GFA World Newsletter

May 2024, Vol. 21, No. 3

Daniel Timotheos humbly traces the fingerprints of God through his life. Though he was a small child when his father, K.P. Yohannan, began GFA World, he remembers the singled-mindedness of his parents, and the sacrifices his family chose in order to see villages reached with the love of Christ. He also remembers the incredible answers to prayer and the unbelievable blessings from those who supported the new ministry.

“Missions was something my whole family was part of,” he recalls. While many young children wait anxiously for their fathers to return home after work, the wait was especially long for Daniel and his sister. “My father would often be gone for many months at a time.”

During these long periods apart, his mother set a powerful example of joyful sacrifice. “She would never complain; she would never show anything to indicate we should feel sorry for ourselves,” he says. “Rather, it was a privilege for us to be able to let him go to the mission field in order for people to know about Christ.”

It really is faithfulness and obedience that lead you down the path.

As a young adult, eager to support his father in the ministry work he witnessed growing up—but reluctant to become a pastor himself—Daniel asked his father, “What is the best thing I can do to help you in ministry?’” To his surprise, his father responded, “Have you ever thought of going to the seminary?’”

Daniel took his father’s advice and was eventually given the opportunity to teach on the mission field. “It was terrifying!” he recalls. But in God’s great orchestration of Kingdom work, he realized he really liked the work.

Daniel preaching

“It is more of a slow, gradual leading of God to what He wants you to do,” he explains. “And it’s also dependent on you to take the steps of obedience. He’s not going to show you the next step until you get going on the first one. It really is faithfulness…and obedience that lead you down the path of what God has for you.”

His current role as vice president of GFA World allows him to pull from all of his past experiences as he provides leadership to the ministry’s staff on the ground in Texas, as they support work on the field.

“We have some of the best people serving on our staff. In all we do, we have to be dependent on God,” he says of his leadership style. “It’s not just a feeling of dependency, but it is a reality. This will not work if God is not behind it. If you want your work to bear everlasting fruit, you have to have it blessed by God.”

Erika, his wife of 18 years, has been a constant source of support as they minister and raise their three children together. “She is a great help and a great strength and a great joy,” he says.

Reflecting on his life and work, Daniel muses, “The two things I told God I never wanted to be were a teacher or a pastor. But I’m grateful to follow in my father’s footsteps and my mother’s footsteps and to continue what God has started.”

He is also deeply grateful for the faithful supporters —YOU—who make the important work of GFA World possible.

On the field, many communities faithfully practice ritual worship of their traditional deities. In one of these places, the Lord is using His servant Pastor Boden for His glory. It is not easy to discuss Christ’s hope in places like this, but with support like yours, Pastor Boden is investing his life ministering to the community.

Pastor Boden recently shared the love of God with Burnis, a 31-year-old married father of three who worked as a daily wage laborer. Burnis’ family had a tiny temple in front of their house, where they offered sacrifices to their deities to ask for blessings on their family.

When Pastor Boden visited Burnis to help with some gardening work, he took the opportunity to get to know Burnis and share about Jesus and the reason he and his family chose to follow the Lord. At first Burnis was not interested, but a seed had been planted.

During another visit, Pastor Boden found that Burnis’ family did not have access to clean water. This was another opportunity! He approached church leadership about providing Burnis’ village with a Jesus Well (a type of water well system that provides clean drinking water even through drought seasons). Because of your generosity, within a few months, a Jesus Well was installed! Burnis was delighted to see the work of our ministry, and recognized the love and care of the Christians.

Your generosity is changing lives—physically and spiritually!

Pastor Boden continued to nurture the friendship with Burnis, praying for God’s blessings and for them to follow the Lord. Having encountered the living God and encouraged by the prayers of the pastor and the believers, Burnis and his wife decided to follow Jesus and have become a faithful part of the local congregation.

Thank you for your support of national missionaries like Pastor Boden who share Christ with their communities!

Thirty years ago, GFA World partner Aaron Knight was desperate to experience a closeness with Jesus. Then he went on a mission trip to a south Asian country that would change his life forever.

“It was my first experience, before I’d even heard of it, of working alongside national missionaries. It was a bunch of young guys and girls like myself, just going into the streets with a local pastor,” Aaron remembers. “We would have crowds—hundreds of people would gather around us and we would preach the Gospel to people who had never heard of Christ.”

If this sounds biblical, Aaron would agree. “It was like living in the book of Acts!” he exclaims. “And it was also exactly what I had been asking for. I was like, ‘God, I just want to meet You.’ And He just stuck me in the middle of this thing—an American suburban kid in the slums of [a large city in south Asia] with native missionaries. It was amazing.”

When he returned to the U.S., Aaron got married, had three children and began a successful career in a family business. Managing his roles as a husband and a father did not leave much room for him to return to the mission field—but his heart for the work has remained.

While Aaron has not had an opportunity to travel back to Asia, he has found a way to stay involved: as a GFA World donor. “If I’m not going to be in it, I want to be a part of it somehow,” he explains. “GFA World is a great tool to use to bless my brothers and sisters in Christ. For the most hard-pressed brethren, the most in need, the most accompanied by God’s power—what an encouraging thing to be associated with that.”

If I’m not going to be in it, I want to be a part of it somehow.

His philosophy on giving is best summed up this way: “Go where God is and send it ahead!”