WILLS POINT, TX — A mind-boggling 218 million children around the world are involved in child labor, with millions trafficked in forced labor and the sex trade, according to a new report just released by Christian organization Gospel for Asia (GFA). Gospel for Asia (GFA) Founder, Dr. KP Yohannan, calls for people to “pray, engage…
KARACHI – The Pakistani Senate has passed a bill to end child marriage, making marriage illegal for girls under the age of 18 to marry. That sounds like good news in a country where it is estimated that 21% of girls under 18 are married, often being forced to do so as early as age…
In conjunction with World Day Against Child Labor, Christian humanitarian agency spotlights ‘horrible and tragic’ plight of children — as young as five — forced to work in horrific conditions. WILLS POINT, TX — More than 200 million children, as young as five years old, are trapped in “despicable” labor conditions, according to a soon-to-be-released…
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report on the aftermath of acute gender imbalance: Discussing the horrendous reality of 100 million missing women worldwide. One of the stunning stories from Scripture tells about the uninvited woman who crashed a VIP party at the home of an important religious leader. This is a…
World Vison is warning that millions of children are at risk from cyclone Fani which has slammed into India’s eastern coastline, bringing torrential rains and winds of up to 200 km per hour. Thousands of people from areas along the coastline in India have been evacuated. Cyclone Fani is the first severe, cyclonic storm to…
YANGON – Reuters journalists, Wa Lone (33) and Kyaw So Oo (29) were detained in Myanmar in December 2017. They were charged and eventually convicted of violating the country’s Official Secrets Act. They were sentenced to seven years in prison. Today, the two men are free after spending more than 500 days in custody. They…
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has released its annual report in the aftermath of attacks on mosques in New Zealand, churches in Sri Lanka and synagogues in the United States. “It’s coming at a time when religious freedom concerns, for lots of reasons, are getting more attention across the board,” USCIRF Commissioner Johnnie…
WILLS POINT, TX – Realizing that World Water Day was fast approaching on March 22nd, I reread Gospel for Asia’s special report, “Dying of Thirst: The Global Water Crisis.” I read the report a couple of weeks ago, which was published March 1, but I wanted to prepare my heart to pray for the third…
ASIA – Gospel for Asia released a special report on “Seeking Justice & Defending Human Rights.” In addition to being available on the ministry’s website, the report was published in three parts on Patheos. The recurring theme of the report was abuse and indignity suffered by women and children, especially those in developing countries in…
WILLS POINT, TX – March 22nd is set aside every year as World Water Day. Throughout the month and beyond, Missions Box will feature news, statistics, and human-interest stories that draw attention to multiple facets of the global crisis. This article shares insights into the Top 10 countries where the water crisis is worst. #10…
SOUTH ASIA – World Leprosy Day was observed on 27 January to raise awareness of the truth about what may be the most misunderstood disease on the planet. Having the disease is compounded by the indignities the infected must suffer. People with leprosy who have obvious deformities are relegated to isolated colonies where they are…
Poverty. You know it when you see it – but, can you define it? A World Perspective Dictionary.com defines poverty as “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; the condition of being poor.” It defines “poor” as “having little or no money, goods, or other means of…
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….
Forgotten Missionaries International: Building partnerships to empower indigenous church plantersThis is the second article in our new “Spotlight” series that homes in on our primary intent of “Connecting the Church in the West to news of what God is doing through nonprofits around the world.” This article shines the Spotlight on Forgotten Missionaries International (FMI),…
WILLS POINT, TX – The ongoing case of the Asia Bibi trial in Pakistan has drawn attention to the imminent danger of blasphemy laws, particularly for Christians. Missions Box News decided to investigate blasphemy laws around the world. Although this article may not contain everything you want to know about it, we think you will…
YANGON – Myanmar, formerly Burma, may best be described a line from Rogers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I” in which the king exclaims, “It’s a puzzlement.” In a recent article, we related the story of a Christian pastor in a small village in the Chin state in northwest Myanmar. The gist of the story…
LONDON – The independent think tank, Overseas Development Institute (ODI) has released a shocking report that indicates that 25% of the world population – 40% of all urban dwellers – will live in slums by 2030. This is only one of the failures to achieve adequate progress on the UN’s list of 17 Sustainable Development…
RANGOON – Most Western people still know Myanmar as Burma – a country somewhere in South Asia. Situated east of the Bay of Bengal, Myanmar borders Bangladesh, India, China, and Thailand. Myanmar, then Burma, was evangelized in the early 1800s by Adoniram Judson who also completed the first Burmese language Bible. In 1950, there were…
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) Special Report: Hope to Overcome the Challenges of Widowhood Written By Ken Walker of InChrist Communications 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…
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) Special Report on Slavery & Human Trafficking Written By Palmer Holt of InChrist Communications 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…
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) Special Report on Mosquito Netting and Malaria Prevention Combat a Parasitic Genius Written By Ken Walker of InChrist Communications Fighting 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…
INDIA – South Asia and the Indian subcontinent seem to be facing a perennial water crisis that may be getting worse rather than better. The problem is complex. It is not simply that there is too much or too little. While there is flooding in some regions there is a drought in others. Where there…
International Day for the Unreached organizers emphasize need for whole church to respond to Jesus’ Great Commission COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – United by a single goal, the champions of missions to the unreached follow a wide range of paths in taking the gospel to those who have yet to hear of Jesus. The breadth of…
WASHINGTON DC – The Pew Research Center has released its comprehensive annual report on religious restrictions around the globe. The report compares restrictions in 2016 with previous years across two distinct categories: government-imposed restrictions and societal hostilities. More than a quarter (28%) of the 198 countries included in the research were identified as having either…
NEW DELHI – One month ago today, the state of Kerala reported an outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus. This is the third outbreak of the virus in India since the beginning of the century. Seventeen people have died as a result of the recent outbreak. Although there is no known cure for Nipah, the…
YANGON – Life goes on as normal for Christians and Muslims in Myanmar, just as life goes on as normal for Christians and Muslims in America. Normal is the operative word because what is normal for them is at the extreme opposite of what normal is for us. We often refer to normal as “the…
WILLS POINT, TX – Most people would agree that life is not easy. I know the homeless lady we took to church this week does. I’m sure those who have lost a job or suffered divorce or the death of a loved one do. Because of our own circumstances, it is difficult for us to…
GFA (Gospel for Asia) matches simple mosquito net distribution with awareness drive to further ‘life and death’ fight against malaria. WILLS POINT, Texas—Malaria may be a thing of the past in many places, but it remains a major public health threat in large parts of the world, prompting GFA (Gospel for Asia) to sound the…
NEW DELHI – As the world moves on to other matters following World Water Day, the World Water Forum, and Cape Town’s postponement of ‘Day Zero’ until 2019, a global water crisis continues, nonetheless. A crisis already exists for many people in South Asia and there are indications that conditions could get worse before they…
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) Special Report on the worldwide issue of extreme poverty Written by Palmer Holt of InChrist Communications More than 80 years after George Orwell wrote in his classic Animal Farm that “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others,” his barbed observation on disparity rings ever truer for…
KNIFE RIVER, MN – FARMS International has established successful agricultural evangelism programs in Haiti, Cuba, Ecuador, Thailand, The Philippines, Moldova, Bangladesh, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Thailand, Vietnam, and the state of Nagaland in Northeast India. The organization recently announced that it is expanding its unique approach to doing good in the name of Christ to…
Global Clean Water Crisis – a Special Report by Gospel for Asia (GFA World) Written By Karen Burton Mains The “Blue Marble” photo of Earth shot from Apollo 17, the last of NASA’s Apollo missions as the rocket ship was hurtling toward the moon, wasn’t the first satellite image of our planet, but it was the…
Diarrhea. Just say the word out loud and watch people cringe. It is so sickening that no one wants to hear about it, let alone have it. One of America’s most trusted healthcare websites, WebMD, says, When you have diarrhea, your bowel movements (or stools) are loose and watery. It’s very common and usually not…
SHILLONG, MEGHALAYA – Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is a state-owned telecommunications company with headquarters in New Delhi. It is the 5th-largest provider of mobile telephone provider in India and the largest service providing both fixed and broadband services in the country. Last week, P.G. Nirmal, the general manager of the BSNL telecom district in…
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) Special Report on the global problem of violence against women Written By Michelle Jimenez, GFA Staff Writer Geeta, a mother of two, lived in the slums and struggled to put food on the table every day with the meager 20 rupees her husband gave her. That amount equaled less than…
For most who read this article, the thought of water evokes images in the mind of a thirst-quenching drink. If we spend a few minutes pondering the world of water, we might think about idyllic, picturesque lakes and streams. Some will think of water’s life-giving qualities. Those who are familiar with the Bible might reflect…
CALCUTTA – A crowd of an estimated 70,000 attended an anti-terrorism, pro-Israel rally in Calcutta on February 15th. Speakers discussed a range of topics that centered on the problem of recent Iranian terrorism against Israel, citing is as an indication of things to come as Islamic terrorists are increasing acts of aggression in India, especially…
KATMANDU – At four minutes before noon on April 25, 2015, Nepal was hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake with its epicenter about 48 miles northwest of the capital city of Katmandu. It was the worst natural disaster to hit Nepal in more than 80 years and the deadliest day in the region’s recorded history….
KUALA LUMPUR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A group of more than 30 researchers from six countries is preparing to create the first detailed images, maps, and monitors of earthquake-prone regions of Asia. The project will cover 435 square miles of an onshore subduction zone that is an extension of the one the caused the 2004…
The United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the current leader of Myanmar, on Nov. 15 to discuss the plight of the Rohingya, a people group of Myanmar that has been persecuted by the military for being illegal aliens. There are currently more than 600,000 Rohingyas that have fled…
The United Nations is doing an investigation to see whether the treatment of the Rohingya amounts to human rights violations. Per CNN, “Tens of thousands of members of Myanmar’s Muslim minority have left in this fashion, and their treatment may amount to ‘crimes against humanity,’ warns UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee.” About 70,000 people have…
Photo by Firdaus Latif The children of the Rohingya are disappearing off the street. The Rohingya are one of the most oppressed people, who have no homeland. Voice of America reports, “A spate of disappearances among the children of displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh is raising fears the children have been abducted into the region’s human…
Photo by Ziaul Hoque Cyclone Mora hit the coast of Bangladesh on May 30, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Per AccuWeather, “More than 500,000 people have been displaced by the former Cyclone Mora which brought heavy rain and damaging winds to western Myanmar and Bangladesh on Monday and Tuesday.” After landfall, at least six…
The Myanmar military is cracking down on Myanmar’s minorities, particularly the Rohingya. Many of them flee into Bangladesh. CNN reports, “Authorities in neighboring Bangladesh said dozens of people have attempted to flee across the border in recent days.” Those in Myanmar think that the Rohingya are Bangladesh citizens and as such are there illegally, even…
The Zika-related malady of microcephaly that has plagued Brazil and much of the Americas is now in Thailand where two babies recently born there have the birth defect, marking Asia’s first reports of the condition. While not all pregnant women infected with Zika deliver microcephalic babies, researchers say Zika is one of the leading…
In June of 2016, the dry season in Indonesia, it would not stop raining. CNN explains, “June is usually relatively dry in the region, but the National Climatology, Meteorology and Geophysics Agency has issued a warning for potential rain for late June and early July in five provinces.” Not only did Indonesia have heavy flooding,…
At least 42 Killed, Millions Affected in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal WILLS POINT, Tex. – Workers supported by Gospel for Asia (GFA) are distributing supplies, including food, mosquito netting, hygiene products and blankets, to villagers fleeing widespread monsoon flooding across certain parts of Asia. The monsoons have killed more than 42 people and driven millions…
With 91 of India’s major water reservoirs registering lower-than-normal at about 29 percent capacity, the world’s second most-populated nation is facing its worst water scarcity in a decade. Making the challenge even more critical is that 66,093 rural Indian villages only have access to contaminated water. In West Bengal state, the declining water levels of…
