Hope in the Flood: GFA World’s Mission in Liberia

SPEAKER 02 : 0:00

This is Ashley Carter with the Crawford Media Group, and today I’m sitting down with Bishop David Yohanan to talk about GFA, as well as their missions down in Liberia to help with the rainwaters and floodwaters that have been going on since May. David, thank you so much for joining me today.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:18

Thank you so much. It’s good to be here.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:22

So to start us off, tell me a little bit about you, your involvement with GFA, and kind of what the overall mission of GFA is.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:31

Well, you know, both my parents are the ones who founded the ministry. My father went to be with the Lord about two years ago, and so I serve as the president of GFA World. And my role really is to encourage and challenge people to live their life in the light of eternity. GFA World’s mission really is to see people who have never heard about Christ come to know Christ. And then also that the church around the world can be involved in the Great Commission. And so to know him and then to make him known is our challenge to everyone. And this is our heart, really, is that Christians can do something through their prayers or giving and their time to make a difference in the world around us. And so primarily we serve in Africa and Asia in helping people with disaster relief, with clean water projects, literacy, helping children to go to school, and then also being able to send national missionaries, people from their own country who know the language, know the culture, know the heart language,

SPEAKER 02 : 1:35

to reach their own people with the gospel it sounds incredible so what is kind of the mission going on in Liberia right now what is the main focus of how you guys are helping down there

SPEAKER 01 : 1:49

Well, in the northwest part of Africa, it’s a small country called Liberia. And unfortunately, it’s one of those nations that just every single year, there’s huge amounts of rain and flooding. And we’re not talking about like tsunami kind of flooding. That does happen in places like Sri Lanka and India and other parts of the world where we do relief work. This is a place, especially Monrovia, which is the capital of Liberia, where in a lot of the swampy areas, people take trash and build up land by dumping trash into the swamps and build their houses on top of the swamps. so you already have these housings in these villages in lowland areas which is prone to flooding uh liberia gets you know five times as much uh you know flooding rain um than seattle so it’s a very very wet area this is the this is the tragedy that their houses are already in these lowland areas when it floods they get trapped inside their homes sometimes at night the children fall into the water and die There’s waterborne diseases that just ramped because of all the trash and all the sewage that’s in the water. And it’s just it makes it very, very difficult for people to survive during a time and kids can’t go to school. So what we do in these kinds of situations and others, too, is we meet people where they’re at. We try to help them with food rations. We try to help them with food. medicine if they need medicine. But especially as the floodwaters subside, we try to help build the wooden bridges back to their homes and also be able to give them dry food rations so that they can be cooking during the season. It’s very, very difficult to get around and do anything when everything around you is flooded. And so meeting them where they’re at, sharing the love of Christ and helping to know that they are loved and there is a community of Christians that want to do what they can to help them.

SPEAKER 02 : 3:53

And, you know, there are so many national, like really big mainstream aid things. How do how does GFA and your team sort of identify these things? remote villages that have this risk of kind of being overlooked by the others? Because, I mean, I know that one of your missions is the least of these, serving the least of these.

SPEAKER 01 : 4:14

Right. You know, when you have national missionaries in Many of these nations serving at the local level. And these are people who know the language and are from those nations. A lot of times when a natural disaster happens, our people are already there. They are starting to do relief work before any of the news agencies even mentioning it. For example, when the tsunamis hit Sri Lanka, we immediately were doing relief work before even anyone was talking about it. We were in Sri Lanka doing that, but also in Nepal. When the earthquakes happened, we immediately were there doing the work because our national missionaries are already on the ground. And so when our national missionaries are there in the community, you get firsthand information right away of the the reality of the flooding that’s happening. So it’s not a survey is being done from the outside. It’s like you’re in the community seeing this happen in real time. And this has kind of been the history of how we’ve always done the work. Our people immediately are mobilized and are doing relief work in meeting the people’s needs.

SPEAKER 02 : 5:25

So just still kind of just meeting them where they are, but it’s you’re already there. You’re already meeting them where they are.

SPEAKER 01 : 5:32

We’re already there because we are working there in the community. When you think about missions, either you do missions from an incarnational way where you’re part of the community or you do missions from someone from the outside coming in. because national missionaries live in the community they’re part of the community and part of the life there it’s very incarnational they’re part of the life of the people there so they see the reality so some places it might be waterborne diseases other places might be literacy other places might be they have no food so whatever the need is we’re able to meet those needs immediately and to address them as quickly as possible

SPEAKER 02 : 6:13

And I mean, these are missionaries. So at the heart of it, it’s providing aid, but it’s providing it in the name of God and sharing his message, sharing his love. How important is it that God stays at the center of the work that GFA and your national ministries are doing?

SPEAKER 01 : 6:30

Everything that we do is because we love the Lord. You know, I’ve been to some of these distributions in different parts of Africa and Asia, and we are distributing animals like chickens or buffaloes or other items that are helping them to overcome their poverty. And they will actually weep and cry forever. And they’ll ask, why do you do this? No one cares for us in this way. And we’re able to tell them because we love them and because Jesus loves them also. And it just breaks their heart. And so everything that we do is motivated by love and motivated by our love for God and for others. I mean, this is what Jesus said. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Our love for God is reflected in our love for others. When we serve those in need, it is at the very heart of God And this is what we see is every time we serve and we bless other people, it creates open doors for us to be able to tell them about Christ. You know, many of these places in Africa and Asia, if you go into a village and you ask them, do you know Jesus? Sometimes the response will be this. Listen, I’ve lived here my whole life. My friends are here. My family’s here. Your friend Jesus is not here. Check the next village down that road and you might find your friend Jesus. This is the reality of most of the world that people are still waiting to hear about Christ for the very first time. And through our love and our help, we can bring the love of God to them.

SPEAKER 02 : 7:55

And have you seen, in the middle of the destruction, in the middle of all your aid, how have you seen the love of Christ kind of shape the way that the relief is accepted, that the relief impacts people in the long run? How does the love of God shape these people moving forward?

SPEAKER 01 : 8:14

You know, when you live in the middle of hopelessness… Your hope can only be found in Christ. I had the privilege of visiting some leprosy colonies where some of our Sisters of the Cross serve at. We serve in over 40 or 50 leprosy colonies. And you meet people who are missing fingers or ears or they can’t walk well. And I mean, what do you actually tell them as an encouragement? You can’t just tell them, hey, everything’s gonna be great. You tell them that our hope is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and we will have a new body, and all of our pain and suffering will be gone. I have had the privilege of worshiping with these precious brothers and sisters who are missing fingers and missing noses and ears and eyes, yet they have this hope in Christ. Our hope is not in our temporal suffering going away, but our hope is in Christ. And when you help someone with their physical need and you’re able to present Christ’s love to them, they find their hope, their true hope in Christ. And when you go back to these communities and you see that a church is established and the people are excited about what God is doing and their kids are going to school, you see that permanent change happens because of the love of Christ. And this is what we do. And this is what we see happening all around the world.

SPEAKER 02 : 9:35

Do you see often that maybe some of the people that you help, that you bring to Christ, then turn around and become some of your national missionaries?

SPEAKER 01 : 9:45

It does happen, especially young people who, when they turn their life over to God, God calls individuals, just like you see in scripture and also in history, that they want to commit their life to serve and to help others also know about Jesus. I mean, if you’re from a village and you’re the only Christian in your village and you know that your family, your neighbors, your relatives, and everyone else in your village has never heard about Christ, It compels you that you want to go and tell them also. And this is why we have our seminaries and Bible college training so that people can be equipped to be able to go back to their own communities and they can be the one to share about Christ. And we’re seeing that happen in a major way in Africa and Asia.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:30

And some of your missionaries, they can go through their own personal hardships. So you have a sponsorship program set up for them, correct?

SPEAKER 01 : 10:38

The sponsorship program does two things. One, when Jesus, you know, when Jesus gave us a great commission, go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and then teaching them all things, that was not an option. That is something for all of us. So the great commission is not just for missionaries and pastors. All of us are to live our life in the light of eternity. And the way that we can do that when many of these nations are closed for outsiders to come in, or it won’t be a reality for some of us to go overseas as a national missionary, but we can link our life through prayer and support with a national missionary. It’s like $45 a month that I can help support a national missionary. That’s like half a cup of coffee per day from Starbucks. I mean, we literally can help support a national missionary by just buying a smaller cup of coffee from Starbucks. And yet we can live our life in such a way that genuinely makes an impact on someone’s life in Africa and Asia. And so linking your life with a national missionary who knows the language, who knows the culture, lives at the level of the people, and yet I get to live my life out in the life of missions by linking my life with them. I mean, what an incredible privilege.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:54

That is such an incredible, because, I mean, not everyone can, like you said, go overseas or actually serve like this, but this is a way to still serve and still help these communities and people.

SPEAKER 01 : 12:05

Absolutely. And I would, you know, I would challenge every church this coming Sunday, every church in America this coming Sunday, take two minutes out of their service and pray for missions, pray for more national missionaries to be raised up, pray for the country of Liberia, pray for the people who are suffering. We can do this, but it happens through prayer and our heart being filled with compassion and doing something in action, not just in our feelings. And so I would challenge everyone, take the opportunity, support a national missionary, cut down on your coffee, buy a smaller cup of coffee, and see the Lord do incredible things through your life.

SPEAKER 02 : 12:39

Absolutely. And David, where could our listeners go to learn more about GFA, its mission, and possibly even link their lives with one of your missionaries?

SPEAKER 01 : 12:47

If people go to gfaworld.org, they can learn more about GFA and what we’re doing and the opportunity to support a national missionary and other ways that they can be praying. So if people go to gfaworld.org, they can learn more.

SPEAKER 02 : 13:03

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on and speaking with me, David. Of course, you will be in my prayers, in my family’s prayers, and we will do what we can to support GFA and the good work that you are all doing.

SPEAKER 01 : 13:15

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, Ashley.

SPEAKER 02 : 13:17

Thank you.