Rejoice!

Daniel is grateful to follow in his father’s footsteps

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.

Misha, studying the Scriptures—made possible by your generous support

For most of her life, Misha was deeply devoted to her family gods—frequently practicing rituals in hopes of keeping herself, her husband, Semyon, and their children healthy and safe. But for many years, she lived a life without peace and suffered from frequent ailments.

At age 77, she fell seriously ill. She struggled to take a breath, and the left side of her body became numb. Not sure what was happening, her husband rushed to the witch doctor and asked for help. The witch doctor tried to heal her with mantras and recommended that her husband should sacrifice animals. Yet, Misha’s health worsened day by day.

Sande, a relative and member of one of our churches in Nepal, shared the Gospel with Misha and encouraged her to believe in Jesus. Misha was eager to hear this teaching. She was bedridden during this time, so Sande called Pastor Seger, who came to see her. During his visit, he prayed for and encouraged her and her husband from God’s Word.

Soon after, both Misha and Semyon received the Lord Jesus Christ!

Today, you’ll find this couple faithfully attending church together. Though she still faces physical weakness, Misha is very strong spiritually. She is determined to follow Jesus for the rest of her days because you shared with her God’s love through GFA World missionaries!

You made this possible, and we are so grateful.

Thank you for supporting church-planting efforts in remote areas. You made this possible, and we are so grateful.

Access to clean water is a life-saving blessing

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!

Aaron, back row third from the right, pictured here with national missionaries

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!”

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!

“This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of souls on the earth.”
—Keith Green

Keith Green was a radical disciple of Christ and a dear friend of mine. Take a moment to read his words again, this time with your heart, asking yourself: “How does this apply to my life? What does this mean to me?”

When we get to heaven, we will be before the Lord giving an account for our lives. No one else is responsible for our choices. It will be you before Him; it will be me before Him, responsible for those who are waiting to hear about Jesus in our generation.

I wish I could tell you I’m on the top of the world, strong, mighty and able to withstand what the world may throw against me. But no, the temptations I face today to give up and take it easy are stronger than ever. But I must choose. We all must choose to make a difference while there is time.

More than I have ever seen before, we have the chance right now to reach people who have never heard of Jesus. Imagine you’re walking through the wilderness of the desert, dying of thirst. Suddenly, you look up to see a lake. Is it a mirage? No—you realize it’s clean, fresh water. You run to it and drink your fill. You lift your eyes and realize that it is not just a lake, it’s as big as an ocean. It is endless.

That is the picture of the opportunity we have to reach souls for Christ right now. If only we can get to them.

I pray that whatever the Lord gives us to do to be part of the answer, that we will make it our personal mission. Only He can do it through us. And He will—if we are faithful to Him.

Leprosy remains endemic in certain parts of the world and still carries with it a terrible stigma—to the point that family members cast out loved ones who have leprosy, shunning them. We have identified 150 leprosy colonies where we want to start working. In June, about 400 of our Sisters of Compassion—specially trained women missionaries—will graduate from their training. Many of them will be sent out in teams to some of these colonies to serve leprosy patients. They will become their daughters and sisters, loving and caring for them in the name of Jesus.

Thank you to those who are sponsoring Sisters of Compassion so that people experiencing the stigma and shame of leprosy don’t remain overlooked. Your support will enable us to care for thousands of leprosy patients, people no one else will care for, bringing the restorative power of the Gospel.

“Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”

—John 4:35 (NKJV)

In this passage, Jesus encourages His disciples to look up—to take their focus from themselves and recognize the great spiritual needs of others. We are so grateful to you for being with us on this journey in your generosity of spirit, being led by the Lord. We are honored to be part of your Christian walk and hope that you are encouraged by the stories in this newsletter, the fruit of your generosity and our commitment to pray for you!