Some of us are old enough to remember grandparents, aunts and uncles who could not read or write. Yes, right here in the United States. Those we may recall were the children of parents who had been prevented from learning these essential skills because their survival was existential. Their progenitors had to work the family…
Resolving the Limitations Illiteracy Places on the Human Spirit WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) issues an extensive Special Report on illiteracy, the dominant disabler to flourishing for millions around the world, and the miraculous potential of literacy that is able to change the lives of men, women and children for generations. Few…
toiletNEW DELHI – The widespread practice of open defecation in the developing countries in Asia and Africa has long been a focus of Missions Box News, numerous FBOs, NGOs, and the United Nations. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for 2030 include bringing the entire world to that status of being Open Defecation Free (ODF)….
NEW DELHI – Missions Box has steadfastly supported effective action to protect women from abuses wherever they occur. Mistreatment of women takes many forms across the entire globe but nowhere else is that abuse so apparent as it is in developing countries where women are traditionally held in low regard.The Provisions of NGOs South Asia…
CHENGDU – Persecution has become a hot topic, especially among Christians, reportedly the most persecuted people in the world. The annual World Watch List ranks countries where persecution of Christians runs high, even beyond imagination. Missions Box News has published more than 50 articles and news stories about the persecution of Christians in 2019 alone….
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) issues an extensive Special Report on child labor: Millions of Children Trapped between Extreme Poverty and the Profits of Others In a report written by Lee Tucker, a consultant to Human Rights Watch, about the problem of bonded labor in Asia, a young girl shared, “My sister…
PARIS – Just days ago, UNESCO revealed that the world is “off track” in reaching yet another of the 2030 deadlines for sustainable development. With 2020 less than six months away, we are nearly one-third of the way on the timeline to meet those goals. On July 7, UNESCO admitted that the education goal (SDG…
As Government Declares State of Emergency, Gospel for Asia Founder KP Yohannan Mourns the Deaths of Nearly 300 People on Easter WILLS POINT, TX — The Easter Sunday attacks on eight churches and hotels that killed nearly 300 people in Sri Lanka were aimed at large gatherings of people across the nation and intended to…
KINNERET – Millions of tourists visit Lake Kinneret in Israel every year. They visit because, since Biblical times and amongst Christians today, it is known as the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee and the surrounding areas have been the sites of much of Jesus’ earthly ministry and many of His miracles recording in…
“A sustainable outcome is the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely.” —Sustainability Outcomes “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” —Peter Drucker, business leader and author WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) – The two opening quotes are truths that cannot be ignored whether improving your golf game, building a…
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report on the global clean water crisis: Discussing the crucial quest for access to clean drinking water. The widespread lack of clean water is a crisis we can’t ignore. The statistics are mind-numbing. 502,000 people die each year from diarrhea—caused by unsafe drinking water.[1] 2.1 billion…
PAMPLONA, Columbia – Operation Blessing has provided relief to millions of people in 90 different countries and all 50 of the United States over the past 41 years. Founded in 1978 by Pat Robertson, the faith-based NGO provides aid in areas where people’s lives are threatened by poverty, disasters, and persecution. Like similar faith-based organizations…
HENAN – Reports continue to stream from China regarding the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and it’s actions to eliminate Christianity from the country. Crosses have been removed from church buildings, churches have been subjected to electronic monitoring whilst others have been closed. The First Commandment has been declared illegal. The Bible is being retranslated to conform…
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…
BEIJING – Christians in China are learning what it means to fight against principalities, powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (See Ephesians 6:12) The Chinese government is continuing its concerted efforts to shut down all forms of Christian worship. Missions Box has been publishing news…
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…
“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…
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report – Discussing the impact of education on the eradication of extreme poverty. When considering the issues of poverty and lack of education, an old saying comes to mind: “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Poverty and low education are each self-perpetuating: Those born into…
One WEDEW unit can produce 2,000 liters of water per day Welcome to the first of a regular series of news articles to be published by Missions Box News (MBN) on the subject of clean, safe-to-drink water and clean water scarcity worldwide. It is part of a metamorphosis at Missions Box News to raise awareness on…
INDIA – September 8th was International Literacy Day. With so many days set aside to draw attention to causes, we rarely take a look back to recognize what we have done to meet the needs of the cause beyond memorializing the day. Illiteracy is a significant issue in South Asia and other areas of the…
GFA (Gospel for Asia) shares example of reconciliation to mark International Day of Peace and inspire more peacemakers to prayer and action WILLS POINT, Texas—As political and religious divisions widen and deepen around the world, GFA (Gospel for Asia) hopes that a simple story of reconciliation and forgiveness will inspire more people to pray and…
KERALA – Merku Thodarchi Malai is a made-in-India Tamil language film that chronicles the daily lives and the continuing plight of tea estate workers in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The English title of the film is The Western Ghats. The Western Ghats is 62,000 square miles of the mountain range that runs parallel to the…
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…
As the flood survivors of Kerala, India, recover from the devastation caused by the massive flooding, Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers continue to diligently serve those in need. Congregations led by Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported pastors are stepping in to help in various ways. A Women’s Fellowship located in one of the hardest hit places…
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…
WILLS POINT, Texas — GFA (Gospel for Asia) has issued an urgent appeal for help in responding to some of the worst flooding in almost a century that has claimed several hundred lives and displaced nearly a quarter of a million people in southern India. Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers have already begun distributing emergency…
Kerala, India, continues to face peril as the monsoon rains destroy homes, paddy fields and businesses. The death toll has risen, as reports are now estimating well over 100 lives have been lost, while some people are missing. Some houses are under 10 feet of water. Many people are still being rescued by helicopter after…
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…
NEW DELHI – This year India will celebrate the 72nd anniversary of its independence, following two centuries of being subject to the domination of the British East India Company and, ultimately, the rule of the British Empire in 1857. In the 18th century Indian subcontinent consisted of an array of local kingdoms. As the British…
Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers warn of dangers of tobacco to help demonstrate that ‘God cares for the whole person’ WILLS POINT, Texas—June 2017, residents of a community in northern India pledged to make it tobacco-free following a health awareness drive by Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers. Carrying placards and handing out advisory leaflets about…
MUMBAI – India Spend recently inteview Naina Lal Kidwai. Kidwai was the former head of HSBC in India, the first woman in India to become the head of a foreign bank in the country. She is the current vice-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water. She was instrumental in founding the…
JERUSALEM – Drought and water shortages are plaguing nations all around the world. Blame it on whatever you choose, the need to provide adequate amounts of clean, sweet, potable water must be addressed before the local and regional water crises become a global, life-threatening crisis. Israel faces a potential crisis as the Sea of Galilee,…
One of the widows touched by Gospel for Asia-supported teams’ help-and-hope visits speaks of her ‘beautiful house’ made possible by simple donation WILLS POINT, Texas—The message of God’s sheltering love for the destitute and disenfranchised was spelled out practically with tin sheets and umbrellas when Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported teams reached out to some of…
GFA (Gospel for Asia) leader Dr. KP Yohannan assists in ‘great act of kindness’ supply distributions in wake of severe flooding in Sri Lanka. WILLS POINT, Texas—Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported (GFA) workers worked alongside Buddhist priests to bring relief to some of those worst hit by the severe flooding that left thousands of Sri Lankans…
HAMILTON, ONTARIO – The name Tim Horton is almost synonymous with Canada. For most Americans who are familiar with the name, it is a national chain of doughnut shops. But Tim Horton was a real person. Horton was a first-team All-Star three times in his 24-year career in the National Hockey League. In 2017, he…
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…
BEIRUT – Horizons International recently introduced its plans for establishing the Middle East Center for World Missions in Beirut. The entire project is expected to take 10 years to complete. The objective is “To build a hub and network that facilitate the mobilization, training, and sending of missionaries from the Middle East and North Africa…
NEW DELHI – Indian Prime Minister Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission in 2014 to overcome “the poor sanitation and related health concerns [that] have remained a major problem in India since the country’s independence 70 years ago.” and move India toward sustainable ODF. One of the essential and fundamental elements of the Swachh Bharat…
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…
How should we pray for overseas missionaries and pastors? I want to pray, but what do they need? This is a question that often crosses our minds when we hear of the adversity facing those who serve the Lord in areas that are volatilize and prone to hostility. Tamang is a pastor in South Asia who…
THIRUVALLA, KERALA, India – Believers Church Medical College Hospital gave new life to a one-year-old Indian boy and restored hope for his anxious parents when the medical staff at Believers Church Medical College Hospital (BCMCH) successfully performed a complex surgical procedure to repair a large hole in the boy’s heart. Aksar’s parents, both day laborers…
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…
Gospel for Asia (GFA World) Special Report on the Open Defecation Sanitation Crisis Written By Karen Burton Mains For much of my adult life, it has been my privilege to hang out with the “renegades” of Christian missions, that relief-and-development crowd that rushes to help during natural disasters, struggles to alleviate the suffering and abasement…
From neglect of small girls to dowry violence and abandonment of widows, GFA (Gospel for Asia) highlights ‘silent suffering’ in region. NASHVILLE — While much of America is caught up in the “#MeToo” movement, a new report by GFA (Gospel for Asia) is spotlighting the scale of the daily horrors faced by women around the…
Gospel for Asia (GFA) highlights need for more toilets to cut avoidable death toll, in the first of challenging series looking at major social issues affecting people in Asia. WILLS POINT, Texas—Missionary organization GFA (Gospel for Asia) is calling attention to a usually ignored, delicate subject at the heart of much of its caring work—a…
On Super Bowl Sunday, in a commercial by an alcohol beverage company, Matt Damon promised that if people purchased a chalice, $3 of the $13 purchase would go to benefit communities in need with clean water for five years. Stella Artois is doing this in partnership with Water.org. NPR released an article on February 2…
World Cancer Day 2018 By Karen Burton Mains When our last-born child, Jeremy Mains, was younger, he used to complain regularly about the privileges of his older brothers and sister. “Why don’t I get to do all the things Randy and Joel and Melissa get to do,” he would whine—frequently. My reply always was, “Just…
