Gospel for Asia

Progress in addressing the sanitation global crisis shows direct aid is crucial for lasting change. Despite improvements, critical gaps remain in ensuring access to safe, hygienic facilities. Direct aid plays an indispensable role in solving this crisis, filling gaps and providing essential resources. UNICEF and GFA World, among other organizations, have played pivotal roles in advancing global sanitation efforts. They have been committed to improving sanitation access, particularly in regions where the need is most acute. UNICEF’s Contributions UNICEF has been leading efforts to provide safe drinking water and basic sanitation worldwide. In 2020, they helped nearly 19 million people access safe water and 10.8 million gain basic sanitation. [1] This achievement demonstrates UNICEF’s commitment to addressing the global sanitation crisis as a crucial component of overall well-being. GFA World’s Impact GFA World, formerly Gospel for Asia, has been instrumental in combatting open defecati...

Access to safe sanitation is not just about hygiene; it’s a catalyst for profound transformation within communities. As we delve into the safe sanitation impact, we uncover stories of resilience, health and hope that emerge when individuals gain access to a fundamental human right—dignity. Communities Transformed by Access to Sanitation In South Asia, impoverished communities face dire consequences of open defecation. However, change is coming. Families like Laal’s, previously living with inadequate sanitation, now have opportunities to improve their lives through better facilities and practices. [1] Laal, from a remote South Asian village, was among the few remaining families in his isolated community lacking basic facilities. His life changed when two GFA World workers from nearby facilitated the construction of a sanitation facility. This small change had an enormous impact, bringing health and hygiene benefits while fostering new friendships with the neighboring community. Laal’s f...

The global quest for improved sanitation highlights sanitation rural challenges. While urban areas progress, rural regions face formidable obstacles in accessing clean facilities. PAHO reports 15.5 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean practiced open defecation in 2019, emphasizing the issue’s prevalence. [1] Addressing these specific sanitation challenges in rural regions is crucial for global progress. The Rural Sanitation Dilemma Limited Infrastructure Accessibility – Rural communities often lack essential sanitation infrastructure, including sewage systems and proper waste disposal. This absence forces reliance on rudimentary methods, leading to open defecation and contamination of local water sources. [2] Scarce Financial Resources – Economic disparities between urban and rural areas exacerbate sanitation issues. Many rural families can’t afford solutions, lacking access to financing. The World Bank reported global costs of inadequate sanitation at $260 billion pre-...

Remarkable strides in sanitation global progress have improved access worldwide. Collaborative efforts combat inadequate sanitation’s consequences, leading to transformative statistical shifts. Ongoing support is crucial to expand these achievements against open defecation. Impressive Global Statistics on Improved Sanitation Access The global sanitation landscape has transformed significantly, driven by dedication from governments, international organizations, and communities. Recent data showcase remarkable progress achieved: Reduction in Open Defecation: Between 2000 and 2017, open defecation worldwide declined significantly. Practitioners decreased from 1.3 billion to 673 million, reducing from 21% to 9% of the global population. This marks substantial progress towards universal sanitation access, though challenges persist in achieving the 2030 goal. [1] South Asia Progress: A UNICEF report shows a significant decrease in open defecation prevalence, dropping from 65% to 34% across...

One country in South Asia is the second most populated country in the world, just after China, so the answer to “How many kids does South Asia have?” is a staggering number. There are about 12,627 births in that country per day, or about one birth every seven seconds, so the number is always increasing. [1] Right now, that country also has the largest adolescent population in the world with around 253 million. [2] GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program already helps many kids like these, more than 70,000, but even more of them still need help. [3] There many children enrolled in the program but still awaiting sponsorship at the time of this writing. [4] That number also keeps growing as more kids are enrolled in the program to receive vitla help like nutritious food, school supply provisions, hygiene help and educational and community opportunities. One of these children is Aliyah, who struggled with schoolwork for the longest time, not understanding her first-grade work at all. Her ...

GFA World serves in many regions and countries where they help kids; Asia and Sri Lanka are just two of them. GFA World serves in more than twenty countries worldwide with a special interest in those who have never heard the Gospel, especially in the 10/40 window. [1] These countries include Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and GFA World has also recently started working in Rwanda, Africa as well. These are some of the poorest countries in the world, the places where children are the most forgotten and downtrodden. GFA World trains national missionaries who are from the areas in which they are ministering. This makes it easier for them to understand the cultures, attitudes and needs of the people they are trying to reach. Not only that, but national missionaries have access to places that western missionaries are often restricted from entering. [2] The children in these countries can be enrolled in GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program and receive vital essentials like food, educ...

In order to understand why Asia, underprivileged kids, and GFA World need help, one must understand the devastating effects of poverty. There are almost 3 billion people in the world that don’t have access to toilets and about 1 billion people who do not have access to clean drinking water. The poorest 20% of the world’s children are twice as likely as the richest 20% to be stunted by poor nutrition and die before their fifth birthday. Almost 3 million newborns around the world die within their first month of life. Over 160 million children globally do not attend primary school. [1] These statistics are overwhelming, but they don’t have to stay that way. Countries in Asia are making strides in the right direction—in one country the infant mortality rate has halved, and two million fewer children are out of school—but there is still a long way to go. Malnutrition is still prevalent; In 2020, more than half of all children under 5 affected by stunting lived in Asia. [2] Education outcom...

For the many underprivileged kids in Asia, charity may be the only way out of their struggles. Poverty affects around 736 million people globally, many of them children, and the global poverty rate rose to 9.3% in 2020 versus an 8.4% rate in 2019. [1] Many of the people living under this global poverty line are children. Because their families lack funds—or the kids simply don’t have families—many children don’t have proper housing, hygiene, healthcare or education. Missing these essentials leads to further complications including disease, discrimination and death. [2] The situation may seem grim, but there is help for these underprivileged kids in Asia: charity. Organizations like GFA World have made it their mission to work with local, regional and national governments to help the impoverished in Africa and Asia, underprivileged kids , and others affected by poverty. Through our missionaries, gifts to meet basic needs, and GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program, we can make a huge dif...

For those of us who love words—and for whom numbers are a kind of ugly stepbrother—the data, nevertheless, often speaks for itself. In some parts of India, for instance, the ratio of 1,000 men per 800 women is due to routine female murders through infanticide, gender-based abortion, the dowry system where some 10,000 women are murdered annually when they cannot provide the required capitol for marriage, or/and the lack of proper medical care. In 2013, mortality rates of Indian women in childbirth were 167 per 100,000 births, contrasted with only 25.5 deaths in the United States. The statistics, those “pesky” numbers, go on and on. Without a doubt, they prove that in much of the developing world, women are still considered a sub-species. Yet, numbers can summate the other way; they can become numerical digits of hope, the mathematical consequences of surveys and thousands of interviews, and the scientific measurements of outcomes—indices that prove that dire poverty is being overcome...

Do you know what is the single most effective method in cutting down the contraction and spreading of diseases? You do this every day. Hopefully more than once a day. It’s the simple, life-saving method of washing your hands! And you know what’s right around the corner? Global Handwashing Day . Oct. 15 is the day to raise awareness of how tremendously important washing hands is to saving lives. Many of us probably grew up in homes where our parents taught us to wash our hands before we ate or after playing outside. Maybe as kids we didn’t know exactly why we had to wash our hands, but it was still a lesson engrained in us, right? In some parts of Asia, many children don’t grow up with this common knowledge, because it isn’t so common.Children in a Believers Church Sunday School class participate in a Global Handwashing Day program on October 15, 2016. Children in a Believers Church Sunday School class participate in a Global Handwashing Day program on October 15, 2016. A report from...

It’s been impossible to escape any news relating to natural disasters recently. Hurricane Harvey flooded homes in the gulf coast of Texas. Hurricane Irma left thousands in Florida without power. Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc in Puerto Rico, with 83 percent of the island still without power and 36 percent currently without water . An earthquake in Mexico took the lives of 360 people and left thousands homeless. Fires are currently ravaging homes in California. Natural disasters happen. There’s no stopping them. And they change people’s lives forever. Oct. 13 is International Day of Disaster Reduction , a day to raise global awareness about reducing the impact natural disasters have on people. Gospel for Asia receives reports from its field partners every year about the devastating toll natural disasters leave on families and communities. The most recent reports were about the flooding that happened all across South Asia this summer. On September 1, we released the following report : 1,2...

After moving to its new location in Wills Point, Texas, Gospel for Asia ( GFA ) adopted a two-mile stretch of a local highway and has spent a few days a year cleaning it up. Daniel Punnose, vice president of GFA, initiated adopting part of the highway. “Although we normally focus on Asia,” he said, “we wanted to contribute to the local community and show people practically that we genuinely care about Wills Point. We saw it as an opportunity to demonstrate Christ’s love to the people we love here.” Helping out in the Wills Point community is an outflow of Gospel for Asia’s core value of serving sacrificially. One of our driving motivations is to reflect Christ well and bless the people around us—even if that means a fun day of picking up trash that litters the sides of a highway.Gospel for Asia staff does Adopt a Highway cleanup along a two mile stretch of FM 2965 outside of Wills Point, Texas, on February 11, 2017. Gospel for Asia staff does Adopt a Highway cleanup along a two mile st...

God is using Gospel for Asia- supported national workers and the prayers of people all over the world to transform communities through His love. Pastor Tamang has been serving the Lord since 2003. Throughout those years he’s experienced heartache in losing his wife, the devastation of a natural disaster and opposition from the ones he longs to serve. Yet through all this, he remains steadfast, depending on the power of prayer to help him overcome. A Widower in the Wake The earth rumbled. The ground shook. The walls rattled. Pastor Tamang and his houseguests rushed out of his home as the earthquake grew in strength. But before everyone could make it out, the walls crumbled under the intensity, crushing Tamang’s wife, Nirmala, beneath the wreckage of their home. After the earthquake’s final tremor, Pastor Tamang found his wife lying lifeless in the rubble. Many others perished in the 6.8-magnitude quake that shook parts of South Asia on September 18, 2011. Houses and churches also fell ...

It was George Washington who issued the first presidential pardon way back in 1795. His action freed two rebels, who had led what history calls the Whiskey Rebellion, from the death sentence that the courts had handed down against them. Following our Civil War, Abraham Lincoln pardoned all but the very top Southern leaders, including thousands upon thousands of Confederate troops. In 1971 Richard Nixon used his pardon powers to grant clemency to the Teamsters’ president Jimmy Hoffa, who was serving a 15-year sentence for fraud and jury tampering. Study American history and you will find any number of pardons being granted by our chief executives. The total of 213 during the eight years in office by Barack Obama was one of the lowest sums on record. To be considered for a pardon, an offender needs to make a formal request to the Office of the Pardon Attorney, who serves under the U.S. Justice Department. That petition is then evaluated and possibly passed along. It must be a great rel...

Oct. 11 marks the International Day of the Girl Child . According to the United Nations, it’s a day meant to bring awareness to the “challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.” Worldwide, girls are more likely than boys to be illiterate, to experience higher levels of physical and sexual violence, and to be targeted for infanticide. Ruth, a Gospel for Asia- supported missionary , knew the struggles of being a girl since the day of her birth. Once a Beggar for Love “I don’t want this girl. If it’s possible, you kill her,” the man fumed. Before him stood his wife and, in her arms, their newborn daughter. This child was a disgrace to them —especially because she was their fourth girl. In their culture, daughters are deemed worthless, only bringing financial burden to their families. Father Devastated by Daughter’s Birth When the father realized this child was not the son they desired and had sacrificed to their gods for, he erupted. ...

Have you ever faced a winter emergency where the electricity in your home went out for three days and you had to wrap yourself in blankets to stay warm until the electric company restored power? Just imagine what would have happened to you if you didn’t have a blanket. Tragically, every year, millions of poor people across Asia face winter without heating, sufficient clothes or blankets to keep them warm. Mahaj, a 46-year-old man, lives in a remote farm village in a hilly area of Asia where people struggle throughout the year because of cold weather. Mahaj worked hard but was too poor to buy himself a blanket. Sadly, his grown children did not care about their father’s suffering. When Gospel for Asia ( GFA )-supported pastor Emet happened to visit the village, he found that people lived in shacks and mud huts and were far poorer than in other places. To help them through the bitterly cold winter months, Pastor Emet and his church—helped by Gospel for Asia friends around the world— dis...

The majority of Americans living in the U.S. today have never experienced firsthand the massive destructive power of modern-day warfare. Many of us who haven’t served in the military don’t know what it’s like to be shot at or to have to scramble to find a place of safety when enemy artillery is unleashed or bombs start falling. Fortunately for us, the recent wars in which our nation has been involved in have been fought in places far away from our homeland. Therefore, even though peace is something we value as a people, the word probably doesn’t have the same emotional feel that it has for those who have experienced the peace in their homeland being shattered by armed conflict. September 21, is International Day of Peace, as declared each year by the 193 member-states of the United Nations. The unique emphasis in 2017 is to show special support for refugees and migrants. Refugees are persons who have fled their homes and homelands to seek peace and refuge elsewhere. Last year the Inter...

Proverbs 17:6 reads, “Children’s children are a crown to the aged.” In other words, for many, grandchildren are one of the great blessings of old age. There are other benefits to living a long life, but spending quality time with a grandchild has to be right up there at the top of the list. The first Sunday following Labor Day has been officially designated as Grandparents’ Day. It’s an occasion to be reminded that grandfathers and grandmothers are important people in our society. Not only in the past did they contribute to what this nation has become; they still have a great deal to give. Most churches don’t pay all that much attention to Grandparents’ Day. It’s certainly not on par with Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. The simple reason may be that already there are just too many days for us to keep track of. But that doesn’t mean that grandparents are unimportant. In fact, in these precarious times, my contention is that Christian grandparents still have great influence. Rather than li...

What do you think the average pastor gets more of—compliments or complaints? Are you thinking about your answer? Again, does the normal man or woman in the clergy get more affirmation or criticism? Let’s make it more personal. Do you think your pastor receives more compliments or complaints? Can the scope of questioning be narrowed even more? Are your words about your minister more positive or negative? Do you recall talking recently with someone about your home church and its pastoral staff? Were your words affirming? Could it be they were not as constructive as they were destructive? America is badly in need of another sweeping revival. When the Church, nationally speaking, is in decline, it is easy for people to get discouraged and to fall into negative speech patterns. This is certainly true in settings where a congregation is shrinking for one reason or another. Negative words are especially disadvantageous in such situations. They can even bring about a congregation’s early demis...

Do you remember your elementary school days? Maybe they were some of the best years of your life. Maybe you played four square during recess and watched the Mickey Mouse Club in the afternoons. You probably never had to worry about money or paying the family bills. You probably didn’t wonder if you were going to eat that day. Three daily meals were most likely guaranteed, provided by your caring mother and father. But for Bijay … His elementary school days were quite different. Dreaming of Food and Schoolbooks Angry shouts filled the room. The smell of alcohol clung to Kuwar as he yelled at his family. Kuwar’s youngest son, Bijay, hunkered down amidst the familiar scene. His schoolbooks lay abandoned—how could he study while his father was enraged? Food was scarce in Bijay’s house, but the supply of his father’s strong drink never ran short. Although Kuwar had a job as a laborer in paddy fields, he relinquished very little of his income to provide for his family. His wife picked up th...