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2.4 Billion People Still Have No Toilet Reports Gospel for Asia

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World Toilet Day , established for November 19th by the UN in 2013, coincides with the 2001 creation of the World Toilet Organization , an organization aimed at raising awareness about and addressing the need for toilets all around the world. Since Gospel for Asia’s field partners started constructing toilets in 2012 , we have helped provide more than 28,000 of these facilities across many Asian nations, including Nepal and India— 10,512 of which were constructed in 2016 alone . It’s an exciting thing to be able to come alongside impoverished families and give them a little dignity. On Oct. 2, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Swachh Bharat (Clean India), an initiative to clean India in multiple ways, including the goal of eliminating open defecation in the nation by Oct. 2, 2019—the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. We are proud to be a small part of impacting families, transforming communities and enabling education (more on that later) through toilets. Gosp...
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Help Wanted: National Missionaries. Endure Beatings, Tauntings, Long Road Days, Imprisonment.

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Thousands of communities are tucked away in remote regions of Asia. In such places, chances to hear the story of Christ’s birth, death and resurrection can be very rare. Beatings. Taunting words. Long days on the road. Late nights of traveling to pray for the sick. False accusations . Even imprisonment. If national missionaries know ministering to their people may cost them all this, how do they go on day after day? Why do they do it? One reason missionaries continue to pour themselves out in service to God is because of people like Naitik. He was 80 years old before he ever heard the name of Jesus. National missionaries long for him to understand the love of God, whom they themselves love so much. Naitik is not alone—his story was like millions of others’ who live in remote places in Asia, where, so far, there’s been no mention of Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God. Thousands of communities are tucked away in remote regions of Asia. In such places, chances to hear the story of Ch...
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Poor Fisherman’s Son Finds Opportunity to Become a Surgeon Reports Gospel for Asia

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“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Who in their lifetime hasn’t heard that question or asked that question. The responses children give… it’s like the entire world is at their fingertips. To them, there’s nothing they can’t be, there’s nothing but their age that’s holding them back. “An astronaut.” “A farmer.” “An intercontinental airplane pilot.” (Oh yes, I have heard that one.) “A police officer.” “A mom.” “A missionary.” “A pirate.” Whatever they can think of that is the most exciting, most adventurous thing…that is what they want to become. And who would tell a 5-year-old, “Well, I think that’s just a bit out there. Why don’t we sit down and think about some more realistic things you can do when you grow up?” We give children the freedom to dream. They’re supposed to dream. But you know what? There are millions of children in Asia who don’t even know how to dream. You want to know why? Because for generations before them, who they will be when they grow up has already been ...
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Students Are Immersed in a Culture of Prayer at GFA’s School of Discipleship

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Many young people come to Gospel for Asia School of Discipleship to see their relationship with Jesus significantly deepen. What they find is that prayer is the vehicle that takes them there. A Culture of Prayer Students at School of Discipleship are quickly immersed in a culture of prayer when they join GFA for a year. That’s because prayer is the very fabric the GFA community is woven from. More than 30 years ago, Gospel for Asia was born from a prayer meeting in Dr. KP Yohannan Metropolitan’s living room, and that weekly prayer meeting continues to this day. Now students are an integral part of them, too! They engage in prayer side by side with GFA staff, crying out to God for people, things and circumstances both locally and abroad. They even participate in sharing prayer requests. Students also learn to cultivate their private prayer life. They engage with the Lord in times of personal devotions and prayer walks and in times of silence and solitude. They learn how to be in God...
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Gospel for Asia-supported Film Teams Pray, Then Show “The Man of Mercy” Before Crowds All Over Asia

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The man, Jesus, sat on a hillside surrounded by people who followed Him. He was talking to them, teaching them how to live. Then the scene shifts, and you can see a man, swathed in rags, hiding out of sight. He glances. He pauses. He gathers his courage and steps out toward Jesus—and people start running away at the sight of him. You realize, if you didn’t recognize before, that the man in rags has leprosy. No one wants to be near him. No one, that is, except Jesus. Jesus, the soft-spoken man with the kind face, does the unthinkable—He reaches out and touches the sick man. And he is healed. This scene plays out again and again before crowds all over Asia. Night after night, “ Dayasagar ,” “The Man of Mercy,” plays on the sides of buildings, on sheets stretched between poles, under trees and inside houses. Cool weather, warm weather, crowds of hundreds, groups of 10—Gospel for Asia-supported film teams show movies about the love of Christ. And as they do, Jesus reaches out to touch, he...
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I Was Proud to Do Whatever to Protect the Interests of the United States

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For Veteran’s Day , Lynn C., Gospel for Asia staff and 20-year U.S. military veteran, shares her thoughts about serving in the Navy and now her Lord with GFA . Let’s face it — I cry whenever I hear the song “Proud to be an American” by Lee Greenwood, and I get choked up when I sing the National Anthem. As a retired Chief Petty Officer of the United States Navy (September 1977–September 1997), I’ve served with some of the finest men and women our country had at the time. Having served then, I understand the tremendous sacrifice that our military men and women and their families currently make to protect the interests of the United States, both foreign and domestic. Families make do with only one parent taking care of all the responsibilities, while the other is off on deployment in the middle of the desert or the mountains, serving as an Embassy guard or sitting watch at 3 in the morning. Loyal, dedicated men and women who spend months at a time off on deployment, missing their familie...
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“When My Husband Was Falsely Imprisoned for 20 Years, My World Crumbled,” Reports Gospel for Asia

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Do you remember what happened in your life on May 2, 2000? It was a Tuesday. It might not have been a significant day to you, but for Manja, a father of two in Nepal, that day changed his life and his family forever. That was the day Manja landed in jail under false accusations of murder. It started when Manja, a Gospel for Asia- supported missionary , joined a group of friends for an afternoon of fishing. Along the river, they discovered a body. They informed the police and filed a report. Everything seemed to be finished—until one month later when Manja was accused of committing the crime. A Prisoner Missionary Months of accusations, falsified evidence, betrayal, abuse and drawn out legal proceedings followed. Then the bars closed behind Manja with a sentence of 20 years imprisonment. “When my husband was arrested and imprisoned for 20 years,” Rati, Manja’s wife shares, “it was as if my whole world had crumbled down.” Manja and Rati were devastated by the verdict. But in the months a...
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