Gospel for Asia

Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the continuing battle in fighting malaria worldwide via mosquito netting and medical care to combat this parasitic genius. Combating a Tough Disease Malaria has a history extending back thousands of years. The legendary Greek doctor, Hippocrates (born in 460 B.C.), described periodic fevers. It was so common in the Roman Empire that one report said it may have contributed to the empire’s decline . At one time, it was also common across Europe and North America. Malaria needs a combination of high population density, high anopheles mosquito density, and high rates of transmission from humans to mosquitos and vice versa. If any of the factors is lowered sufficiently, the parasite will eventually disappear from the area. However, unless eliminated entirely, it can be re-established if conditions revert to a combination favorable to the parasite . The battle against the disease has raged for centuries. Scientific studie...

Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the fight against malaria, prevention via mosquito netting and medical care to combat a parasitic genius. Fighting Against Malaria Though eradicated in many developed nations, malaria still claims thousands of lives around the world. One victim who survived this mosquito-borne disease compared its chills to “ lying down between two blocks of ice .” Each year, more than 400,000 people don’t survive those terrifying shudders. As part of its long-term goal to eradicate malaria, this year the World Health Organization (WHO) is launching the first field test of a vaccine in real-world settings. Known as RTS,S, or Mosquirix™, the United Nations agency says this is the first vaccine shown to provide partial protection against malaria in young children by acting against the deadliest parasite globally. It will be made available to select residents of three countries in Africa, the continent linked to the highest number of c...

Did you know that the scientific community has been studying the effects of gratitude and thanksgiving on the physiological health of humans? Since around the year 2000, social scientists began turning their focus solely from abnormal psychology to healthy emotional habits and their impact on the way we live. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, reports : “A large body of recent work suggests that people who are more grateful have higher levels of well-being: Grateful people are happier, less stressed, and more satisfied with their lives and social relationship. Grateful people also have higher levels of control of their environments, personal growth, purpose in life, and self- acceptance. Grateful people have more positive ways of coping with the difficulties they experience in life, being less likely to try and avoid the problem, deny there is a problem, blame themselves, or cope through substance use. Grateful people sleep better, and this seems to be because they think less negative...

Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the global problem of modern slavery – despite being difficult to eradicate, there is still hope. Champions of Change Clearly, governments have a major role to play in ending slavery, and leaders are taking steps in places like India, where tougher anti-trafficking laws have been pursued. In 2016, child rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi launched the global “100 million for 100 million” campaign, which challenges the world’s children living in better circumstances to speak up on behalf of disadvantaged children. Then-President Pranab Mukherjee’s support of the campaign has been acknowledged as part of a “historic move towards ending child slavery in India.” Of 161 countries profiled in the Global Slavery Index, 150 governments provide some kind of services for victims, 124 have criminalized human trafficking, and 96 have national action plans to do something about it. Perhaps fittingly, ...

Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the horrors of modern day human trafficking, slavery and forced labor throughout the world. Human Trafficking: Cashing In on Chaos Like a virus, human trafficking continues to mutate. Women have long been considered to be the main victims, and that is certainly true in the sex trade, where they comprise 99 percent of those used and abused. However, GRETA (Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings) found that, in some countries, labor trafficking has emerged as “the predominant form.” And while there are “considerable variations in the number and proportion of labour trafficking victims amongst evaluated countries, all countries indicated an upward trend of labour exploitation over the years.” As the numbers of those trafficked for forced labor have increased over the last decade, so has the number of trafficked men, who can be subject to particularly brutal treatment. Survivors of forced labor...

For several years I’ve collected lovely coffee table books that are beautifully graphically designed with photo essays and recipes highlighting the uniqueness and wonder of . . . pumpkins! One writer, Caroline Boisset, who grows some 75 varieties of squashes, pumpkins and gourds, says, “It is no accident that pumpkins and squashes, along with many other members of their family, the cucurbitaceae, fascinate people who have just encountered them and trigger passion in those who start to collect and cultivate them. They have everything to offer.” Indeed, squashes, pumpkins and gourds are decorative: Nothing is more beautiful than a pile of orange pumpkins on a fall day with the fields going golden, the blue sky and the maple trees beginning to redden. What a whammy for the eyes when the orange pumpkins, lit by the sun, are juxtaposed against bunches of mums or fall zinnias! But cucurbitaceae are also a cook’s delight. Immensely versatile, their taste is conducive to the making of soups an...

Wills Point, Texas – GFA Special Report (Gospel for Asia) – Discussing the present day tragedy of modern slavery & human trafficking, where there are more slaves today than at any time in history. Around 10 million people are currently behind bars somewhere in the world. Some have yet to face trial, a few have been wrongly convicted, but most are prisoners for a crime they have committed. Meanwhile, four times as many people are being held against their will because of a crime committed against them—they are part of the global slave population estimated to be more than 40 million. That number is higher than the entire population of Canada. Many of these victims are literally kept under lock and key, while others are effectively imprisoned by coercion, manipulation and extortion. Slavery: Stronger Today than Ever Slavery may long have been officially outlawed, but difficult though it may be to believe, numerically there are more slaves today than at any time in history. Among them...

Wills Point, Texas – GFA ( Gospel for Asia ) – Discussing the transformative, life-changing impact a Bridge of Hope center can make in the lives of children through the power of God’s love. One class session was all it took to convince me not to be a teacher. Going in, I had been undecided. But that one class solidified that I have neither the patience nor the motivation to be the guiding light children need. But Aayush, a Bridge of Hope student, has these qualities. Aayush knows that children need love, encouragement, and place to thrive; he himself did not have these growing up at first. A Broken and Terrified Family Aayush grew up in a broken home. His father was an alcoholic, often abusing his wife both verbally and physically. Aayush and his brothers could only watch, terrified into silence. His home was an unsafe haven, and there was nowhere else to go. Aayush’s father spent all their money on alcohol, leaving barely enough for the family to survive. Any form of education was sim...

Wills Point, Texas – GFA ( Gospel for Asia ) – Discussing the most essential gifts the Lord God has given Christians everywhere for use in His service. “We could read every book ever written on prayer, but that won’t make us people of prayer. We learn to pray by doing it.” —Dr. KP Yohannan, “Learning to Pray” The Bible is very clear in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 that the Lord has given all believers gifts to use in His service. The gifts He gives us are chosen by Him to equip us for sharing the His love with people who need to know of His love and sacrifice and for building up the body of believers. What an honor and privilege to know that the Lord God has given you and I individually selected gifts for use in His service! Without a doubt, however, He has given each of us at least three gifts that are more important and far greater than all those listed in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians. These gifts are given to every believer. They are essential to our relationship with the Lord an...

Wills Point, Texas – GFA ( Gospel for Asia ) – Discussing how GFA-supported Bridge of Hope centers change the lives of children, their families, and in turn their communities. 1.8 million Indian babies succumb to death annually from effects of malnutrition and diseases. 150,000 infant deaths per month 34,615 deaths per week 4,945 deaths per day 206 deaths per hour The sad plight of the surviving children living in poverty in South Asia is impossible for our minds to comprehend unless we have seen it with our own eyes. These children wake up every morning in squalor, waste, rubbish and odors—not unlike survivors of a tornado, hurricane or earthquake experience. The major difference for these children is that every morning is the same. For these children and their families, there is no likelihood for a better future. There is no hope. GFA-supported Bridge of Hope centers have been changing the prospects for the lives of tens of thousands of children every year since 2004. Most people fa...

Wills Point, Texas – Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report – Discussing widow’s plight worldwide as they face tragedy, discrimination, as well as the efforts and opportunities extended to them to give them hope. Hope to Overcome the Challenges of Widowhood “For millions of widows in Asia, life is incredibly difficult,” says Dr. KP Yohannan, founder and director of GFA. “Many are forced into begging or prostitution to survive. There are 46 million widows on the streets and in slums. There are stories of thousands of widows committing suicide because they have no hope.” Another widow whose story was featured in “Veil of Tears” faced rejection from her husband’s family after he died. Her nephews refused to give her food, forcing her to beg from passing strangers. Once, when she got sick and suffered from diarrhea for two days, no one would even approach her. Members of a GFA-supported Women’s Fellowship took her to the hospital for treatment, provided her food and found her a home. Most o...

Wills Point, Texas – Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report – Discussing the plight of widows worldwide – raising awareness of the problems of widowhood as they face tragedy, discrimination, and suffering. A Day for the Plight of Widows Raises Awareness In response to stories like these , the Loomba Foundation organized the first International Widows Day in 2005 to raise awareness of the problems of widowhood. The foundation selected June 23 for the observance because on that day in 1954 the mother of the organization’s founder, Lord Loomba, became a widow. By the sixth year, 10 nations held observances. In December 2010, the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted June 23 as International Widows Day, calling on member states, the UN system and other organizations to give special attention to the situation of widows and their children. [ 1 ] Considering the average widow has three children and six other family members, the wider impact affects more than a billion people, about o...

Wills Point, Texas – Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report – Discussing the plight of widows worldwide as they face tragedy, discrimination, and suffering. Accounts of the humiliations, insults and indignations suffered by widows worldwide would make anyone cringe. Gulika, a widow in Asia, experienced helplessness after the people in her village turned their backs on her after her husband’s death. A woman in Nigeria was harassed by her brother-in-law asking for documents of her house before her husband’s body even left for the funeral home—and then insisted she had to leave. Another Nigerian woman’s husband lay in a hospital bed when her sister-in-law demanded a huge amount of money from their bank account. When the wife refused, her in-law swore she would regret it. “Three days after, my husband died, his family descended on me, took his cars away and emptied the house.” In connection with last year’s International Widows Day, CNN spotlighted the cases of seven widows, ranging from a w...

Wills Point, Texas – Gospel for Asia Special Report (GFA) – Discussing the troubling problem of the lack of toilets – basic sanitation, and open defecation for millions throughout the world. What If You Didn’t Have a Toilet? So I remind myself of toilet scenarios I do know about, then extrapolate some personal situations out to extreme what-ifs. Our home, in which we have lived for 38 years, has its own septic system. During that time, when we had extreme storms, the power would go out. This meant that no water could be pumped from our underground well, and this electric outage disabled our showers, our faucets and our toilets. I used to store plastic bottles of water so when things went black we could brush our teeth, get dressed by candlelight (since there are no windows in any of our bathrooms), and—get this—flush our toilets. If the power did not come back on for a couple days, the frozen food thawed and an excess of detritus threatened to overflow the toilet basin. So I extrapola...