These women, like Bryn, have experienced loss and rejection due to leprosy.

Bryn once begged on the streets, arousing sympathy as passersby gawked at her disfigured limbs, but now she lives in a small room in a leprosy colony. Over the years, Bryn’s disease ravaged her body, leaving stumps in place of hands and legs. Now 75 years old with failing eyesight, Bryn has spent many years with the monumental task of caring for herself. These difficult circumstances have left no room for self-pity, so Bryn scoots around the floor to do laundry and cook for herself.

Leprosy Patient Let's in Helping Hands

One day, Bryn met three GFA Sisters of Compassion serving in her leprosy colony. These women, dedicated to serving the poor and marginalized through prayer and practical help, are frequently found in slums and leprosy colonies. The young ladies told Bryn that Jesus is there to care for her. Could that really be true? Her own son and daughter-in-law did not care for her; why would this stranger named Jesus?

The Sisters continued talking with Bryn and asked how they could help her.

“I don’t want anything, but please fix the door of my room,” she told them.

Three Trustworthy Sisters Appear

Every Tuesday the three Sisters stopped by to visit Bryn. The old woman’s heart softened towards her new friends, and eventually she let them help her with daily chores and cook meals. It felt good to be taken care of after weary years of doing everything for herself.

The Sisters also shared with the Women’s Fellowship leader that Bryn needed a new front door. The church’s Women’s Fellowship group collected money, and their pastor went to Bryn’s home to install it.

These women, like Bryn, have experienced loss and rejection due to leprosy.

New Door Opens to a New Life

The care and consistency of the Sisters showed Bryn the love she had been denied since her tragic diagnosis. Despite her disease and deformity, she was loved and loveable. Eventually, Bryn realized Jesus really did care for her and had shown His care by sending the three Sisters to love and help her.

Now, every Tuesday, Bryn’s new door opens wide to welcome her friends. As the Sisters in white merrily clean and cook, Bryn’s heart is filled with gratitude. She thanks God for the new friends who care for her, friends upon whom she can depend.

GFA-supported ministry to leprosy patients brings hope and practical help to those who are often rejected by society and family.

Leprosy. The very word carries a certain stigma and arouses apprehension in Asia, as if merely uttering it could expose you to the disease. Those affected by leprosy are often feared and find themselves either chased out of their homes or ignored and neglected. This forced exile leads many to live with others afflicted with leprosy in colonies across Asia.

A Life of Hardship

Bhini was diagnosed with leprosy as a child and subsequently began living in a leprosy colony. After Bhini married a fellow leprosy patient, they relocated to a different colony in another state.

Life was not easy for the family. In the face of poverty, Bhini and her husband went door to door begging in order to put their children through school. Then in 2016, Bhini’s husband died of a heart attack, leaving her as the sole provider for their son and daughter. Despite her illness, Bhini continued to beg, hoping it would be enough for her and her children.

Healing in His Arms

As the years passed, the struggle to survive took its toll on Bhini. The wounds from her leprosy grew more severe the older Bhini became. Wounds in her hands and feet kept Bhini from walking or doing simple chores in her home. Her children were grown by then, but Bhini could no longer take care of herself.

GFA-supported ministry to leprosy patients brings hope and practical help to those who are often rejected by society and family.

One day, a team of GFA-supported Sisters of Compassion visited the leprosy colony. The women brought love and compassion to each resident they met, and when they talked with Bhini, Bhini heard of the love of God for the very first time. They showed genuine care for the widow and invited her to attend services at the local church.

The Sisters of Compassion regularly visited Bhini, cooking her food, cleaning her home and dressing her wounds—all while praying for and encouraging her.

Little by little, Bhini understood the depth of God’s love. The debilitating wounds from her leprosy began to heal, and an even greater healing took place in her heart when she invited Christ into her life. Her children, seeing the transformation, followed her example.

Like many other men and women blessed through the compassion of GFA-supported workers, Bhini now rejoices in God’s love and acceptance.

Thank you for helping equip workers in Asia who boldly bring God’s love to men and women in slums and leprosy colonies. Through your partnership with GFA, God is transforming lives for eternity. Thank you!

GFA-supported workers provide compassionate care to those who have faced lasting effects from leprosy, like this woman and like Kajri.

Wind whipped through the plastic sheets, lifting them to the sky as they strained against the bamboo frame. Huddled inside the small, sparsely thatched structure, Kajri shielded herself from the sharp wind as her plastic walls waved above her head. The home wasn’t much, but at least she had one.

Kajri lives in a leprosy colony where most of the residents have small thatched homes just like hers. The people in her community earn a meagre living by begging or collecting scraps discarded by others to sell at the market.

Sisters of Compassion Bring Hope and Help

A bright moment breaks into these lives, so vastly altered by leprosy, when GFA-supported Sisters of Compassion come to visit. These five ladies visit the leprosy colony every day. They help with personal hygiene, clean and bandage wounds and tidy up the leprosy patients’ homes.

In Asia, the stigma of “uncleanness” persists in many leprosy colonies. The physical deformities created by the dreaded disease limit the options for manual labour, often the only work leprosy patients are deemed worthy of.

Seeing the impossibility of getting work as a leprosy patient, the Sisters of Compassion arranged for a distribution of income-generating gifts for this impoverished community. On the day of the distribution, the leprosy colony was suddenly filled with the sound of cows mooing, piglets squealing and goats bleating. These living gifts would provide milk to sell and offspring to raise, multiplying the initial gift.

Just What She Needed

GFA-supported workers provide compassionate care to those who have faced lasting effects from leprosy, like this woman and like Kajri.

Kajri, sitting among the crowd gathered, was too old and weak to care for a cow or goat. But God knew what Kajri needed, and animals were not the only gifts available. When her name was called and she approached the front of the crowd, a bundle of shiny tin roof panels was presented to her.

The Sisters of Compassion installed the tin sheets for her. Their gift spoke God’s powerful message to her heart—you are known, you are loved.

Now, under her newly built roof, Kajri no longer fears storms. She waits for the sisters’ daily visit, wanting to hear more about the God they serve.

“Oh, my God,” says Kajri, “bless these people who took much pain to build a house for a widow like me.”

GFA-supported Sisters of Compassion frequently minister to those who suffer from leprosy’s disfiguring and damaging effects. The woman pictured lost her leg due to the disease, and the Sisters of Compassion frequently help with her chores, visit her and bring joy to her life.

She had only been married a few days. What should have been one of the best times of her life was suddenly marred by a strange condition in her leg.

Yoshita, only 25, had contracted leprosy.

Leprosy Lingers

Yoshita and her husband came from a poor community in an area where leprosy is not uncommon. Most people in her village worked hard as farmers or daily labourers, straining their bodies for an entire day in the hopes of earning enough for one meal ... but their wages also had to satisfy the people’s common addictions to alcohol and drugs.

Yoshita laboured hard among her neighbours, but sometimes she could only beg along the side of the road. When leprosy attacked her leg, hopelessness settled into her heart.

She visited doctor after doctor, but they weren’t able to mend her suffering. She turned to local practitioners of traditional medicines, but nothing improved. As the years passed, her pain increased, and her mental agony grew. All hopes of finding a cure were shattered, and she found herself in a hospital.

Ten years had passed since her wedding, and Yoshita had little to show for it but a missing leg and a hurting heart.

Unexpected Hope

But as Yoshita lay in the mission hospital where her husband had admitted her, she heard something quite unexpected: songs of praise.

A group of GFA-supported Sisters of Compassion had come to the hospital. They made their way through the rooms, visiting with and praying for those who were ill, singing songs and reading encouraging Scriptures to lighten burdened hearts.

When these sisters prayed for her, Yoshita noticed a difference in her body, but beyond the physical relief she experienced was the emotional freedom she felt as God lifted the agonizing weight of crushed dreams from her heart.

As she talked with the Sisters of Compassion, Yoshita learned about the Author of hope and decided to turn her heart over to Him for safekeeping.

Broken Heart Restored

GFA-supported Compassion Services workers, like Sisters of Compassion, serve amid the suffering. They minister in places like leprosy colonies, hospitals and slums, and they help people after natural disasters, aiming to bring the peace of Christ to those who have no hope.

GFA-supported Sisters of Compassion frequently minister to those who suffer from leprosy’s disfiguring and damaging effects. The woman pictured lost her leg due to the disease, and the Sisters of Compassion frequently help with her chores, visit her and bring joy to her life.

Through your prayers and support of the ministry of GFA, you have been part of blessing countless men and women, like Yoshita. God touched her in her hour of need, and her broken heart has been restored.

Kishori married when she was only 7 years old, not knowing her in-laws had a life-altering secret.

When Kishori began living with her new family, she found out her mother-in-law and father-in-law had leprosy—a disease physically devastating to those without access to treatment, as well as socially stigmatizing.

Instead of despising her in-laws, as the rest of her society would, Kishori took care of them, shouldering most of the household chores.

At 15, she gave birth to her first child; it was her second pregnancy, however, that impacted her life in an even more marked way.

Isolated by Disease

During the pregnancy, Kishori’s legs started to swell, and boils appeared. At the hospital, doctors confirmed her suspicion: She had leprosy.

Because Kishori was pregnant, she couldn’t begin treatment. After her son’s birth, she started taking medication, but in the following years, three more pregnancies disrupted her treatment, and the disease spread.

After her last child was born, Kishori resumed her medicine regimen, but leprosy had already taken its toll on her hands, legs—and soul. Afraid others would hate her because of the disease, Kishori stopped going to the market, attending social functions and spending time with friends. People even asked her husband why he didn’t kick her out of the house, but he insisted he loved her and refused to abandon her.

Leprosy made Kishori’s life painful and more difficult. She spent all day begging in order to feed her family. She couldn’t afford to hire a rickshaw, so when she needed to go to the hospital for treatment, she walked more than three hours on marred feet.

Shocked by Love

Finally, those long journeys stopped one day—the day Gospel for Asia missionaries came to Kishori’s home. They asked if they could clean her wounds. Shocked, Kishori couldn’t fathom why someone would freely offer a service most people wouldn’t do even for money. While cleaning Kishori’s wounds, the missionaries prayed for her and told her of the Healer.

Every week, Kishori excitedly welcomed the missionaries into her home, and her family heard them share about Christ’s love. Even more people got to share in the blessing as Kishori invited neighbours with leprosy to come have their wounds cleaned and hear the Good News.

Through the missionaries’ sacrificial lifestyle, Kishori realized God actually loved her and could heal her. As her wounds gradually began to heal, Kishori put her faith in Christ, and soon her husband and two of her children followed.

Now Kishori knows God not only as Healer but also as Provider. In 2012, Gospel for Asia opened a medical clinic near Kishori’s village. In addition to medical care, Kishori and many others in her leprosy colony get a nutritious meal each day. They also receive items like mosquito nets, shawls and special shoes for leprosy patients.

“God is providing so many things. ... I feel that God is my only father and mother,” Kishori says.

She knows that without His grace, she may have lost her fingers and legs. Instead, she has now almost completely recovered from leprosy, and she and her family worship Christ along with many others in the leprosy colony.