Children in Crisis: The World’s Greatest ‘Badge of Shame’ | GFA World Special Report Part 1

May 2, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, whose heart to love and help the poor has inspired numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to serve the deprived and downcast worldwide, issued this first part of a Special Report on the world’s greatest ‘badge of shame’: Children in Crisis.

A shocking U.S. Border Patrol video showed human smugglers dropping two unaccompanied children—sisters ages 3 and 5 from Ecuador—over a 14-foot section of the border fence in the New Mexico desert.^[1] The smugglers ran off, leaving the young girls alone and stranded.

Migrant children and their desperate parents enter the U.S. illegally on June 15, 2019 by crossing the Rio Grande in rubber boats near Los Ebanos, Texas. Photo by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Flickr

Another young mother from Central America thought she was on the cusp of giving her 9-year-old daughter a better life in the United States. They’d traveled a long, perilous journey and had just one more hurdle to cross: the Rio Grande River separating Mexico from Texas. Tragically, it was a step too far. The little girl apparently drowned before reaching the other side, NBC News reported.^[2]

Desperate to escape extreme poverty and surging gang violence in their native countries, thousands of migrant children from Latin America continue to flock to the U.S. southern border, with or without their parents. The journey is fraught with dangers that include becoming prey for human traffickers and ruthless drug cartels en route.^[3] Every day in Spring 2021, U.S. border officials were detaining more than 600 unaccompanied migrant children trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, with many children risking their lives to do so.^[4] According to a CNN report in April 2021, there were more than 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children in the custody of U.S. officials at that time.^[5]

The plight and peril of migrant children seeking refuge in the U.S. is a stark reminder that “children in crisis” are not restricted to far-away countries.

Children are in crisis right on our doorstep, in our own neighborhoods, wherever we live in the world. And the problem is growing worse. Until we take steps to protect and prioritize children, their neglect will be a shameful legacy for the nations of our world.

SANTA TERESA, N.M. – U.S. Border Patrol Agents responded to a potentially life-threatening situation involving two female tender-aged toddlers mistreated and abandoned by human smugglers just west of Mt. Cristo Rey. Camera technology observed a smuggler dropping two young kids from the top of the 14-foot-high border barrier, and then immediately fleeing the area after abandoning the helpless little girls on the north side of the international boundary line around March 30, 2021. Video by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Public Affairs – Visual Communications Division, dvidshub.net

The sight is too much to bear for many Western visitors: A frantic teenage mother, with a newborn strapped to her back, looking for a handout to feed herself and keep her tiny baby alive.

But this real-life scene often isn’t what it appears to be. The baby is not hers. She has actually rented the newborn from its mother or guardian so that her pleas for help solicit greater sympathy from passersby.

Renting out “babies-to-beg” is a common practice in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, where hundreds of children and teenagers from outlying areas—some with parents, many without—descend on the city in the hopes of scraping together money for food. Every day the ritual is the same: hustle, beg, scavenge or steal to survive.

If she’s fortunate, this desperate teenage girl, who is extremely vulnerable to sexual exploitation and prostitution, will solicit enough sympathy to purchase a Rolex. Not the luxury wristwatch Rolex you and I might think of, but an egg-filled chapatti, similar to a burrito, that’s served on nearly every street corner.

Her plight and the fate of the baby she carries on her back are intertwined. Both face a life—likely a very brief life—of perpetual struggle. Both face the threat of abandonment and exploitation. Both girls are continually at risk.

That so many of the world’s children in crisis live without compassionate considerations or safeguards from harm is tantamount to being one the world’s greatest “badges of shame.”

They’re among the estimated 1.2 billion children worldwide who are considered “at risk,” vulnerable to a host of calamities, abuse, hunger and diseases—a toxic combination driven largely by poverty and supercharged by the COVID-19 pandemic.^[6]

2021 Global Childhood Report — The 2021 Save the Children Global Childhood Report highlights the toughest places on Earth to be a child, and examines the many factors that rob children of their childhoods and reveals where greater investments are needed to save children from poverty, discrimination and neglect. Photo by Save the Children

According to Save the Children, more than half the world’s children are at risk of poverty, conflict and discrimination against girls.^[7] A report by the international charity states that one billion children live in poverty, 240 million live in areas impacted by conflict, and 575 million girls live in countries where discrimination against women and girls is common.

According to Save the Children, Singapore and Slovenia are the best places to be a child, where childhood is most protected.^[8] In contrast, Save the Children’s latest Global Childhood Report for 2021, “The Toughest Places To Be A Child,” lists 10 sub-Saharan African nations as the worst places to be a child, “where childhood is most threatened.”^[9]

Perhaps surprisingly to some of our readers, the United States is ranked 43rd on the list, behind Russia, Lebanon and Belarus. According to Save the Children’s report, “The United States badly trails many other advanced countries in helping children reach their full potential.” Nonetheless, it ranks among the top 47 countries in the world where relatively few children miss out on their childhoods. The report states, “Countries with similar scores include Bahrain, China, Montenegro, Qatar, Russia, and Slovakia.”^[10]

Save the Children says millions of children are being “robbed of the childhoods they deserve.” The agency states that every child has a right to childhood free from fear, safe from violence, protected from abuse and exploitation.

The concept of childhood is defined in the (U.N.) Convention on the Rights of the Child. It represents a shared vision of childhood: healthy children in school and at play, growing strong and confident with the love and encouragement of their family and an extended community of caring adults, gradually taking on the responsibilities of adulthood.^[11]

But, the report acknowledges, “This ideal contrasts starkly with the childhood many experience.”^[12]

Poor children in Asia walking along the street — These children, just like almost every child in their Haryana slum, set out early each morning in search of garbage in their area. They go around looking for empty plastic bottles, cans, metal, and the like which they then can sell to make a little money to help their families.

Fatherless Kids in Crisis: The ‘Epidemic’ of the Street Children

Around the world, one of the most critical issues affecting children is the surge in the number of kids living on the streets, with no one to protect them or care for them.

Child abandonment is a worldwide crisis. Globally, the “epidemic” of absent fathers, especially, is a major cause of child neglect, often leaving children without a male role model, protector and provider.^[13]

Combined with the tribal practice of having multiple wives or concubines, it’s not unusual in some African countries for one man to produce upwards of 30 children.^[14] Many of these children grow up never having any relationship with their father, or even knowing who their father is.

An abandoned child in the slums of Kamapala, Uganda — An abandoned child sits alone and neglected next to open sewage in the slums of Kamapala, Uganda in July 2007. Photo by SuSanA Secretariat, Flickr

A report published in 2020 by the African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect revealed that child neglect and sexual violence were the biggest issues facing kids growing up in Uganda, one of the lowest-ranking countries.^[15] In 2015, a study of street children in the capital city of Kampala revealed that most kids, the large majority being boys, began their life on the streets between the ages of 5 and 10. Seven out of every 10 street kids had come to Kampala by public taxi or bus. They came for a myriad of reasons. Some came to find work and advance their prospects; others were orphans or victims of abuse or neglect who’d fled horrible home environments; and then there were the rebels and runaways. Almost two-thirds of the kids had lived on the streets for at least a year, and many of them had been on the streets for four years or more. More than half of the children reported they’d been physically abused on the streets, and one in every four said they’d suffered sexual abuse.

Many street boys have nothing more than torn rags or sackcloth to wear as clothes and no shoes on their feet, leaving them vulnerable to puncture wounds that quickly become infected, causing their feet to swell grotesquely. Many of them carry a constant companion tucked inside their ragged clothing—a plastic bottle containing fuel, dipped in a filthy piece of cloth. Every few minutes, they inhale the fumes from the bottle, their eyes floating upwards as the cheap “drug” takes effect. It’s the only way they know to dull their senses and take away the pain and suffering in their lives.

Young boy from Africa collecting garbage to help earn some money for his family — Young Kandwanaho (not pictured) fights for survival by working excruciatingly long hours searching for cardboard to sell. Sometimes he has nothing to show for it at the end of the day and, if so, goes hungry. But even on the days when he makes enough to eat, Kandwanaho still has to join the thousands of other children searching the streets of Kampala for somewhere safe to wait out the night.

I once met a boy named Kandwanaho who told me how he searches the alleys of Kampala from daybreak until dusk, collecting discarded cardboard boxes. He visits the alleyways behind the local market stalls and shops, picking up boxes that once held soap, sodas or other goods. Sometimes, he’ll “strike gold” and find a giant TV box. When he’s gathered several boxes, he takes them to the sprawling downtown marketplace, known as Owino Market, and sells the cardboard to the shoe salesmen. They cut the cardboard into sole-size pieces and slide the card into the footwear to help the shoes keep their shape. If Kandwanaho works a 12-hour shift, he makes just over one dollar.

There are times he roams the streets alone all day—dodging taxis, stubbing his bare toes on the cracked roads, inhaling exhaust fumes, hoarse from thirst—and does not find a single box to recycle. On those days, he has nothing to eat unless he dives into the garbage piles to search for a scrap of anything edible among the competing stray dogs and cockroaches.

For Kandwanaho, and many like him, the most troubling time is nightfall as the city’s hectic rhythm subsides. It’s as if everyone is returning home, except for the kids who live on the streets. They have nobody, and nowhere to call home. The dimming light is their cue to find a place in a drainage ditch or empty shack for the night. It’s their hour to poke around the trash piles for any bits of food ditched at the end of the day. As the light fades, their reality mirrors the approaching darkness.

In Uganda, because street boys are viewed by many business owners as thieves and troublemakers, they’re chased off, beaten up and, in extreme cases, even murdered. The reality that human life is cheap and expendable on Kampala’s volatile streets is clearly evident.

As the lowest of the low, street kids are most often the “whipping boys” when anything goes wrong. Kandwanaho told me that a group of his friends were once caught stealing copper pipes they intended to sell. They were kicked in the head, beaten unconscious, soaked in gasoline and set alight, Kandwanaho recalled tearfully. At their burial in a paupers’ graveyard, he and other street boys were the only mourners present.

Give to Help Support Children at Risk & Kids in Crisis »

If this special report has touched your heart and you would like to make a real difference in the lives of children in crisis around the world, and bring hope to kids at risk of violence, impoverishment, or child labor, then make a generous one time or monthly gift to help kids in need in Asia or Africa.

About GFA World

GFA World (www.gfa.org) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.

Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report: Children in Crisis — World’s Greatest ‘Badge of Shame’ — Part 2, Part 3

Learn more about the GFA World Bridge of Hope program and how you can make an incredible difference in the lives of children, bringing hope to their lives and their families, transforming communities.

Learn how to provide a chance for children without sponsors. When you give to help unsponsored children, you help supplement the lack of resources when children in Asia don’t have the sponsors they need to stay in a Bridge of Hope center.

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Read what 25 Christian Leaders are affirming about Gospel for Asia.

This Special Report originally appeared on gfa.org.

From Cybersex to Child Sacrifice: GFA World Reports on ‘Children in Crisis’

February 8, 2022 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, which inspired numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to assist the poor and deprived worldwide, reveals on a shocking new report, from U.S. border to South Asia, 1.2 billion children in crisis face ‘horrors,’ exploitation on sickening scale.

Children in Crisis: World's Greatest Badge of Shame, released by Texas-based missions GFA World, reveals child exploitation on a global scale — **CYBERSEX TO CHILD SACRIFICE:** The humanitarian crisis on America’s southern border featured in a shocking new report that examines the horrors facing the world’s children in 2022. “Children in Crisis: The World’s Greatest ‘Badge of Shame'” (www.gfa.org/press/KidsCrisis), just released by Texas-based mission agency Gospel for Asia (GFA World), reveals child exploitation on a global scale.

America’s humanitarian border crisis is featured in a shocking new report that examines the horrors facing the world’s children in 2022.

Many migrant boys and girls fall prey to human traffickers, smugglers, and drug cartels en route to the U.S., according to the report “Children in Crisis: The World’s Greatest ‘Badge of Shame‘” by Texas-based humanitarian agency Gospel for Asia (GFA World).

The report highlights a terrifying U.S. Border Patrol video that shows human smugglers dropping sisters – 3 and 5 years old from Ecuador – over a 14-foot section of the border fence in the New Mexico desert. The smugglers ran off, leaving the young girls alone in the dark.

The border situation, says the report, is a “stark reminder” that children are “in crisis right on our doorstep … wherever we live in the world. And the problem is growing worse.”

Situation Critical

The report estimates 1.2 billion children worldwide are vulnerable to a host of calamities, including abuse, hunger and diseases. It’s a “toxic combination” driven largely by poverty and supercharged by the pandemic, the report says.

Among the horrors are child slavery, sexual exploitation – including the online cybersex industry – and even child sacrifice.

In Uganda, a young mother found the headless body of her 17-month-old son in a shallow grave. The child’s killer turned out to be his own father who was paid $2,000 by a businessman in return for the boy’s head, the report says. It’s believed the child’s head was considered by him to be a “good luck” charm.

The report highlights the following disturbing facts:

30-35% of sex workers in the Mekong sub-region of Southeast Asia are 12-17 years old
Mexico’s social service agency reports more than 16,000 children engage in prostitution, mostly in tourist destinations
20-50% of prostitutes in Lithuania are believed to be children – sometimes as young as 11 – and orphans have been exploited to make pornographic movies
North Korean girls, some as young as 9, are forced to perform sex acts in front of webcams, live-streamed to paying customers worldwide

“Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is helping children escape poverty and protect themselves against such vile abuse and atrocities,” said the organization’s founder K.P. Yohannan, also known as Metropolitan Yohan. “Unless we act now to protect all children and show them God’s love is real, the consequences will be unforgivable.”

About GFA World

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 Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit the Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Source: GFA World Digital Media News Room, From Cybersex to Child Sacrifice: New GFA World Report Probes ‘Children in Crisis’

Gospel for Asia Calls on People to Pray, Fast Now for ‘Theater of Fear’ in Afghanistan

September 1, 2021 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX — One of the world’s largest mission organizations is calling on Christians around the world not to carry on “like normal” while people in Afghanistan face terror, rape, and execution. “I pray that no church in the world worships and prays like it’s just another normal day over the coming weeks while the innocent in Afghanistan await the Taliban’s knock on their door,” said K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan), founder of GFA World, a Christian organization that helps millions of vulnerable people globally.

"We need to be on our knees in prayer now" for Afghanistan 'Theatre of Fear', says KP Yohannan, GFA World missions organization founder — **PRAY FOR AFGHANISTAN ‘THEATER OF FEAR:’** Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is calling on Christians in the West not to carry on “like normal” while people in Afghanistan face terror, rape, and execution. “We need to be on our knees in prayer now,” says K.P. Yohannan, the mission organization’s founder. Join GFA World’s prayer effort for Afghanistan: http://www.gfa.org/press/PrayNow

As U.S. and allied troops complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan, Yohannan pleaded with people to “pray and fast” for the desperate situation.

“I can tell you now that many innocent people, including Christians, are likely going to die very soon in Afghanistan — and in other countries — at the hands of emboldened terrorists,” he said.

“These precious men, women and children need our prayers more than ever before.”

‘Theater of Fear’

“All the Afghan people — not only Christians — are living in a theater of fear,” Yohannan said. “I just heard first-hand reports that many people — and entire families — have been wandering in the desert wilderness for over a week, desperate to escape the country.”

According to reports, the Taliban are going door-to-door, hunting for Christians as well as Afghans who’ve assisted the United States. Males face execution on the spot, while women are raped and girls taken and forced into sexual slavery.

“Many in Afghanistan genuinely fear they will not see tomorrow,” Yohannan said. “The knock on their door could be the last they hear.”

“None of us should be acting like life is ‘normal’ while our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan wait in dread for the Taliban to come to their door. God moves when we choose to enter into the suffering of others. We need to be on our knees in prayer now.”

For information about GFA World’s prayer effort for the suffering people of Afghanistan, please visit this website: http://www.gfa.org/press/PrayNow

About Gospel for Asia – now GFA World

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 Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. Gospel for Asia has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news/.

Media interested in interviews with Gospel For Asia should contact Gregg Wooding at InChrist Communications @ 972-567-7660 or gwooding@inchristcommuications.com

Join the GFA World Prayer Team as we lift up in prayer the people of Asia and their needs. Receive prayer requests for Asia with a special focus each month. You can have a part in ministering to those in need—through our most powerful tool: prayer.

Read more blogs on Afghanistan, Prayer and Christian Persecution on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.

Read what 25 Christian Leaders are affirming about GFA World.

Source: GFA World Digital Media News Room, Afghanistan: GFA World Calls on People to Pray, Fast Now for ‘Theater of Fear’

K.P. Yohannan: Afghan Christians Are Going to Die Soon, Pray Now

August 25, 2021 By KP Yohannan

WILLS POINT, TX — The founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA World) and Metropolitan of Believers Eastern Church, K.P. Yohannan, issues the following urgent statement calling for global prayer on behalf of Afghanistan’s small Christian minority:

“As an Indian, I am a child of this region. I’ve also spent my entire life supporting the persecuted church in various ways throughout many countries in it. Most of that work—made possible by our supporters—I can never speak of. But, I can tell you now that many secret Christians are likely going to die very soon in Afghanistan and in other countries at the hands of emboldened terrorists. These brothers and sisters in Christ need our prayers more than ever before. Churches in every country of the world must unite their hearts in intense prayer for all those Christians in harm’s way. They are relying on us. I pray that no church in the world worships like normal over the coming weeks while Christians in Afghanistan await the Taliban’s knock on their door.”

About GFA World

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 Asia and Africa, and sharing the love of God. In GFA World’s latest yearly report, this included thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and teaching providing hope and encouragement available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news.

Media interested in interviews with K.P. Yohannan about Afghanistan should contact 714-457-6489 or Press@theKCompany.co

Read more blogs on Dr. KP Yohannan, Prayer and Persecution on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.

Read what 25 Christian Leaders are affirming about GFA World.

Source: GFA World Digital Media News Room, K.P. Yohannan: Afghan Christians Are Going to Die Soon, Pray Now

Woman Discovers Power of Scriptures in Desperate Situation

May 24, 2021 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan, which inspired numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, to assist the poor and deprived worldwide – Discussing Dora, a widow, her desperate need for her son’s affliction, and the power of the Scriptures that brought deliverance, peace, and joy.

Discussing Dora, a widow, her desperate need for her son's affliction, and the power of the Scriptures that brought deliverance, peace, and joy. — Searching for help for her son, Dora clearly heard God’s Word at a Women’s Fellowship meeting like this one.

After her husband’s passing, 56-year-old Dora moved in with her adult son, Caster. Dora was a kind-hearted woman who cared deeply for her friends and offered help whenever she saw someone in need. But when Dora’s good friend Athena told her about a church just a few blocks from her home, the dear widow failed to recognize her own need for a trustworthy God.

Dora thought she knew about the God her friend worshiped, and frankly, she was surprised Athena attended church. How could Athena worship this God instead of their ancestral deities? The typically quiet, reserved woman did not hide her disapproval.

Athena wasn’t surprised by her friend’s reaction, but she chose to respond with kindness and a soft answer. Athena described to Dora the timeless truths she learned from God’s Word and the wonderful ways in which God answered prayers and provided for her and her family. Athena lived out the truths of the Scriptures, treating her friend kindly and praying for her faithfully. She even invited Dora to come with her to a Women’s Fellowship meeting.

Still, Dora was uninterested. She hardened her heart and stubbornly refused to listen to the words Athena shared, not realizing it was those same words of hope that enabled Athena to patiently demonstrate God’s love to Dora.

Time of Desperate Need Becomes Turning Point

Months later, Dora’s son, Caster, was attacked by an evil spirit. Dora was shaken. Her son needed healing, but she couldn’t help. She knew she didn’t have the answers to his problem. She thought of her friend Athena and the God who answered her friend’s prayers.

After ignoring Athena’s invitations, Dora could refuse no longer. She decided to visit the church around the corner.

Until that day, Dora had never heard the Word of God so clearly. Ultimately, it was God’s Word, which Dora was previously reluctant to hear, that gave Caster what he needed: deliverance from the harassing spirit.

Dora was humbled by the power of God’s Word, amazed at the joy, peace and healing the powerful words brought into her life. She began regularly attending the Women’s Fellowship with Athena and studying Scripture with the pastor’s wife. The more Dora learned, the greater transformation she recognized in her life. Both she and Caster found peace and joy.

Dora discovered God’s Word is pure and trustworthy. When she is in need, she can rely on it. Her trust in God continues to grow and she has resolved to live for the Lord as she learns more about Him through His Holy Word.

Read about the power of God’s Word to change a young man’s life for the better.

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

Source: Gospel for Asia Field Reports & Updates, Woman Discovers Power of Scriptures in Desperate Situation

Join in prayer for the mission field, and for Women’s Fellowships, asking God to bless our sisters in the Lord and their areas of ministry.

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The Birth of a Gospel for Asia Missionary

October 16, 2020 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan – Discussing Sundar, blind at birth, obscure and impoverished, the sufferings his family experienced, and the calling and life of a Gospel for Asia Missionary in the grace and love of God.

ne chilly Tuesday, a blind baby boy was born into an impoverished, illiterate family in a remote village tucked into the foothills of the Himalayas. The parents loved their little boy and named him Sundar.

The small family had love, but little else. Debalal, Sundar’s father, had partial paralysis but was still able to work as a day laborer collecting wood to sell. To help make ends meet, Sundar’s mother also worked. Much of their income went to medical treatments for Sundar, but the little boy’s world remained shrouded in darkness.

Discussing Sundar, blind at birth, the poverty & suffering, & the calling & life of a Gospel for Asia Supported Missionary in the grace & love of God. — Sundar grew up in this small mud-wall hut with no expectations but to live and die in obscurity.

Neighbors looked on Sundar’s family with dismay, counting the family’s poverty, the father’s lameness and the son’s blindness as hardships too difficult to endure.

“Sundar will never receive sight. He is a burden for you,” they said. “Take him and throw him into the river instead of facing so many problems in life.”

“Take him and throw him into the river instead of facing so many problems in life.”

Debalal and his wife ignored the ill advice and continued to care for their son. But young Sundar began to believe what he had heard his neighbors say about him, especially when he saw his parents’ sorrow.

A little brother soon joined Sundar. The family of four eked out what life they could, faithfully worshiping their traditional deities.

Struggling through life, the family could not foresee the joy waiting just ahead.

7-year-old Sundar Experiences a Miracle, Family Transforms

One day, after Debalal spoke to Gospel for Asia (GFA) pastor Tuhinsurra, 7-year-old Sundar listened intently as his father told him about a Man who could make his eyes better. Excitement, fear and incredulity wrestled in the boy’s heart.

Desperate to provide his son with healing, Debalal brought his family to church. After each service, warm, gentle hands crowned Sundar’s head as Pastor Tuhinsurra asked a Man named Jesus to bring light to Sundar’s eyes.

Soon, God answered their prayers, and Sundar saw the face of his loving parents for the first time.

When the pastor of this church shared Jesus with Debalal, Sundar’s father, it brought an unknown happiness and healing to the entire family.

After this miracle, the entire family began worshiping Jesus at the local church. Sundar’s father shared the testimony of his son to their neighbors, who began asking him to pray for their needs. Four years later, God also healed Debalal from his lameness. He became a church deacon, and the poor, illiterate man once considered cursed became a pillar of godliness in the community.

Sundar’s family reveled in unfettered happiness. God had done so much for them. A newfound hope kindled in Debalal’s heart—a hope that his sons would surpass him in every way.

Father Martyred When Praying for Sick Man

Since Pastor Tuhinsurra lived in another village and oversaw multiple congregations in surrounding towns, Debalal did a lot of the day-to-day work of answering calls for prayer and visiting believers for encouragement. Everyone knew they could call Debalal to help them and he would, often with his wife and sons accompanying him.

A local man, who was in immense pain due to disfiguring burns on his face, frequently called Sundar’s father to pray for him; it was the only time the man experienced relief.

One night, this man begged Debalal to come to his house to pray for him, even though he had already prayed for him twice that day. Reluctantly, Debalal climbed out of bed.

In the man’s little hut, shrouded by deep night, Sundar’s father knelt to pray. As Debalal closed his eyes, the disfigured man took out a knife and brought it down on the back of Debalal’s exposed neck.

News of Debalal’s death spread throughout the village, and old, familiar taunts swirled around Sundar’s mother and her sons: This family was cursed. Fear began to consume Sundar.

Gospel for Asia founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan: Gospel for Asia Missionary — After Sundar’s father was killed while praying for a neighbor, their pastor sat with the family in their grief, offering comfort, counsel and practical help.

Pastor Tuhinsurra, who had worked closely with his father, sat with the family in their grief. The comfort he offered from God’s Word was the comfort he needed too.

As the community reeled in the wake of such violence, neighbors talked of sending Sundar away to work to support his family. How else would the family survive now?

But Pastor Tuhinsurra helped the family pick up the pieces of their lives, and he sensed the Lord had a different plan for Sundar.

“After I knew my father had gone to be with the Lord, there was uncertainty in front of me and I feared,” Sundar recalls. “Now who will take care of us? Who will I call father?”

Crossroads Leads to Spiritual Transformation

Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan: His father’s death was a turning point in Sundar’s life. Under the patient loving guidance of Gospel for Asia Supported Missionary Pastor Kanish, Sundar found peace in Christ. — His father’s death was a turning point in Sundar’s life. Under the patient loving guidance of Gospel for Asia missionary Pastor Kanish, Sundar found peace in Christ.

Sundar’s pastor encouraged the young man to stay with his ministry leader, Gospel for Asia (GFA) missionary pastor Kanish, while Sundar wrestled with his future.

Pastor Kanish and his wife welcomed Sundar into their home and showed him to his room, their eyes shimmering with compassion and concern. Their home was a refuge to help Sundar figure out what to do next and process the death of his father, free from community pressure and taunts.

Sundar’s days took on the structure of the household: mornings filled with family prayers, followed by breakfast and study; afternoons and evenings busy with ministry activities. Kanish guided Sundar, teaching him to trust the Lord.

Despite the miraculous healings in his family and years of listening to his father share God’s Word, Sundar had not yet decided for himself what he would do about the message of God’s love.

His father’s death jarred Sundar out of his indecision, setting a crossroads before him. He knew he must either walk away or put his faith in Jesus. It was time to decide.

“During that time, I did not understand anything, and I was so discouraged,” Sundar remembers.

In hindsight, he recognizes this as a turning point in his life: “Through this incident, my life was changed. There and then I believed in Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord.”

Pastor Kanish, who teaches at the nearby Bible college, welcomed Sundar into his home as a son, caring for the fatherless young man. Kanish taught Sundar how to read and write and how to pray and seek the Lord. It was under Kanish’s roof that Sundar committed his life to the Lord.

The three months Sundar stayed with Kanish’s family were vital to his personal and spiritual foundation. Seeing Sundar’s lack of education, Pastor Kanish taught him how to read and write using the Bible. Sundar wrote out the first five books of the Bible and read aloud the book of Proverbs each day. As Sundar grew in his literacy skills, he also absorbed spiritual lessons. He was grateful to have a mentor to help him through the dark valley of his father’s death.

“Pastor Kanish really encouraged me from the Word of God and helped me pray,” Sundar says. “Because of his motivation and encouragement, I have been strong in the Lord and I am growing in the Lord.”

Now empowered by the Holy Spirit, Sundar was like a sponge, soaking up the everything he was taught. Pastor Kanish gave him more and more responsibilities as he saw Sundar rising to every challenge.

“This boy was very keen and very mature in understanding,” Pastor Kanish remembers. “We have our cottage meetings four days a week, so I used to take him … and encouraged him to lead the worship service. … He was very faithful.”

Sundar devoured the Bible during this time, letting the comforting words of God wash over his hurting heart. He found solace, love and purpose in the rich, living words.

Sundar began to focus his prayers on the future.

Called by God to Forgive His Father’s Murderer

God’s forgiveness continued to work in Sundar’s heart. As he thought about the call to extend to others the same forgiveness he had experienced, there was one face that rose from the mist of memory, a face that was scarred and contorted in pain, the face of the man who had delivered his father’s death blow. Sundar knew he had to forgive his father’s murderer.

Relinquishing his desire for vengeance, Sundar prayed for this man and felt a supernatural love dislodge his hate. In this one act of trading self-focused retaliation for others-focused transformation, Sundar took a huge leap in his spiritual journey.

“Please pray for the person, Kumar, who murdered my father,” Sundar urges while sharing his prayer requests with other believers. “Even though he is in jail, I pray that his heart will be changed. Please join with me in prayer that he may receive the Lord.”

As Sundar’s love for Kumar grew, it opened the door of his heart to love anyone. Kumar needed Jesus, just as Sundar had. So did thousands of others in villages scattered across his beloved country. God was calling Sundar to be a missionary, answering the cherished wish of his father’s heart.

Sundar enrolled in Bible college, putting his new literacy skills to work. He also developed a heart to share the Good News with people who did not yet know about Jesus.

Sundar spent the next three years in Bible college. He thought about his father often during this time, about his father’s sacrifice. His father had given everything to Jesus, including his very life.

“During [that time] I read Matthew 5:10: ‘Blessed is the man who is persecuted,’” Sundar recalls. “That greatly encouraged me.”

A passion to see lives transformed by Jesus grew in Sundar as he realized how many men, women, boys and girls had yet to hear about the Savior’s love. Visions of villages tucked into the ripples and folds of the Himalayan foothills, each a replica of his own hometown, deepened Sundar’s determination to serve the Lord as a missionary.

The idea that he, who was born blind, impoverished and obscure, could make a difference in people’s lives seemed incredible. But he would dedicate his life to that very end.

“There are so many people in the world, people are perishing … without Jesus,” Sundar says. “So, my vision is … to preach the [Good News] to those people who have never heard.”

Gospel for Asia Missionary Ministry Grows in Answer to Prayer

Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan: Missionary with his bike — Sundar is able to travel to many different villages in the area he serves thanks to the bicycle he has been equipped with.

The area God called Sundar to work in has many villages dotting the hilly terrain, where rivers of melted snow cut gouges into the landscape before winding their way to the plains, where rural inhabitants cultivate the land. Millions of people live in these villages scattered across hundreds of miles.

After graduation, Sundar moved to one of these little villages, more than 100 miles west of his hometown, but in landscape, climate and culture, it could have been the town next door. He met people who looked and talked just like him. They ate the same food as him, and he understood the struggles of their lives.

There was no church in the village; his ministry started from scratch. The years at his father’s side, under Pastor Kanish’s mentorship and in Bible college had all prepared Sundar for this time. The Lord had called him; now it was time to get to work.

This area was ready to receive God’s Word, like a fertile field, tilled and waiting for seed to be planted.

In his first year, Sundar saw the Lord work in amazing ways. Fifteen people came to know the love of Christ because of Sundar’s faithful testimony and prayers, and a prayer fellowship started. Seeing this fruit, Sundar was confident the Lord would grow them into a thriving church.

Many other villages nearby also needed to hear the message of God’s love. Sundar prayed God would provide him a bicycle so he could visit more communities and expand his ministry. Within a year, God answered his prayers and the radius of Sundar’s influence stretched many more miles.

“I was really lacking a bicycle for my ministry and other works,” Sundar shares. “I was praying to God for a new bicycle, and God answered my prayers.”

Through the efforts of Sundar and the many other Gospel for Asia missionaries serving in the region, 42 new villages heard the Good News, thousands of tracts were distributed, and hundreds of people experienced Christ’s forgiveness in 2019.

Sundar continues to serve the Lord in the remote foothills of the Himalayas. He pedals to surrounding villages, making sure everyone knows about the Savior who died for them, and he is no longer alone in his work. Sundar is married and has a daughter; the family serves the Lord together. The memories of his father and his mentor inspire and encourage Sundar, spurring him on in ministry.

As Sundar is only a recent graduate, most of his ministry is still before him. But God promises that those who lose their lives for Him shall find life. The boy born blind, obscure and impoverished has found his calling and life in the grace and love of God.

God Calls Workers and Supporters

God is raising up men and women in nations where the greatest concentration of people who have not yet heard the Good News live, and He is calling them to display His love to their own people. These Gospel for Asia national missionary are able to minster in ways that many other cannot. They’ve struggled and lived through common hardships of people in their communities, such as poverty, discrimination and lack of opportunities. Yet they’ve seen God intervene in these struggles, often in miraculous ways, and have discovered alternative paths of joy and freedom. Like Sundar, they’re eager to share the hope they found in Christ with their neighbors.

We can empower their ministries through our prayers, through our giving and through our faith, becoming true partners in the work. No one can serve God alone. Every Gospel for Asia national missionary need brothers and sisters who will pray with them, rejoice with them and provide for them.

Sundar’s supporters will share in the fruit of his ministry.

There are many national missionaries in need of support. Become a partner in their ministries today, and see the fruit in eternity.

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

Source: Gospel for Asia Feature Article, The Birth of a Missionary

Learn more about the Gospel for Asia supported missionary workers who carry a burning desire for people to know the love of God. Through their prayers, dedication and sacrificial love, thousands of men and women have found new life in Christ.

Learn more how to demonstrate God’s love through the gift of Bicycles — to Missionaries, school children, farmers and daily laborers. Through these gifts, people experience Christ’s love.

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

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Gospel for Asia Provides Tin Sheets to Help Teen Go to Church

September 30, 2020 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan – Discussing Digvastra and his family, the opposition of his father toward his new found faith, and the answered prayer through a practical gift – tin sheets from Gospel for Asia gift distribution.

Sunlight filtered through a hole in the ceiling onto the back of a teenaged boy who had too many chores to do. The boy, Digvastra, longed to be at church, joining the saints for Sunday worship, but his father had given him a long list of chores to complete by sunset.

Digvastra’s father, Hemendu, had decided he could stamp out his son’s new faith by preventing him from going to church.

Discussing Digvastra and his family, his father's opposition, and the answered prayer through Gospel for Asia providing tin sheets. — Hemendu gave his son a long list of chores each Sunday to stop him from going to church, hoping to snuff out the flame of faith growing in Digvastra’s heart.

Son’s New Faith Provokes Father’s Anger—and Eventual Curiosity

When Digvastra had put his trust in Jesus and had started going to the local church meetings, Hemendu became furious. He chided Digvastra, telling him not to go out on Sunday mornings, but Digvastra would sneak out. Then Hemendu decided to start giving Digvastra a long list of chores each Sunday morning to stop his son from attending church. Digvastra, still a teenager, honored his father by doing as he was told.

Chandira and Yahvi, two Gospel for Asia (GFA) women missionaries who had shared Christ’s love with Digvastra, befriended Digvastra’s family and had opportunities to tell Hemendu about Jesus. Gradually, Hemendu’s heart grew curious about the new faith, but he was not yet willing to risk the scorn his neighbors and relatives would heap on him for believing in Jesus.

Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan: Two women missionaries, Chandira and Yahvi, shared with Hemendu about Christ. He became curious, but he still wasn’t ready to believe in Jesus. — Two women missionaries, Chandira and Yahvi, shared with Hemendu about Christ. He became curious, but he still wasn’t ready to believe in Jesus.

Prayer Answered Through Practical Gift

Digvastra kept praying to God to speak to his father, and Chandira and Yahvi prayed about a way to bless Digvastra’s family and show Christ’s love to them. The two missionaries felt the Lord was leading them to give the family a gift in their next Christmas gift distribution, but there was one problem: They didn’t know what to give them.

Then, one day, Digvastra shared a prayer request with Yahvi and Chandira. He explained that the roof of his family’s house had a hole and needed a major repair. Digvastra knew his family desperately needed financial provision to fix the leaky roof.

Amazed by and grateful for God’s clear direction, Yahvi and Chandira knew what to do. They put in a request to their leaders, and when the day of the Christmas gift distribution came, they were able to give Digvastra some tin roofing sheets!

Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan: The young man received tin roof sheets through the Gospel for Asia Christmas gift distribution program! — Digvastra asked Chandira and Yahvi to pray that his family’s roof would get repaired. Soon, the young man received tin roof sheets through the Christmas gift distribution program!

Gospel for Asia Tin Sheets Gift Overwhelms Son and Father Alike

Overcome by God’s love and goodness, Digvastra could find no words to express his gratitude for the gift that his family had desperately needed.

That night, Digvastra told his father,

“The Lord has been helping us in so many ways and has not only known our needs but has provided us with our needs. How can you still harden your heart? … The Lord is good to us. He has changed my life.”

“God is good to us, and I know that, but it is hard for me. … I need time,” Hemendu replied.

Even though Hemendu still wasn’t ready to put his trust in Jesus, the gift—a gift that would protect his family from inclement weather for years—impacted him. He was grateful to God for knowing his family’s needs and using the Church to meet those needs. Hemendu’s attitude toward Jesus and His followers completely changed. Instead of opposing his son’s faith, Hemendu became supportive. Digvastra can now spend his Sunday mornings worshiping with the local congregation instead of doing chores.

“I am thankful to you for teaching and showing the right path to my son,” Hemendu told Yahvi and Chandira one day. “I can see that his life is transformed, and I am happy as a father to know that my son has chosen the right thing.”

After seeing how Jesus provided for the needs of his family, Hemendu’s heart brimmed with gratitude. Now, instead of opposing his son’s faith, he supports him.

God is using Christmas gifts to reveal His grace and love to many more families in Asia. By giving a gift, you may impact lives for eternity.

*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 Featured Article, Tin Sheets Help Teen Go to Church

Learn more about how generosity can change lives. Through the Gospel for Asia Christmas Gift Catalog, gifts like pigs, bicycles and sewing machines break the cycle of poverty and show Christ’s love to impoverished families in Asia. One gift can have a far-reaching impact, touching families and rippling out to transform entire communities.

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

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

The Stranger at the Bazaar: How an Abused Woman Finds Hope

June 17, 2020 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan – Discussing Maliha, alone and abandoned, the unfolding of her history, and the Gospel for Asia (GFA) pastor who helps this abused woman find hope.

he clamor of bargaining could be heard above the bustling crowds. Stalls displayed beautiful fabrics of bright colors and patterns, while the aroma of food wafted in the air. In the midst of all this excitement, a mysterious woman strolled aimlessly down the street of the bazaar.

The woman was a stranger to the village. Her pitiful condition quickly became the dialogue of the bazaar. “Who is she, and where did she come from?” the villagers and venders alike whispered among themselves. No one knew. Some said she was mentally insane and did their best to avoid her. Others had compassion and tossed a few coins her way. She tried to tell them her story, but only a few listened, and no one tried to help her.

GFA founded by Dr. K. P. Yohannan: Discussing Maliha, alone and abandoned, the unfolding of her history, and the Gospel for Asia pastor's help this abused woman find hope. — Maliha (not pictured) wandered around the bazaar. She didn’t know where she was, and some people whispered about her. She was a stranger, lost, disheartened and alone.

She Needed a Hand to Hold

The woman established a spot near the roadside and under a tree. There, she silently wept and slept. She had with her all her belongings: a small bundle of clothes. During the day she begged, and when the night sky descended, she was alone. But the Lord knew her story and sent His servants to help rescue this precious woman He created.

Our pastor Chhiring and his wife, Gunita, had caught word about the stranger at the bazaar, and they wanted to see how they could help her. They found the woman with dirty clothing and a troubled face begging in front of a tea shop.

Pastor Chhiring gently talked to her and asked if she needed anything. She looked at him but said nothing. Then Gunita placed her hand in the woman’s, a small expression of love, and the woman allowed them to lead the way to their home.

Stranger Reveals Her Story

Pastor Chhiring told the woman she could stay with them as one of their own family members. He encouraged his wife and other believers not to pressure the woman to talk, but only help her feel comfortable. She would talk when she was ready. In the safety of Pastor Chhiring and Gunita’s home, trust grew in the woman’s heart. The next day she confided in Gunita and told her story.

Gospel for Asia founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan: Maliha eloped with a man she thought loved her and would give her a happy life. But one day all this changed, and he would beat her for no apparent reason. — Maliha (pictured) eloped with a man she thought loved her and would give her a happy life. But one day all this changed, and he would beat her for no apparent reason.

Her name was Maliha, and she came from a distant village. As she matured, many people in her village noticed her beauty and tried to tempt her to run away with them. For a year, she resisted, but a young man eventually lured Maliha after he declared his love for her and promised he would give her a happy life and never leave her. Maliha eloped with this man and moved away from her widowed mother.

After Maliha had two young children, she noticed her husband started to change. He became violent, physically and verbally abusing Maliha. Maliha’s mother, siblings and even her neighbors asked her to make a stand against her husband’s violence, but they never dared face him themselves.

Exposing Her Husband’s Secret

These sudden changes left Maliha with many questions. She didn’t know why her husband seemed to suddenly hate her when he had promised to love her before.

Then she discovered the secret he was hiding: Maliha’s husband had been unfaithful to her.

When Maliha gathered the courage to ask him about it, he beat her and yelled at her and the children. He announced his intention of bringing another woman into the house. Shocked and hurt, Maliha and the children cried loudly. The neighbors heard the awful commotion and ran to their house. They saw poor Maliha’s swollen face and blood streaming down her head from her husband’s beating. When her husband saw a crowd forming, he declared with a booming voice that his wife had gone mad.

A week later, Maliha’s husband said he would take her to the doctor, but instead he dumped her in a village she didn’t know, in a place where she could never find her way back. Deserted, lost and wounded in body and heart, Maliha found herself alone in the bazaar—until she met Gunita and Pastor Chhiring.

Gospel for Asia founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan: Maliha found love and rescue when Pastor Chhiring and his wife, Gunita, welcomed her into their home as one of the family. Now, Maliha has hope in Jesus, and He is healing her past. — Maliha found love and rescue when Pastor Chhiring and his wife, Gunita (pictured), welcomed her into their home as one of the family. Now, Maliha has hope in Jesus, and He is healing her past.

Church Welcomes Abused Woman

Gunita’s heart welled with deep love and compassion for Maliha as she listened to the broken woman share her story. She relayed the story to her husband, and he prayed and shared with his congregation. The entire church listened when he asked them to welcome Maliha into their hearts as one of their own sisters. Together as a church, they all prayed fervently for her and received her with love. Maliha grew under the care of her church family as they displayed Christ’s kindness toward her.

Although she was unable to return to her family, Maliha now has learned to pour out her heart to Jesus. She knows He loves her and desires her to call upon Him. She has a new life in Christ and a heavenly Husband who cares deeply for her and heals her wounded past.

Whenever her heart aches for her children and husband, she is reminded by Pastor Chhiring that her life is secure in Jesus’ hands. The woman who was once beaten, abused and abandoned now has a family and has been found and held by Jesus!

Gospel for Asia founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan: Women in Asia are often abused and forgotten. You can tell her she is loved and precious in the sight of Jesus! — Women in Asia are often abused and forgotten. You can tell her she is loved and precious in the sight of Jesus!

Be a Voice of Hope

Many women in Asia suffer from being abused, overlooked and forgotten by the men in their lives. Maliha opened up to Gunita and was able to share her heart. We at Gospel for Asia (GFA) desire to show these precious women that they are valued and loved by God. You can be part of this, too, by donating to a Gospel for Asia Women’s Ministry today.

Learn more about the GFA national workers who carry a burning desire for people to know the love of God. Through their prayers, dedication and sacrificial love, thousands of men and women have found new life in Christ.

Source: Gospel for Asia Featured Article, The Stranger at the Bazaar

Learn more about the Women Missionaries and their heroic efforts, dedicating their lives to bringing hope and God’s love to the women of Asia.

Learn more about Gospel for Asia’s programs to combat the 100 million missing women reality by helping women through Vocational Training, Sewing Machines and Literacy Training.

Read Gospel for Asia’s Special Report on An Imaginative Exercise in Empathetic Fear — Think about Living in a Community with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Read another Special Report from Gospel for Asia on 100 Million Missing Women.

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

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‘I Will Be Their Daughter’ Gospel for Asia-Supported Missionary Becomes Like Family to People Suffering from Leprosy

May 13, 2020 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan – Discussing Sakshi, the pain and suffering she went through from contracting leprosy as a teenager, and the calling she now lives in sharing healing and compassion for leprosy patients as a Gospel for Asia-supported Missionary.

“Don’t open my bandage!” the leprosy patient cried out. For years the patient believed it was because of their sin that the destructive disease controlled their body. Now, they thought they must suffer and settle with bearing it alone.

With love and deep understanding, Sakshi, a Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported missionary, revealed her own hands and feet to the patient, deformity clearly marking what leprosy’s nerve killing illness left behind.

“No, no, this is not some sin,” Sakshi said. “I myself have gone through this.”

The unique compassion for leprosy patients came from Sakshi’s own storehouse of experience. She too had wrestled with the same hurts, rejection and suffering from this disease. It came the hard way, but God used leprosy for Sakshi’s good and for the healing of many broken and lonely people.

Gospel for Asia founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan: When Sakshi was only a young girl, she found out she had leprosy. After others heard about it, they kept their distance, and she endured rejection — When Sakshi was only a young girl, she found out she had leprosy. After others heard about it, they kept their distance, and she endured rejection—even among her own family members.

Contracting the Feared Disease

As a teenager, Sakshi found out she had leprosy. Being the oldest child, it was a sudden shock when her brothers and sisters, who usually looked up to her, abruptly pulled away and wanted nothing to do with her. It was a harsh transition she had no control over.

Many thoughts of what life would be like from now on flooded Sakshi’s mind. Now she wouldn’t be able to visit neighboring homes, and no one would want to be her friend anymore. The sorrow of rejection enveloped her and put her in a place of deep depression. She began to wonder why she should live any more. Who would love her and care for her now?

In her hopelessness, Sakshi tried to hang herself. Thankfully, her father saved her and spoke words of life into her weary soul. He told Sakshi she was a precious child and urged her to strengthen her heart through the pain and hardship.

“So my papa was becoming so much a comforter to me and he comforted me and even my brother and sister, they used to hate me, and they don’t want to talk with me, they were not in home at that time when I was doing all these things,” Sakshi shared. “So my father, he saw me and he pulled me from there, and he made me understand everything, and after that I became ok.”

After the conversation with her father, Sakshi gave up trying to end her own life, but she still felt alone and worried. Others said it was her fault she contracted the disease, and Sakshi began to believe it.

Gospel for Asia founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan: When Sakshi experienced complete healing from leprosy, she dedicated her life to serving the Lord and helping others. She attended Bible college and served in leprosy ministry after graduation. — When Sakshi experienced complete healing from leprosy, she dedicated her life to serving the Lord and helping others. She attended Bible college and served in leprosy ministry after graduation.

Finding Healing and Ministry

As days, months and years went by, the leprosy in her body grew worse. One of Sakshi’s fingers bent in an awkward position, and she had terrible pain in her leg. Doctors encouraged her to go through with amputating her leg, but that frightened Sakshi. It was this time in her life when she met a few Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported missionaries who encouraged her and prayed for her. They shared about the love of the Healer, and Sakshi began to pray in faith and ask Jesus to heal her own body. By God’s power and grace, a miracle happened and Sakshi was healed from leprosy!

Immediately after she was healed, Sakshi decided to serve the Lord full time. She attended a Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported Bible college, and after graduation, her heart’s desire was to serve in the leprosy ministry.

Gospel for Asia founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan: With Christ’s compassion and love, and with true understanding received from her own experience with leprosy, Sakshi served the patients as though they were her own relatives. She touched those whom others would dismiss away in fear. — With Christ’s compassion and love, and with true understanding received from her own experience with leprosy, Sakshi served the patients as though they were her own relatives. She touched those whom others would dismiss away in fear.

Touching the Untouchable and Despised

“Nobody is there to comfort [the leprosy patients] and to give any kind of encouragement,” Sakshi explained. “Nobody wants to love them, hug them or to come near to them to dress them.

“…They have so many inner pains in their heart, because they also are human beings. They also need love, care and encouragement from other people.”

With Christ’s compassion and love and with true understanding from her own experiences, Sakshi served the patients as though they were her own relatives.

“By seeing them, I am thinking that I will fill the gap,” Sakshi said. “I will give that love, which they are not getting from their grandchildren and daughters… I will become their daughter, I will become their grandchildren, and I will help them and encourage them and I will love them.”

The Lord healed the wound of rejection that had cut into Sakshi’s heart as a teenager. She suffered pain and hardship, but she could later tell her story to those who are walking in shoes she once walked in.

By helping them with housework, giving hugs, washing clothes and combing hair, Sakshi helped these precious patients see they are not forgotten by God and are created in His image. These simple acts of kindness mean the world to these who are often forgotten or thought of as being void of emotions and feelings. Sakshi understood this, and God has used her testimony to display the hope and true unchanging love of Jesus to the unloved.

“I know that God will love them,” Sakshi said. “As God loved me and He healed me, in the same way I want to love them.”

Gospel for Asia founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan: Jesus’s compassion for those with leprosy is found clearly in Scripture. Together we can be the hands and feet of Jesus and show the unloved they are indeed loved by the Healer! — Jesus’s compassion for those with leprosy is found clearly in Scripture. Together we can be the hands and feet of Jesus and show the unloved they are indeed loved by the Healer!

Display the Compassion of Christ

In Mark 1:41, Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand to a man with leprosy and healed him. You too can be part of ministering to these precious people who will hear, some of them for the first time, that Jesus loves them and is not afraid to touch and hold them. Show Christ’s compassion through Gospel for Asia’s leprosy ministry!

Learn more about the GFA-supported leprosy ministry, or the Reaching Friends Ministry, helping remind people affected by leprosy that, despite the stigma of leprosy, they have dignity and are valued by God.

Source: Gospel for Asia Featured Article, I Will Be Their Daughter

Read the GFA special report update on the leprosy problem where global leprosy-elimination leaders are making exciting advances both medically and socially that are worth noting: Progress in the Fight Against Leprosy: Leprosy Prevention is Key to Elimination

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

Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox

Rebuilding a House, Building Trust: Gospel for Asia Provides New Home for Widow

May 8, 2020 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan – Discussing a despised widow Bidya and her daughter, the disaster that rendered them utterly helpless, and the Gospel for Asia Compassion Services teams that displayed Christ’s love in action.

Wind and rain swooshed across the Asian landscape, as a fierce cyclone raged through the village. A small bamboo hut collapsed. Now the poor and despised elderly widow, Bidya, and her unmarried daughter had less than they ever had before. Just as their dignity left them years before, now their shelter disappeared, too.

After Cyclone Phailin hit Bidya’s home, it was completely demolished, much like this home was destroyed by the cyclone in 2013.

Living Through the Worst Storm

In 2013, Cyclone Phailin devastated the southeast region of India. Around 38 people lost their lives and it left another million people wondering about their future. Cyclone Phailin was the worst storm the people of this region had seen in 14 years, but its destruction left a pathway of God’s mercy behind as Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported Compassion Services teams ministered to the suffering.

Workers provided cyclone survivors with food rations, clothing and cleaning supplies. They stayed behind for many months to help rebuild thousands of homes that were lost or greatly damaged. Together, they strived to bring relief to the victims of the disaster—people like the widow Bidya.

Rejected Widow Receives Aid

The villagers despised Bidya after her husband died. Impoverished and alone, she had to earn her living by working as a daily wage laborer. Because of her situation in life, no one would marry her daughter. They both toiled hard every day, finding whatever jobs they could to simply keep themselves alive. When Cyclone Phailin roared through their village, their bamboo house couldn’t withstand the high-speed winds. After it was destroyed, Bidya and her daughter were helpless. They had no means to build a new house for themselves.

Surprisingly, when a Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported Compassion Services team surveyed their area, the entire community, even the leaders, requested that Bidya have her home rebuilt. The team went to work and built Bidya a more substantial home than she had in the beginning—a cement one.

Gospel for Asia founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan: A new home for a widow — Bidya was given this home after Cyclone Phailin ruined her bamboo house. She and her daughter are very poor and were unable to rebuild a home for themselves. But Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported Compassion Services built her a brand new one, this time one made of cement!

Villagers are Blessed by Gospel for Asia Compassion Services

When the villagers saw what the believers had done to help the poor widow, their minds began to change. Before, they strongly opposed Christians and were very unhappy when a church was built in their area. But now, they thought maybe Christians weren’t so bad after all. Maybe the God they worshiped really cared for the world, and maybe the church building in their village wasn’t the curse they once thought it to be.

Maybe Christians weren’t so bad after all. Maybe the God they worshiped really cared for the world.

Bidya and her daughter were so blessed by the new house. After her home was constructed, the villagers grew to respect Bidya, and her daughter has even received a marriage proposal. Bidya and her daughter also have grown curious about Jesus, and have attended special services at a local Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported pastor’s church. They are learning more about the compassionate God who provided them with shelter and a sense of worth.

Christ’s Compassion Put in Action

God is using Compassion Services to extend hope to those who have endured much destruction and heartache. Just like Bidya was helped and the villagers were impacted through the love of Christ, many others in desperate need have observed the gentle and practical love our brothers and sisters pour out in Christ’s name to help alleviate their suffering.

Recently, Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported Compassion Services teams provided food, pots and pans, cleaning supplies, tooth brushes and soap to flood survivors in Sri Lanka. You can be part of helping in times of crisis like this. By giving of your resources and by praying, you can be the hands and feet of Christ in troubled times.

Learn more about how to bring practical help in Jesus’ name to the suffering and needy, relieving the burdened, rescuing the endangered and revealing God’s compassion to the people of Asia through Gospel for Asia Compassion Services.

Source: Gospel for Asia Featured Article, Rebuilding a House, Building Trust

Learn more about the Widows Ministry, how you can help widows not only hear that Christ cares for them, but that they may also experience His love firsthand and see how He gives them dignity, peace and eternal life.

Learn more by reading the GFA special report titled “An Imaginative Exercise in Empathetic Fear: Think About Living in a Community with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women”

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Notable News about Gospel for Asia: FoxNews, ChristianPost, NYPost, MissionsBox