WILLS POINT, TX — A shocking number of adults around the world can’t read or write even a simple sentence, says mission agency GFA World (www.gfa.org) as it marks International Literacy Day, Sept. 8.
According to the United Nations’ education agency UNESCO, approximately 773 million adults worldwide — equal to more than twice the population of the U.S. — lack basic literacy skills.
Most of them are women, reports Texas-based Christian organization GFA World.
LITERAL CRISIS: Around 773 million adults worldwide — equal to more than twice the population of the U.S. — can’t read or write. The magnitude of the crisis is difficult to grasp, says GFA World (www.gfa.org) on International Literacy Day, Sept. 8.
“The magnitude of this crisis is difficult for us to grasp in developed countries where free literacy education is readily available,” said K.P. Yohannan, also known as Metropolitan Yohan, founder of GFA World. “Yet the reality is that millions of adults around the world can’t read or write, magnifying the struggles of almost every aspect of life.”
The organization provides literacy classes for thousands of the world’s poorest adults and children.
Writing First Letters
In some of the most remote places on earth, GFA World is giving men and women who had no chance to go to school the opportunity to learn to read and write, and for many students, their slates in hand, these are the first letters they’ve ever written.
“Due to lack of money, I could not study in my childhood,” said one woman who is learning to read and write at a GFA-supported church-based literacy center in Asia. “I’m thankful to the leaders of the church for starting (classes) here,” she said.
Learning to read and write builds a sense of self-worth and achievement, and prepares adults for better employment opportunities in the future so they’re not resigned to menial labor and a hand-to-mouth existence. It also provides safeguards against financial exploitation and safety hazards, allowing them to help their family navigate daily life and ultimately thrive.
“This is a way we can show the world’s most marginalized people that they’re of tremendous value to God, that he loves them dearly and cares about their future,” Yohannan said.
“International Literacy Day puts the focus on the crisis of adult illiteracy and calls us to take action now,” he added.
About GFA World (Gospel for Asia)
GFA World (formerly Gospel for Asia) is a leading faith-based global mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across the world, especially in Africa and Asia, and sharing the love of God. In a typical year, this includes thousands of community development projects that benefit downtrodden families and their children, free medical camps conducted in more than 880 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 163,000 needy families, and teaching to provide hope and encouragement in 110 languages in 14 nations through broadcast ministry. GFA World has launched programs in Africa, starting with compassion projects in Rwanda. For all the latest news, visit the Press Room at https://gfanews.org/news/.
Learn more about the GFA Women’s Literacy Program. There are over 250 million women in Asia who are illiterate. Even if they want to read, there is no way to learn . . . until now. With your help, women in Asia can learn to read and will be equipped to tackle life’s hurdles.
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) issues an extensive Special Report on illiteracy, the dominant disabler to flourishing for millions around the world, and the miraculous potential of literacy, to be able to read and write, that is able to change the lives of men, women and children for generations.
ability to hear and play with the individual sounds of language, to create new words using those sounds in different ways.”
The article breaks down how this actually happens, a process that is quite complicated and mentions digraphs, onsets, rimes and phenomes. It is a process that occurs without intentional phonetically in the natural course of a child’s learning process.
To read and speak fluently, a child must also develop an awareness of print; there’s a road sign, there’s a bathroom sign, here are words on cereal boxes, and, of course, there are books filled with print. The learner must develop an active vocabulary (words generally known and used in conversation, speech and writing) and a passive vocabulary (words that are known but the meanings of which are interpreted through context and use with others).
Achieving literacy for a child includes learning to spell (hence all those spelling tests). This means achieving a comprehension of irregular spelling, silent vowels, diphthongs, etc. He or she must not only be able to read words on a page (or a sign) but also comprehend the meaning of what has been read. This includes the ability to project meaning into the words, to pick up clues in the text, to visualize imaginatively what is occurring through the reading.
To read, to understand what one has read, to voice one’s inner thoughts, to comprehend and communicate the meaning of one’s being so that it can be heard either verbally or through thoughts committed to the page is not such a simple task as those of us who love reading might assume. But the joy, oh the gift of joy, that can be given to one other person or to a classroom of squirmy but nevertheless eager learners is incalculable.
A Lifetime of Illiteracy and the Onset of Leprosy
Gospel for Asia (GFA) chronicles the tale of a woman named Kaavya. She was given this gift of literacy that filled a lifetime of longing when she was 64 years of age. What makes her story even more impelling was the fact that Kaavya also suffered from leprosy. Now, medical knowledge informs us that leprosy is a curable disease, but the stigma of this condition is implanted on the DNA of history, with a record of scorn and communal rejection that is recorded even in the New Testament stories of Christ’s healing encounters with lepers.
After a lifetime of rejection, Kaavya (pictured) feels loved and cared for in a literacy class held by Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported Sisters of Compassion. The literacy class is held in the leprosy colony Kaavya calls home.
Kaavya’s father contracted leprosy with the result that the community ostracized the whole family. In time, the girl’s father died, and about then she began to experience symptoms of physical pain in her extremities and also a recurring fever. The crushing news from hospital staff indicated that the diagnosis of her difficulties was that she had developed leprosy also.
“It was the worst day and the saddest day in my life,” she said. “What to do? I could not die.”
Eventually, with treatment and medications, she procured a hospital job, but then, because she was illiterate, after 22 years of work, she was let go, unqualified in the eyes of the current staff. She married and settled into family life, but only a few years had passed when she discovered that her husband had a previous family. His first wife bore him eight daughters, and he was hoping some other woman would give him a son.
This is a chronicle of human misery, repeated in the hundreds of thousands of untold stories that exist around the world. But it does not have an unhappy ending.
“After years of hardships, Kaayva came to live in a leprosy colony, making her home with those who experienced the same kind of rejection she had,” the report states.
To become literate is exactly what miracle cures are about.
To be able to read and write is a gift of immeasurable worth. It is, indeed, a miracle cure.
“When I joined the literacy class, I learned lots of things,” Kaavya explains. “I learned not only reading and writing; I learned good habits, roles of women, wife and mother in the family. Now I am very happy … I will not lose heart because I can read and write.”
Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported literacy classes are taught by women missionaries who are trained in teaching reading and writing to adults. They write letters and words on chalk boards and carefully teach each student how to read and write those same letters and words. They guide their students’ hands, helping them become familiar with the feel and use of a pencil. Each woman enrolled in the literacy classes also receives a free literacy book in their local language. For tens of thousands of women across Asia, these free literacy classes have made a world of difference in their lives!
When the Word Became Flesh
I have often thought of Christ as the Great Translator who came to Earth to teach us Heaven’s language and ways.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Jesus’ life lived on Earth, and now communicated to us existentially through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is the ultimate example of a superior language tutorial—one in spiritual literacy. By observing Him, by reading and inculcating His words, we learn to “read and write.” We become spiritually literate. And like those who conquer reading and writing in the everyday world, this too, this inexplicable capacity to know with the soul, brings light and opportunity and almost unbearable joy. Another kind of illiteracy has been overcome. To become literate is exactly what miracle cures are about. It is an intellectual healing, the acquisition of incalculable capabilities and the establishment of approval from others and from oneself. To be able to read and write is a gift of immeasurable worth. It is, indeed, a miracle cure.
WHAT CAN ONE READER DO?
Consider giving to Gospel for Asia’s literacy efforts.Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers have heightened personal exposure to the dilemmas caused by illiteracy and have daily witnessed the power of literacy training to spread Christ’s love, to lift individuals and families out of poverty, to change communities for the better. Undoubtedly, learning to read and write is one way the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. This, indeed, is a spiritual miracle.
Become intentional about the miracle of being able to read and write. Take some time to consider what it would be like if you were illiterate. Intentionally notice—even notate—the many times you read and write in a day. Then thank God that you were born in a literate culture with systemic educational programs in place to increase your reading and writing capacities.
Conduct an Internet exposure regarding the topic of illiteracy in your home country and then around the world. There is something about those online searches that embed the reality of illiteracy in your mind—more than just reading an article about illiteracy.
Pray about finding some way you can contribute to the literacy of one person. Discover what is happening in your own community regarding literacy training, and volunteer your time. Take some literacy tutoring training. Find out who is illiterate in your own community. In other words, be intentional.
Literacy — One of the Great Miracle Cures:Part 1 | Part 2
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) issues an extensive Special Report on illiteracy, the dominant disabler to flourishing for millions around the world, and the miraculous potential of literacy that is able to change the lives of men, women and children for generations.
Perhaps it is easier to examine literacy and illiteracy through the lens of one country, the one many of us know best and consider one of the most literate in the world.
Since that data was collected, there has been a surge in states that aren’t normally considered high foreign population centers such as California, Texas, New York and Florida. The Center for Applied Linguistics also reports that since 2005, some 14 other states experienced a 30 percent greater increase in foreign-born residency.
36 million
adults in the U.S. cannot read, write, or do basic math above a third-grade level
They also state that the ESL (English as Second Language) population in the United States is diverse in terms of country of origin, education and individual language skills. In addition to Mexico and other Latin American countries, a growing number of non-native speakers of English come from China, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Korea, Eastern Europe and African countries. Of these residents born outside the United States, 68 percent have a high school diploma in their native country or the U.S.
With all this in mind, consider these additional facts on adult literacy in the U.S.:
“36 million adults cannot read, write, or do basic math above a third-grade level.
“68 percent of programs are struggling with long student waiting lists, and less than 10 percent of adults in need are receiving services.
“Children whose parents have low literacy levels have a 72 percent chance of being at the lowest reading levels themselves. These children are more likely to get poor grades, display behavioral problems, have high absentee rates, repeat school years, or drop out.
“One in six young adults—more than 1.2 million—drop out of high school every year.
“2 million immigrants come to the U.S. each year, and about 50 percent of them lack high-school education and proficient English language skills
“Low literacy costs the U.S. $225 billion or more each year in non-productivity in the workforce, crime, and loss of tax revenue due to unemployment.
“43 percent of adults with lowest literacy levels live in poverty.
“$232 billion a year in health care costs is linked to low adult literacy skills.
“75 percent of state prison inmates did not complete high school or can be classified as low literate.”
According to the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy in the United States, research shows that the single greatest indicator of a child’s future success is the literacy level of his or her parents:
“A child from a highly educated family will experience 30 million more words by the age of three than a child from a low-literate home.
“Almost half of all children born to a mother lacking a high school diploma are not ready to start kindergarten.
“Students who do not read proficiently by the third grade are four times more likely to leave high school without a diploma.”
Their ambitious goal is to invest in the lives of at least 15 million children by 2020.
Although challenges of global illiteracy and gender inequality in education and their repercussions are enormous, Room to Read feels they have the tools to eradicate them.
According to their website,
“Children in grade two in our Literacy Program in India, Laos and Nepal can read three times as many words per minute and correctly answer more than twice as many comprehension questions as their peers. More than 4,800 girls have graduated from our Girls’ Education Program, and 78 percent of our 2016 graduates enrolled in tertiary education or found employment within one year post-graduation.”
Book Aid International is a UK based charity that provided nearly 1.3 million books in 2018 to people in 25 countries in Africa, the Middle east, the Caribbean, and others locations around the world. They are focused on addressing illiteracy by getting books to people who need them most though “thriving partnerships with library services and NGO’s who make books available to their communities.”
Shetal, an 8 year-old Bridge of Hope student, sits on the floor with his BOH book bag during the morning session. He attends from 9 to noon.
Recognizing that 1 out of 5 people in the world cannot read or write, the World Literacy Foundation is operating in over 80 countries worldwide to lift young people out of poverty through the power of literacy. Two mentionable projects they have in Australia alone include the Indigenous Learning App meant to close the literacy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous children, and the ROOP Project (Reading Out Of Poverty) designed to “enhance literacy skills and reading levels of children from low-income backgrounds. ”In The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction, author Meghan Cox Gurdon makes the point: “As we shall see, listening to stories while looking at pictures stimulates children’s deep brain networks, fostering their cognitive development. Further, the companionable experience of shared reading cultivates empathy, dramatically accelerates young children’s language acquisition and vaults them ahead of their peers when they get to school.”
After that premise, who wouldn’t want to read to their children or to their grandchildren or to their neighbor’s neglected kids on the block? But wait, according to Gurdon, there’s more.
“The rewards of early reading are astonishingly meaningful: toddlers who have lots of stories read to them turn into children who are more likely to enjoy strong relationships, sharper focus, and greater emotional resilience and self-mastery. The evidence has become so overwhelming that social scientists now consider read-aloud time one of the most important indicators of a child’s prospect in life.”
All well and good (and let’s admit it, also amazing), but what happens when the adults in a child’s life don’t read to them? What if they don’t read to their children because they can’t read? They can’t read books or newspapers or signs or legal documents or school papers or homework assignments or medical reports. Again: What if they don’t read to their children because they can’t read?
While searching for a significant role to champion while serving as First Lady of the United States, Barbara Bush decided that a whole society could be impacted for the better if enough folk were given the skills of literacy. There is less crime among the literate, more educational advancement and better opportunities for success. She not only started the Foundation for Family Literacy, but she pushed hard for the National Literacy Act, which was passed in 1991 while her husband was president.
Mostly, illiteracy is cured by an army of tutors. The opportunities to volunteer and serve to erase illiteracy (to spread the miracle of reading and writing) are numerous.
61,880
women were taught how to read and write, in one year, by GFA-supported workers
According to UNICEF, literacy rates have shown a positive trend in recent years, due to the multitude of programs and outreaches around the world to erase one of the root causes—if not the major root cause—of illiteracy, which would be a lack of educational systems.
GFA-supported Bridge of Hope centers put an ax to this root cause by providing impoverished children free educational help. Staff at these centers provide each student with the academic tools they need to excel in their studies. If they see a student struggling in a specific area, they take measures to help them learn and overcome their challenges.
I am an avid reader. It is nothing for me to go through some 35 books a month. Partly this is because of my writing profession; I am generally finishing a research deadline of some kind. The other part is that I just love to read. Reading has formed my character; exposed me to different kinds of thinking; enthralled me in the adventures of real and imaginary characters; improved my marriage and parenting capabilities; enhanced my housekeeping and gardening skills; and stimulated my intellectual, spiritual and psychological growth.
Zambia: Five desk mates share a book during a reading lesson in class. Although challenges of global illiteracy and gender inequality in education and their repercussions are enormous, non-profits like Room to Read feel confident they have the tools to address and eradicate illiteracy. Photo by Jason Mulikita, Room to Read
So in an attempt to have personal encounters with illiteracy, to develop an understanding I admittedly lack, I looked up literacy programs in my area for the purpose of considering what I, a solo person (who loves to read), could do to contribute to raising the literacy level of my hometown region, even if only by one or two individuals. I took a volunteer orientation class, an introductory evening of training to be followed by in-depth literacy tutor training this coming season. My $40 registration fee also bought the substantial workbook Teaching Adults: An ESL Resource Book, which I am reading. This, of course, deals with teaching those who are illiterate in writing and reading English. What gift could be more wonderful than coaching an eager English-language learner in the intricacies of speaking and writing English as a second language?
My husband and I live in the far western suburbs of Chicago. Our town is 52 percent non-white, mostly Hispanic. I can only relate to the immigrant experience of not knowing the language of an adopted country—e.g., not knowing how to read the road signs or the newspapers or the graphics that crawl across a television screen—by the times I have been plunged into a foreign culture overseas. Then I attempt to extrapolate those small and temporary situations into a lifetime of confusion due to the inability to read or write.
Obviously, knowing I would soon be returning home, or having a translator and guide shepherd me through the incomprehensible language and customs of a foreign country, renders these plunges only superficial. Due to our high Spanish-language speaking population, however, I run into literacy issues frequently enough—my own lack of Spanish-speaking facility as well as others’ lack of English comprehension. For instance, the name of the Lyft driver often sent to our door for a trip to the airport is Mariana. She makes sure we know she speaks “only little English.” I inevitably worry that she will take us to the wrong airport, but somehow, through a translation dispatcher system, we have so far been delivered to O’Hare or to Midway when needed.
While searching for a significant role to champion while serving as First Lady of the United States, Barbara Bush decided that a whole society could be impacted for the better if enough folk were given the skills of literacy. There is less crime among the literate, more educational advancement and better opportunities for success.
After my hairstylist’s departure to another state, I determined I would be part of the “new localism”—the grassroots effort of supporting the businesses and shops established by local entrepreneurs. “Oh, Lord,” I prayed. “Help me to find a decent stylist.” I walked into a hair salon in downtown West Chicago. There were five chairs and one person in the shop. “Do you cut hair?” I asked. “Si, si,” the woman responded. “Speak little English. Un pocito.”
“OK, OK,” I said, and signed an inch with my thumb and forefinger. “One inch off. All over.” Which is exactly what she did. She cut my hair one inch long all over my head. Without a doubt, it has been the easiest summer hairdo I have ever had. I wash it. Apply mousse. Then mess my hair up as it dries. No problem. But the experience gave me a baseline to imagine if every day and in every way these gaffes large and small would be part of the agony and effort of living. After time, one might just withdraw, choose silence, stop trying.
Literacy — One of the Great Miracle Cures:Part 1 | Part 3
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) issues an extensive Special Report on illiteracy, the dominant disabler to flourishing for millions around the world, and the miraculous potential of literacy that is able to change the lives of men, women and children for generations.
Resolving the Limitations Illiteracy Places on the Human Spirit
We readers have long lost the joy of discovering that the squiggly marks on a page of paper can be interpreted or that the same kinds of marks can be learned and replicated with chalk, ink, pen or pencil. We don’t understand because we read and write and often take for granted the treacherous limitations illiteracy places on the human spirit as well as on human potential.
Perhaps one story from Gospel for Asia (GFA) will help us again remember the wonder of our own unrecognized reading and writing capacities. This is about Mandeepa.
This is Mandeepa. Her widowed mother was too poor to send her to school when she was younger, so she grew up illiterate. After she learned of God’s love as a teenager, she deeply desired to read God’s Word, but she couldn’t read or write.
Due to the early death of her father, Mandeepa and her five other siblings were raised by a struggling mother. None of these six children were able to attend school, and at the age of 13, Mandeepa started to work as a household maid to support her single parent. Eventually, as is frequently the case, a marriage was arranged for Mandeepa, which quickly produced a son and a daughter.
At the age of 16, Mandeepa started attending a local church where the young woman received a Bible of her own—but having never learned to read and write, she, of course, only saw strange markings on the page. Her heart was filled with a longing to read the words and to learn more about the Heavenly Father the book taught about, but this was impossible, and the young woman was disconsolate.
Mandeepa’s husband was also illiterate. Their daughter was fortunate to attend school, but her growing ability to read only pointed out the lack in her mother’s education. How Mandeepa wished she could help her daughter with her schoolwork. This parental lack only increased the woman’s desire to read and write like her children.
Mandeepa was now 32 years old, and after a year of study, she could finally read the Bible she had received 16 long years before. One of the first things she did when this “great miracle cure” began to have effect on her, banishing the shame and frustration of ignorance caused by lack of education, was to memorize John 14:15: “If you love Me, keep my commandments.”
Gospel for Asia points out that there are more than 250 million women in Asia today who are illiterate. It’s impossible for them to help their children with schoolwork. In addition, the instructions on medicine bottles, road signs, notices from the government and legal papers are all indecipherable— and this in a society that is increasingly dependent upon the written word. Those who desire to read God’s Word can’t do so. Technology can’t be accessed unless a user is highly literate. One must be able to spell, to read commands, to type letters that form words if the digital world is to be accessed.
Illiteracy is more dominant than poverty,
more dominant than a chronic physical disability,
and more dominant than even an oppressive social system.
Illiteracy is a kind of intellectual limbo, and no matter how naturally intelligent a person might be, the very descriptor “illiterate” indicates inferior mental capability.
Worldwide, entire villages with increasing levels of literacy are making social and economic gains when even just a small percentage of the villagers learn to read and write. Much data (a preponderance of which is examined under the general category of education) gives good cause to make the assumption that learning to read and write is one of the “great miracle cures.”
Asia: Manju is teaching several women how to read and write in a literacy class hosted in the women’s house in 2011. Illiteracy is often cured by an army of tutors like this. Opportunities to volunteer and serve to erase illiteracy, and spread the miracle of reading and writing, are numerous.
Why Is Literacy a Great Miracle Cure?
Hopefully, this article will inspire the reader about participating in some way in the joy of giving the gifts of reading and writing to other humans. The outcomes of such literacy initiatives are far beyond the investment of a few hours on the part of a tutor or of a volunteer week or some summer months overseas dedicated to literacy training and teaching. It is well worth considering teaching others how to read and write, or attending discussion groups at the local library where ESL (English as Second Language) learners are expanding their conversational skills, or volunteering with any of a multitude of organizations that welcome short-term teachers who are able to travel overseas. The opportunities for working literacy miracles are many and far-reaching.
Volunteering with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) overseas is, indeed, not only beneficial to individual learners who with literacy skills can obtain higher-paying jobs above menial labor and have the means to educate their own children, but also to whole villages and countries where the literacy aggregate continues to grow, or what has been referred to above as “the multiplier effect.”
250 million
women in Asia today are illiterate
All statistical evidence shows that one individual who is given reading and writing skills greatly improves his/her chances of success.Increasing literacy of individuals also greatly enhances the society in which those people live. A study conducted in Charleston, North Carolina, determined that “illiteracy is a multifaceted social equity and justice problem that results in less job opportunities and low income, often poverty.”
The reporting continues to explain that employers are often careful not to allow low-skilled workers to work more than 30 hours at minimum wage, because hours accrued above this level must provide workers with benefits and paid time off. This limit means poverty or near-poverty for a certain demographic of workers, which then sets in motion the need for community government to provide welfare assistance. The Trident Literary Association of Charleston, South Carolina, notes that food and medical assistance are often necessary when someone lives below the poverty line, especially if children are present:
“Letting our people live in poverty can cost the Charleston community over $15,000 for ONE adult for only ONE year. This does not count the cost of any children each adult may have. When over 86,000 adults in the tri-county area don’t have a high school diploma or a GED, the community could incur costs of up to $1.3 BILLION in public assistance to help those people survive.”
If this is true in a mostly literate community, how does illiteracy impact countries with large demographics of people who can neither read or write? The consensus across the data is that illiteracy interferes with the flourishing of citizens within a community.
The Literacy Foundation, located in Quebec, lists:
Specific negative incomes of illiteracy on both individuals and society. For individuals, the impacts include:
“A limited ability to obtain and understand essential information;
“An unemployment rate two to four times higher among those with little schooling compared to those with bachelor’s degrees;
“Lower income;
“Lower-quality jobs;
“Precarious financial position;
“Little value given to education and reading within the family, often leading to intergenerational transmission of illiteracy;
“Low self-esteem, which can lead to isolation;
“More workplace accidents, longer recovery times and more misuse of medications due to not understanding health care resources and procedures.”
And for a community whose citizens have a high illiteracy rate, societal impacts include:
“Since literacy is essential for individuals and states to be competitive in the new global knowledge economy, many positions remain vacant for lack of adequately trained personnel;
“The higher the proportion of adults with low literacy proficiency, the slower the overall long-term GDP growth rate is;
“Difficulty understanding societal issues lowers the level of community involvement and civic participation.”
Defining Literacy
Like many topics, the meaning of literacy has nuances: Someone might say they are illiterate about opera, meaning they are uninformed, uninterested or unexposed to this art form. The same implications could be attributed to a person who is “illiterate” about immigration. At its most elemental level, however, to be illiterate means that a person cannot read or write or can only decipher words in a minimal way. Literacy Advance says the definition is even more complex:
Within ethnically homogenous regions, literacy rates can vary widely from country or region to region. This often coincides with the region’s wealth or urbanization, though many factors play a role.
Odisha, India: Thirty-five ladies gather for a Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported women’s literacy class three days a week. The class takes place Monday through Wednesday. Once they achieve their goal in teaching these ladies how to read and write, the Sisters of Compassion will begin another Adult Literacy Class elsewhere in the neighborhood.
Literacy — One of the Great Miracle Cures:Part 2 | Part 3
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World) founded by K.P. Yohannan, has been the model for numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, to help the poor and deprived worldwide, discussing Gaetane, her longing to read and write, and her dream fulfilled through a literacy class for women led by GFA World Sisters of Compassion workers.
Gaetane, 45, looked wistfully at her children, wishing so desperately she could help them with their homework. She constantly felt ashamed of her inability to read and write and dreamed of one day being able to read God’s Word to her children. But Gaetane felt her desire was just that—a dream.
Longing to Read and Write
Through the ministry of Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers, women like Gaetane (not pictured) are learning how to read and write about God’s love for them.
One day, Gaetane met Raisie, Abarne, Pakuna and Abbatha, four Sisters of Compassion who were taking a community survey to see if there was interest and a need for a literacy class for women in the area. The Sisters explained to women in the community the importance of being able to read and write.
By the end of the class, Gaetane was able to read and write the alphabet and her name! She was also given a small book that she began reading every day to practice her new reading skills.
Gaetane was thrilled to finally be able to read and write. She began actively serving in her church and reading the Holy Scriptures in the Women’s Fellowship meetings she attended. Her shame over not being able to read and write was gone—replaced by joy and confidence in her newfound abilities. But the most rewarding aspect of Gaetane’s new abilities was her ability to help her children. Her ultimate dream had been fulfilled at last!
Through the ministry of Gospel for Asia (GFA) workers, Gaetane and countless other women are learning to read and write, learning about God’s love for them, and building confidence and hope for their futures.
*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, 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 Kassia who grew up illiterate which brought the compounded cost of extreme poverty throughout her adult life, and the GFA World Sisters of Compassion bringing a double blessing through a Literacy Class.
Kassia delights in her growing ability to read and write and is grateful for her renewed health.
Kassia’s mother passed away when she was young, setting off a series of consequences in the young girl’s life. Beyond dealing with the grief of losing her mother, Kassia was forced to give up her education to become “mother” to her younger siblings. She grew up illiterate, and when she married, had children and needed to care for her own family, Kassia worked the only jobs afforded to an illiterate woman: miscellaneous agriculture jobs.
Then, when Kassia was 45 years old, her health began to decline. For six months, she experienced swelling in her body and constantly felt weak and lightheaded. Her condition left her unable to serve her family as she had since she was young.
The family spent time and money seeking advice from a variety of doctors, who eventually diagnosed Kassia with low hemoglobin. Kassia’s family purchased the prescribed treatments in hopes they would restore the ailing woman to health. However, none of the solutions worked as intended, and Kassia continued to suffer.
In her pained state, Kassia’s worries were compounded by her family’s financial woes. She was all too aware the family was spending money they didn’t have in search of a solution to her health condition, and she was unable to add to the family’s income.
Invitation to Learn
It was during this difficult time, as Kassia struggled to complete daily tasks, that she met four GFA Sisters of Compassion. Sister Morela and her companions listened to Kassia’s predicament, and they recognized one need they could surely meet: The Sisters offered literacy classes in the village and invited Kassia to attend.
Kassia was delighted with the prospect of finally learning to read and write. It was a small joy in the middle of a despairing situation. She didn’t know it yet, but it would lead to a blessing she had been looking for.
Unexpected Blessing
In a literary class like this one, Kassia eagerly absorbs each lesson, growing quickly in her ability to read and write.
Not long after Kassia began attending the class, the Sisters invited her to a Sunday worship service. Kassia had noticed that each literacy class opened with prayer and decided to see what occurred during a worship service. Just as in her literacy class, Kassia absorbed the lessons she learned during the service. As she continued to learn about Jesus and His power, she discovered she could put her trust in Him for her physical healing—and she did.
The Lord honored Kassia’s faith and healed her body completely from the weakening effects of low hemoglobin.
The family’s matriarch no longer suffered from the debilitating illness that limited her ability to care for her family. With renewed strength, Kassia joyfully resumed her daily work in taking care of her family.
“I am very thankful to the Lord for healing me completely,” Kassia said. “I trust in Him … as the Savior of my life.”
*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia World stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.
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 and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan – Discussing the struggles of women like Preshti who grew up illiterate, and the literacy classes by Gospel for Asia missionaries that opened business opportunities for women.
Was this the bus Preshti needed? Or was it that one? Visiting her mother in another city always proved to be a challenge for the 45-year-old mother of four. She couldn’t read the signs.
Preshti (pictured) proudly holds the workbook she used during the literacy program.
Growing Up Illiterate
Preshti was among the two-thirds of women in her area who are illiterate. Growing up, Preshti was not able to attend school because of her parents’ poverty. As the eldest, Preshti took care of her siblings and the home while her parents worked. The money they made put Presthi’s younger siblings through school. For Preshti, school seemed out of reach, and she carried this belief into her adult years.
Grasping the Skills to Change through Gospel for Asia Literacy Classes
Then Preshti enrolled in a literacy class organized by Gospel for Asia (GFA)woman missionaries. Some challenges arose, however. If she took the classes during the day, she couldn’t work. The missionaries moved the classes to evening, but even then, Preshti could barely focus after a hard day’s work. Then, after class, she would come home and cook dinner, and her alcoholic husband would be angry if she was too late getting dinner on the table.
But Preshti pushed on. She needed these classes.
After some months, Preshti “graduated.” Her confidence soared; she finally could read and write!
Armed with her newfound abilities, Preshti joined other women in a local small business plan. Taking a loan, the women started small businesses and used the earnings to pay the loan and provide for their families.
*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are GFA stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan – Discussing Suhana, a victim of child marriage, the desperate need for clean water, extreme poverty, illiteracy, and the Gospel for Asia provided Jesus Well that brought stability and hope for a future.
Nine-year-old Suhana stood in her bridal dress, her childish face masked under heavy kohl eye liner, and the red powder on her forehead signaling her entrance into the adult rite of marriage. Her young husband, closer to adulthood than herself, placed a floral garland around her neck. After the ceremony, Suhana moved to her husband’s village, where another newcomer had arrived just a couple years before her—a Jesus Well.
Harmful Customs Sustained by Need to Survive
Suhana
Suhana’s people lived in rural forests, mountains and valleys where they practiced the same traditional way of life for thousands of years. Predominantly farmers, they cultivated their land to produce rice, vegetables and cotton, which were their main economic resources.
The goal for these farmers was simple and straightforward: survive. But there were many obstacles to overcome. Ponds, which irrigated the fields and provided water for households, dried up during the summer and were reduced to mud holes. Sometimes the area experienced droughts so severe entire villages had to relocate, leaving behind anything they could not carry and becoming poorer in the process.
The need for clean water is not unique to Suhana’s people; it is an urgent issue for 783 million people worldwide.
The lack of fundamental needs, such as water, traps many communities into a life dedicated to obtaining basic necessities. Initiating community development projects, like drilling wells or educating children, are unattainable luxuries for many families. The effects of poverty are especially strong on young girls, who are not seen as able to contribute to the family’s survival—and are subsequently married off at a very young age, making them the in-law’s responsibility to support.
783 million people worldwide don’t have clean water
Open sources of water quickly become polluted when hundreds of families use them for everything from washing clothes and watering animals to cooking and bathing.
Suhana established herself in her new community and joined the other wives in daily visits to the well. She balanced water jugs on her head as she carried back clean water for cooking the family meals.
When the Jesus Well came, everyone rejoiced in the immediate benefits, but the long-term benefits had not yet been imagined.
Suhana visits with a neighbor while she gives her cow a drink of water at the Jesus Well. This well, located a stone’s throw from Suhana’s home, was constructed shortly before she arrived in the village as a young wife.
Consistent Water a Stabilizing Influence
Within a year of becoming a wife, Suhana became a mother, and then quickly had two more children in the next few years. She worked hard on her daily household chores and earned extra income doing manual labor at construction sites working with bricks, sand and cement. Her husband worked as a painter, and they both cultivated their land to feed their growing family.
The Jesus Well assisted Suhana in almost every task, from watering her crops and animals to washing dishes and cooking food. Since the Jesus Well was nearby, Suhana did not have to spend extra time hauling water back and forth from a distant water source.
With their basic needs taken care of, Suhana could send her children to school rather than to the fields or to earn money as daily laborers.
The Jesus Well blessed more than just Suhana’s family. People from all over the village came to the Jesus Well every day. During summer droughts, the Jesus Well faithfully poured out clean, pure water, attracting people from other villages whose water supplies had dried up. Even with the additional burden of more people drawing water, the Jesus Well flowed continually, giving life to Suhana’s community and many others.
Suhana uses water from the Jesus Well for almost all of her household tasks, like preparing a meal for her family. The Jesus Well has eliminated the water crisis in Suhana’s village and brought stability to the residents’ daily life.
“This Jesus Well water is more than sufficient for the entire village and also for some neighboring villages,” shares Suhana. “It never dries up during summer, whereas many other water sources dry up. The more we draw water out of this well, the cleaner and purer the water comes out. Everybody comes here and takes water every day, and good water keeps coming out of this well. Everybody is satisfied with the water.”
Village Steadily Transforms
As years went by, Suhana’s children grew and so did the community’s dependence on the Jesus Well. With a reliable source of pure water, children weren’t as sick and missed fewer school days. People could grow their crops and did not have to leave their homes looking for water, and children didn’t need to help their parents earn money.
Eventually, a girls’ school was built nearby, and the daughters of the village attended school instead of preparing for marriage at a young age. Each day on their breaks, students would come to the Jesus Well for drinks and to play and laugh in the cool water.
Suhana and the Jesus Well have lived in this village for almost 20 years now. They have both become part of the fabric of the community.
A local Gospel for Asia (GFA) pastor, whose church building is located next to the Jesus Well, shared the impact this gift has made in the community.
“I feel very happy to know that this is one of the first Jesus Wells…” — the local pastor
“I feel very happy to know that this is one of the first Jesus Wells,” the pastor said. “It’s not easy to have a well maintained for this many years; because anybody can install a well, but maintaining it for almost [20] years, where it still gives clean and good drinking water, it is not easy. That makes me very proud and happy, and I am so glad that this well is [by] our church.”
The Jesus Well has brought stability and health to this village and surrounding villages, serving hundreds of families, including Suhana’s, whose children now have the option of continuing their education and no longer have to give up their dreams in exchange for the daily struggle to survive.
Over its 20-year life, this Jesus Well has served hundreds of people thousands of gallons of pure clean water.
Each person that comes to well is presented with the Scripture declaring Christ as the Living Water: “Jesus answered and said to her: ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”—John 4:13–14
You can help bring relief to an entire community through a gift towards a Jesus Well, establishing a legacy of God’s love and goodness for hundreds of people.
Jesus Wells are a wise investment and we keep the costs low too. For only $45, you can provide clean water for up to nine people for around 20 years. See more ways to provide clean water »
*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.
Most of 12-year-old Mareechi’s neighbors were poor and uneducated, like him. Many adults worked as laborers, street cleaners or garbage pickers, and some of the children did too. Although some kids could go to school, the majority spent their time roaming the narrow, refuse-filled alleyways, often picking pockets, swiping food and even sneaking into other people’s homes to take from their meager possessions.
Life in the slum was never easy, never safe and never clean.
Entering the Slum
Many people find themselves in slums when they move to cities in hopes of better wages. Others, like Mareechi, are born into them.
But Sabita, Kala and Kuntal, three Gospel for Asia Sisters of Compassion, traveled to Mareechi’s slum for another reason: They wanted to display the love of their Creator.
They gave people practical advice about health and hygiene. They visited the sick and downtrodden. They held literacy classes to help women who never had a chance to be educated. And they started “Sunday school” classes on Wednesdays and Saturdays to help children like Mareechi discover a better way to spend their idle time. Above all, they prayed for God to touch hearts.
Gospel for Asia Sisters of Compassion: Love and Prayers Heal Mother, Son
Mareechi and his mother (right)
During Sunday school, Mareechi didn’t interact with the other students. When Sabita, Kala and Kuntal asked him why, he told them about his health problems. An inexplicable dizziness and nausea often caused him to lose his balance and collapse. The same condition affected his mother, Pehr. Though the family often prayed to their gods and goddesses, and Mareechi’s hard-working father spent far more than the family could afford on doctors’ visits and treatments, neither mother nor son found healing, and their lives remained miserable.
When the Sisters of Compassion found out about Mareechi’s condition, they responded with love and prayer.
After a few months, Mareechi’s mother suddenly realized her son was better. She asked him about it, and he responded, “The sisters prayed to Jesus, and He healed me.”
Overjoyed, Pehr found the three women at church that Sunday and told them what God had done. She came back week after week and started learning more about Jesus. It didn’t take long for Pehr to experience His grace, joy, peace and healing in her life, and she received the gift of becoming a child of the Living God. Her husband, witnessing God’s power in his family’s life, made the same choice.
All this is made possible because God hears the prayers of His children—whether those prayers come from three Sisters of Compassion serving in an Asian slum or from your very own home. Thank you for your prayers for the people of Asia.
*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan – Discussing the GFA Sisters of Compassion team who, despite facing resistance, labored for literacy for women and children, transforming their lives, bettering society.
Kuvira, Sabeena, Aamaal and Binita walked along the dirt road flanked by lush landscape that seemed to embrace them, inviting the four ladies to continue down to the village nestled near the river that flowed just beyond. As the women stepped into the village, however, the welcome feeling vanished.
An Unwelcome Entrance
Bodhi, like the other women in her village, did not understand the value of education until four GFA Sisters of Compassion came to her village and started a literacy class. Through that class, Bodhi experienced the blessings of literacy in everyday life.
The Gospel for Asia (GFA) Sisters of Compassion team, clad in their long white saris, entered the village and made their way through the streets, but no pairs of eyes looked their way. Stillness filled the air as the residents feigned ignorance of the presence of four strange women walking through their village. Doors swung closed, hiding suspicious residents inside. Others continued their outdoor chores but turned their backs on the sisters as they passed by.
The cold reception didn’t dampen the sisters’ excitement to minister within this village. They knew they could do something great for the people who hid in their homes and turned their backs. Kuvira, Sabeena, Aamaal and Binita prayed for the villagers as they headed home and asked the Lord to give them a ministry in this place. They encouraged each other along the way, reminding themselves of God’s great power to change lives.
Pens, Pencils and Notebooks
The four sisters continued to visit the village. At first, the only residents who acknowledged them were children. From very young to school aged, kids would approach the women in white with curiosity, asking questions and relishing the adult attention. Kuvira, Sabeena, Aamaal and Binita started teaching the village kids, most of whom worked in fields or roamed the streets instead of attending school. The sisters gave the children pens, pencils and notebooks so they could study on their own when the women were not there. After some time, the kids enjoyed learning and wanted to go to school, something they had always avoided before the sisters came. The parents in the village, amazed at the transformation, began to acknowledge the women who had helped their children so much.
Next Step: Literacy for Women
Motivated by the impact they had teaching the children to value education, the four Sisters of Compassion looked for a way to help the women in the village—most of whom were illiterate. The sisters decided to start a literacy class.
At first the villagers laughed at the sisters’ idea.
“What would we do by learning how to read and write?” the village women scoffed. “Our life is spent working in the fields and river, so if we join the class, it is not going to be beneficial for us, and we would be simply wasting our time.”
Undeterred, the Sisters of Compassion urged the women to join their class and explained the many ways literacy could impact their lives. The women in the village decided to talk it over. They had watched the sisters teaching their children and knew the team wanted to help them in society. They were grateful their kids started attending school and began to think that maybe they should learn too. They finally decided they would enroll in the literacy classes with the sisters.
Wife and Mother Perseveres in Learning
The first literacy class included six women from the village. Bodhi, a 45-year-old mother with four children, joined the first class. Bodhi had never gone to school herself and took up the challenge to learn to read and write. It was very difficult for Bodhi at first, and she wanted to quit many times, but the sisters kept encouraging her. Bodhi went to class every Saturday, leaving behind her work, and slowly grew in her abilities. Sometimes her husband would tease her when she studied and practiced at home, asking if she was going to become the village accountant. Bodhi retorted that she simply wanted to learn how to read and write.
As Bodhi progressed with the instruction and encouragement of the sisters, she began helping the other ladies. They would get together to study and spur on those who struggled. A community pride formed among the group of six in the literacy class.
Now when Bodhi goes to the market, she no longer relies on the color of the money to tell her how much change she received back from her purchase. Instead, she reads the price tag, counts out the proper money and checks that her change is correct. When her kids are working on homework, Bodhi helps them when they are stuck and corrects their pronunciation when they read. Even her husband is proud of her.
“I feel so happy and proud of my wife,” Bodhi’s husband says. “If a person decides to accomplish something, [she] can achieve it someday. The sisters are working for the development of the society, and we should take advantage of what is provided by the sisters of the church.”
Kuvira, Sabeena, Aamaal and Binita visit the village frequently and are now welcomed into the homes of grateful families and honored as guests. Having ministered to the practical needs of the villagers, such as Bodhi, the Gospel for Asia (GFA) Sisters of Compassion have become trusted confidants for the village’s mothers and children who seek the sisters out for prayer for life’s concerns. The four young women are now indispensable to this village and are shining lights of God’s love.
While the women in this village had to be convinced of the value of literacy, other women, like Habiba, dream of obtaining literacy. Read how Habiba’s dreams came true.
*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are Gospel for Asia stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.
Become intentional about the miracle of being able to read and write. Take some time to consider what it would be like if you were illiterate. Intentionally notice—even notate—the many times you read and write in a day. Then thank God that you were born in a literate culture with systemic educational programs in place to increase your reading and writing capacities.
Conduct an Internet exposure regarding the topic of illiteracy in your home country and then around the world. There is something about those online searches that embed the reality of illiteracy in your mind—more than just reading an article about illiteracy.
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