GFA World’s Missionary Impact: From Living Rooms to Villages

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

It’s Mike Train with KLTT. We’re so pleased to be joined by Bishop Daniel Yohannan. And Bishop, we want to talk about GFA World and our missionary campaign that we’re just kicking off here on KLTT. I mean, it’s really good to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Well, thanks for taking the time. And Bishop, this is something new for us. We know that there are a lot of waiting missionaries that are ready to go out in the field with GFA World, and they simply don’t have the support. So they’re people called by God. They know it. Many or some have gone through training already, and so they’re just ready for the support. Tell us about that and the need, and let’s kind of unpack what those people will be doing, too, as much as you can share.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:43

Yeah, you know, GFA World started about 45 years ago with a small prayer meeting in my parents’ living room. And from that passionate burden for missions, God has allowed us to really focus on four things that have really – we’ve seen a huge difference in the world of missions. One is transforming communities through Christ’s love, sending national missionaries, people from their own country who know the language, like the food, like the bugs, like everything, can easily connect with people – assisting children to have a future and then disaster relief, like earthquakes and tsunamis and kind of things that happen once in a while. But all these things we see as opportunities for us to be able to share about Christ’s love, see churches established in these communities and people established in the faith and And many of these national missionaries, I mean, they literally go door to door, village to village, sharing about Christ with people that sometimes have never heard about Christ even one time. Very often our people go into villages and in very remote areas will ask someone, excuse me, do you know Jesus Christ? And the person will respond, say something like this. You know, I’ve lived here my whole life. My friends are here. My family’s here. Your friend Jesus is not here. But if you… if you check the village in this next area down this road you may find your friend jesus they are desperately waiting for the hope that we know in christ but they just have not had the chance to hear and many of these national missionaries will go house to house and share about the love of christ pray for people and god does incredible things turning people’s hearts but also we see people changed, healed, and set free from demon possession and all kinds of other things. I remember a story that really is one of my favorites. It was one of our missionaries who was going door to door sharing about Christ. And he says, is there anyone that we can be praying for? Do you have any needs that we can keep in prayer? And they said, yeah, we have someone that’s sick in our house. Could you… And our missionary said, yes, of course we could do that. So they led him through the house and the backs of the house. There was a water buffalo. And they said, would you please pray for this water buffalo? Because the water buffalo is sick and, you know, we can’t, you know, sell the milk. And that’s the money that we have for food. So our missionaries laid their hands on this water buffalo and said, Lord, if there’s ever time to do something, this is the time. And God healed that stinky water buffalo. And the whole family gave their hearts to Christ. The neighbors heard about it. They wanted to know, who is this Jesus? And they gave their lives to Christ. So many people in the community gave their hearts to Christ because of that one water buffalo that God inspired. And His grace healed that a church was planted in that village because of this simple faith and simple gospel presentation. And this is the story of thousands and thousands of places on the mission field. And these national missionaries go with boldness and courage. And all they need is our prayer and our support to see them go forth. And we get to be part of their ministry as they do this.

SPEAKER 01 : 3:58

What you do so often is tangibly helping people that have needs. And I remember a story that you shared years ago about a single mom who had dirt floors that I think the hut that basically it was flooding and it was just a mess. Where she was living just was not going to work in GFA world anymore. rallied some people you have local people on the ground not just somebody that swoops in for a couple of days and leaves and they were helping her with food getting where she lives uh patched up and taken care of and i might have missed some of the details but i know it was a really compelling story because she needed help and you guys stepped in and made it happen

SPEAKER 02 : 4:38

You know, everywhere we go, we always are asking God to please help us to see what the needs of the people are. And like you said, sometimes it’s someone who is in need because their living condition is so terrible that the kids are sick and they’re facing really a dire situation. Other times it’s the whole community doesn’t have access to clean water or they’re there’s a whole area where none of the kids can actually go to school and so the the cycle of poverty continues to persist and so wherever we go we’re asking god please open our eyes open our hearts to what you want us to do to meet the needs in this area to show christ’s love tangibly and practically It kind of reminds me like what you were sharing about the time during COVID just a couple of years ago where in thousands and thousands of villages, our national missionaries were not stopping the work, but they were actively connecting with everyone in the village. I literally heard my father tell people this. He said, in your village, that is your entire area. You love everyone. Get the telephone number of everyone in the village. Call them every week. See if they need any help. If they need food, they need help, they need prayer, go do that. We actually saw the ministry expand and grow during COVID because of the love that was being demonstrated and meeting the needs of the people. Ultimately, our goal and our hope is that people’s hearts will be turned towards Christ and that we would see churches planted. But this is one of the greatest opportunities that we have in prayer and support to stand with these national missionaries going to some of the most unreached, difficult places in the entire world, bringing the love of Christ practically and tangibly to people’s lives.

SPEAKER 01 : 6:21

Bishop Daniel, we’ve set up a special page. So for our listeners, 670KLTT.com. Just go to the website. You’ll see all the information there, 670KLTT.com. Also, feel free to call us here at the radio station, 303-481-1800, 303-481-1800. Everything set up to be able to support these missionaries. And Bishop, give us some insights, if you would, into who are, take one of the missionaries, one of the people we can help. Who is that person? What typically are their motivations? And how will our giving help them?

SPEAKER 02 : 6:59

You know, we have hundreds of national missionaries that have gone through training or are in training because they know that God has called them to give their life, to give up their entire life to be able to share about Christ’s love with people from their own area and their own language. In some of the countries that we work in, there’s literally dozens or hundreds of different languages. The culture changes if you drive, you know, even 100 miles. And so these national missionaries, it’s not that they are better than other people, but they can easily connect with their own people. They know the language. They live at the level of the people. They know the heart language of the people. And I remember one of our brothers, his name was Sam, and he was going door to door in a village asking God to help him share about Christ’s love. And he came upon this house where there was this lady who was paralyzed, and she just happened to be a very powerful witch doctor that had become paralyzed. And so he asked her, if Jesus would heal you, what would you do? And she said, I would serve him the rest of my life, and I would tell everyone about Jesus. So our little brother Sam, he prayed, and God healed this lady who had such power over so many villages, and thousands of people would come to her house to worship her because of her demonic power. And when God healed her, she committed her life to God and began to tell everyone in all the villages around there about Jesus. And so many people came to Christ because of this little miracle. But this is because of the faithfulness of one national missionary, one young brother who believed that God would go before him, trusting that God would open the doors. And this is what we see with our brothers and sisters on the mission field. They go forth in the power of God and the love of God, and they go with our prayers and our support so that we can link our lives with something that impacts and changes eternity. You know, my father would often say, we only have one life to live. Let’s live it fully for the glory of God to make a difference in eternity.

SPEAKER 01 : 9:19

Amen. Bishop, it seems like we have so many distractions here in the States, so many ways to access the gospel, yet it seems as if there’s a very relational style in many of the places where GFA works, a world works. So really, then it becomes a lot about the missionary, doesn’t it? Because that’s that one-on-one communication that’s going to help the person experience about Jesus.

SPEAKER 02 : 9:47

You know, this is very much what Jesus did. I mean, Jesus would go out of his way to meet one Samaritan woman, would go out of his way to meet Zacchaeus, would go out of his way to call Peter from fishing to follow him. So Jesus was all about the relational side, but he didn’t just leave it at the relational side. He would challenge people to to live their life, to pick up the cross, deny themselves, and to follow Him. And this is what our national missionaries do. They love the people deeply. They know that the hope that they have in Christ is the same hope that they want their own people to experience also. And so with this passion and this love, they go and they sit with the beggar on the street. They find the farmer in the field. They meet the widow who has nothing. and they minister to them, and they are with them. And it’s not something that they just show up and leave, but they’re part of the community. They’re there to stay, and they want to see people’s lives changed and established in the faith. And this is something that we’ve seen over 45 years, that the ministry has gone forth in the love of God, and it’s also an impacting thing on our side when we support and pray, because we get to be part of the answer to the world’s need. We get to be part of fulfilling the Great Commission. It’s not something far away, but it’s right here and right now.

SPEAKER 01 : 11:12

Bishop, before we go, will you pray for this work starting on KLTT for our listeners, for what’s ahead as we work to support these missionaries?

SPEAKER 02 : 11:24

Yeah, I’d be happy to. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace and your mercy. We thank you for your blessings that you pour out on our life. We pray that you would go before us and that all those who would stand with us in prayer and support, that you would encourage their hearts, encourage them that they are part of reaching the world with the love of Christ. We pray that we would live our life daily in the light of eternity, that you would stamp eternity on our eyes and burden our heart with the things of the heart. And I just pray for your grace and your mercy for all of us that we would recognize that our time is short and that we can do something that actually makes a difference even beyond our own lifetime. We ask for this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER 01 : 12:11

Bishop Daniel, thank you for taking the time with us. It’s our missionary campaign kickoff for GFA World. We’re rallying this next year to be a part of how we work with GFA World to make sure that this happens. They have missionaries ready to go. Again, go to 670kltt.com, 670kltt.com. That’s where you need to go to get all the information you need. Pastor Daniel, thanks so much for taking the time with us.

SPEAKER 02 : 12:38

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.