Last updated on: February 22, 2023 at 9:02 am 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 – Discussing GFA World celebrating 42 years of showing the love of Christ by meeting practical needs of impoverished communities across Asia.
The Lord has been using GFA World to share Good News, to send indigenous workers to provide help to needy communities, and to grow Bible-believing churches over the past 42 years. We’ve enjoyed global recognition as a major faith-based humanitarian organization. However, our primary mission remains to represent Jesus Christ and His love through word and deed across Asia.
The humanitarian aid aspects of our ministry includes:
Disaster relief during earthquakes, cyclones, floods, and pandemics
And yet, there is so much more.
Many may not realize the marvelous ways the Lord has used Gospel for Asia (GFA World) to minister to the millions of people in Asia. Reaching out to those who have never experienced God’s love is just the beginning of the process it takes to establish local churches that not only serve their immediate communities but endeavor to provide help and hope to outlying villages.
Sharing
The humanitarian ministries listed above highlight the different ways we share help and hope with the hopeless, and transforming communities in despair through practical ways that help them escape persistent poverty.
These specific Gospel for Asia (GFA) ministries address practical, everyday needs that communities have, like the need for clean water, sanitation, food, basic health care, education and vocational support. They are provided with a generous dose of local loving-kindness to express the heart of Christ and his love for all people.
Sending
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) also supports national workers who share the love of Christ with their neighbors. As these relationships deepen, more and more people experience God’s love, and a new fellowship is born as new believers gather together for fellowship and discipleship.
The national worker often takes on the role of pastoring this congregation and will also continue ministering to surrounding villages where the name of Jesus is still unknown.
Growing
Generous and faithful donors provide a portion of the funding for the construction of places of worship. However, we believe that a healthy church is a self-supporting church. In fact, there are many churches that are now self-supporting, meaning they are a full-fledged church with land, a building, and believers who are giving enough via their tithes and offerings to sustain their church and its various ministries to help their community.
Local believers are taught how to do their part – and they are quite willing to do so. For example, in one year, the believers in one country financed 70 percent of the construction of 48 new church buildings. More than 400 self-supporting churches have been established with the support of Gospel for Asia (GFA World) in this nation. The believers there are poor, yet they have personally sent and supported 75 national workers in their own nation and have constructed about 280 churches.
Sharing God’s love and message of new life remains at the heart of all of GFA World’s ministry. It is wonderful to see so many churches established that are self-governing, self-financed, and self-propagating after 42 years of prayer and faithful service.
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is committed to continuing its faithful support of indigenous believers who are sharing Christ’s love, providing hope and help to impoverished communities in practical ways, and fostering new congregations.
Last updated on: September 22, 2021 at 7:49 pm By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX — COVID-19 is making a heart-wrenching situation even worse for abused and outcast widows around the world, says a new report for International Widows Day, June 23, an annual awareness event. The COVID pandemic is a widow-maker for thousands of the world’s most vulnerable women, causing them an “unbearable level” of sorrow and suffering, says the report — Coronavirus Intensifies Hardships for Widows — by Texas-based humanitarian agency GFA World.
‘Our Hearts Go Out’
TRAGEDY OF COVID ‘WIDOW-MAKER’ ON INTERNATIONAL WIDOWS DAY: COVID-19 is making a heart wrenching situation even worse for abused and outcast widows around the world, says a new report for International Widows Day, June 23. The COVID pandemic is a widow-maker for thousands of the world’s most vulnerable women, causing them an “unbearable level” of sorrow and suffering, says the report — Coronavirus Intensifies Hardships for Widows — by GFA World.
“The pandemic is crushing widows around the globe, and our hearts go out to each and every one of them, wherever they live,” said K.P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA World), an organization that helps thousands of widows in desperate circumstances — providing food, sewing machines to help them generate income, vocational training, and other aid.
“Our goal is to bring them comfort, encouragement, and God’s love,” said Bishop Danny Punnose, Gospel for Asia (GFA World) vice president. “We want them to know that God is always with them and loves them.”
The report — which also highlights the heartache and grieving of young “COVID widows” in America — describes the tragic ordeal widows are facing in different parts of the world where they’re viewed as objects of shame and treated with contempt. The pandemic, the report says, is “multiplying” their pain.
Shocking examples include:
In Nigeria, widows were locked in a room with their husbands’ corpses and forced to shave their own heads — a ritual of shame.
In Afghanistan, outcast widows established their own “colony” on a hillside above a cemetery just outside the capital, Kabul, where they live in mud homes they’ve built themselves, disowned by their families and excluded from mainstream life.
In Kenya, during COVID quarantine, there were reports of widows being driven out of their homes by their in-laws who considered them to be “excess burden.”
Globally, the United Nations warns, the pandemic “is likely leaving tens of thousands of women newly widowed” and exposed to rejection and mistreatment by their families and neighbors. Rampant hunger fueled by lockdowns and soaring unemployment makes life even harder for widows totally dependent on menial work or begging to survive.
In some countries in Asia and Africa, new widows have barely buried or cremated their husband before someone tries to take their home, land or possessions, citing loss of property rights after the husband dies.
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/.
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 – Discussing the family of Sesen and Hachirou, their struggle with poverty, and their dire need for a mosquito net met by GFA World Gift Distribution.
Mosquito nets like this one are essential items for families in South Asia. Such a net wasthe answer to Sesen and her family’s prayers.
Sesen lived with her husband, Hachirou, and their three children in a small village. To survive, the family relied on the meager income generated from Hachirou’s job as a plumber and Sesen’s job as a maid, but many of their needs were unmet—like the dire need for a mosquito net to protect themselves from the mosquitoes that swarmed their area.
A Family’s Fighting Faith
The family’s difficult financial situation was hard on them all, but they knew the Lord would provide for their needs. After coming to know Jesus a few years earlier, they had grown in their faith by attending Gospel for Asia (GFA) prayer meetings and church services. Though they faced many challenges and struggled to support themselves, they clung to a mustard seed of hope and kept the faith, always believing God to provide for all of their needs—including their need for a mosquito net.
The Need for a Net, the Grace in a Gift
The family’s small brick house was a single room in which all five of them slept, cooked meals and ate. The cramped quarters were hot and uncomfortable. They tried sleeping on the porch, but the swarms of mosquitoes resulted in restless nights and rampant illness.
With each member of the family getting sick one after another, they were desperate and needed help soon.
One February, in the midst of continued struggle and suffering, the family’s prayers were answered. Pastor Vaclav’s church organized a gift distribution for the local community, in which more than 30 families were given mosquito nets, including Sesen’s. The family was overjoyed!
Sesen brought two nets home and started using them immediately, enabling her and her family to sleep through the night and stay free of illness. Through this act of kindness and the grace of God, Sesen and her family were strengthened in their faith. They witnessed firsthand what a mustard seed of faith—even faith for a mosquito net—can do.
*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia World stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.
Learn more how to save families from the sickening agony or death from malaria through the gift of Mosquito Nets that offer protection from the sting of an infected mosquito and help to give their owner a restful nights sleep.
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan, whose heart to love and help the poor has inspired numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, to serve the deprived and downcast worldwide – Discussing Salbador, his struggle to provide for his family against poverty while enduring near constant chest pain, and his son’s persistent faith for healing for his father.
For 32-year-old Salbador, the past two years had been fraught with discomfort and pain. The father of three worked at a factory to provide for his family, attempting to keep them out of poverty. Long hours and tough labor resulted in severe, near-constant chest pain. Multiple hospital visits proved no help; the doctors could offer no relief for Salbador’s pain.
A Son’s Faith
Udahl (pictured front second from the left), convinced his father, Salbador (pictured center back) to attend the church after his chest pain would not dissipate.
Salbador was a believer in name but didn’t fully follow in Christ’s footsteps. His 10-year-old son, Udahl, however, attended church faithfully. Multiple times, Udahl invited his parents to go with him, but they always found some excuse to not go, even after they listened to Udahl chatter excitedly about all he learned at Sunday school.
When Salbador’s chest pain first flared up, Udahl recommended they go to the church.
“I have seen [Gospel for Asia (GFA)] Pastor Pallatin praying for many sick people in the church,” Udahl told his parents.
Maybe the pastor could pray for Salbador? Maybe Salbador could be healed?
Still, Salbador did not go. Udahl was a child; what did he know?
Undeterred by his father’s stubbornness, Udahl decided to invite Pastor Pallatin to his home. His father could be healed, Udahl knew it.
Through constant and diligent prayer, great things can be accomplished. And like this man pictured, Salbador experienced God’s love through constant prayer.
Healing Finally Found
Through constant and diligent prayer, great things can be accomplished. And like this man pictured, Salbador experienced God’s love through constant prayer.
When Pastor Pallatin visited, he shared exactly what Udahl had told his father: Jesus could heal Salbador’s pain. It seemed impossible, but this time Salbador finally decided to listen. Pastor Pallatin continued to visit the family, continually offering up prayer for Salbador to be healed from discomfort. And soon, those prayers were answered.
Salbador’s chest pain, which had plagued him for two long years, vanished. Rejoicing, the family invited Pastor Pallatin to continue visiting their home and sharing from God’s Word. And after a few blissful months of growing in Christ’s love, the whole family devoted their lives to Jesus.
“For the past two years, I had been taking medicines, but there was no relief,” Salbador said. “Now, the Lord Jesus healed me completely, and I do not feel any discomfort and pain during my regular work.”
Through his son’s persistent faith, Salbador has found healing and a new, invigorated life.
“We are proud of our son,” he said. “As he took initiative for this new life.”
*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.
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.
Learn more about the GFA World national missionaries who carry a burning desire for people to know the love of God. Through their prayers, dedication and sacrificial love, thousands of men and women have found new life in Christ.
Last updated on: December 16, 2021 at 10:56 pm 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 Gospel for Asia Canada, to serve the deprived and downcast worldwide – Discussing the grief and turmoil in Imalda’s family brought by the death of her firstborn son, and the peace from God through the help of Gospel For Asia’s Sisters of Compassion.
After Imalda (not pictured) experienced devastating loss, God answered the fervent prayers of the Sisters of Compassion to restore Imalda’s mental health and bring peace and harmony back to her home.
The excitement of the birth of Imalda’s firstborn child, a son, was dampened by the discovery that he had a hole in his heart. Devastated by the news and afraid, Imalda and her husband, Agnolo, a registered medical practitioner himself, leaned on the reassurances of the doctors stating the hole would eventually close on its own. Unfortunately, it did not.
The new parents did everything they could to bring healing to their precious baby: They spent large amounts of money on his medical treatments; they visited numerous temples; they offered multiple sacrifices. Still, nothing saved their baby boy. Within a year of his birth, Imalda and Agnolo’s son died.
The weight of the loss crushed Imalda. She expressed her grief by lashing out at her husband, screaming and fighting with him. As Imalda descended into mental illness, her behavior changed drastically. She even ventured outside naked on several occasions.
After losing his son, Agnolo watched helplessly as he began to lose his wife as well.
During this tumultuous time, Imalda gave birth to a second son. The child should have brought joy, but Imalda could not overcome the loss of her firstborn; turmoil continued to reign in her home.
Help from New Sisters of Compassion Friends
As Imalda wrestled to find peace in her mind and her home, she met two GFA Sisters of Compassion, Bianey and Cyprienne. The Sisters spent time talking with Imalda and learned about her family’s tragic story that led to Imalda’s mental illness. Before parting ways, the Sisters prayed for Imalda.
Agnolo agreed to let Bianey and Cyprienne visit Imalda every Wednesday to pray for her full healing. Faithful to their word, Imalda’s new friends came every week, praying and fasting for Imalda’s health to be completely restored.
A Miraculous Answer to Earnest Prayers
God heard their prayers and began to heal Imalda. Agnolo could hardly believe the changes he witnessed in his wife as she became calmer and more composed than he had seen her in eight years. After seven weeks of prayer, Imalda’s mental health was fully healed.
With much gratitude, Agnolo and Imalda opened their hearts and lives to Jesus, the One about whom they read in God’s Word and who transformed their broken lives, filling their home with peace. “I was totally distressed and often quarreled with my husband, due to which we lost the peace in our home,” Imalda recounted. “I thought I would never become normal and [would] never obtain peace in my life. But now, I am happy with my life and family. The Sisters took special care of me, and because of their prayers, love and support, I could come back to life.”
Imalda and Agnolo rejoice that God brought them through the many years of upheaval and delivered peace to their home.
*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia World stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.
Learn more about the Sisters of Compassion – those who are specially trained woman missionary with a deep burden for showing Christ’s love by physically serving the needy, underprivileged and poor.
WILLS POINT, TX – GFA World (Gospel for Asia) founded by K.P. Yohannan, has been the model for numerous charities like GFA World Canada, to help the poor and deprived worldwide – Discussing Nadajay, a 45 year old widow, her family’s struggle with poverty and sickness, and the Gospel for Asia distribution of a goat that took care of their medical needs.
One dollar and thirty-eight cents—that was all Nadajay made per day working in the mines. The 45-year-old widow needed to provide for her two sons, but her daily income barely covered living and school expenses, leaving hardly any extra.
But when Nadajay’s 10-year-old son, Adeon, fell ill with a kidney stone, she spared no expense. She wouldn’t lose another son; she couldn’t lose another son.
A Tragic Past, a Region in Need
Goats, like those pictured above, provide much-needed income as families in need can sell their offspring.
Nadajay had already lost her husband and five sons to sickness in the past. Their poverty meant they could not seek proper medical attention—an all-too-common occurrence in Nadajay’s region. People suffered with malaria, jaundice and typhoid, and many could not afford proper treatment.
When Adeon fell ill, Nadajay’s fear and heartache from the past surged to the present. Any spare money she had saved up went to finding relief for her son’s pain. Doctor visits and traditional rituals brought no healing. What if she would lose him, too?
When Gospel for Asia (GFA) pastor Macalay first arrived in Nadajay’s region, he saw families stricken by poverty and devastated by sickness. He saw the mental and emotional strain on the locals’ faces. He saw the hopelessness and the pain. Pastor Macalay knew these men and women needed love, so he sought to be a beacon of hope for those trapped in destitution and despair.
When Pastor Macalay met Nadajay, she shared with the pastor her grief and troubles. She told him of the tragic passing of her husband and children. Now another son—her youngest, Adeon—lay ill, and nothing she’d done had worked. Please, she asked, pray for my son.
Pastor Macalay did. For the next two weeks, he visited Nadajay’s home, praying for her sick son. And after two weeks of constant prayer, Adeon’s pain vanished. He had been healed.
Blessings for a Widow from Gospel for Asia Distribution
Enormous relief settled in Nadajay’s heart. For nearly a year, worry for Adeon, combined with the pain of the past, had ruled Nadajay’s thoughts. Her attempts had not healed her son, but Pastor Macalay’s prayers did. Why? What was different about the pastor’s prayers that enabled her son to be healed?
She realized it was Christ and His love that had brought healing for Adeon’s body—and to Nadajay’s heart.
She began attending worship services held by Pastor Macalay with other villagers. Together, as one congregation, they grew in the knowledge of Christ’s love and the power of prayer.
A year later, Nadajay received a pair of goats through a Christmas gift distribution. They provided the widow with much-needed income, especially as the number of goats steadily increased from two to 24. Through selling the offspring, she could take care of any medical needs that arose—and get her sons through school and repair a leaky roof.
Nadajay no longer feared for her sons’ survival. Thanks to the faithful prayers of Pastor Macalay, Nadajay now rejoices in the comforting embrace of God’s provision and love.
*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.
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.
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.
*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.
WILLS POINT, TX — A global humanitarian organization is helping combat the world’s “stinkiest” health emergency — people defecating in the open — a new report reveals. Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is installing thousands of toilets in some of the world’s remotest and least developed areas — places where people typically relieve themselves in the bushes, by the local river, or in the street.It’s part of a global effort to curb deadly diseases spread by people practicing open defecation, known as OD, says the agency’s new report Taking the Toilet Challenge.
SOLVING A DEADLY STINKY PROBLEM: Texas-based humanitarian organization Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is helping combat the world’s “stinkiest” health emergency — people defecating in the open. The agency just released a new report, Taking the Toilet Challenge.
OD spreads cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, typhoid and leads to chronic diarrhea — killing millions of children worldwide every year.
OD is not just a health crisis in the developing world — it’s also a serious issue in the United States, where cities such as San Francisco and Seattle are battling to find solutions among their growing homeless populations.
Up and Running: 32,000 Toilets
So far, GFA World has helped install more than 32,000 toilets in OD-prone locations across Asia.
““For millions around the world, the humble toilet is the best gift they can imagine,” said K.P. Yohannan, founder of the Texas-based organization that helps millions across Asia and has just launched projects in Africa. “Giving people the most basic necessities of life is one way of sharing God’s love with them.”
Global Progress
Citing progress, the organization’s report says OD has been cut in half globally in recent years. In South Asia — home to one quarter of the world’s people — the number of those practicing OD has dropped sharply from two-thirds of the population to one-third.
But, the report says, about one in every 11 people worldwide still doesn’t have access to a toilet.
The report also spotlights efforts to “reinvent the toilet” — designing toilets that process human waste without water, sewer or septic systems.
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://press.gfa.org/news.
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by KP Yohannan, which inspired numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, to assist the poor and deprived worldwide, issued this Special Report on the ongoing fight against open defecation, using outdoor toilets to improve sanitation.
What Do the World’s Sanitation Problems Have to Do with Us?
For those of us with indoor flush toilets—and clean ones at that—with sewer lines that carry waste to treatment facilities, and who live in places where waterborne and airborne bacteria are not a hazard, our response to this crisis is probably, So what? We don’t say this out loud, but like so many other dire extremes jockeying for our attention, it doesn’t really touch our lives.
However, in a majority of places, America is starting to suffer from failing infrastructure. Most of us think of that in terms of roads and bridges needing repair or major overhauling, a transportation issue. Yet infrastructure means water service, too.
Just two years ago, reporters from the Chicago Tribune conducted an exposé of the high bills being charged for water in underserved metro area neighborhoods. Maywood residents in a western suburb paid one of the region’s highest water rates, because older pipes allow major seepage. Of the 946 millions of gallons that Maywood bought from neighboring Melrose Park in 2016, some 367 million gallons, or 38.7 percent, never made it to taps. That cost residents in an already cash-strapped population nearly $1.7 million more than residents paid in other towns of similar size. And the poor are tapped for a disproportionate share of the bill.
What if I had to stand in line to use a communal latrine where flies buzzed, the floor was filthy, someone had evacuated due to acute diarrhea, and no one wanted to clean the mess? Now we’re getting closer.
Water problems may be closer than we think. In a 2012 article for a Yale University publication, reporter Cheryl Colopy—author of Dirty, Sacred Rivers: Confronting South Asia’sWater Crisis—warned: “In the United States, sewage treatment has not been a problem for the past half-century, but it could become one again as infrastructure ages and fails—especially if there is a lack of government money to replace it. In addition, certain regions of the U.S. are expected to experience water shortages as temperatures rise. New, water-saving, decentralized toilet technologies may need to be adopted not only in places like South Asia, but also in parts of the industrialized world.”
Indeed, we may be thinking more about sanitation issues in the near future. And, the burgeoning technologies used to solve defecation problems and to discover clean water solutions in the developing world may be solutions we will also seek not far down the road.
Women are prone to assault, disease runs rampant, and lives are at risk: all a result of using the bathroom outdoors.
What If You Didn’t Have a Toilet?
So I remind myself of toilet scenarios I do know about, then extrapolate some personal situations. Our home, in which we have lived for 40 years, has a septic system. During that time, we have suffered power outages amid extreme storms, meaning no water could be pumped from our underground well; this disabled our showers, faucets and toilets. I used to store plastic bottles of water so when things went black we could still brush our teeth, dress by candlelight and—get this—flush our toilets. If the power did not come back on for a couple days, frozen food thawed and excess detritus threatened to overflow the toilet basin.
So I extrapolate: What if this happened all the time? What if sewer lines broke, got clogged and backed up regularly? What if I lived in poverty, with no plumbers, no money and no electric company to call to fix this? What if I had to stand in line to use a communal latrine where flies buzzed, the floor was filthy, someone had evacuated due to acute diarrhea, and no one wanted to clean the mess? Now we’re getting closer.
A well-cleaned squat toilet in Asia.
In refugee camps overseas, my travel companions and I held ridiculous discussions about who had invented squat toilets: men or women? Someone shot a photo of me holding a rickety latrine toilet door upright while a woman coworker trusted me to guard her privacy while she did her business. We may laugh, but for most of the world this situation is not a laughing matter. Smelling an overflowing latrine from 20 feet away might persuade even a Westerner to think similarly, even if only metaphorically. In truth, I don’t like the few outhouses I’ve been forced to use in the States, nor many of the spooky national park public facilities. If I can help it, I certainly avoid portable potties at public events.
When Your Septic Tank Problems Bring Embarrassment
My last attempt at toilet empathy. About 10 years after we moved to West Chicago, Illinois, our neighbor knocked on the door and apologized for complaining about the standing stinking water seeping into his property.
“I think you may be having trouble with your septic system,” he reported, a bit embarrassed.
I called two septic companies. One said I needed to have the whole septic field replaced; cost: $10,000. The other service man diagnosed another problem but with a similar estimate. Then I went to the DuPage County Health Department and asked what septic firms they would recommend. I called Black Gold, whose reps complained about the septic map drawn by the company that laid our field—that was now leaking.
“Would the health department let us get away with a layout like this?” he asked his partner. They both obviously thought the field plan had been rendered by some septic idiot. Sure enough, after spending about 45 minutes prodding our three-quarters-of-an-acre lot with long poles, they said: “Lady, you don’t need no new septic field. The lines of what’s there ain’t connected to the tank.” Their fee: $3,000. I made a garden from areas torn up by their repairs.
Vile, brown liquid that some in Asia count on as their water source.
So what if I lived somewhere that permanently seeped smelly, vile, germ-ridden, brown liquid? What if the river at the back of the land was a running sewer, and my grandchildren couldn’t romp and splash in it? What if the fields were filled not only with animal feces but the excreta of some 300 neighbors?
You can come up with your own empathy-building stories.
Prime Minister Modi and his teams are sold on community-led initiatives, and so should they be. Change works best when a whole population is committed to seeing it happen.
Community development often works best when it is exactly that: an idea that grows out of the mind of a local visionary, capable of strategic thinking but with compassion for those nearby—his or her neighbors. And when a whole community becomes involved in “cleaning up its act,” few powers on earth can withstand such initiative.
Now what’s interesting about Gospel for Asia’s stories surrounding sanitation is that it is the local pastor in the village, who out of concern and knowing that open defecation has deadly disease-breeding potential, exercises compassion to love his neighbors through his concern about the availability of latrines.
This is an excerpt from a Gospel for Asia (GFA) story that appeared on last year’s World Toilet Day. It concerns a family in one community forced to use the open fields to defecate because they had no other proper place.
Malak, before being touched by Christ’s love, had been an alcoholic. After reading the entire Bible from start to finish, Malak was transformed and abandoned the bottle. Some years later, he met Jaki, and they were married.Eventually, the couple were blessed with two children. It seemed as if all was right for Malak and his family. However, a singular problem arose: The family had no toilet. The nearest place to relieve themselves was a little less than a mile away. During extreme weather, the family was forced to stay indoors, rendering those facilities useless. Going outside in the open was degrading and unhygienic, and at nighttime it was dangerous—who knew what kind of wild animals lurked about?
However, Malak and his family prayed, and their requests did not go unanswered. During a GFA Christmas gift distribution, they received a complete sanitation facility. They no longer had to trek half a mile just to use the bathroom or use the outdoors in fear.
What an extraordinary example of love in practical action.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.” —Luke 10:27
For women like this tea estate laborer, having no outdoor toilet facility could mean risking assault as they go out into an open field in the dark.
“It’s not safe to send our people, our children, our wives or our daughters to the tea garden at night to use the toilet,” Iniyavan said.
Iniyavan made only 2,400 rupees a month, which was equivalent to about $37 (USD) a month. He wasn’t able to save enough money to construct a toilet.
Open defecation means there’s the risk of disease as families continually return to communal waste grounds
GFA-supported Compassion Services teams construct outdoor toilets, also known as sanitation facilities, for people who, like Iniyavan, do not have the means to do so on their own.
“Now, since I have this toilet built in my house, I don’t have to worry. My family and I don’t have to go to the tea garden for toilet, and it is very safe here,” Iniyavan said.
On the Brink of Innovations, Change in Sanitation
Toilet technology is on the edge of remarkable, cost-effective, ecologically friendly frontiers. They’re becoming self-cleaning and solar-powered. A solar-powered toilet that converts waste into charcoal can then be used as fertilizer. An indoor toilet that works like a garden composter, spinning the contents and reducing odor and the number of dangerous pathogens. Portable rickshaw toilets. A community bio-digester toilet designed to convert human waste into gases and manure. Once ideas begin flourishing, there is no limit to what can happen.
Granted, Prime Minister Modi’s ODF csampaign may take a little longer to succeed. But the hardest pull of any new effort is at the beginning. Once new ideas start rolling, they gather steam. Some new toilet technologies may become catalysts as well. In addition, there are hundreds of international organizations working on sanitation solutions. They understand that one size does not fit all the variables that make up the particulars in this vast discussion, but added all together, it is a prohibitive association with evidence of remarkable dedication.
And when a whole community becomes involved in “cleaning up its act,” there are few powers on earth that can withstand such initiative.
A Canadian doctor, one of those “creative renegades” unhappy with the condition of the world who I have come to admire and love, was appointed as a provincial health officer in the highlands of Papua, New Guinea. During an aerial survey, he and his team discovered one distinctly cleaner and healthier village. Far below lay the evidence of what turned out to be a pastor with basic health training who had taught his people those lessons; the difference could be seen from the air. Inspired, they searched for a more integral way of ministering and soon began using a community health evangelism methodology, which had been developed in Africa.
Sometimes we get lost in the details on the ground. We need to stand back, take deep breaths and find some way to gather broader assessments—an aerial view. Progress is being made; it’s just a little harder in some places than in others. I’m proud that Gospel for Asia is one of the players.
Shout Out to Toilets!
Christianity has everything to do with sanitation. We serve a God who is expecting us to help restore the world He created to its original design. That is a world, among many other things, without rampaging diseases. One day, Scripture promises, it will be a world without death and suffering. So in this interim, let’s hear a shout out for all the toilets in the world!
For only $540, you will help reduce the risk of common diseases by providing a family with an outdoor toilet.
About Gospel for Asia
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across Asia, especially to those who have yet to hear about the love of God. In GFA’s latest yearly report, this included more than 70,000 sponsored children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and spiritual teaching available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://press.gfa.org/news.
Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report: Fight Against Open Defecation Continues – Using Outdoor Toilets to Improve Sanitation —Part 1
Learn more by reading these Special Reports from Gospel for Asia:
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by KP Yohannan, which inspired numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, to assist the poor and deprived worldwide, issued this Special Report on the ongoing fight against open defecation, and how using outdoor toilets helps to improve sanitation.
Karen Burton Mains, author
Since I first wrote about open defecation a few years ago, efforts to combat the problem have gathered momentum. A report compiled by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in June shows the percentage of people practicing open defecation declined from 21 percent (1.3 billion) in 2000 to 9 percent (673 million) by 2017.
While this is encouraging news, there is much more to be done. The United Nations (UN) says “some 2.2 billion people around the world do not have safely-managed drinking water, while 4.2 billion go without safe sanitation services and three billion lack basic handwashing facilities.”
“Mere access is not enough,” said Kelly Ann Naylor, UNICEF’s associate director of water, sanitation and hygiene. “If the water isn’t clean, isn’t safe to drink or is far away, and if toilet access is unsafe or limited, then we’re not delivering for the world’s children.”
In addition to the UN, this multi-faceted effort includes governments, non-governmental organizations and various Christian and non-Christian charities. All have launched initiatives that include long-term goals for ending this threat to the world’s health. The UN’s global sustainable development goals include ensuring that everyone has a safe toilet and that open defecation ends by 2030.
Children in Cote d’Ivoire investigate their community’s newly improved toilets, one of the UNOCI’s “quick impact projects” (QIPS) which supported the rehabilitation of schools and toilets in Abidjan. UN Photo/Patricia Esteve
People using the bathroom outdoors with no toilet nearby nor sanitary treatment of their discharge has fueled disease, created serious health problems and endangered female safety by exposing them to possible rape or other abuse. Then there is the particularly stomach-turning incident from July 2018, when a 3-year-old South African boy drowned in a pit latrine—a type of crude toilet that collects feces in a hole in the ground. Four years earlier in the same province, a 5-year-old boy drowned in a school toilet.
Such horror stories help explain the need for “World Toilet Day,” which falls every year on November 19. Inaugurated in 2013, the UN-sponsored observance urges member states to encourage behavioral changes and implement policies to increase access to sanitation among the poor. Despite progress in recent years, the situation is serious, as shown by the June UN report.
GFA World supporters get the opportunity to visit an outdoor toilet installed by Believers Eastern Church for the benefit of multiple families in this neighborhood around Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. During 2019, 5,428 toilets like these were installed by GFA across South Asia to help improve the sanitation challenges in many developing communities.
Hanging Out with “Renegades”
For much of my adult life, I have hung out with the “renegades” of Christian missions. Namely, the 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 struggles of people in developing nations. My first trip around the world came at the invitation of Food for the Hungry; I traveled with Larry Ward, the executive director at the time, and his wife, Lorraine.
The purpose of the trip was an international field survey with an emphasis on the world’s refugee crisis, which in the l980s 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 write about what I had seen. I wrote my book, 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 (and some generous coaching from a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper reporter). It won a Christopher Award, a national prize for works that represent “the highest values of the human spirit.”
“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.”
Eventually, I brought the accumulated exposure of my world travels—some 55 countries in all—and the learning I had gathered through research and dragging through camps and slums to the board of Medical Ambassadors International (MAI), a global faith-based health organization.
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, Helping to Improve Sanitation in Asia
As I mentioned earlier, Christianity has a vital role in ending these problems. One of the organizations involved is Gospel for Asia (GFA), long close to my heart and that of my husband, David Mains. We met K.P. Yohannan, GFA’s founder, when the ministry was a mere vision in the heart of a young Indian man. It was a divine nudge that would not let up. Since then, David has traveled to Asia at the invitation of Gospel for Asia (GFA) eight times; I have visited once. We’ve watched as K.P.’s vision grew from a dream to reality, with numbers beyond anything we could have considered possible.
GFA’s website tells its vast story: In 2018 the ministry fed, clothed and schooled some 70,000 impoverished children, operated 1,128 free medical camps and constructed 6,431 toilets with dual-tank sanitation systems.
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. It long ago surpassed that mark. Figures for 2016 alone: 10,512 toilets installed, with another 6,364 following in 2017, and another 6,431 in 2018. Potable water, of course, travels hand in hand with sanitation. In 2018, the ministry’s field partners constructed 4,712 Jesus Wells and distributed 11,451 BioSand water filters to purify drinking water. Touching vignettes on GFA’s website make the statistics personal.
“Our family is blessed both physically and spiritually,” said one villager in Asia. “We are free from problems and sickness.…It is because of the people who have spent their money to drill a Jesus Well in my place.”
“This saved the lives of people from illness,” said another—and indeed, toilets, when and if they are used, do just that.
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 improvements.
Organizations Tackling the Sanitation Crisis
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 India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi are battling uphill against open defecation (in the sewers, in running streams, by the roadsides, in the fields and the forests, on garbage dumps, etc.).
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, use microfinance loans to help underserved people connect to a service utility or build a home latrine. By 2020, more than 30 million people in 17 countries have been affected by this approach.
Prime Minister Modi campaigned to end open defecation and build latrines for India. Photo by narendramodiofficial on Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
During his campaign for office in 2014, Modi spoke of “Toilets Before Temples.” His party’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) campaign has undoubtedly made progress, thanks in part to the $28 billion (U.S.) originally allocated, plus World Bank loans totaling another $1.5 billion.
After a Reuters News Service story last May portrayed the government as using overly optimistic results about the initiative, India’s Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation issued a release, saying its program had “succeeded in lifting more than 550 million people out of open defecation in a short period of less than 5 years.” His re-election last year may be partly due to the progress of the initiative he organized to curtail the practice.
Talking Openly About Open Defecation
Another key dilemma in this discussion—open defecation, hardly a dinner-table topic or a missions committee agenda item—is that accessibility to toilets does not always indicate usage. Changing habits is mostly a matter of changing mindsets in the face of deeply entrenched beliefs.
Some 1.5 million people die globally each year from polluted water diseases alone.
Elizabeth Royte, in a comprehensive August 2017 National Geographic magazine article, reported visiting Parameswaran Iyer, India’s secretary of drinking water and sanitation, in 2016. A hand-numbered sign on his wall tracked progress.
“You see that?” he asked. “One hundred thousand is the number of villages that are ODF today.” (ODF is the acronym for open defecation free.)
Royte, a sanitation expert traveling widely and reporting extensively, noted that Modi aimed to build more than 100 million new toilets in rural areas alone by 2019. But she added that “deep-seated attitudes may present an even bigger barrier to improving sanitation than a lack of pipes and pits.”
Echoing that observation, on World Toilet Day in 2018, The Washington Post reported: “Although increasing the number of toilets and improving their quality is important, the larger challenge is how to ensure that they actually will be used. … In our survey of 810 households in Delhi’s slums, where private toilet ownership is rare, we found that many people do not regularly use nearby public toilets, known as community toilet complexes, built specifically for slum dwellers.”
Facing the Facts about India Toilets
That being said, let’s look at data regarding the state of toilets and open defecation in Asia. Then let’s examine what development organizations, sanitation technologies and mission groups, namely Gospel for Asia, are attempting to help Asia become ODF.
Although Modi has emphasized improved sanitation, it’s worthwhile to note that India struggled with these issues even before winning independence from Great Britain in 1947. In fact, Gandhi insisted, “Sanitation is more important than temples.” Now, due to population growth, a conundrum exists: While the percentage practicing open defecation has dropped substantively, birth rates are creating an environment where more people live in geographic locations where fecal exposure is increasing, not decreasing.
37%
of the urban population—some 157 million urban dwellers—lacked a safe and private toilet, according to UK-based charity WaterAid in November 2016.
Even sewers are no guarantors of healthiness: In the capital city of Delhi, pipes are corroded; they ooze waste; and nearly a third of the booming city isn’t connected to underground lines. Many latrines flush into open drains.
700,000
—4 percent—of this urban population still defecated outdoors.
56%
only of the sewers are safely managed.
Just 1 gram of feces can contain:
100 million viruses
1 million bacteria
1 thousand parasitic cysts
These can be absorbed through cuts in the flesh, the porous nature of skin itself, or by drinking unsafe water and eating contaminated foods. Flies carry disease from roadsides and open fields.
Health figures are consequently staggering.
2,195 children
worldwide die from diarrhea each day, with the disease the second-leading cause of death for children under 5, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The chronically distressed digestive system doesn’t absorb nutrients or medicines well. Underweight mothers give birth to underweight babies.
149 million
children worldwide under the age of 5 are affected by stunting, according to the World Health Organization in 2018. And all of the above and much, much more could be cured and eliminated by the installation and use of proper sanitation systems in slums, hamlets, rural villages and large cities across India.
For only $540, you will help reduce the risk of common diseases by providing a family with an outdoor toilet.
About Gospel for Asia
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) is a leading faith-based mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across Asia, especially to those who have yet to hear about the love of God. In GFA’s latest yearly report, this included more than 70,000 sponsored children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and spiritual teaching available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://press.gfa.org/news.
Read the rest of Gospel for Asia’s Special Report: Fight Against Open Defecation Continues – Using Outdoor Toilets to Improve Sanitation —Part 2
Learn more by reading these Special Reports from Gospel for Asia:
The humanitarian aid aspects of our ministry includes:
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