From Water to Worship: Changing Lives

SPEAKER 02 : 0:01

It’s Mike Trim with Crawford Media Group. I’m here with Bishop Daniel Yohannan with GFA World. And Bishop Daniel, first of all, we want to add a thank you to people for clean water.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:12

Absolutely. I think so many people have given to the Clean Water Campaign. And I don’t know how to say thank you enough for the many, many lives that will be impacted and changed and helped. Kids are being helped. Families are being helped. Entire communities are being helped because of people’s generous prayers and giving. And it’s such a huge, huge blessing. I just want to say thank you to each and every person that’s been praying and giving towards these Clean Water Campaigns.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:41

Bishop, I think about the women and children especially that have to walk long distances, sometimes in very unsafe areas, maybe at night, you know, or close to dusk. It’s just a bad, bad situation, not to mention the cleanliness of that water. Then when you build a well to have a chance to share Christ with people that come, to be able to have that well for clean water that the community can come around, that’s just such a game changer. And I never knew that. until we had time to speak with you.

SPEAKER 01 : 1:12

Yeah, you know, many of the women and the girls, the young girls, often have to walk far away to go fetch water for their families, for bathing and cooking and cleaning, drinking and washing for their animals. And like you said, it does put them in danger of being kidnapped or attacked by wild animals, sometimes being kidnapped and pulled into the sex trade. But really, a Jesus well brought into the community today It’s kind of a unifying factor for the entire community because they all need water. They all need that source of life. You know, people can survive a little while without food, but not very long without water. And a Jesus well really is a magnet that brings everyone together. It brings unity together. But it’s around Christ being the living water. I mean, we’ve got this whole plaque with the Bible verse on it right there. But practically and tangibly, what we’re seeing is people’s lives physically and spiritually are being changed. But I’m so excited that, you know, these young girls and these women and grandmothers don’t have to walk far away to go fetch water. It’s right there in their communities. And they have access to it. And everyone is welcome. And they know it’s because of Christ and his love for them.

SPEAKER 02 : 2:28

We’re speaking with Bishop Daniel Yohannan with GFA World. And that website, by the way, it’s dedicated for clean water, easterwater.org, easterwater.org. And that’s because we centered this initiative around Easter. However, you can still give. And Bishop Daniel, I have a feeling if each one of our listeners could be given a bucket and said, okay. See that tower over there about a mile and a half away? That’s where your water is going to come from. Otherwise, for bathing, drinking, all purposes, you have to get it from there. I’ll talk to you in a week. We would have donors out our ears because they would realize this is – it’s a royal pain even if it’s a safe walk. What – it’s taking kids out of school potentially. It means – again, a lot of times wife or spouse will get stuck with this and it’s just a bad situation all the way around.

SPEAKER 01 : 3:27

Yeah. I think when – when we don’t experience the struggle and difficulty ourselves, sometimes it can seem far away. We can intellectually understand it, but you think of a young girl who doesn’t get a chance to go to school because she has to go fetch water for the family. You think about a, a, a mother that has to leave the kids at home by themselves to go get water for the family and then carrying heavy loads in these young girls, especially carrying these heavy loads, these buckets of water and they’re, Their bodies are still growing, so it ends up affecting their physical well-being also. And then you have the reality that the cycle of poverty is perpetuated because really education is one of the only ways to kind of break the cycle of poverty. long-term. And, you know, we all have to kind of think back to a time maybe where we didn’t have something to drink for a really long time, or it was, you know, a really difficult season that we were really, really hungry. It’s almost like we have to remember these very few times that we were really struggling and realize there are millions and millions of people That is their daily life. For us, I go to the pantry and I look at, do I want potato chips or do I want peanut butter? I have so many choices in front of me. And many of these precious people, they’re literally asking, where’s my next meal coming from? Where’s the next cup of water coming from? And it’s living day to day, surviving. And that’s the reality of the majority of the world today. in many of these places that we’re able to put these Jesus wells and really bringing hope to them in their situation.

SPEAKER 02 : 5:22

Well, those are important points. And that’s why we’re being so strong on this is that it’s a world that we can’t relate to And listeners who have given, you’re helping someone, sometimes many someones, a whole village or community to have a Jesus well. That’s how impactful what your donation is. So we’re so grateful. Again, it’s Easterwater.org. If you’ve heard this interview and you think, you know, I haven’t I haven’t given to this yet, but I really need to. We are just trying to help you walk a few feet or in this case, maybe a couple of miles in in the shoes. And in this case, probably no shoes, barefoot of someone that you can’t relate to until you put yourself in their position to say yes. I got to help. I got to help. And then also, Bishop, we wanted to make sure and talk about an amazing event that’s coming to your campus there. Kind of segue into that. It’s called Set Apart. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER 01 : 6:25

Yeah, our Set Apart retreat is the first week of June each year. It’s for young people between the ages of 18 and 30. The world is so busy and so all-consuming of our attention that people really are finding it difficult to encounter God in a significant way. So the retreat really is not something to— you know, pump up everyone’s emotions and send them out very excited. But it’s an invitation to be here as part of our community here at GFA World in Texas to participate with us in our life of prayer and our life of worship and to encounter God in a significant way. One of the things that my dad always talked about was the books that he loved from C.S. Lewis, the Chronicles of Narnia, especially The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. And he talked about the kids going through the wardrobe into Narnia and meeting Aslan. And once they did that, once they encountered Aslan, once they walked into Narnia, their hearts were never the same again. And this is the invitation that we are giving to people is, you know, come and join us for these days. And your heart will never be the same because you will encounter God in a significant way. It will change your life. You know, and if people want to know more about that, they can go to gfa.org slash set apart. GFA.org forward slash set apart. You can learn more about it. It is something extremely significant. So many young people have told me it really completely changed their life. And it had all to do with making the commitment to set apart a little bit of time to encounter God in a significant way. You know, God is always speaking to us. God is always near us, but sometimes we’re just so busy. We don’t hear the still small voice. And sometimes we just need that opportunity to lay everything aside so that we can encounter God in a significant way.

SPEAKER 02 : 8:23

Bishop Daniel, is this then a good fit for our listeners, by the way? I think it’s going to be mostly our children’s age and possibly our grandchildren’s age for some that are a little bit older that are listening. busy life, say I feel distant from God, I feel like I just don’t have time to really be still and hear Him. Are those some of the things we should look for in our kids and grandkids?

SPEAKER 01 : 8:51

Absolutely. I think anyone that is struggling in their walk with God, but anyone that seriously wants to encounter God in a deeper way. So it is for all of us. There’s never a time that we come to the end of knowing God. in a deeper way. But what we find is that as the world gets more and more busy, that it just, it crowds out God’s voice. It crowds out our attention and our devotion to God. I would encourage everyone that’s 18 to 30, you know, and if they’re a little bit older than the third, that’s fine. Check out, check out the set apart retreat. I would encourage people to apply for it. Parents, I would encourage you to send your kids and grandparents send your grandkids. Tell your friends about it, your neighbors about it. It is one of these rare opportunities that can literally change someone’s life forever. Again, it’s not a normal seminar retreat where you hear lots of messages and are excited about something. But what we’re asking people to do is join us in our community in our encountering God in a significant way. And your life will never be the same. There’s a lot of things out there where people tell us about God, but very few can tell us how to encounter God. And that’s the invitation. Join us for a few days and your life will never be the same.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:11

Bishop Daniel, I think we’re consumers, so we’ll listen to think, oh, I just need to listen to another powerful message. Or, you know, as a radio guy, of course, I think those are valuable, invaluable. But there’s nothing like, okay, we’re going to make sure that you have the time to really hear from, encounter God, have that kind of that structure that they’re not going to get anywhere else. And that’s really different.

SPEAKER 01 : 10:40

Absolutely. You know, especially young people today, they don’t want to be marketed to. They don’t want to be preached at. They want models. They want examples of just show me how to encounter God. Show me what it means to know the Lord. And there’s so many people that can preach really good messages. There’s many, many books that can tell us good things. But it’s lacking the power to change lives. And what young people want, desperately want, is something like what Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. You know, when you look at Jesus calling the disciples, he literally said, come and follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men. Come and hang out with me. And his life would rub off on them. You know, deep calls unto deep. And this is what we see is if we put ourself in the place and give God the space to encounter with us, then he will meet us. He’s faithful to do that.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:35

Bishop Daniel, I heard a pastor, and I’ll close with this, the other day say, you know, when you truly are still and wait for God and listen for His voice and encounter Him in that way, you’ll be changed. And you’ll be changed for the long term, not just a, that was a great message. Okay, I’m moving on.

SPEAKER 01 : 11:57

Yeah, no, absolutely. I think people don’t sometimes know what to do with all the good information that they have because it needs to be something practical that I can take and apply to my life. Like, what do I do daily? I mean, there’s a little small book that has impacted so many people’s lives. It’s called The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. And Brother Lawrence was a monk in a monastery and his job was to cook the food and wash the clothes and go shopping for the monastery. And what was his secret? Remembering Christ at all times. I mean, if we put that into practice, remembering Christ while I’m driving, remembering Christ while I’m cutting vegetables, remembering Christ while I’m washing clothes. It will literally change my life. And this is what it means to encounter God. These simple life practices, not just more information, but life practices that put us on the path of knowing God in a deeper way.

SPEAKER 02 : 12:54

That’s the perfect place to end. I think gfa.org slash set apart is the way. So we shorten that GFA world gfa.org slash set apart. So we’ve made it really easy.