Winter Without Warmth is Tough for Those Who Minister in Asia

Last updated on: November 25, 2019 at 7:52 am By GFA Staff Writer

Growing up in North Texas, one of the rarest sights must be snow. Even when it happens to snow, it lasts barely a day. A veritable blizzard to come roaring through is among the oddest of occasions. Looking back, I remember one winter day, as a boy when I watched the snow fall and the ice harden outside the walls of my family’s home. With the roads effectively closed, school was not an option. As Texas tends to not prepare for major snow events, it took three days until the roads were somewhat safe to drive on.

Winter Without Warmth is Tough for Those Who Minister in Asia - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — In 2016, more than 170,000 blankets were distributed at GFA-supported events like this one.

Each time I and my family would go outside to play in the snow there was always the house, warm and cozy, waiting for us when we were done. Even to this day, I have a place of warmth to return to. During our ventures out into the cold, we always bundled up. Hats, gloves and coats aplenty—there was no shortage of warm clothing.

Protection Against the Biting Cold

Severe cold in Texas is an oddity—severe cold in Asia is not. There are numerous first-hand accounts of the chill and its severity in the mountainous regions of Asia. Unlike the residents of Texas and most in the West, there are many in Asia who do not possess indoor heating. There are even more who have little to no warm clothing, let alone blankets. Freezing houses and threadbare blankets do little in warding off the cold. Temperatures reach below freezing and have oftentimes proved to be deadly.

During a particularly cold winter season in Asia, multiple winter clothing gift distributions took place. GFA-supported workers handed out packets containing jackets, sweaters, and blankets.

“For this winter, I have no worry now,” said Lalan, recipient of a winter clothing packet who was anxious over the coming cold season.

Another receiver of winter clothing, Nehal, said,

I am truly happy that I am receiving a blanket. I have been feeling cold, and this blanket will help me face winter.”

Warmth for Those Who Minister in Asia

The needy weren’t the only ones to receive winter clothing packets. GFA-supported workers were also blessed.

In the harshest winters, ministering can become difficult. Blizzards, treacherous snow, and the blistering cold are but a few of the difficulties faced by the many brothers and sisters serving in the northern, mountainous regions. Kirpal is a GFA-supported pastor who serves there.

“The winter is severe in my ministry place since it is surrounded by mountains. The cold wave affects our health,” says Kirpal. “Visiting believers and doing [ministry is] difficult during winter without the proper warm clothes.”

Kirpal isn’t alone, as many other workers brave the severest of elements with inadequate outerwear. Fortunately, GFA-supported gift distributions take place, ensuring these brothers and sisters can minister despite the weather.

One GFA-supported worker said,

My wife and I are blessed greatly. We actually didn’t have good warm clothes. At the time of our worry, God provided the best one through [the church].”

All Deserve Warmth

Through GFA’s Christmas Gift Catalog, GFA-supported workers are blessed with warm clothing, enabling them to touch others with God’s love. This winter, as you bundle up to face the cold, remember those who haven’t anything to bundle up with.

Learn more on how you could provide warmth for these faithful brothers and sisters.

To see our Christmas catalog of gift for missionaries in Asia, go here.

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Seeking Justice & Defending Human Rights (Part 3 by Gospel for Asia)

Last updated on: November 20, 2019 at 3:37 am By GFA Staff Writer

Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the large and small scale efforts and solutions to end inequality, social injustice, grinding poverty, human rights violations, that continues to exist, affecting millions of women, men and even children.

Small Steps, Big Change

In the face of such enormous inequalities, it can be difficult to know how to respond and where to start. But just as the problem of social injustice is not really a single, abstract issue so much as the many individuals it affects, so ending inequality is about changing personal circumstances as well as addressing the structures that allow inequality to continue.

That sort of action is taking place on large and small scales. At one end of the spectrum, the World Bank is supporting a $63 million empowerment project in Jharkhand, India, which aims to help adolescent girls and young women complete secondary-level education and acquire job skills.

A microfinance loan enabled this woman to buy a water buffalo and keep her family out of the cycle of poverty - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — A microfinance loan enabled this woman to buy a water buffalo and keep her family out of the cycle of grinding poverty. She washes the buffalo every day to ensure it does not get sick.

Another way of improving the situation for poor families has been providing microloans that keep them away from predatory loan sharks. Many families have found themselves caught in bonded labor for generations after borrowing a small sum, only for their debt to keep spiraling beyond their reach.

The “Jeevika” program launched a decade ago in Bihar, India, by the state and national Indian government has seen some 600,000 women helped to start small businesses as farmers, dairy and poultry producers and entrepreneurs in small businesses.

“These women are also emerging as a political and social force,” notes India Spend.

The 2016 Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum concludes that at its current rate of progress, it will take South Asia an entire millennium to reach gender equality in the workplace.

Increasingly aware of living in a globalized economy, where production is outsourced to where labor may be cheapest, some in the West are recognizing how their spending may affect the poor in other parts of the world.

“Ending inequality is about changing personal circumstances as well as addressing the structures that allow inequality to continue.”

Yet while encouraging Western consumers to challenge companies about their supply chain practices, to ensure they are not supporting sweatshop businesses, groups like ASI don’t advocate boycotts.

Such actions “can actually make the situation worse and undermine the economy of an already poor country,” says the organization. “As well as hurting employers using slavery-like practices, they could also hurt those who are not exploiting their workers, and worsen the [grinding poverty] that is one of the root causes of slavery.”

Sewing machine provides a widow with dignity and a way to earn an income despite the loss of a spouse - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Sewing machine provides a widow with dignity and a way to earn an income despite the loss of a spouse.

Gospel for Asia Fights Grinding Poverty in Asia on a Local Level

Complex though the issues are, simple actions can make a difference. Through a wide range of services and programs, Gospel for Asia (GFA) is working among Asia’s poor to offer help and hope for a better tomorrow. And GFA can testify that even a small gift for a family can create big change.

Vocational training courses that cost just $30 can teach skills like fishing, welding and tailoring to equip men for better-paying work. For $75, GFA provides tool kits that may include items like axes, shovels, saws and plows, which enable farmers to increase their productivity.

An $85 donation supplies a sewing machine that allows men and women to start a home-based business, rather than being dependent on others. Not only does this mean they can work from home and take better care of their children, it also multiplies their income significantly. Many who have received a machine say they no longer feel they need to keep their children from school to help make money.

The gift of a bicycle rickshaw can change the financial situation of an entire family - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — The gift of a bicycle rickshaw can change the financial situation of an entire family, and life them out of grinding poverty in Asia.

Costing $200, a rickshaw opens up a whole new level of opportunity for a family. Instead of having to rent a vehicle at often high rates, rickshaw drivers can keep all their earnings from ferrying passengers and products around.

Gospel for Asia also helps to ensure that a family’s situation improves beyond one generation, by encouraging parents to keep their children free from the burden of work. Indeed, GFA sees education as important as equipment, if not more so, in bringing about long-term change.

Currently, around 75,000 children are enrolled in GFA-supported Bridge of Hope centers, where they are helped with their schooling and holistic development. Since 2004, many others have come through this program, which also provides food and medical checkups.

The importance of greater access to education, especially for women and girls, cannot be emphasized enough. Funding such efforts “isn’t charity but investment, and the returns are transformational,” notes activist and singer Bono in a recent opinion piece for TIME magazine in which he asserts that “poverty is sexist.”

GFA's Bridge of Hope program helps about long-term change in families and gives the next generation a chance for a better future - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — GFA’s Bridge of Hope program helps about long-term change in families and gives the next generation a chance for a better future—one where they can rise above the cycle of grinding poverty.

When girls get an extra year’s schooling, their wages increase by almost 12 percent, he writes. Closing the gender gap in education could generate up to $152 billion a year for developing countries.

“When you invest in girls and women,” he goes on, “they rise and they lift their families, their communities, their economies and countries along with them.”

One example of that is recounted in Global Fund for Women’s (GFW) Breaking Through report on gender equality in Asia and the Pacific. After joining a women’s self-help group, a 29-year-old became the first housewife elected to the panchayat, or local government, also helping win equal pay for equal work for women at a local factory.

New opportunities have opened up for the more than 100,000 women who have completed one of GFA’s literacy courses. Another 30,000 women are currently taking part in the program, which is offered in 16 languages.

"When you invest in girls and women, they rise and they lift their families - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — “When you invest in girls and women, they rise from grinding poverty and they lift their families, their communities, their economies and countries along with them.”

One graduate of the GFA-supported literacy program told how learning to read at the age of 40 had changed her life. “I have been deceived many times because of my illiteracy,” says Baasima.

“When I used to go for shopping, bad shopkeepers deceived me, taking more money and not returning the balance amount. But now I can calculate myself. They cannot deceive me. I am very happy now.”

Learning to read has not only enabled Baasima and others to provide and care for their families better-the health of your child is endangered when you can’t read a prescription they may need-but it has also raised their standing in their communities. And along with that improved status can come a new sense of personal worth and identity as they discover God’s love for them in the pages of the Bible.

Literacy training enables women to care better for their families and increases their sense of self-worth - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Literacy training enables women to care better for their families and increases their sense of self-worth.

Indeed, all of GFA’s efforts to address the inequalities that press down on millions across Asia are anchored in the belief that true social justice means not only seeking better opportunities for all economically and educationally, but also spiritually-the chance to hear of a God who loves all equally, and to see that love demonstrated through actions that help lift them up.

While GFA celebrates the attention that the annual World Day of Social Justice brings to the plight of the overlooked and down-trodden and the enormity of the challenge, it quietly works year-round to change things one person at a time, echoing the approach of Mother Teresa, who remarked of her years caring for some of India’s poor that, “There are no great acts, only small acts done with great love.”

GFA-supported workers seek to walk out the call of the prophet Isaiah (1:17, NIV):

Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.”

Seeking Justice and Defending Human Rights: Part 1 | Part 2

This article originally appeared on gfa.org

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Seeking Justice & Defending Human Rights (Part 2 by Gospel for Asia)

Last updated on: November 20, 2019 at 3:39 am By GFA Staff Writer

Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the human rights injustice and violations, modern-day oppression, extreme poverty, that continues to exist, affecting millions of women, men and even children.

Human Rights Injustice in Social Structures

For those who are considered “Untouchables”—that’s some 300 million Dalits who fall at the bottom of the societal ladder—discrimination typically leaves them with only menial work no one else wants to do.

The Indian government took affirmative action to enforce policies about caste discrimination “reserving a certain percentage of government jobs and admission to educational institutions, as also financial support through loans and special schemes, for these castes,” reports the CRG.

The Dalit Enterprise in India promotes inclusivity and supports Dalit entrepreneurs - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — The Dalit Enterprise in India promotes inclusivity and supports Dalit entrepreneurs. (Photo credit dalitenterprise.com)

Some Dalits have managed to break out of their long-time social, religious and economic confinement. Recently launched, The Dalit Enterprise celebrates the rise of entrepreneurs from among the Dalits, among whom are around 50 billionaires.

But such successes are often the exception rather than the rule. Seven decades after the government first introduced measures to address the caste issue, CRG’s Sagar notes that “there is not a single positive indicator of social development” where lower castes feature prominently.

“Whether it is land holdings, income, literacy, nutrition or health status, it is these sections-who constitute one-third of India’s population-that are right at the bottom of the pile,” he says.

Migrant workers endure discrimination and social injustices too. In the 2018 Human Rights Watch Report on Sri Lanka, WHO reports that “The government took some steps to protect the [human rights] of more than 1 million migrant workers in the Middle East and other parts of Asia, but many continued to face long working hours with little rest, delayed or unpaid wages, confinement in the workplace, and verbal, physical, and sexual abuse.”

“There’s so much improvement and progress in this world,” she said. “But for us, nothing has changed. We’re still in the same hell.”

Cultural attitudes also often limit women’s opportunities to work; they are expected to stay home and look after their families. Female participation rates in the workforce are low in the entire region, while only one in three women in Bangladesh participates, says the World Bank.

Most people in this woman's village are laborers at a brick factory - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Most people in this woman’s village are laborers at a brick factory. Women are often “invisible” workers in brick kilns, vulnerable to exploitation and having little to no rights.

Women working in brick kilns as part of a bonded labor family are what ASI calls “invisible”—not even formally registered on the employment roll, with wages paid only to their husbands.

Often forced to work in what are called “vulnerable” occupations, informal employment where they have no human rights, women are more susceptible to financial exploitation.

Pushed to the fringes, women may be forced to do jobs others refuse, like Suneeta. She told Germany’s Deutsche Welle how she had been a manual scavenger—cleaning latrines by hand for 20 years to feed her family.

“There’s so much improvement and progress in this world,” she said. “But for us, nothing has changed. We’re still in the same hell.”

Widows are particularly vulnerable, often shunned because they are considered cursed and left to beg or even forced into prostitution.

Frequently involved in “cultural employment”—handcrafts and similar arts-based fields—women are more likely to have to supplement their income with more than one job, says the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report Precarious situation for women working in the field of culture.

Grinding poverty in Asia often starts with the women - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Grinding poverty in Asia often starts with the women.

Females at Risk Due to Grinding Poverty, Human Rights Violated

Illiteracy is a dangerous factor. The more than 250 million women across Asia who are unable to read are vulnerable to exploitation—unable to understand an employment contract (if they are given one) or the details of a loan they may need to take out—and at risk of being cheated when they spend their money.

There are health consequences, too. In a University of California, Berkeley paper, The Rural-Urban Divide in India, Tathagato Chakraborty writes that lack of educational opportunities for girls “increases the fertility rate, maternal and infant mortality, and malnutrition in the family.” With little education, basic hygiene practices may remain unknown. Furthermore, because the human rights of women to land and property are rarely recognized, “this increases the risk of poverty to women and their families and increases poverty overall as women and children make up two-thirds of the population.”

This girl takes care of her younger sister while her mother works at a tea plantation - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — This girl takes care of her younger sister while her mother works at a tea plantation. Even when the mother is breastfeeding, she often still goes to work because she cannot miss her quota of picking tea leaves.

Then there is violence and abuse, physical and sexual. Many young girls are kept away from school not only because they are required to work, but also for fear they may be attacked on the way to school or while they are there, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

Indeed, the World Health Organization names gender-based violence as “a significant public health concern in the South-East Asia Region,” and “one of the most pervasive human rights violations.”

Girls are “particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of child labor,” says the ILO, comprising the bulk of children in “some of the most dangerous forms of child labor, including forced and bonded labor, commercial sexual exploitation and domestic work outside of their home.”

Part of the problem is that attitudes are slow to change, as noted last year by Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO regional director for South-East Asia, when he introduced the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

“Gender inequality is at the root of violence against women,” he said. “Beliefs and practices that value women less than men are normalized, excused and tolerated—a substantial proportion of adolescent girls and boys believe that a husband is justified in beating his wife for at least one reason.”

Realizing that millions of women in India have become exposed to sexual assaults each year simply because of the lack of toilets, the government of India has taken up the task of building toilets and latrines in the rural parts of the nation. The construction of toilets under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission), has gained momentum, with many NGO’s (like Sulabh International) joining the initiative. Gospel for Asia helped to build and install more than 10,000 toilets in 2016.

Seeking Justice and Defending Human Rights: Part 1 | Part 3

This article originally appeared on gfa.org

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Seeking Justice & Defending Human Rights (Part 1 by Gospel for Asia)

Last updated on: April 21, 2021 at 7:23 pm By GFA Staff Writer

Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the extreme poverty that globally creates modern-day slaves, affecting millions of women, men and even children.

More than 80 years after George Orwell wrote in his classic Animal Farm that “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others,” his barbed observation on disparity rings ever truer for humankind.

According to a 2017 report by Credit Suisse Research Institute, 10 percent of the world’s richest population owns 88 percent of all global wealth, while “3.5 billion individuals—70% of all adults in the world—have wealth below USD 10,000.” That includes some who could be living in grinding poverty in Asia.

Poverty devastates the whole family - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Poverty devastates the whole family, often causing children to drop out of school early to start working. This boy is one of 168 million child laborers doing the backbreaking work of collecting, breaking and selling rocks from a nearby river.

Despite improvements in some parts of the globe, the World Bank says “extreme poverty remains unacceptably high.”

Globally, 1 in 10 is below the poverty line, somehow surviving on less than $1.90 a day.

If such staggering inequality doesn’t provoke the rich to concern for reasons of the heart, it should at least cause them to reflect on the ongoing health of their wallets. The World Economic Forum sees the rising gap between the haves and the have-nots, and the social polarization it breeds, as a major threat to world financial stability.

Such kinds of situations—the more extreme of a continuum of injustices—continue across Asia and other parts of the world because of a complex web of factors: social prejudice, gender discrimination, lack of education, and more.

Not surprisingly, then, fair employment and rights at work are among the core emphases of the United Nations’ annual World Day of Social Justice, celebrated on Feb. 20.

Poverty is not just a divide between the West and the rest, however. The gap between the rich and the poor may be as wide as an ocean or as narrow as a billboard.

“Globally, one in 10 is below the poverty line, somehow surviving on less than $1.90 a day”

With booming technology and industry sectors, India’s economy is presently the sixth largest in the world and has created more than 100 billionaires. Its financial strength is much of the reason for the World Bank tracking South Asia as the world’s fastest-growing region.

Yet, “the effects of an increasingly sophisticated and prosperous India have not reached its poorest and least educated citizens,” concludes Devin Finn in an article for the University of Denver’s Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery digest on bonded labor.

Across South Asia, “Hundreds of millions more live slightly above the poverty line, more than 200 million live in slums, and about 500 million go without electricity,” notes the World Bank. Though the number of people in the region living in “extreme poverty” has been slashed in the past decade, around 62 million children still must work to help support their families.

Worldwide, there are around 168 million of such child laborers, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), half of them engaged in hazardous work “which endangers their health, safety and moral development.”

Extreme Poverty Creates Modern-day Slaves

Many of the world’s poor are not just struggling to survive, they have even lost their freedom. The ILO estimates that more than 40 million people around the world are currently living in some form of slavery. Of that number, some 25 million are to be found in Asia and the Pacific, where the region also accounts for 73 percent of all victims of forced sexual exploitation.

Five-year-old Bina should have been in school - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Five-year-old Bina should have been in school, but her parents were so poor that every member of her family had to work.

Some of those in forced labor are found working in brick kilns, with entire families—and, in some cases, even whole villages—laboring to pay off what started as a small loan and became, through withholding of wages and other abuses, an ever-increasing debt. Children and adults alike work long hours in difficult conditions.

After the International Justice Mission worked with local authorities to free 260 people caught in forced labor at one brick factory, a father told how he and his family were tricked into working there.

Promises of a good salary did not materialize, he recalled. Instead, they were forced to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week. Despite sustaining minor injuries while mixing and making bricks, they were never allowed to go to the hospital. The children were beaten with a pipe and verbally abused if they were caught playing when they were supposed to be working.

Tea plantation workers often only earn an average of $1.30 a day - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Tea plantation workers often only earn an average of $1.30 a day

Similar exploitation occurs in the tea and handmade carpet industries. One investigation of a large plantation found “a shocking disregard for health and safety,” with workers spraying chemicals without protection, children working, and families forced to defecate among the tea bushes because there were no toilets.

The International Labor Organization completed a recent study of conditions in the Uzbekistan cotton harvest, historically labeled as one of the worst human rights violations of forced labor.

While it was stated by The Cotton Campaign in 2015 and 2016 that “the government of Uzbekistan forced more than a million people, including students, teachers, doctors, nurses, and employees of government agencies and private businesses to the cotton fields, against their will and under threat of penalty, especially losing their jobs,” the ILO study noted distinct improvements in 2017.

It concluded that “the systematic use of child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton harvest has come to an end” and that efforts were being made to ensure all labor was voluntary. Still, the ILO found that “a certain number pick cotton during at least some part of the harvest as a result of persuasion, pressure or coercion.” Uzbekistan president Savkat Mirziyoyev stated at the United Nations General Assembly, “In cooperation with the International Labor Organization, we have taken effective measures to eradicate the child and forced labor.”

Anti-Slavery International (ASI) identifies the main barriers to the eradication of slavery as “strict hierarchical social structures and caste systems; poverty; discrimination against women and girls; and lack of respect for children’s rights and development needs.”

Many millions more may not be so clearly enslaved, but they are also caught in poverty’s endless cycle, scrabbling to make a living as day laborers or scavengers. Often, parents are forced to make their children work too, to try to make ends meet. But keeping them out of school just ensures another generation remains on the bottom rung of the ladder.

The number of out-of-school children in South Asia constitutes “a formidable challenge,” says the ILO. It estimates more than 25 million boys and girls aged 7 to 14 do not attend school in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India alone.

Lack of opportunities for fair and meaningful work is not just about financial well-being, of course.

“Far from economic inequality being seen as purely a ‘labor rights’ issue, the world is realizing that economic and social inequalities are intrinsically linked to human rights,” says U.K.-based ASI. “Inequality is one of the biggest human rights issues of our time.”

Very practically, poor working conditions and poor pay mean poor health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Nearly 9 million children under the age of five die every year, according to 2007 figures.” Of those children, one-in-three deaths are linked to malnutrition.

In some impoverished communities in Asia, more than half of the children have a body mass index below 18.5, writes Satya Sagar for the Canada-based Centre for Research in Globalization (CRG), “which is regarded as chronic sub-nutrition-placing them by World Health Organization standards in a permanent state of famine.”

Seeking Justice and Defending Human Rights: Part 2 | Part 3

This article originally appeared on gfa.org

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Gospel for Asia Shares: For Those Who Ran — For Those Abandoned

Last updated on: November 25, 2019 at 8:00 am By GFA Staff Writer

Wills Point, Texas – GFA (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the innumerable children, abused and abandoned, and the impact Bridge of Hope centers make to transform their lives with God’s love.

The innocence of a child is one of the most beautiful things this world has to offer. For most people, once they reach a certain age, that innocence and naiveté is lost—merely a thing of the past. Nostalgia rules supreme among the elderly, and adults sometimes wish they could return to the time of their youth where there seemed to be no troubles and no cares in the world.

Unfortunately, some children today do not have the innocence and naiveté they should. Some have been brutally and carelessly robbed of their childhood. UNICEF reported that 13 percent of Asia’s total labor force in 2011 was composed of children.^[1] These children had lost one or both parents.

With no other way to take care of themselves, these children are forced to then take to the streets. Some children are either pushed into child labor, roam the streets, or are trafficked. Many are simply abandoned by uncaring parents. More than 100 million children live on the street in Asia alone. Either they were born on the streets—or, like Akmal, they had no other place to go.

No Safe Place

Reclaiming His Childhood - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — This is Akmal in 2013 when he was 10 years old.

Akmal’s father murdered his mother and disappeared without a trace. Akmal, only 6 years old, was abandoned by his village and taken in by his uncle. Sadly, this uncle proceeded to abuse the already traumatized Akmal. It wasn’t long until the 6 year old ran away, taking to the streets.

Akmal decided to get on a train, leaving his horrific past behind him. He had no direction, no knowledge of where he wanted to go, just that he needed to leave. Seventeen hours later, the young boy stepped off the train.

Akmal was picked up by a worker for a local toy factory. Hope quickly turned into despair as Akmal was made to work at the very station he arrived at. Every day, Akmal tried to sell toys to passersby to make his “boss” happy.

Reclaiming His Childhood

A couple of months later, local officials took notice of the too-young salesman. They brought Akmal to a home for abandoned children that is operated by GFA’s field partners. There, the staff poured love into this troubled young boy, giving him what he needed most: a childhood. Now, Akmal is a far cry from the scared, traumatized little boy he once was. Joy and love permeate every aspect of his childhood thanks to the workers at the home.

Akmal now has a chance that millions of other street children desperately need:

The chance to grow and to experience true love and compassion, the chance to realize their dreams, and their aspirations, the chance to live like a child.

Left for Dead

For many children in Asia, the chance for a true childhood is rare. For females, the chance to even live to adulthood is rarer still. The rate of survival of females in Asia is much lower than males. According to UNICEF,^[2] in 2017, 40 out of every 1,000 female births did not live long after delivery. Some died to sickness and others to abandonment. A little girl named Janvi would have been counted among the dead had she not been rescued.

Dayalu, a local believer, was walking one day when he came across a wailing toddler sitting among a bed of ants, covered in nearly dozens of bites. It was discovered later that this baby had been left to die by her alcoholic parents.

Dayalu wept at the pitiful sight and, scooping little Janvi up, took her to his home. Dayalu and his wife already had two children of their own but they readily and lovingly accepted Janvi as their daughter. Despite the joy and love in which they embraced their new family member, Dayalu and his wife were poor. For Dayalu, feeding a family of four was difficult enough, but now he had to provide for a family of five.

Thriving, Thanks to Love

Fortunately, a GFA-supported Bridge of Hope center was nearby. Finding out that Janvi was eligible to attend, Dayalu readily registered her. There, Janvi began to thrive. Dayalu wanted to give his eager-learning daughter a good education but couldn’t because of their financial situation. By the grace of God, the Bridge of Hope program came alongside this family and provided Janvi a place to truly flourish.

Today, Janvi attends school thanks to the Bridge of Hope program. Janvi, a once lonely, crying baby, now is a bubbly young girl full of life and love.

Those Who Remain

Akmal’s and Janvi’s stories resonate across the world, especially in Asia. There are still millions of children living without the proper love and care they deserve.

Fortunately, many workers have risen up to help these children. Day after day, they go forth and find the least of these, so that they, too, may experience God’s love. Whether it be in homes for street children or GFA-supported Bridge of Hope centers, children are finding their worth in a world of uncertainty.

Pray for our Bridge of Hope centers – for the power of God’s love to continue to impact the lives of children through the staff and volunteers.

Ask the Lord how you can help to support this great work.

To learn more about Bridge of Hope, go here.

^[1] UNICEF India, Child Labour

^[2] UNICEF Data, Monitoring the situation of children and women

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Gospel for Asia Reports: Fighting Malaria – A Chilling Disease (Part 3)

Last updated on: November 25, 2019 at 8:18 am By GFA Staff Writer

Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the worldwide strategies and efforts for malaria prevention, to one day create a world where no one dies of malaria.

Bringing Hope to the World

The fight against malaria has been a multi-faceted one, receiving renewed attention in the late 1990s with the 1998 formation of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, a global network to coordinate efforts among governments, UN agencies, international organizations and affected countries. Following that, the Global Fund, which fights malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis by providing grants to countries addressing those problems, was established in 2001.

Numerous charities have formed in the wake of these actions; one of the largest is Malaria No More. Its inception came at a White House event in 2006 that launched former President Bush’s malaria initiative. Nothing But Nets is the United Nations’ campaign to end malaria and enjoys broad support. Imagine No Malaria was launched by the United Methodist Church and partners with Nothing But Nets. In addition to raising money for nets, Imagine works on malaria prevention and education, including distributing malaria advocacy kits for churches.

Major Christian ministries are also active in anti-malaria work, such as Samaritan’s Purse, Compassion International and World Vision. The latter’s Malawi arm announced in mid-February that it would distribute 10.9 million treated mosquito nets by the end of 2018 as part of that African nation’s malaria-control program.

“As World Vision Malawi (WVM), we have never undertaken such a mass campaign, but through close collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanism, we are going to achieve this,” said Charles Chimombo, WVM’s director of programs.

Among lesser-known, but no less effective, efforts on the ground are those by such ministries as Gospel for Asia (GFA). Based in Wills Point, Texas, for more than 30 years GFA has provided humanitarian assistance and spiritual hope to millions across Asia.

In addition to such services as feeding and educating thousands of needy children, offering free medical care and training, and drilling clean water wells, the ministry distributed 600,000 mosquito nets in 2016.

Fighting Malaria – A Chilling Disease (Part 3) - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — On World Malaria Day in 2016, GFA-supported workers distributed 2,000 mosquito nets to needy families in a community in Asia. Mosquito netting is one of the most cost-effective protections from the spread of diseases transmitted by mosquito bites.

“In many cases, simple changes can create a profound difference in everyday health,” said KP Yohannan, founder and director of GFA. “Christ calls upon us to care for the poor, which is why we are there to offer tools like mosquito nets, which can literally make the difference between life and death.”

One case study of a family helped by such gestures involves a couple named Jitan and Shara and their two children. Living in an area where temperatures commonly soar above 100 degrees for weeks left Jitan, a laborer in the fields, a prime target for the mosquitoes breeding in nearby stagnant ponds and water reservoirs.

Strategic Battle on Malaria Prevention - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Shara and her family are now protected from disease with a mosquito net.

In 2015, one of those mosquitoes bit Jitan and injected malaria parasites into his body.

Fortunately, medical treatment (and prayers from Shara and her father) enabled Jitan to recover after three weeks.

Five months later, the GFA-supported pastor at Shara’s church put her name down as one of 150 recipients for an upcoming GFA-supported mosquito net distribution. Not only did the fabric mean safety at night from mosquito bites, but to Shara it also symbolized how God saw even their smallest needs.

“My husband suffered with malaria fever,” she said. “Consequently, he is physically weak. But this mosquito net will be protection for my family now.”

The gift touched Jitan’s heart as well.

“Christians not only pray for people, but they also fulfill the basic needs of people in the community,” he said.

One night, as they crawled under the safety of their net, he told Shara: “Really, the Lord Jesus is fulfilling our basic need.”

Strategic Battle on Malaria Prevention

When the Gates Foundation adopted its “Accelerate to Zero” strategy in late 2013, it established a core set of foundational principles to make progress toward the goal of eradicating malaria, which it defined as removing the parasites that cause malaria, not simply interrupting transmission.

It sees new drug regimens and strategies as key to that goal, saying clinical cures for individuals do not eliminate the parasites responsible for transmission.

The majority of infections occur in asymptomatic people, who are a source of continued transmission. A successful eradication effort will target such infection through community-based efforts.

Emerging resistance to current drugs and insecticides is a threat to progress, which must guide the use of current tools and development of new ones. And since malaria is biologically and ecologically different throughout the world, strategies must be developed and implemented on a local or regional level.

Nearly five years later, how is the fight proceeding? WHO’s latest malaria report shows some bright spots, such as 44 countries reporting less than 10,000 malaria cases in 2016, compared to 37 nations in 2010.

A malaria researcher sorts mosquitoes - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — A malaria researcher sorts mosquitoes. (Photo by Malaria Consortium on Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

There is also better access to tools for malaria prevention, such as insecticide-treated bednets, and the testing of suspected cases in the public health sector has increased in most regions. Except for the eastern Mediterranean region, where mortality rates have remained unchanged, all regions reported declines in mortality between 2010–2016.

Yet, despite an unprecedented period of success, Dr. Noor says the corresponding slowdowns in mortality decline in some regions, coverage gaps and lack of medical care have slowed progress.

“Identifying what is behind this trend is difficult to pinpoint,” he says. “In any given country, there may be a multitude of reasons as to why the burden of malaria is increasing. Factors impacting progress could range from insufficient funding and gaps in malaria prevention intervention to climate-related variations.”

In its latest report on malaria, WHO set global targets for 2030 to achieve its vision of a world free of the disease. The three pillars of its plan:

Ensure universal access to malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment
Accelerate efforts toward elimination
Transform malaria surveillance into a core intervention.

Accompanying each target are preceding milestones in 2020 and 2025. The four include:

Reduce malaria mortality rates globally compared with 2015 by at least 90 percent.
Reduce malaria case incidence globally compared with 2015 by at least 90 percent.
Eliminate malaria from countries in which malaria was transmitted in 2015—at least 35 countries.
Preventing re-establishment of malaria in all countries that are malaria free.

Dr. Margaret Chan, former Director-General of the World Health Organization - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Dr. Margaret Chan, former Director-General of the World Health Organization (2006-2017). (Photo credit WHO/Pierre Albouy)

Director General Dr. Margaret Chan said a major “scale-up” of malaria responses would not only help countries reach 2030’s targets but would also contribute to poverty reduction and other development goals.

“Recent progress on malaria has shown us that, with adequate investments and the right mix of strategies, we can indeed make remarkable strides against this complicated enemy,” she said.

“We will need strong political commitment to see this through, and expanded financing. We should act with resolve, and remain focused on our shared goal to create a world in which no one dies of malaria.“

Few would argue with those words.

Fighting Malaria – A Chilling Disease: Part 1 | Part 2

This article originally appeared on gfa.org

To read more on Patheos on the problem of Malaria, go here.

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

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

Thanksgiving and Gratitude: New Drugs for Health and Happiness

Last updated on: November 11, 2018 at 9:55 pm By Karen Mains

Did you know that the scientific community has been studying the effects of gratitude and thanksgiving on the physiological health of humans? Since around the year 2000, social scientists began turning their focus solely from abnormal psychology to healthy emotional habits and their impact on the way we live.

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, reports:

“A large body of recent work suggests that people who are more grateful have higher levels of well-being:

Grateful people are happier, less stressed, and more satisfied with their lives and social relationship.

Grateful people also have higher levels of control of their environments, personal growth, purpose in life, and self- acceptance.

Grateful people have more positive ways of coping with the difficulties they experience in life, being less likely to try and avoid the problem, deny there is a problem, blame themselves, or cope through substance use.

Grateful people sleep better, and this seems to be because they think less negative and more positive thoughts before just going to sleep.”

Yet, even with this truth, even with all the Scriptures that instruct us to give thanks, most of us fall into the ungrateful-wretch category than that of a people whose hearts are overflowing with appreciation—to God and to one another.

If headlines suddenly blasted the news that a miracle-like prescription drug had just come on the market, which had been trialed over the decades and which demonstrated no side effects, and that scientists had determined that regular usage would enable the user to reach a state of well-being, would you be interested? Then if the pharmaceutical house announced that the new drug would be free to all users, wouldn’t you rush to try it out?

“Appreciation Audit: Reserve three minutes, preferably three times each day, to think about something you appreciate. Keep your mind focused until you feel the beauty of gratefulness rising.”

If I went even further to explain that the numerous clinical trials conducted in the States and overseas had proven that the daily use of this medicine showed positive effects on mood neurotransmitters, positive effects on reproductive hormones and on social bonding hormones, showed positive effects on cognitive and pleasure-related neurotransmitters, on inflammatory and immune systems, on stress hormones, on cardiac and EEG rhythms and on blood pressure as well as healthy blood sugar levels—wouldn’t you rush out and say, “Let me have some of that stuff!”?

Now if scientific studies have proven (as they have) the positive impact of a lifestyle attitude of gratitude, then we should all be working to develop that kind of approach to living beginning today, shouldn’t we?

So, let’s begin.

Dr. Dan Baker, director of behavioral medicine at the National Center for Preventive and Stress Medicine, writes in his book What Happy People Know,

Your mind, when focused on appreciating, has an unparalleled power to trigger physical and emotional healing.

Understanding that it is difficult for people in normally busy circumstances but especially when experiencing trying events to focus the mind positively, Baker developed the “Appreciation Audit.”

Dr. Baker cites studies that show the brain cannot process both fear (one of mankind’s dominate negative emotions) and appreciation at the same time. The Appreciation Audit, when practiced, is designed to create a shield in the brain against fear, hate and anger.

He recommends that learners start with a fundamental form of the Audit: Reserve three minutes, preferably three times each day, to think about something you appreciate. Keep your mind focused until you feel the beauty of gratefulness rising.

“Thanksgiving is a hallmark in a person’s relationship with the Almighty.”

This practice does not require a lot of effort, but it does require intentionality. Thankfully, there is no better time to start than this season ahead when our minds are focused on the national Thanksgiving holiday.

I love it when the scientific community pats itself on the back for discovering something that has already existed throughout the centuries and has been an essential practice of the Christian church. Look at these ancient Scriptures:

2 Chronicles 5:13: “The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: ‘He is good; His love endures forever.’ Then the temple of the LORD was filled with the cloud. . .” (I would say that was an amazing physical evidence of the holy results of thanksgiving and praise.)
Jeremiah 30:19: “From them will come songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing. I will add to their numbers, and they will not be decreased; I will bring them honor, and they will not be disdained.”
Nehemiah 12:46–47: “For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the musicians and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. So in the days of Zerubbabel and of Nehemiah, all Israel contributed the daily portion for the musicians and the gatekeepers.”
Psalm 95:2–3: “Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.”
2 Corinthians 4:15–16: “All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

In this brief and non-inclusive survey, it appears that thanksgiving is a hallmark in a person’s relationship with the Almighty. We pride ourselves on a national thanksgiving holiday, in which we gather, eat a festive meal, watch the football game, be careful of divisive political conversation but give scant recognition to the God who is the source of all life’s gifts.

If anything, for the Christian, this holiday has become secularized if the truth be told. Let’s strive to make it a marker in which the spiritual activity—giving thanks—is the center of our intent. The practice of gratitude has earmarked spirituality through the centuries of Judeo-Christian practice. It is only now that science is beginning to groove with its potentialities.

Scientists, however, as well as the social science community, medical researchers, and the academy, are beginning to measure the impact of words and attitudes of thanksgiving and are urging a lifestyle that results in the habit of living with appreciation.

An internet article titled “Three Big Benefits of Being Thankful Every Day” quotes the work of researchers. Seth Borenstein, science writer for the Associated Press, examines how being appreciative on a regular basis can impact our lives,

Gratitude is literally one of the few things that can measurably impact peoples’ lives.

According to the studies:

Benefits of the Daily Attitude of Thanksgiving

1. Being Thankful Improves Your Health

When a group of organ transplant patients were asked to keep a daily gratitude journal while another group simply wrote about the basic details of their day, the group that regularly listed what they were thankful for scored significantly higher on measures of both physical and mental health.

2. Being Thankful Connects You with Other People

Research from 2010 found that gratitude is also important in committed relationships like marriage. Sixty-five couples were studied and researchers discovered that couples that were most committed and satisfied were those who expressed gratitude with one another.

“Couples that were most committed and satisfied were those who expressed gratitude with one another.“

These results were well evident one Sunday when I put myself out and volunteered to manage our small church’s monthly potluck meal after our worship service. Since we meet in a school gymnasium, everything had to be hauled in, set up, arranged, carted, then pulled apart, stacked and stored and carried back to the car, unloaded, stored in basement shelves and in attic corners. Frankly, this is a lot of work—most of the time taken for granted because, often, the same people do this work week after week.

However, I was amazed that so many young adults (our church is mostly young adults) thanked me for doing the potluck. There were at least eight people who made a point of thanking me for organizing this event. I was surprised! But I am on the list again for this month. It is amazing what a word of appreciation (spoken eight times!) will do as far as my attitude of serving Christ’s body.

3. Being Thankful Can Change Your Attitude on Life

I am basically a positive person. I see the opportunities in life around me, and given a chance, I can be a catalyst for positive change in an organization. I see the glass as always half full, am rarely discouraged and identify the hand of God somewhere, no matter what has happened. I am healthy and happy.

But I have not always been this way. As a young woman in my 20s, I was prone to depression, saw the holes (huge holes) in other people’s personalities, was given to judgment and arrogance about my own abilities, and could easily look on the dark side.

Then for some reason, certainly through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I set six months aside to write nothing but thanks in my prayer journal. No requests, no lists of concerns. Just thanks. For six months. The impact was overwhelmingly life changing. I have kept a daily record of my thanks ever since— for over four decades.

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I have concluded that it is more than ill of us not to be practicing thanksgiving; it is evil, a sin of neglect. And we are suffering from this lack; we’re suffering spiritually, emotionally and physically. We’re suffering as communities. If thanksgiving is not a practice within our communal expressions, we too descend into criticism, complaint and crankiness.

Some of us, in this coming season of Thanksgiving, need to be asking for forgiveness from our Heavenly Father who has given us all good gifts. We have almost a whole month to get ready, to personalize the practice and to begin to make a holy plan.

If you can, start the fundamental “Appreciation Audit” (three to five minutes a day, three times a day). As an aid, you may want to listen to the hymn from the musical Godspell:

We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land. . .
But it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand…
He sends us snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain …
The breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain …

All good gifts around us
Are sent from Heaven above
So thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord for all his love …

Also, start a file and collect the thanksgiving reminders that come your way. My file includes the history of the creation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday. I’ve slipped into it songs and poems; odd little stories of being thankful, quotes and special prayers.

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues. Cicero

Build your Thanksgiving meal around prayers of gratitude, with guests and family sharing stories of why they are thankful. “Tell one thing you are thankful about and why,” is a regular instruction for our holiday event.

I’d like to have the yearly national holiday Thanksgiving meal once a year, but then establish a thanksgiving meal once a month for friends and family to celebrate.

I’m determined, with all the Scripture informing us and now the scientific/medical and social services communities giving us evidence-based data as to the efficacy of the practice of giving thanks, to become healthy, happy and whole.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Re: Thanksgiving – Daniel Punnose, vice president of GFA, shares about how important it is to maintain thankfulness in our lives, go here.

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

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

Go here to know more about Gospel for Asia: Flickr | GFA | GFA.org | Facebook | Youtube

Gospel for Asia: Scandal of 21st Century Slavery & Human Trafficking (Part 3)

Last updated on: August 20, 2022 at 6:34 pm By GFA Staff Writer

Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the global problem of modern slavery – despite being difficult to eradicate, there is still hope.

Champions of Change

Clearly, governments have a major role to play in ending slavery, and leaders are taking steps in places like India, where tougher anti-trafficking laws have been pursued.

The 100 Million campaign works to end child labor - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — The 100 Million campaign works to end child labor (Photo Credit 100million.org)

In 2016, child rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi launched the global “100 million for 100 million” campaign, which challenges the world’s children living in better circumstances to speak up on behalf of disadvantaged children. Then-President Pranab Mukherjee’s support of the campaign has been acknowledged as part of a “historic move towards ending child slavery in India.”

Of 161 countries profiled in the Global Slavery Index, 150 governments provide some kind of services for victims, 124 have criminalized human trafficking, and 96 have national action plans to do something about it.

Perhaps fittingly, the strongest government lead has been taken in England, where William Wilberforce and other campaigners led the fight to end the slave trade of the 19th century.

William Wilberforce, the British anti-slavery activist - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — William Wilberforce, the British anti-slavery activist (Public Domain)

Naming modern slavery the “greatest human rights issue of our time,” the U.K. government appointed a slavery commissioner to lead its efforts and became the first to develop a modern slavery initiative in 2014. The following year it passed the Modern Slavery Act, requiring business action. It means that U.K.-based companies with total annual global incomes of more than $50 million have to publish transparency statements that detail what they are doing to ensure that the supply chains they are part of do not use slave labor.

Global trade is so complex these days that “it is near certain that slavery can be found in a supply chain of every single company, and it is near impossible to guarantee a slavery-free product,” Anti-Slavery International acknowledges.

Indeed, the U.K. slavery commissioner estimates that 16 million of the world’s enslaved people are somehow working for companies.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor has a list of almost 150 goods from 75 countries believed to be produced by child or forced labor. It includes matches and footwear from Bangladesh, bananas from Belize, fireworks from China and soccer balls from India.

Many migrant workers are lured from their home country by promises of a new life—only to find a darker reality.

Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagwat was named a hero for fighting human trafficking - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagwat was named a hero for fighting human trafficking in India (Photo credit Facebook)

The complexity doesn’t give businesses a pass, however.

“Our homes and our businesses carry the imprint of modern slavery,” says Forrest, the billionaire founder of Walk Free Foundation. “As business leaders, it is our responsibility not to turn a blind eye, or to pretend that we are unaware, or believe that the issue is too complex to deal with.”

An example of effective action is IKEA’s IWAY code, in which the furniture giant sets out standards for its suppliers, including the right to make unannounced site visits to direct partners and contractors. In the U.K., there has been a move among hotel operators to start a network to tackle human trafficking in the industry.

GFA’s Work Among Victims of Modern Slavery

Among the many unnamed helpers are scores of Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers. They care for women and girls ensnared in the red-light districts of some of Asia’s major cities, and they run Bridge of Hope (BOH) centers that provide schooling and medical care, aiming to help children escape forced labor and provide them with a better future.

One who was helped is Nadish. He was held as a slave for two years from age 9. During his years in slavery, he was locked overnight in a room near the animals whose waste he had to clean up and was given very little food. Though he eventually managed to escape and find his way back home, he continued to struggle with the effects of his imprisonment and ill-treatment. Throughout his recovery, Nadish had his Bridge of Hope teachers to comfort, pray for and love him.

“A,” who was mentioned in the first part of this report, was eventually rescued from her enforced laborer by authorities. She has been healing from her ordeal at a home for abandoned and at-risk children where Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers serve. No longer made to work, “A” can be a child again. Playing with children her age and learning songs and dances with other girls, she enjoys being able to attend the home.

“I like this place so much; I like all these didis (older sisters),” “A” says. “They work hard for me and for all of us. I like this place and I don’t [want] to leave this place and go to any other place or orphanage because of the love and care that we get here.”

"A", who is no longer trapped in bonded child labor - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — “A”, who is no longer trapped in bonded child labor

Through GFA’s ministry, children and their families don’t only receive practical help; they also hear about God’s love for them.

“It’s amazing how the love of Christ brings hope to the poorest of society and fills the hearts of these children with joy,” says Dr. K.P. Yohannan, founder and director of Gospel for Asia (GFA).

Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported work with children like Nadish and “A” is a critical part of the anti-slavery effort. Prevention is a major part of the battle. Giving children and families hope for a better future through education offers them something to turn to other than child marriage or bonded labor, and children who have people carefully watching out for them—like Bridge of Hope teachers—and who will be missed if they vanish are less vulnerable to trafficking. The daily meal, medical care and school supplies provided for students ease parents’ financial burden, enabling them to focus their hard-earned income on other crucial family needs.

While slavery is a global problem that’s difficult to eradicate, there is still hope. As Forrest said, “This is the choice of man, so the choice of man can stop it.”

21st Century Slavery & Human Trafficking: Part 1 | Part 2

This article originally appeared on gfa.org

To read more on Patheos on the desperate issue of ongoing modern slavery, go here.

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

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

For the Love of Pumpkins, “Do What You Are Doing!”

Last updated on: November 7, 2018 at 10:27 pm By Karen Mains

For several years I’ve collected lovely coffee table books that are beautifully graphically designed with photo essays and recipes highlighting the uniqueness and wonder of . . . pumpkins!

One writer, Caroline Boisset, who grows some 75 varieties of squashes, pumpkins and gourds, says, “It is no accident that pumpkins and squashes, along with many other members of their family, the cucurbitaceae, fascinate people who have just encountered them and trigger passion in those who start to collect and cultivate them. They have everything to offer.”

Indeed, squashes, pumpkins and gourds are decorative: Nothing is more beautiful than a pile of orange pumpkins on a fall day with the fields going golden, the blue sky and the maple trees beginning to redden. What a whammy for the eyes when the orange pumpkins, lit by the sun, are juxtaposed against bunches of mums or fall zinnias!

But cucurbitaceae are also a cook’s delight. Immensely versatile, their taste is conducive to the making of soups and savories, vegetable dishes and salads, sweet breads and dumplings, pies and desserts, and preserves such as jams and pickles.

“Leisure is not so much having the time to do what we please, but the time to give to each activity what it deserves.”

My pile of pumpkin books is marked with sticky tabs. One marks the pumpkin quiche recipe, another the Mexican-style pumpkin and bean stew. I’ve tried the stuffed pumpkin and received the raves of family and guests. Pumpkin chutney tempts me as does the page that holds a luscious photo of a soufflé-like pumpkin pudding.

One caution, however: Every time I’ve gone to buy pumpkins after Halloween, it seems as though they’ve all been recycled to the pig troughs. My coffee-table books tell me that the best pumpkins are the greener ones—even the blue-gray fleshed ones—but the farm stands are now closed; Jewel Foods has taken to importing clementines; and the pumpkins I hunt are no longer to be bought. Alas for using that curried butternut squash recipe this year!

One year, before flying overseas for meetings in Spain, certainly before Halloween was over, I bought two boxes full of various types and sizes of squash and pumpkins. (I had already culled the neighborhood farmers’ market where I picked up as many dried gourds as I could afford and stained them various fall tints so that I could display them year after year.)

Now there would still be enough to make those enticing recipes, enough to celebrate the beauty of my own small harvest. Rynn Williams expresses my thoughts exactly, “Dense, richly hued, as sensuous as sculpture, pumpkins never fail to summon images of a crisp and dazzling autumn.”

“Are you completely, absolutely doing what you are doing? Are you entering deeply into the hidden splendor of what most of us neglect, forget or overlook? Attend. Attend.”

Rising each morning of that week before my overseas departure to Spain, I stewed pumpkins, baked them whole to more easily scoop out the golden flesh and the seeds, which I sorted and dried. I made purees, soups (gallons for freezing) and breads. I got out jelly jars and boned up on my lost knowledge of canning.

The day before flying out of O’Hare airport, I had one more cooked pumpkin to peel, one that was going soft and needed to be baked right away, and three two-pound pie pumpkins waiting to be turned into jam and into that tempting puffed pudding.

The lovely thing about pumpkins and squash is that (apart from the one going soft due to a too-long venture as decoration on my front porch) most of them will keep for weeks. I could take care of them if I had to and could recapture my cucurbitaceae culinary enthusiasm sometime in January. Maybe that would be the occasion for cooking up pumpkin chutney.

At any rate, these early mornings were a kind of a meditative lauds, the hour the faithful in liturgical churches observe as part of the rotation of the office of prayers. This is the time when the night is turning soft and daylight is beginning to rise on the earth. Certainly, I have developed a passion for pumpkins and am planning to plant seeds this coming spring—just to see if I can grow my own. After all, Caroline Boisset is the cultivator of 75 varieties vining in her garden.

Perhaps more interestingly, I am intrigued by the marrying of contemplation and activity, at my own joy in creation’s gift of this bounty, of their returning from the soil and from seed year after year after year. The monk, David Stendl-Rast, in his short masterpiece on contemplation, says, “Leisure is not so much having the time to do what we please, but the time to give to each activity what it deserves.” Do some cucurbitaceae deserve my study, my attention and my joy at turning them into human nourishment?

Stendl-Rast also points to an ancient motto, “Age quod agis” (“Do what you’re doing”).

In reality, the planting of, the tending to, the gathering of, the preparing of pumpkins can become contemplative activity when it is married to the worship that comes from praise (and love of) growing things.

“Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense what is eternal in time.” – Abraham Heschel

My early morning activity before a week-long trip to Spain, this amazement at the God who thinks of such things as wild varieties of species, is as good a way to gather my soul into the recognition of the need for morning prayer, for day-is-coming lauds, as anything else I can conjecture.

It is putting together intention and action, then recognizing a diving dance between the thinking of and the doing.

“Are you giving to each activity of your days the time that it deserves?
For the love of pumpkins, ‘Do what you are doing.’“

It is raising our hearts to Him (in a steaming kitchen, filled with tantalizing odors, with pots piling and baking utensils sticky, the dishwasher humming, morning coming, the oven hot, a cup of coffee for sipping, spills and seeds on the rag rug).

Oh, what glory!

So, are you completely, absolutely doing what you are doing? Are you entering deeply into the hidden splendor of what most of us neglect, forget or overlook? Attend. Attend.

Remember this: The rabbi Abraham Heschel said, “Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense what is eternal in time.” How will you see the grandeur of eternity in the days ahead? Perhaps it is a pumpkin beside your front door. Perhaps it is the morning light coming. Are you giving to each activity of your days the time that it deserves? For the love of pumpkins, “Do what you are doing.”

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

Gospel for Asia: Scandal of 21st Century Slavery & Human Trafficking (Part 1)

Last updated on: August 20, 2022 at 6:44 pm By GFA Staff Writer

Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the present day tragedy of modern slavery & human trafficking, where there are more slaves today than at any time in history.

Around 10 million people are currently behind bars somewhere in the world. Some have yet to face trial, a few have been wrongly convicted, but most are prisoners for a crime they have committed.

Meanwhile, four times as many people are being held against their will because of a crime committed against them—they are part of the global slave population estimated to be more than 40 million.

That number is higher than the entire population of Canada. Many of these victims are literally kept under lock and key, while others are effectively imprisoned by coercion, manipulation and extortion.

Slavery: Stronger Today than Ever

Slavery may long have been officially outlawed, but difficult though it may be to believe, numerically there are more slaves today than at any time in history.

Among them:

Twin brothers, Aimamo and Ibrahim, who at age 16 left grinding poverty in their native Gambia for what they hoped would be a better new life in Libya.
Instead of well-paying jobs, they found themselves enduring beatings and threats as they labored on a farm alongside scores of other sub-Saharan Africans, locked in at night to keep them from escaping.
“A,” who was sent by her desperate mother to live with another family in Asia as a servant after the death of her father.
Forced to work from morning to night cleaning dishes and washing clothes, the small girl was beaten and slapped when she didn’t keep up. And when she fell asleep one night while massaging the legs of her “owner,” the woman smeared chili powder into her eyes as punishment.
“K,” who was sold at age 5 by family friends and then taken to truck stops along route 80, one of the busiest interstate highways in the United States.

There, anesthetized by drugs and alcohol, this little girl would be forced to knock on the doors of the trucks and sell herself to the drivers.

Since 2011, almost 90 million people have experienced some form of modern slavery for periods of time ranging from a few days to several years.

Total profits from this trade in slave labor are dwarfed only by sales of illegal drugs and illicit arms.

“Every country in the world is affected by human trafficking,” says the United Nations, “whether as a country of origin, transit, or destination for victims.”

So concerning is the issue that it is spotlighted by not one but two of the UN’s annual international awareness days.

The World Day Against Child Labor (June 12) highlights the plight of nearly 170 million children worldwide who have to work—half of them in “hazardous” situations—and whose number includes those in bonded labor. Though the number of working children has dropped significantly since the turn of the millennium, that pace of decline has “slowed considerably” in the past few years, says the International Labor Organization.

Meanwhile, children comprise a third of all victims of human trafficking, which is the focus of the World Day against Trafficking in Persons (July 30).

Money from Misery

That human trafficking relates to two UN days of awareness also hints at the complexity of the issue. Because the particularly harrowing nature of sex trafficking means it garners a lot of headlines, many people assume this is the main area of human trafficking.

However, research tells another story: Of the 25 million people ensnared in forced labor in 2016, only 5 million were involved in sexual exploitation.

Sex trafficking doesn’t only generate more headlines than other forms, though; it also generates a lot more money.

One in five trafficking victims may be sexually exploited, but they bring in two-thirds of the total global trafficking profits.

A typical woman forced into prostitution makes around $100,000 a year of profit for those who control her, six times the average profit of other forced workers.

Human Rights First says that studies have shown that sexual exploitation can yield a return on investment ranging from 100 percent to 1,000 percent, while an enslaved laborer in less profitable markets—such as agricultural work—can generate something over 50 percent profit.

Such numbers underscore how human trafficking is really big business. As with so many of the world’s major problems, the causes are complex. Politics and prejudice, commerce and corruption, disasters and discrimination are all part of the roots of this diseased tree.

“Vulnerability to modern slavery is affected by a complex interaction of factors related to the presence or absence of protection and respect for rights; physical safety and security; access to the necessities of life such as food, water and health care; and patterns of migration, displacement and conflict,” say those behind the sobering 40 million statistic.

Meanwhile, Anti-Slavery International (ASI) lists “strict hierarchical social structures and caste systems; poverty; discrimination against women and girls and lack of respect for children’s rights and development needs” among the fertilizers.

However, one thing distinguishes human trafficking from many other key global issues.

Andrew Forrest, anti-slave campaigner (CC BY 3.0 AU / Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)

“This is a human condition,” says Australian businessman and anti-slavery campaigner Andrew Forrest. “This isn’t AIDS or malaria or something which is thrust upon us by nature. This is the choice of man, so the choice of man can stop it.”

There are widespread efforts being made to do that, from those advocating for changes in the law to those pushing for businesses to take more responsibility for the shadow side of globalization. Others work with authorities to free people from brothels and brick factories or, like many Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers, care for and help to rehabilitate the victims left with physical and emotional scars.

Those shocked by the scale of slavery in the 21st century, imagining it had effectively been abolished in the 1800s, may be equally surprised by its many forms. They range from sex trafficking and forced marriage—some 15 million people in 2016, many of them young girls—to forced labor and bonded labor.

The latter is especially common in Asia, where exorbitant interest rates by lenders can lock generations of families into working to pay off what began as a small debt—likely for an essential such as food or medicine—that keeps mushrooming.

“This isn’t AIDS or malaria or something which is thrust upon us by nature. This is the choice of man, so the choice of man can stop it.”

“Modern slavery takes many forms and is known by many names,” says the Freedom Fund.

“Today’s slaves are trapped in fishing fleets and sweatshops, in mines and brothels, and in the fields and plantations of countries across the world. It can be called human trafficking, forced labor, slavery, or it can refer to the slavery-like practices that include debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, and the sale or exploitation of children.”

According to Free the Slaves, today’s trade has two chief characteristics: It’s cheap, and it’s disposable.

“Slaves today are cheaper than ever,” says the group. “In 1850, an average slave in the American South cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today’s money. Today a slave costs about $90 on average worldwide.”

Human trafficking may be a global disease, but it is more virulent in certain parts of the world, where poverty and social inequality more readily enable it to thrive. The 2016 Global Slavery Index (GSI) found that just five countries accounted for almost 60 percent of the global slave population.

21st Century Slavery & Human Trafficking: Part 2 | Part 3

This article originally appeared on gfa.org

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