In February 2018, Dr. Graham exchanged his earthly rewards for his heavenly rewards, marking the first time since 1955 that he was not included in the annual Gallup poll of American’s most admired men. Sadly, the 2018 poll of the most trusted Americans by occupation also witnessed a continuing decline in the respect afforded to…
DAVOS – Three thousand world leaders are expected to meet at the World Economic Forum in this Swiss community from January 22nd through the 25th. The theme of this year’s forum is “Trust: The world’s currency.” Immediately preceding the event, Oxfam released a 40-page research report entitled “Public Good or Private Wealth.” Oxfam is an…
WILLS POINT, TX The last Sunday in January is set aside to observe World Leprosy Day. Gospel for Asia (GFA) has released a Special Report examining the problem of leprosy. Across the globe, leprosy charities and partners join together to raise awareness of this disease that many people believe to be extinct, when in fact…
PENANG – During the recent testing of lighting fixtures at a residential high-rise under construction in the city of Penang, a local Muslim mufti complained to local authorities because the resulting pattern was in the shape of a cross. The mufti insisted that the authorities investigate why the lights had been arranged as a cross…
CANBERRA – Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison published an open letter this week to “Australians of all faiths.” The catalyst for the letter is the parliamentary debate on freedom of religion versus discrimination against sexual orientation in religious schools and institutions. A Missions Box report published on October 17, 2018, asked the question, “Australia: Can…
GAFFNEY, SC – The closure, censure, and prohibition of churches, whether as congregations or as church buildings has become a regular theme in news from countries around the world. It is reasonable to expect the trend to continue and, eventually, to overflow into the home of the free and the brave. This writer, having once…
SANTA ANA, CA – According to its website, “For over 60 years, Open Doors has worked in the world’s most oppressive countries, empowering Christians who are persecuted for their beliefs. Open Doors equips persecuted Christians in more than 60 countries through programs like Bible & Gospel Development, Women & Children Advancement, and Christian Community Restoration.”…
Contrary to popular belief among many Americans, radio is not a relic of the past. Once again, we are victims of our own isolation and our preoccupation with the ever-emerging technologies that seem to have relegated radio to the recollection of retirees. Then, there is the virtual demise of the once ubiquitous Radio Shack. The…
VIENNA – January 2019 is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. According to the United Nations 2018 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons released this month, human trafficking has “taken on horrific dimensions.” The report, which compiles data from 142 countries, was published in two booklets. The first is typical of the annual report from a global…
MANAGUA – Chosen Children Ministries is a faith-based, non-profit organization focused on reaching families and communities in Nicaragua. Its methodology is unique in that the organization has field staff in two locations within the country through which it utilizes teams of volunteers from evangelical churches, schools, universities, and businesses to expand its outreach. Because Nicaragua…
KAMPALA – Being a pastor is a difficult life at the best of times. Pastors commit to a life of serving the Lord and reaching out to others, often at great personal sacrifice, to help them carry their burdens. Being a pastor in developing countries in Africa has got to be even more difficult, especially…
A Special Report published in February 2018 by Gospel for Asia (GFA) revealed that more than 40 million people around the world are currently living in some form of slavery. The report added that 25 million of those are enslaved in Asia and the Pacific. Seeking Justice and Defending Human Rights Wherever Poverty and Oppression…
NAIROBI – A joint report released last year by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United National Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicated that the sub-Saharan nation of Kenya is one of the countries facing an urgent need to overcome the problem of open defecation. Nearly 30% of the people in Kenya defecate in the open,…
Modern missions pioneer and advocate, Don Richardson, passed away on December 23, 2018, at the age of 83. In 1952 at the age of 17, the young Canadian from Prince Edward Island gave his life to Jesus Christ at a Youth for Christ rally. In 1962, after graduation from Prairie Bible Institute and Wycliffe Bible…
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” – Colossians 3:16 Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs have always been a part of the Christian life. The Apostle Paul refers…
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the leading cause of death in the world in 2018 claimed the lives of 42 million people. That’s more than the number who died from cancer, malaria, HIV/AIDS, smoking, alcohol, and traffic accidents combined. Worldometers estimates that there was a total of 59 million deaths globally during the…
KERALA – In an event unprecedented in India’s history, five million women gathered in a single line along a 385-mile stretch of National Highway 66 on January 1, 2019. The focal point of “the women’s wall” was a response to being prevented from entering the Sabarimala temple even after the supreme court ruled that women…
ISLAMABAD – News agencies out of Pakistan reported today that a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court requesting the imposition of Sharia Law as the governing law in Pakistan. Meanwhile, 500 senior Muslim leaders signed the Islamabad Declaration which denounces Islamic terrorism, violence committed in the name of religion, and fatwas issued by…
CHENNAI – About 45 million workers are employed in India’s thriving textile and garment industry. The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has introduced a new code of conduct to protect the safety of the largest group employed in the garment industry workforce – women. According to Thomson Reuters, “Numerous studies have shown that low pay,…
HENAN PROVINCE – On November 30, 2018, Chinese communist authorities ordered a church in Henan Province to remove its display of the first commandment of the Ten Commandments. The directive came during a regular inspection of a church affiliated with the government-approved Three-Self church movement. Freedom of religion in China has been a consistent and…
AMSTERDAM – Although relatively unknown to Americans, Leo Habets was a leader among evangelicals in Europe. He passed from this life into the presence of Jesus, the Savior whom he served, on Wednesday, January 2nd. Habets was 70 years old. He succumbed to a two-year battle with colon cancer. He is survived by his wife,…
“For China’s Christians, these are desperate times.” That was a comment made by U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence in October 2018 in a speech where he described the Chinese Communist Party as “avowedly atheist.” Perspective Magazine, which covers U.S. foreign policy from a Christian perspective observed that “in 2018, China’s religious repression has reached ‘a sustained…
Missions Box News recently published a report about GFA-supported pastors and missionaries who had visited an orphanage in which all 28 boys have lost their parents to AIDS and are themselves infected with the dread disease. The pastors and missionaries undertook this effort to assist and encourage the boys and educate them about the HIV…
LONDON – Great Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, ordered a review today into the escalation of persecution of Christians around the world. Current estimates are that 250 Christians die every month as a result of persecution-related violence. The aim of the reviews is to determine what the UK can do aid what is now more…
WILLS POINT – If you sang “Silent Night” with at church or with your family on Christmas Eve, you probably did not realize that your rendition was specially timed. Christmas Eve 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the first presentation of “Stille Nacht.” The words were originally penned as a poem in 1816 by Joseph…
WILLS POINT – While we gather together with our families during this Christmas season there are 68.5 million forcibly displaced people around the world who are separated from home and families and have nowhere to go. According to the UNHCR, people are forcibly displaced faster than one every two seconds as a result of conflict…
CHENGDU – Last week Chinese authorities detained Pastor Wang Yi and 100 members of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, Szechuan, China.Bob Fu, the president of ChinaAid, said that “the massive overnight attack . . . represents a major escalation of religious persecution in China.”Former U.S. Senator and current U.S. Ambassador at Large for…
LONDON – Sadiq Khan is the Mayor of London, England. He had been a Member of Parliament since 2005. He is also a devout Muslim. However, whether politically motivated or out of sincerity, he has proven to be kind to Christians. Just a few days ago on December 16th, he addressed a crowd of 10,000…
MOSUL – There are places in the world where Christians are under attack. Some countries prohibit Christians from telling others about Jesus under anti-terrorism or anti-evangelism laws in regions where Christians are in the minority. We tend to be somewhat surprised by this, but the Lord is not.He has known this would happen from before…
OSLO – Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Christian doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was named a co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize earlier this week. Dr. Mukwege is a world-renowned gynecologist who specializes in treating the survivors of sexual violence within war-torn regions like his own beloved DRC. Mukwege is the son…
RIMBO, Sweden – December 10th marked the fourth day of peace negotiations in Sweden between the warring Houthi rebels and the representatives of the government of Yemen. Meanwhile, the United Nations has described the conditions within Yemen as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” If we have learned nothing else over the past two millennia, it…
WILLS POINT, TEXAS – World Toilet Day was November 19, and the chances that you celebrated the day are probably quite slim. Neither is it likely that you even discussed the matter at the dinner table that day or three days later on Thanksgiving—even though having functioning toilets is something that the Western world should…
WILLS POINT, TEXAS – Gospel for Asia (GFA) has been a leader in ministering to “the least of these”—the millions of people living in abject poverty in Asia—for nearly 40 years. Dr. K.P. Yohannan‘s, Gospel for Asia (GFA) founder, ground-breaking book Revolution in World Missions accurately foretold the need for a dramatic change of methodology…
COLORADO SPRINGS – The 8th chapter of Acts records an incident where Philip, an early follower of Jesus, approached an Ethiopian who happened to be reading a copy of the book of Isaiah. “Do you understand what you are reading?” (Acts 8:30 NKJV) The man replied, “How can I unless someone explains it to me?”…
JERUSALEM – Nightfall on Monday, December 10th marks the end of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. Also known as the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. This year the last day of Hanukkah will be marked by the consecration of a stone altar that has been prepared for…
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until [these] calamities have passed by. KERALA – When we hear the words typhoon, cyclone, or hurricane our first reaction is a heightened awareness of potential danger….
NEW YORK – The 2018 Global Nutrition Report was released on Thursday, November 29th – and it is not good news.The report measures the progress being made to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Number Two: Zero Hunger by 2030. The SDG initiative is, in part, to “end hunger and ensure access by all…
KINSHASA – The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has escalated into the second largest in history. The outbreak that started in August is known to have infected more than 425 people and has been fatal to nearly 250 to date. The incidence of Ebola cases has more than doubled since…
WILLS POINT – When K.P. Yohannan originally published the now classic Revolution in World Missions, he discussed the coming change that would radically transform the established norms of missionary work. Missionaries would no longer be sent out to foreign countries where they had to learn a new language and live in cultures they did not…
MIAMI – The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) is the largest evangelical group in the United States. The NHCLC is currently mobilizing to help the thousands of people in the caravan of immigrants, asylum seekers, that has traveled through Central America to the border between the U.S. and Mexico. The NHCLC Vision Statement begins…
SINGAPORE – Maintenance of religious harmony. It sounds wonderful. An idea that promotes people getting along together. True freedom of religion. But the artwork of legislative ambiguity is misleading in many countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore, the city-state at the southern end of Malaysia. Two men and two women, residents of Finland, were detained…
MUMBAI – The supply of clean water is a world-wide issue. Access to and availability of clean water is so common to American households that we rarely think about it. Turn on the tap. Out flows safe, clean, potable water. Even when Gospel for Asia (GFA) and other NGOs explain the need for clean drinking water…
The first step in any advance in any realm of our human experience begins with an awakened awareness. Psychologists tell us that we can’t help someone until they realize that they need help. That is why it is difficult to help an addict who says, “I don’t have a problem.” They have yet to come…
KRIMPEN AAN DE IJSSEL, Netherlands – Dutch businessman, Johan Huibers, completed construction of a full-size replica of Noah’s Ark in 2012. The $5 million ship was built to the specifications outlined in Genesis chapter six. The 2,500-ton vessel measures 410 feet long, 95 feet wide, and 75 feet tall and contains five decks. Similar to…
AGOURA HILLS, CA “What good is it if we only trust the Lord when we understand His ways? That only guarantees a life filled with doubts” – Joni Eareckson Tada Joni Eareckson Tada has been an inspiration to millions of Christians around the world for over 51 years. At the age of 17, Joni suffered…
CARACAS – The Venezuelan economy is collapsing. One-twelfth of the country’s population has left the country hoping to find a better life. More than three million are now displaced and seeking refuge somewhere outside of the Venezuelan borders. How bad is it? The Washington Post calls it: “The biggest crisis in the hemisphere.” USA Today…
LYNCHBURG, Virginia – Shoes. They are an ordinary, everyday part of life. You probably didn’t think twice about them today, except perhaps, deciding which pair to wear. There are hundreds of thousands of people – perhaps millions – around the world today who don’t get to make that choice. They have either one pair or…
It’s that time of the year when Americans celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, so let’s slow down, take a breath, and consider what Thanksgiving means. Let’s start with what it is not. It is not ‘Turkey Day.’ Nor is it about going over the river and through the wood to grandmother’s house for pumpkin pie. Nor…
Passion: A strong desire or devotion to some activity, object, or concern. Routine: The daily grind that is most likely to dim the flame of passion. WILLS POINT, TEXAS – The home staff of Gospel for Asia (GFA) recently took an entire Friday off work to refresh their passion for prayer, fellowship and sharing Good…
TORONTO – It has been said that God uses common things to accomplish uncommon things. Whoever said that may have been thinking about loaves and fishes or Balaam’s donkey. It is not likely that they were thinking about sailors and comic books, but God can use them, too. He has, and He still is. Warmolt…
