GFA World Newsletter

January 2021, Vol. 18, No. 1

At a glance, nothing looked remarkable about the cluster of homes separated from one another by small patches of grass, but an invisible barrier separated them from the surrounding city. The residents of these homes were leprosy patients, isolated from the outside world because others viewed them with fear.

Leprosy Leaves Little Hope

Of the 50 families living in this leprosy colony, almost all had at least two members with Hansen’s disease (leprosy). Though the disease is curable and leaves minimal damage if detected early enough, patients from poorer backgrounds, like the residents of this colony, lacked access to treatment. Many ended up with irreparable nerve damage, resulting in damaged toes, fingers, ears, nose and eyes.

“My husband and I [have been] lepers many years,” said Nadea, a resident at the colony who also suffers from kidney failure. The medicine she needs is expensive, and she can’t always afford it. “I cry always thinking about our situation.”

Like Nadea, many of the colony’s residents suffered from other diseases in addition to their leprosy, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and asthma. Their poverty ensured they could not afford the necessary treatment. Begging was the only way they could alleviate their situation—until GFA workers intervened.

All Receive Treatment

A group of Sisters of Compassion, GFA workers, served among the leprosy patients, providing meals, cleaning their homes and clothes and dressing their wounds. Touched by the Sisters’ care, many of the colony residents asked them to pray for them and read the Bible to them. The Sisters treated everyone with kindness, looking past their disease to see who they were: real people with real needs.

Knowing the residents’ need for medical treatment, the Sisters of Compassion and other GFA workers organized a free medical camp.

One chilly day, the workers, together with two doctors from local hospitals, gathered the families in the colony. The doctors patiently examined the patients and prescribed medicine to about 300 adults and 200 children. One by one, each resident experienced God’s love through encouraging words, smiles and help.

“Thank you all for your unforgettable service,” Nadea said. One of the doctors remarked, “I am incredibly blessed today to serve this underprivileged community. … It is a great help you have done [for] these poor people.”

Through the compassionate help of GFA workers, the people of this leprosy colony are finding hope. God’s love is breaking through every barrier that has kept them hidden in plain sight.

Hunger gnawed at Keetun’s stomach again. His father had spent most of his earnings on alcohol, leaving too little money for Keetun’s mother to feed her children three meals a day. This sparked frequent arguments between the parents. Was this all the boy could look forward to? Constant hunger and strife? Was this his future?

Unable to Succeed in School

At 13 years old, Keetun had little hope of bettering his circumstances. He lived in a government-provided house with his parents and younger brother. With the money his father didn’t waste, Keetun attended a local school, but his attendance was spotty at best. He needed additional tutoring to succeed in his education, but his parents couldn’t afford it. The boy neared the point of giving up. There would be no future for him, no better life. That’s what Keetun thought, at least.

Then a coordinator from the local GFA Bridge of Hope centre met Keetun’s family one day. While visiting families in the community, Bridge of Hope staff often come across children who desperately need the education provided by Bridge of Hope.

The coordinator invited the boy’s parents to enroll Keetun.

Boy Finds Success—and Joy

The first day at the centre immersed Keetun into a whole new world, and the days that followed transformed the depressed boy. Every day, teachers greeted him with joy and care. Every day, he received a warm meal to erase the hunger that had often dominated the young boy’s thoughts at school. Every day, teachers poured gentle instruction and genuine direction into Keetun’s studies, helping prepare the boy for his future.

Keetun’s grades skyrocketed. Acing his tests, he began to excel in everything he put his mind to, even math, a subject he had previously hated. He joined his school’s athletic team and performed well in the events. Keetun shrugged off the shroud of hopelessness that had blanketed him, and he now radiates joy.

“I am thankful for the teachers at the [centre] and every person who is supporting me by providing my needs,” Keetun says. “I … thank all [my] teachers for their commitment to educate us.”

When the lockdown in Asia first began, GFA pastor Iannel rushed to the store to buy provisions and was stopped by a huge crowd gathered in front of the store. Because of the lockdown, residents were only allowed to leave their home to shop for essentials during a small window of time each day. Pastor Iannel maneuvered his way through the crowd to the shopkeeper with his list. The shopkeeper told Iannel he would gather the items and instructed him to come back later to pick up his order.

When Pastor Iannel left the market, he ran in to Karrem, a 50-year-old man who attended his church. The men talked about the strange times they were living through and Pastor Iannel asked how Karrem’s family was coping with the pandemic and lockdown. Karrem told the pastor that he could not go to work because of the lockdown. Because Karrem was a daily wage labourer, his family lived off each day’s earnings and no work meant no money; no money meant no food. Pastor Iannel’s heart broke when he heard Karrem’s struggles. He prayed for Karrem and his family, that God would provide for them and carry them through this difficult time. Karrem left but Iannel remained, deep in thought.

Before he could return to the store to pick up his grocery items, Pastor Iannel met another member of his church, Prymo, who greeted him with a haggard face. The pastor knew this family was going through a very difficult time. Prymo’s wife had recently miscarried. The grief of losing their child was compounded by the hospital bill, which ate up their daily earnings. Now, with the lockdown, Prymo could not work to build their finances back up. Their family faced starvation. Everything seemed stacked against this hard-working man and his wife.

Pastor Iannel encouraged Prymo to keep trusting God through the difficult times. God knew his struggles and had a plan to help Prymo’s family. Pastor Iannel’s prayers brought relief to Prymo and gave him the strength to keep trusting God.

Pastor Iannel hurried back to the shop to pick up his items. When he arrived, he added 44 pounds of flour to his order.

After lugging the sacks of groceries home, Iannel called Karrem and Prymo to come over, and he presented each man with 22 pounds of flour to feed their families. The men were grateful for God’s unexpected provision and their pastor’s care and concern touched their hearts.

“God knows our hearts and minds,” Karrem said. “So, He sent the provision items through His servant. I am very thankful to [the church].”

Prymo agreed. “The church has helped us in the time of needs [when nobody knew] about our condition,” he said. “I am so grateful to the church.”

Both men’s faith has grown because of God’s help through Pastor Iannel. There are many more families like Karrem’s and Prymo’s who need help during these difficult times. Daily wage labourers, numbering in the millions, have been hit hard by the pandemic induced lockdown. GFA workers are meeting the needs of many people through food distributions. Local congregations are coming together to help each other with basic needs, much like the early church.

“And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.”—Acts 2:44–45 (ESV)

Maret remembered when her family was happy. Her husband, Sorin, wanted to provide well for her and their three children, so he moved the family to the city. He found a good job that paid a living wage, and the family of five lived in peace.

Over time, Sorin befriended a bad group who followed the workday with drinking and carousing. His family’s peace soured. Soon, Sorin was an alcoholic, and the financial security his job had once provided evaporated. He borrowed money to pursue his pleasures and struggled to pay it back, falling into debt. At home, quarrelling erupted as Maret watched Sorin drain away the income that should have provided food and school supplies for their children.

After several years of recklessness, Sorin suffered a heart attack, but it was not the wake-up call to responsible living Maret hoped for. Once Sorin recovered, he went right back to his wild living.

Fed up, Maret took her three children and moved to live with her parents, but her financial struggles followed her. Maret could not find work, and happiness remained a stranger to the now fatherless family.

Help Knocks on the Door

One day, Maret met local GFA pastor Arte and welcomed him to their home. Maret told Pastor Arte about her husband’s choices and her difficulty providing for her kids. Pastor Arte encouraged the lonely wife from God’s Word and prayed for her family’s situation. His words of hope and prayers brought peace to Maret. For the first time in years, she wondered if their lives might improve. Maybe Jesus would bring joy back into their lives.

With Maret’s permission, Pastor Arte called Sorin to counsel and pray for him. The pastor’s words touched Sorin’s heart; the estranged father wanted a new life. Maret, hopeful this intervention had changed her husband, moved back to their former home.

Pastor Arte visited Sorin and Maret, discipling them in the Lord’s ways. Maret grew in her trust and commitment to Jesus, but Sorin’s change didn’t last long. His addictions kept pulling him back to a life of debauchery and excess. Eventually, Sorin abandoned his family, disappearing completely from their lives.

Maret Starts a Small Business

Maret worried every day about how to feed and clothe her kids and buy them notebooks for school, but she determined to trust Jesus, even when there was no food for dinner. She faithfully took her children to worship Him at church each Sunday, and the believers helped Maret’s family in their time of crisis. Though grateful for the occasional gifts of food, Maret longed to earn an income with her own hands.

Women in Asia, like Maret and the woman pictured, face many different challenges in raising their families, but God is using GFA workers to bring them hope.

One day, Maret learned that Pastor Arte would distribute gifts for several needy people in the area, and she attended the gift distribution event. To her astonishment, she was presented with a pull cart! Joy filled her heart as she pushed the cart home, possibilities racing through her mind. With a pull cart, Maret could start her own business and finally provide for her family.

Maret started selling vegetables. She piled her cart high with produce and wheeled it to the market, where her mobile business blossomed into a steady income to support her family. All three of her children were able to stay in school, and Maret no longer agonized over how to put food on the table.

Jesus had brought joy back to their lives, and Maret would trust Him the rest of her days.

The Bible tells us that we are no more citizens of this world. Our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). We belong to our sovereign King, and His name is Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords.

How, then, are we to live and represent our King? …

The Lord Jesus left us with a clear picture of His desires for our generation. We know from Scripture exactly what He wants us to be doing and that He wants the world to see His life in us. Not only do we have the Holy Spirit to enable us to live this life, we also have Christ’s example for us recorded in the Gospels and in the lives of His apostles and disciples in the book of Acts.

Christ wants us to move in the same mysterious authority and power that surrounded His earthly ministry. In Matthew 7:29 we read, “For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” He confounded the best academics and theologians of His day—as well as kings and rulers of all sorts.

From the beginning of the Church, we see this same quality reproduced among the apostles. In Acts 4, Peter and John were dragged before the Sanhedrin—the most powerful religious court in Israel—and were questioned about where they had received authority and power to heal a crippled man.

In verse 10, Peter, in the power of the Holy Spirit, boldly replied, “Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.”

In verse 13 we read, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”…

By this they knew that these less-educated fishermen had been with Jesus: The same life and energy that blazed from the Galilean they had arrested and killed was alive again in these disciples. The articles you read in this newsletter recount events that happened because national missionaries are walking in that same authority given by Jesus. This Christ-life, lived by the apostles and by our brothers and sisters in Asia, is meant for you and me too. May God continue to fill us with His life.

Some of this material appeared on K.P. Yohannan’s blog on June 18, 2020. You can find the entire post at https://www.patheos.com/blogs/kpyohannan/2020/06/living-in-the-power-and-authority-of-our-king-jesus/ .