a latrine or “squatty potty” that was installed by GFA-supported national workers.

Gospel for Asia (GFA) started building latrines in 2012, setting a goal of constructing some 15,000 concrete outhouses by 2016. Potable water, of course, travels hand in hand with sanitation, and in 2016, the ministry’s field partners constructed more than 6,822 “Jesus Wells” and distributed 14,886 BioSand water filters to purify drinking water. Touching vignettes on GFA’s website make the statistics personal.

“This saved the lives of people from illness,” stated one villager—and indeed, toilets, when and if they are used, do just that.

A village elder expressed thanks:

“The church is always concerned about the need of people and works hard for a brilliant life for the community.”

There, indeed, is a thread that runs through Gospel for Asia’s stories of toilets: The pastor of the church in this village or that hamlet seems to be the catalyst for health improvement.

Organizations Tackling the Open Defecation Sanitation Crisis

Matt Damon from water.org smiling about clean water - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Matt Damon, the founder of Water.org (photo credit Water.org)

Much of the world is in a war against the perils caused by inadequate or non-existent sanitation. People as diverse as Matt Damon, a Hollywood celebrity, award-winning actor and producer/screenwriter; and Narendra Modi, the current prime minister of India, are battling uphill against open defecation (in the sewers, in running streams, by the roadsides, in the fields and the forests, in garbage dumps).

Damon, driven by a desire to make a difference in solving extreme poverty, discovered that water and sanitation were the two basic foundations beneath much of what ails the world. Through his charity, Water.org, he and his business partner, Gary White, are using the microfinance template to provide loans for underserved people to connect to a service utility or to build a latrine for their homes. Some 5.5 million people have been impacted by his approach, and the group estimates they will reach another 2.5 million by the end of 2017.

Prime Minister Modi campaigned to end open defecation and build latrines for India - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Prime Minister Modi campaigned to end open defecation and build latrines for India. Photo by narendramodiofficial on Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0

Modi actually campaigned for office with the slogan “Toilets Before Temples.” Using Gandhi’s 150th birthday—October 2, 2019—as a goal, the Indian prime minister declared his intention to end open defecation in the country by that date. A campaign was framed, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission), and $40 billion was allotted for building latrines and changing mindsets, while the World Bank contributed loans totaling another $1.5 billion.

Another big player in the sanitation action is the United Nations, which in 2000 established Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. While many of these goals were reached (some statisticians conclude that world poverty was halved; others, of course, disagree), progress nevertheless was erratic—great success here and there with some signee countries having few or no results.

Whereas, as Matt Damon discovered, improving sanitation along with clean water, undergirds many of the problems included in what is now being reframed by the UN as Sustainable Development Goals, the target to halve the proportion of the population living without access to improved sanitation facilities by 2015 was missed by almost 700 million people.

Saving Lives at Risk from Open Defecation: Part 2 | Part 3

This article originally appeared on gfa.org

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Meeting Pressing Physical Needs Opens the Door for Deeper Healing as Well

February 27, 2018 By GFA Staff Writer

Gospel for Asia (GFA) Report, Wills Point, Texas

You know that awkward moment when you’re stopped at a red light, and you can feel the presence right outside your window. You study the road in front of you, trying, unconvincingly, to look casual and nonchalant. Before, when you slowed down for this stop light, you saw the panhandler standing at the corner. You knew you were going to end up idling right next to him. You quickly think to yourself, What do I do? Do you smile and look away? Do you give him money? What are the chances it won’t go straight to the liquor store till? His sign says he has a family. Does he really? Will they see a cent of any money you give him? What about if you give him a gospel tract? Isn’t that really his greatest need: Jesus?

I have often wrestled through these questions and settled on one of the actions above, but never with complete satisfaction that it was the best way to help or exactly what Jesus would have done.

Usually, when Jesus was approached by the needy, disabled or downcast, He met their immediate physical needs, often through healing. But He also fed people, just because they were hungry. In fact, He told us that when we meet the immediate physical needs of people in front of us, we are ministering to Him directly.

“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’” —Matthew 25:34–40

Our field partners in Asia see the same kind of desperate needs that we read about in the gospels. People affected by leprosy. People without access or means for medical treatment. Families too poor to send their kids to school or even feed them. There are so many natural disasters in rural Asian countries that don’t have the infrastructure to respond.

Compassion Services workers - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Relief packets, distributed by Gospel for Asia-supported Compassion Services workers, being helicoptered into remote locations in Nepal following the catastrophic earthquakes in 2015.

Gospel for Asia-supported Compassion Services teams are there to meet people’s real-time, immediate needs. Things like medical checkups and flood relief. These are vehicles for people to experience the real love and compassion of Jesus. Jesus sees their need. He sees their plight. He is not deaf to their cries, they reach His throne in heaven.

Compassion Services is where heaven touches earth. Washing a leprosy patient’s wounds gives physical representation to the spiritual reality of God’s cleansing forgiveness. Rebuilding the home of a family who lost everything in an earthquake speaks of an eternal home that cannot be destroyed.

When we reach out to the immediate physical needs of those around us in the name of Jesus, He ministers to them through us. We become the very hands and feet of Jesus on earth.

old woman who received a blanket - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — This is Rayna, a 125-year-old woman who received a blanket.

In a tiny farming village in Asia, two Sisters of Compassion met 125-year-old, Rayna, a poor widow who has lived her whole life in this village. The sisters made weekly visits to Rayna to hear her stories culled from 125 years of love and heartache and to pray for her. They noticed the torn and smelly blanket she used for warmth and realized she and her family couldn’t even afford a new blanket, because they used all their income on daily survival. There was no money left for improving their lives. The sisters were able to provide a new, warm blanket for Rayna through a gift distribution.

“During night time, I feel cold because there were no warm clothes in my house, and I struggled a lot,” Rayna said. “I could not afford to buy a blanket to protect me. But thank you very much for giving this blanket.”

Gospel for Asia partners work right in the middle of some of the most difficult plights of human need. Our partners work in 44 leprosy colonies in Asia, where leprosy still has a life-long stigma. As people affected with leprosy are often cast out of society, they gather in groups or “colonies” for safety. Our partners are busy ministering to these outcasts by cleansing their wounds, getting them medical attention, and providing livelihoods, such as goats, through GFA’s Christmas Gift Catalog so they have a sustainable means of living. We even have an onsite cobbler at one of the colonies to provide custom shoes for those with feet too disfigured to wear normal shoes.

Our field partners also work in slums spread across Asia, providing toilets and blankets to those who do not have access to these items of basic human need. We host medical camps in slums, leper colonies and poor rural areas that have no access to any sort of health care. Often in these areas, people’s only resource for medical care are traditional practices that spread more disease than cure.

After the decimating series of earthquakes in Nepal in 2015, coordinated relief efforts came from many Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported partners in Indian states. Supplies of clothing, food and medicine were assembled to meet immediate needs. Building supplies were collected to help with reconstruction. Even school supplies were provided for thousands of children that lost everything. In times of crisis, when warning is impossible, Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported Compassion Services are poised to respond immediately and remain for the long haul.

Jesus made time for the needy around Him. Even when He was busy, on His way somewhere, a desperate woman who reached out to Him was not turned away, but healed (Mark 5:21-34). Men would cry out to Him from the side of the road, and Jesus paused to listen and minister to their physical needs (Matthew 20:29-34). Often this led to spiritual transformation as well.

By touching people’s lives by meeting immediate physical needs, the door is open for deeper healing as well.

Bottled water and a gospel tract - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Bottled water and a gospel tract for those standing in 100-degree weather.

You remember the panhandler at the intersection? This is my someone-asking-for-help-while-I’m-busy-on-my-way-somewhere moment. How will I respond? Once I had kids and knew that these four little people were watching my life, I determined to come up with a way to reach out to panhandlers. I was done looking the other way and feeling embarrassed, not knowing what to do. So I put together a plastic bin that sits in my van, right between the two front seats filled with bottles of water. Each water bottle has a gospel tract rubber-banded around the outside. Tucked into the gospel tract is $1. My kids and I pray over the gospel tracts and write a warm note of encouragement before we wrap them around the water bottles. Now that we live in Texas, bottled water is perfect. When we lived in Washington State, it was cans of soup.

There are so many ways that Jesus continues to minister to the needs of people around the world. And He does it through the small and big acts we carry out every day. When we, as the Body of Christ, show up in a recently flooded village where all the crudely constructed homes have been washed away, Jesus is there. When we give a bottled water to someone standing on a street corner in 100-degree weather, Jesus is there. We are the literal hands and feet of Jesus reaching out in our local communities and across the globe, meeting people’s immediate physical and spiritual needs. Being the conduit for heaven to touch earth.

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For Days, Months and Years Later People Lived in Fear of the Ocean, Reports Gospel for Asia

November 6, 2017 By GFA Staff Writer

Tsunamis happen more often than we think. Just this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recorded four. In 2016, it recorded seven. In 2014, it recorded 11. Now that’s a lot of tsunamis. Thankfully, the majority haven’t been large enough to cause extensive damage, with waves cresting less than a foot above sea level. What a relief! But then there are times when the waves, upon reaching shore, reach heights of 10, 30, even 300 feet .

Tall walls of water crescendo and collide into coastlines, coursing through every crevice, collecting chunk after chunk of sea-side homes and business, sweeping away thousands of pounds of metal in the shapes of buses and other motor vehicles.

Husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, children and grandparents run, their backs to foaming black water that threatens to steal their lives.

Tsunamis. One of the “costliest and deadliest forces of nature.”

The United Nations declared Nov. 5 as World Tsunami Awareness Day because of the amount of devastation this natural disaster creates. The day is attributed as being the “brainchild” of Japan, which is noted for experiencing a significantly higher volume of tsunamis than other countries.

But tsunamis can happen anywhere—including America. According to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), “Many places along the U.S. coastline fall in tsunami danger zones. The most destructive tsunamis in the United States and territories have happened along the coasts of Alaska, American Samoa, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Puerto Rico, and Washington.”

The deadliest of all tsunamis happened in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004, and affected 14 countries. Thousands upon hundreds of thousands of people felt its impact—especially those who are part of the GFA world .

Gospel for Asia-supported workers serving in Sri Lanka and India experienced the fatal tidal waves and lived in its aftermath. The story below is about one Gospel for Asia-supported pastor named Sagardut who served in Tamil Nadu , India, when the tsunami made impact.

After the Waves Left

“The ocean is coming! The ocean is coming!”

Sagardut heard the frightened shouts as he stood inside the church building. The Gospel for Asia-supported pastor was preparing for Sunday worship, but the commotion outside drew him away. He stepped through the church doors and saw people running, crying and screaming in terror of the danger that loomed on the horizon.

“The ocean is coming!”

As the crowds ran away, Sagardut jumped on his motorbike to investigate what was causing all of this chaos. The nearer he got to the villages by the seashore, the more devastation he saw.

The first wave had reached Tamil Nadu, India, where he was serving. The second wave was on its way.

“The ocean is coming!”

Sagardut could see the black wall of water towering 30 feet in the air. He was only 300 yards away from a force devouring houses, cars and people in seconds.

This is going to kill everybody, he thought.

Sagardut quickly turned his motorbike around and joined the masses fleeing to save their lives.

Soon after the tidal waves of the Indian Ocean Tsunami receded, Gospel for Asia-supported pastor Sagardut began bringing relief and the comfort of Christ to those who had suddenly lost everything.

The Deadliest Tsunami

Sagardut had escaped the deadliest and most destructive tsunami in history. On December 26, 2004, an earthquake, said to have released the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs, thrust the Indian Ocean seafloor upward, resulting in a series of killer waves that devastated the coastal lines of 14 countries from Indonesia to Africa.

When Sagardut came back to the village, he saw bodies floating in the waters. Thorn bushes had trapped women with long hair, so he went over to free their bodies and lay them on the dry roadside. Then he drew out the next body he saw, and then the next one.

As he helped clear the water of the deceased, a deep sorrow filled his heart seeing people who had died within seconds. They had no warning. In an instant, more than 200,000 lives were gone—and now Sagardut and the other tsunami survivors were left to cope with sudden unexplainable grief and a world of uncertainties.

Relieving the Grief

Everywhere Pastor Sagardut went, people were crying and unleashing their agony in mournful screams. For days, months and even years that followed that catastrophic day, people lived in fear of the ocean, wondering if another tsunami would come to finish off what the first one left behind.

“I remember thinking, It is the last days. The Lord’s coming is very near,” Pastor Sagardut recalls. “Then, at the same time, I knew it was my responsibility to rescue these people and bring them [the love of] Christ. … That’s what was on my mind.”

Because Sagardut and other Gospel for Asia-supported workers were already ministering in the region when the tsunami hit, survivors didn’t have to wait long to receive aid. Pastor Sagardut, and the believers who escaped death, immediately began bringing relief and especially comfort to those who lived to see another day.

They provided rice, milk and other food items, along with pots to cook with. People with injuries received medicine. Sagardut even took some to the hospital to receive treatment.

“When we saw people who had no home, we gave them shelter,” Sagardut says. “When we saw people who did not have clothes, we gave them the clothes we had. When we saw people who were in fear . . . we prayed for them and comforted them.”

Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced after the Indian Ocean Tsunami turned villages into rubble.

What About the Future?

The immediate relief helped ease some of the tsunami survivors’ grief. But then came the long-term questions: Where will I live in a month? How am I going to earn an income? How am I going to live without my family? The questions weren’t easy to answer, but Pastor Sagardut knew more help would come.

Once the waters receded, Gospel for Asia began building permanent homes for the tsunami survivors. Boats and fishing nets, even goats and chickens, were given to families who had lost their only source of income. Gospel for Asia-supported Bridge of Hope centers were established to take in, educate and love children who had lost their mother or father—or in some cases, both parents.

When the waves took away Chiranjeev’s house, belongings and cattle, Gospel for Asia pastors began taking care of him and his family.

“We were struggling,” Chiranjeev remembers. “But at that particular time, Gospel for Asia came to help us. They started giving us food, clothes, and they . . . started building houses for us. Even I got one of these houses. Gospel for Asia took care of us at the right time, when we were really going through pain and struggle in our lives.”

Chiranjeev lost everything when the Indian Ocean Tsunami crashed into his village. But through the help of GFA-supported workers, he was able to rebuild his life. “I was just like Job; I had everything but I lost everything,” he says. “Just like Job God gave me back everything through [the church]. I didn’t have a house, the church gave me the house. I didn’t have goats, the church gave me goats. … I lost everything in tsunami, but I got back everything, even better than what I had.”

A Decade of Recovery

Ten years later, Pastor Sagardut still serves the people he helped when the tsunami waves crashed into his region. He visits their homes; he prays for them; he offers them comfort in the arms of Jesus when the painful memories come back.

He knows people all over the world helped provide relief and long-term care for his fellow tsunami survivors, and his heart overflows with gratitude.

“Because of them,” Sagardut says, “many people [embraced] Christ, many people were rescued, and now many people no longer live with anxiety or fear.”

Gospel for Asia is thankful for days such as World Tsunami Awareness Day that bring awareness to the tragedies that happen when natural disasters strike and urge people to be prepared. One earthquake, one landslide, one ginormous wall of water can change everything for hundreds of thousands of people…in one day. But when people are prepared, when people come together to help that, too, can make a world of difference.

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Gospel for Asia: Do FBOs Help Decrease the Levels of Poverty in Our World?

October 17, 2017 By Karen Mains

With our headlines screaming about one disaster after another—fires in the California hills, hurricanes, flooding, drought and warming seas rising—and with the increasing incidents of gun violence here in the States and of terrorism activating itself in the Middle East, the near East and in Europe, it is easy to forget there is good news happening beyond this barrage of warnings, distress signals and red flags flying.

One of the great news notices a majority of people have missed is that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced in March 2016 that in the last 30 years, extreme poverty around the world has been reduced by half. This information was based on a United Nations assessment following its goal-setting at the dawn of the new millennium: to eradicate poverty by 2030.

This initiative was included in what was titled The Millennium Development Goals, which included eight international goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations 2000. Among the goals were:

To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
To achieve universal primary education
To promote gender equality and empower women
To reduce child mortality, etc.

Some critics have complained of a lack of thorough scientific analysis behind the millennial sustainable goals and its recently announced outcomes. Questions have risen about the justification for some of the analysis behind chosen objectives. Even deciding what comprises a poverty level baseline is difficult (right now it is those who earn less than the equivalent of $1.90 U.S. per day).

All experts on the topic know that whatever true success has been achieved (the World Bank, according to its studies, feels that the statistical results are even better than those announced by the United Nations), the situation of the marginally poor, those rising out of extreme poverty, is still fragile. War lords can tip one country, such as South Sudan, into starvation. Climate change, for instance, is thought to be able to plunge those with marginal economic achievements back into dire need.

The point of this good news, however, despite these considerations, is that the war on world poverty has succeeded beyond any one of the expert’s dreams. The big question for those of faith is: How do faith-based organizations (FBOs) fit into helping decrease the levels of poverty around the world? The presence of mission organizations and Christian relief and development NGOs literally span the world and can be found on every continent and in the majority of developing countries. Or perhaps, the question should be: Do they even count in this grand scheme of eradicating world poverty?

While attending the Global Missions Health Conference that convenes yearly in Nashville, Tennessee, I bumped into a gentleman, a medical doctor, who has vast experience in world health efforts. We talked about the Millennial Goals and I asked him my question: How do faith-based organizations contribute to the amazing statistics that are developing out of these worldwide initiatives? Do they? And if they do, what measurements show their contributions?

He smiled, took out a business card and wrote some notes on the back, directing me to a section of the World Health Organization’s website. “When you get time, look at this,” he told me. “Several years back, WHO did a study of faith-based organizations during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. Their conclusions were amazing.”

On arriving home, I went web-searching and found a 33-page report based on extensive research observation, followed by another three pages of resources (some 113 in all), which gave strong evidence that faith-based organizations in relationship to health endeavors were invaluable and should be included in the overall joint partnership efforts that were outlined in the Millennial Goals. Included are just a few quotable assessments out of the broad study:

FBOs are significant health care providers in the developing world.
FBO health projects are often independently funded and do not, in general, receive an adequate proportion of public funds distribution.
Compassion is the primary value underlying major religious systems.
Many religious traditions are characterized by a focus on healing: “A primary focus of religious expectations in the 21st century is the multidimensional longing for healing of body and mind, of soul and spirit, of personal and social relations, of political and ecological dimensions in this broken world.”

The extensive evaluation offers suggestions for improvement—mostly in outcomes reporting, data collection, and the opening of dialogues between the public sector and faith-supported initiatives. One concluding section, however, begins with the statement, “Evidence suggests that FBOs already offer tangible value by:

Delivering services that supplement government offerings
Bringing external resources from a range of donors
Arising within religious and cultural loyalties of the local communities they serve
Being numerous and, on the whole, more integrated with the communities they serve
Connecting into associated services that are considered valuable within primary health care strategies.”

The end result of this extensive study was the recommendation by the World Health Organization that religious entities already on the ground and substantively rooted in their communities are ideally placed, perhaps even more so than many in the international aid systems, to bring a holistic (or some would call it an integral) approach to humans who suffer from the effects of dire and marginal poverty. After all, how many aid organizations are truly equipped to serve the whole person—body and mind, soul and spirit? Which of them show a multi-dimensional longing for the healing of personal and social relations, of political and ecological dimensions in this broken world?

This blog is dedicated to the exceptional work being done by one of those faith-based organizations, Gospel for Asia, which specializes in bringing the awareness of God’s love through an emphasis that is community grounded, understands the religious and cultural loyalties of the places and people they serve, and literally employs tens of thousands of financially underwritten or volunteer workers to help eradicate poverty, but in a way that ministers to the whole person, body and mind and soul and spirit.

Here are a couple ways GFA-supported workers are helping eradicate poverty:

Romila’s Story

A plumber by trade, Romila’s husband, Taraswin, worked faithfully to provide for his wife and little baby girl. However, no matter how hard he tried, he struggled to find work. Day by day they were sinking financially. A friend directed Taraswin to a job opportunity in another village. Believing this would help change things, they moved to start afresh.

But work was inconsistent, and this new job soon proved to be of no help to their financial state. As monthly rent drained their income, things did not look bright.

Then, one day, they were chatting with their neighbor, and he introduced Taraswin and Romila to his friend, a Gospel for Asia-supported pastor named Rochan. As Pastor Rochan struck up a conversation with the couple, they began to open up about their struggles. When Pastor Rochan walked away, he felt compelled to do everything he could to help this family.

Three weeks later, he invited Taraswin and Romila to a Christmas gift distribution program. Romila could hardly believe her eyes when she received her sewing machine.

“I was really longing for a machine,” Romila recalls. “I have no words to express my feelings and thanks to the church.”

Now Romila can help provide for her family by sewing clothes from her home. The hopelessness which hung over Romila and Taraswin lifted, as they now can easily pay for their rent with plenty left over for additional expenses.

Dhansukh’s Story

Daily life was a struggle for Dhansukh and his family. Because Dhansukh had difficulty walking, he couldn’t work as a daily wage laborer, which is a common job for many people in Asia. Instead, Dhansukh provided for his family by selling vegetables.

But after some time, Dhansukh’s business began running into the ground. Fewer people made purchases, and the vegetables that remained started to rot. Dhansukh tried all he could to save money and make up for the lack. He took his children out of the private school they were attending and sent them to a public school instead. He asked his brothers and his sister for hand-me-downs for his children.

But even as he cut down on expenses left and right, eventually the vegetable-seller could no longer afford to buy fresh vegetables to feed his family. The meals they would eat in one day became fewer and fewer.

In the middle of the family’s crisis, Gospel for Asia-supported pastor Vismay came to buy vegetables one day. Dhansukh told Pastor Vismay about his business troubles and asked him to pray for him.

Pastor Vismay kept Dhansukh’s prayer request in mind, and God eventually provided an opportunity for him to help Dhansukh’s family practically by giving him two female goats at a Christmas gift distribution.

These gifts impacted Dhansukh in a special way: As he witnessed firsthand the Lord’s power to answer prayers, he realized God loved him and Jesus’ followers cared about him. And now, with the income these goats will provide, Dhansukh will be able to take care of his family.

Dhansukh’s Story - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — This is Dhansukh with his goat that was given to him by a Gospel for Asia-supported pastor. The goat ended up multiplying!

The help this faith-based organization provided went beyond just material provision, as you can see from Romila’s and Dhansukh’s testimonies. It ministered to their soul and spirit as they understood how much they were loved by God and His people.

Often secular skeptics involved in international development look askance at those who work in faith-based missions around the world. The evidence being gathered, however, by objective outside observers seems to be producing a body of proof that some of the front-line participants in the change that is occurring in the eradication of poverty is being carried out by the unsung, unrecognized, diligent, altruistic people who love God and whose lives are driven by that love manifested as it is in concern and care for the downtrodden and the forgotten, for the abused and the neglected of the earth. Of this, those of us in faith-based communities have nothing to be ashamed.

I personally stand in awe of many of my brothers and sisters worldwide, some close friends, many of whom put their lives on the line every day, who have little thought of personal success or notoriety, who have shunned financial security and through a dogged kind of compassion serve God. One day in time, we will know what all they have done toward this remarkable goal of eradicating extreme poverty worldwide.

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Go here to know more about Gospel for Asia: GFA.net | GFA Wiki | GFA Flickr

Gospel for Asia Emphasizes Suffering Neighbors after Harvey, Irma and Sri Lanka Flooding

October 13, 2017 By GFA Staff Writer

It’s been impossible to escape any news relating to natural disasters recently.

Hurricane Harvey flooded homes in the gulf coast of Texas.

Hurricane Irma left thousands in Florida without power.

Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc in Puerto Rico, with 83 percent of the island still without power and 36 percent currently without water.

An earthquake in Mexico took the lives of 360 people and left thousands homeless.

Fires are currently ravaging homes in California.

Natural disasters happen. There’s no stopping them. And they change people’s lives forever.

Oct. 13 is International Day of Disaster Reduction, a day to raise global awareness about reducing the impact natural disasters have on people.

Gospel for Asia receives reports from its field partners every year about the devastating toll natural disasters leave on families and communities. The most recent reports were about the flooding that happened all across South Asia this summer.

On September 1, we released the following report:

1,200 Perish After Unprecedented Flooding in Four Asian Nations

A month of monsoon rains is wreaking havoc in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It is considered the heaviest monsoon rains in years. More than 1,200 people have lost their lives so far from flooding and landslides, and the United Nations estimates that around 41 million people have been affected.

Those living in regions that experience annual flooding during the season of monsoon rains are shocked at the magnitude of these floods. Mumbai, one of India’s most populous cities, received an entire month’s average rainfall in just 24 hours.

One field correspondent in India wrote, “There is no proper communication. [The villagers] are unable to get food, clean drinking water and are having sleepless nights because of the continuous heavy rain.”

One-third of Bangladesh’s landscape is reportedly submerged, and nearly 1,500,000 acres of farmland, which is a key component of the nation’s economy, are damaged or destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of acres of crops are completely destroyed between the four nations, raising concerns of food shortages.

Displaced families are gathering under makeshift tents and tarps. They are at risk of disease and in need of food and water.

Can you imagine if that was you? Your entire life, the life you may have worked hard to build and preserve, stripped away from you in a matter of a few hours. That’s the reality for hundreds of thousands of people all around the world right now—even thousands in our own nation who are still displaced.

While natural disasters are, unfortunately, inevitable, it’s encouraging to see how people band together in those times of need. We stand beside those grieving the loss of their loved ones, their homes and their livelihoods. We see the needs of our suffering neighbors, and we step in to provide. That’s what happened after Hurricane Harvey, Irma and Maria. People rallied together despite differences to be there for others and serve.

After Sri Lanka experienced some of its worst flooding in more than a decade, Gospel for Asia founder and director, Dr. KP Yohannan, visited the flood-stricken country. While there, he and our field partners were able to work together with the religious leaders of a Buddhist monastery in order to provide relief supplies to men and women in need.

Sri Lanka flood relief distribution - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — KP Yohannan participated in a Sri Lanka flood relief distribution event at a Buddhist school. Bag of rice and other goods were given to a group of people who are still suffering from the floods that hit this area of Sri Lanka.

This is what the Buddhist leader said: “This is the first time a Christian religious leader has come [here],” he said. “[They have] helped the really needy people of our village who greatly suffered due to the flood crisis in this area. This shows that there is no division of race, caste or religion, and everyone can join together as one to help.”

When we join together, what will be remembered is not only the devastation that happened but the fact that people stepped into their grief and offered love, provision and hope for a better tomorrow.

So for International Day of Disaster Reduction, let’s celebrate the unity that can bring healing in times of devastation.

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Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.

Go here to know more about Gospel for Asia: GFA.net | GFA Wiki | GFA Flickr

This is Part 3 of a Three-Part Series on FBO Initiatives to Combat Malaria and Other World Health Concerns. Go here to read Part 1 and Part 2.

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No Mosquitoes in the Room Now: A Quick Look at the Impact of Faith on Modern Medical Approaches

Personal Reflections

Conclusion: Our Part in World-Changing, World Health

Hope in the Midst of Tragedy

Changing Communities, Changing Families

The Vision

Their Future, Their Purpose

Evangelical Atheism

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy

Preventing Evangelical Heresy

The Cure for Evangelical Atheism

A Jesus-Shaped Spirituality

GFA’s Story: Fighting Open Defecation, Helping to Improve Sanitation in Asia

Organizations Tackling the Open Defecation Sanitation Crisis

After the Waves Left

The Deadliest Tsunami

Relieving the Grief

What About the Future?

A Decade of Recovery

Romila’s Story

Dhansukh’s Story

1,200 Perish After Unprecedented Flooding in Four Asian Nations

This is Part 3 of a Three-Part Series on FBO Initiatives to Combat Malaria and Other World Health Concerns.
Go here to read Part 1 and Part 2.