Last updated on: September 15, 2021 at 7:07 pm By GFA Staff Writer
WILLS POINT, TX — India’s devastating “second wave” of COVID-19 is overshadowing another deadly tsunami of suffering — rampant hunger. GFA World (Gospel for Asia) reported growing desperation across India as we support efforts to feed those facing starvation amid the pandemic’s continuing onslaught. We have helped feed hundreds of thousands since the pandemic began.
HUNGER’S DEEP SILENCE: On World Hunger Day, May 28, Texas-based humanitarian agency Gospel for Asia (GFA World) reports growing desperation in India as it supports efforts to help thousands starving in “deep silence” amid the pandemic’s continuing onslaught.
“As COVID-19 ravages India, we’re seeing hunger on a massive scale,” said Bishop Danny Punnose, vice president of Gospel for Asia (GFA World), spotlighting the accelerating crisis on World Hunger Day, May 28.
In the nation’s pandemic hotspots, so-called “corona curfews” and lockdowns make it very difficult to get groceries — even if people have cash to spend.
‘Deep Silence’ Everywhere
“Markets are closed… no shopkeepers are willing to open their shops. People are struggling to get grocery items. (There’s) deep silence at all places,” local relief workers reported.
In India’s densely populated Uttar Pradesh state, local church members are going door-to-door, delivering free meals to COVID-impacted families in strict quarantine.
Many day laborers — among the poorest of the poor — have lost their jobs because of the pandemic, have no source of income, and no other way to get food.
Fear Grows
“The fear of going hungry, for many, is as great as the fear of the virus,” said Bishop Punnose. “Working alongside the government of India, we’re doing all we can to help relieve suffering and show people the love of God.”
Heartbroken parents were watching their children “starving to death before their eyes,” he said.
World Hunger Day — an annual awareness event — says 690 million people worldwide face chronic hunger, reportedly killing more than malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis combined.
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.
Last updated on: January 7, 2025 at 11:42 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 GFA World Canada, to serve the deprived and downcast worldwide – Discussing Seafra, the sickness and suffering brought by poverty and mosquito borne sickness, and the mosquito net gift distributions through GFA World church that brought blessing in the midst of tragedy.
Gift distributions for mosquito nets, like the one pictured and the one Seafra attended, are organized to bless and uplift families at risk from malaria and other vector-borne diseases.
The mosquitoes that buzzed outdoors brought no comfort to Seafra’s family. For the 50-year-old father of four who farmed for a living, he knew that he had two options: He could use what little earnings he made to feed his family, or he could risk temporary starvation to purchase a mosquito net they desperately needed. If he didn’t purchase a net, sickness would continue to ravage his family. The weights on the scale of importance never seemed to balance.
The Burden of Disease
Seafra and many other of his fellow villagers faced the same problem: mosquitoes. The tiny insects carried numerous harmful, and sometimes fatal, diseases. Malaria, and tyhpoid took turns infecting the villagers. The WHO estimates that 409,000 people worldwide died from malaria in 2019, with more than 229 million cases across the globe.[1]
Seafra and his family members had already fallen ill to many of the mosquito-borne maladies. And if one or more of his family were to become infected again, he knew their funds would not be enough to pay for the subsequent medical bills.
But then Seafra and his family were invited to a local church led by Gospel for Asia (GFA) pastor Kedrik. At the church, the family received insecticide-treated nets to ward off mosquitoes. These special nets have proven to be one of the most effective ways to prevent transmission of malaria over the past 20 years.[2] Together with other prevention programs, these nets have prevented an estimated 7.6 million malaria deaths.[3]
After receiving the net, the family confided in Pastor Kedrik the struggles they faced. While the nets would provide ample protection against further disease transmission, the trauma of past illnesses caught from mosquitoes still lingered. Pastor Kedrik continued to visit the family once a month, praying for them and encouraging them.
GFA Pastor Brings Gift of a Mosquito Net Amidst Tragedy
Four years later, the threat of becoming ill from a vector-borne disease had vanished. Seafra and his family spent their nights in peace under the mosquito net’s protection. But then a crippling medical crisis struck the family when Seafra began experiencing severe knee pain. Unable to properly tend to his farm, Seafra was taken to various doctors, and the family performed various traditional rituals.
After exhausting nearly every avenue and selling most of their farm to pay for them, Seafra’s family asked Pastor Kedrik to pray for Seafra’s healing. They knew Pastor Kedrik cared for them; he had shown it through the surprise gift of a mosquito net and through his friendship throughout the years.
Then, after a period of continuous prayer, the pain in Seafra’s knees vanished. He could walk properly again; he could provide for his family again. So touched by his healing, Seafra and his entire family began attending Pastor Kedrik’s church, desiring to continue experiencing the tangible love of God.
*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.
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/.
She called me Dad. Jessie had come home to celebrate her birthday—she was turning 68. “I know the routine, Dad” she reminded me. (I am 83 years of age.) And immediately, she began to jump in and help my wife, Karen, with tasks that needed doing around the house. My wife hates to run errands. She feels that they can eat up a whole day when she’d rather be accomplishing other kinds of goals—such as meeting writing deadlines.
Jessie had first come to live with us when she was 37 years of age. Homeless. On the streets. A mutual friend brought a very disgruntled young woman to our door. Wearing a leather jacket, she had developed one of the toughest demeanors I’ve ever seen. This was her adaption in order to face down a hostile world. Karen, nevertheless, with a spiritual gift of discernment, understood that beneath Jessie’s rough exterior, there was a beating heart still filled with unaccountable tenderness.
“Yep! On the inside, I’m just a marshmallow,” Jessie says now, describing what we came to discover was the truth. Despite an abusive mother, despite getting into “a lot of bad stuff” as Jessie would say, something true and beautiful, had survived those years as a motorcycle gang moll. Some inner spirit filled with longing for the right kind of love had survived her practiced liturgy of worshiping the dark and satanic.
Karen says that when she opened the door and discovered this tight ball of humanity beside our friend, an unaccountable kind of love flooded her emotions. So, Jessie came to live with us, went through an extensive rehabilitation as part of our family of four growing children. She stayed for six years. She and Jeremy, our youngest son and 10 years old at the time, became great buddies. How could Jessie not thrive with Jer acting as counsellor and life coach. This budding relationship was not only hilarious, it was touching beyond description.
We asked Jessie, on her latest visit home, what she remembered about those years in our house. “Oh, the love. You just loved me, and you loved one another. I also remember that we prayed a lot. I mean a LOT! … Why did you take me in?”
Well, it was obvious. Karen had prayed for help in the house, with the children, with the hated running-errand tasks, with the piles of laundry, and with the dishes in the sink. Who was she to argue with God concerning the way that prayer was answered and how it was packaged?
It occurs to me as we head into another national day that honors the fathers in our lives, that there are many people who become non-biological fathers to displaced folk who desperately need fathers.
Jessie’s transformation to a God-lover, to an ardent Jesus follower (“Oh, Jesus! He’s my life. He means everything to me!” she reported in our recent catching-up conversation.) was framed and formed by living in our not-perfect-by-any-means family, where there was at least a healthy and caring father-figure.
Have you observed that it’s easier for people to form an understanding of a loving God when they have had loving parents? Loving, wise, caring father figures often pave the way for a redemptive path toward God.
So, this Father’s Day, perhaps it would be a good exercise to consider those men who have been father figures in our lives. What teacher gave you crucial and encouraging attention? Did you have a neighbor who taught you how to use his tools? Was there an uncle or a great-uncle who encouraged your faith walk? Was there a Sunday School teacher who let you know he considered that you had much promise?
I had a band teacher in high school, Dan Perino, who took me aside and asked if I had ever considered running for student council president. “If you did, David, you would be sure to win.” In fact, I had never even thought of such an idea. However, I took his nudge seriously, mounted a campaign and to my great surprise, won the election! This was an embryo incident that helped me understand I had qualities in my personality that other people considered “leadership potential.”
Karen says that whenever Jessie calls on the phone and in her gravely voice prays, “DEAR LORD, BLESS KAREN . . .” my wife is always moved to tears.
I know that I am moved deeply when she calls me “DAD.”
Learn more about the GFA World national missionaries who carry a burning desire for people to know the redemptive fatherly love of God. Through their prayers, dedication and sacrificial love, thousands of men and women have found new life in Christ.
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.
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 – 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:
Jessie had first come to live with us when she was 37 years of age. Homeless. On the streets. A mutual friend brought a very disgruntled young woman to our door. Wearing a leather jacket, she had developed one of the toughest demeanors I’ve ever seen. This was her adaption in order to face down a hostile world. Karen, nevertheless, with a spiritual gift of discernment, understood that beneath Jessie’s rough exterior, there was a beating heart still filled with unaccountable tenderness.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In