Rejoice!

Every day, Jadine fetched water from the Jesus Well. Just as she carried a jug of water—a physical burden—home with her, she carried a burden on her mind. She likely saw the plaque on the well engraved with Jesus’ words in John 4 referring to “living water.” Perhaps she wondered what those words meant. Was there someone who could fill her life with living water so she didn’t need to keep carrying burdens with her?

Meeting a New Friend

One night while drawing water, Jadine met someone who could tell her about this Jesus whose words were etched on the well. GFA pastor Lavan, who led the church nearby, began to talk with her, and something compelled her to tell the pastor about the burdens her family carried. She and her husband toiled as daily wage laborers, and their family faced hardships because of their poverty.

“Do not worry about anything,” Pastor Lavan told her. “Jesus Christ will help you to meet all your needs. Please come to the church on Sunday so that all the believers can pray for you.”

Dallan (pictured) came to know Christ after seeing God not only provide clean water for his family but also take care of them in the wake of loss.

Jadine did visit Pastor Lavan’s church, and the whole congregation lifted her up in prayer. As time went on, Pastor Lavan came to Jadine’s home every week to encourage her and pray for her and her family.

Burdens Lifted

Though they had a new friend in Pastor Lavan, Jadine’s family soon faced another blow: Jadine’s husband died during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jadine’s son, Dallan, suddenly found the responsibility of the family on his young shoulders, but he had no work. How could he take care of his mother and sister?

Hearing of Dallan’s worries, Pastor Lavan encouraged the young man from God’s Word, prayed for him and invited him to church. When the believers there also prayed for Dallan, God lifted the burden from his heart and strengthened his spirit. He also opened the door for Dallan to get a job at a chicken farm so he could provide for his family.

Jadine and Dallan could hardly believe God’s blessings on their family in the wake of family tragedy, and they put their faith in Jehovah Jireh. This family has tasted of the living water of which the Jesus Well proclaims. They have seen that the Lord is good. Their lives are being transformed by Christ’s love, and its thanks to partners like you who provide clean water through GFA’s clean water projects.

A GFA tailoring class provided Ada (pictured) with a valuable skill to help her family overcome poverty.

Poverty had robbed Ada of a complete education. She came from a large family, and while her mother worked as a maid, her alcoholic father wasted income on drink. With nine mouths to feed, some of the children had to contribute to the family’s income. Two of Ada’s brothers worked as laborers. When Ada reached fifth grade, the family’s financial condition grew worse, and she had to drop out of school to care for the household.

As time passed, Ada’s lack of education gave her little chance for anything better in life, but deep in her heart flickered an ember of hope. Maybe someday she could do something more significant to uplift her family.

One day, Ada learned of a free tailoring class offered through GFA World’s ministries. This training would help women learn valuable skills to overcome poverty. Could this be the answer to her heart’s yearning? Ada enrolled in the class. In just six months, she gained the skills to change her life.

With new confidence, Ada started stitching clothes and earning income for her family.

“I want to thank the [program] and staff for giving me an opportunity to enroll myself in this tailoring center to achieve what I am today,” Ada said. “I pray that God will keep blessing this organization as it is working toward helping the poor and needy people and changing their lives.”

When Yona and Dion (pictured) married, they didn’t fully comprehend how a healthy family should look, and Yona still bore the wounds of an incredibly traumatic childhood.

At only 20 years old, Yona was plunging into one of life’s biggest decisions: She and Dion had fallen in love and now planned to elope. However, the young couple was starting life together with little knowledge of a healthy family life. Would their marriage endure, or would it end in tragedy, like the one that had scarred Yona’s childhood?

Haunted by Trauma

Yona had grown up in a strife-torn family. She and her younger brother had witnessed frequent fights between their parents. They lacked a stable home. They lacked any peace.

One day when Yona was only 8, the instability exploded into horrific trauma: She saw her father douse her mother in kerosene and set her on fire. Yona’s mother perished in a bath of flames, an image that haunted Yona throughout childhood. For the rest of her days, she would never forget the horror of watching her father murder her mother.

Inexplicably, Yona’s father was never arrested or prosecuted. He went on with life as though nothing had happened. He even remarried. This scarred Yona even more. If there was no justice for such atrocity, what safety could she expect? Unwilling to live with their father, Yona and her brother moved out to live with their grandmother and uncle.

Years later, Yona met Dion, and the two fell in love. Although Dion occasionally attended church with his Christian mother, he didn’t truly follow Jesus, and Yona wanted nothing to do with Christianity. Meanwhile, Yona’s grandmother and uncle disapproved of the relationship, perhaps because of her young age and perhaps because they followed a different religion than Dion’s mother.

Yona and Dion got married anyway. A mountain of challenges loomed over the newlyweds. In addition to lacking support from the bride’s family, they didn’t know what a healthy marriage should look like. Yona still lived with the trauma of her childhood—of growing up with a monstrous example of what a husband could be. She and Dion also faced practical difficulties as they didn’t even have a home to live in. Would the couple be able to navigate the stress of starting a life together?

Concerned for their future, Dion’s mother encouraged them to visit her church and told her pastor, GFA pastor Marin, and his wife, Jia, about the young couple’s predicament.

New Friends, New Life

Pastor Marin and Jia (pictured) reached out to the young couple, showing the love and support a family would.

Pastor Marin and Jia have committed their lives to sharing Christ’s love with people in need. They don’t simply speak about this love, but they embody it, living out Christ’s love for their community. So, when Pastor Marin and Jia learned about the young couple’s situation, they stepped in with acts of kindness, making themselves available to Yona and Dion as family would. They helped Yona and Dion find a temporary home and supplied them with needed items, including pots and pans, kitchen utensils and cleaning tools.

Their compassion astounded Yona.

“How can two people that I have never met before help me when I am in so much need?” she wondered.

Intrigued, Yona began attending their church. There, she learned about the God whose love had motivated Pastor Marin and Jia to show kindness even to a stranger like her. Yona became friends with Jia and eventually opened up to her about the trauma that had marred her childhood and locked her heart in chains of bitterness.

Jia told Yona about the biblical concept of forgiveness, encouraging her young friend to let go of her hatred toward her father and pray for him.

Over time, Yona began to trust in Jesus, who offered forgiveness to all as He died on the cross. She chose to follow Him and laid her childhood trauma at His feet. Christ’s love led her out of the prison of bitterness and into the light of hope.

As she grew in her faith, Yona’s life began to change, and Jia, who was now a spiritual mother to the young woman, supported her along the way. Yona experienced newfound freedom and joy—even though her husband still didn’t share her faith. Would he find the same love that Yona had found? Would they become a family united by love and faith, the kind of family Yona had never known as a child?

A Family Transformed

National missionaries visit and befriend families, offering support and prayer to those who have never known the love of God.

Yona laid another burden—Dion’s spiritual condition—before the Lord. She became a woman of prayer, asking God daily to touch her husband’s life. And gradually, Dion’s heart did change. He hadn’t been able to forget the love Pastor Marin and Jia had shown him and his wife in their time of need. Then, in 2020, another gift of grace drew him to Christ’s love: Dion and Yona welcomed a baby boy into their family. Dion decided that he would follow the Lord, who had blessed his family so abundantly.

Now Yona and her husband lead their family in united faith. Through Yona’s friendship with Jia, the young wife is deepening her relationship with Christ and learning how to honor God as a wife and mother. The pastor’s wife frequently reaches out to counsel and encourage Yona—offering wisdom about growing in Christ, fulfilling family duties and running a household. Instead of being bound by the chains of past trauma, Yona has chosen to forgive her father, and she walks in freedom. She now knows the joy of being a child of God.

As they are able, national missionaries often step in to provide practical help to people in their communities, whether it’s providing food to a family in need or distributing necessities such as warm clothing or blankets.

“I believe that holding onto God is my greatest achievement,” Yona says. “And I am thankful to God for everything that He has done for me and my family.”

Yona and her family walk in new life and hope today because a GFA pastor and his wife introduced them to Christ and His unconditional love. Thank you for enabling GFA missionaries to show more people the freedom found in Christ and welcome them into the family of God.

"Now, these students have the supplies they need to participate in school . . ."

On September 3, 2023, Sadia, a tutor for GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program, welcomed her new students to their first day in the program. Residing in a poverty-stricken village of Nepal, their families lacked the resources to provide them a quality education. Many parents, focused on mere survival, didn’t see the value of education and the opportunities it could afford their children.

The local government school provided free education and even some meals due to the extreme poverty of the 150 students. For some families, however, these resources alone were not enough to help their children step out of the crushing, generational poverty.

The school principal wanted to help but didn’t have any other resources to offer until he met GFA missionary Daiki, who arranged to start child sponsorship in the village and helped parents enroll their students in the program.

“We have parents here who even cannot afford … tuition, pencils, colors and notebooks for their children,” Daiki said.

Daiki compassionately assured parents that GFA would provide the necessary educational items and start a free tutoring class. In just a few days, his promises were fulfilled as Sadia began teaching free classes to help these impoverished students improve in their studies. Now, these students have the supplies they need to participate in school, and they receive tutoring six days a week. Despite economic and practical obstacles, these children now have a clear path for a gleaming future, all because of God’s love and your partnership.

GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program gave Abana a nurturing, supportive space to improve in her studies.

Abana stared at her homework, wishing it would make sense. She longed to understand so she could succeed. Instead, her homework often brought confusion and shame.

When her schoolmates struggled in their studies, they went to extra tutoring classes so they could pass their exams. But this wasn’t an option for Abana. Her family simply couldn’t afford it.

Abana’s family of six lived in a one-room house provided by the tea garden where her parents worked. Her parents longed to give their children a better education, a better life. They worked all day long but still couldn’t afford the tutoring their children needed, and it weighed on them. They knew of Abana’s struggles, but there was little they could do. Working grueling days, they couldn’t even help her study.

Many days, Abana stayed home, unable to complete her homework. She longed to do well, to achieve success in her studies like so many of her schoolmates, but it seemed impossible.

Joyful Opportunity

Abana (pictured) is grateful to be excelling in her studies and gaining education that will set the founda-tion for a promising future.

Then, through a friend at school, Abana learned of GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program and its free tutoring classes. When she got home, Abana told her mother the exciting news. Her mother received one day of leave from work so she could enroll Abana into the program.

Joy filled Abana’s heart at the opportunity to succeed in school. With the support of program staff, Abana approached her studies with new earnestness. She began attending classes every weekday with renewed hope and improved in every subject.

Abana finally achieved the good marks she had dreamed of. She also gained valuable life skills to give her a foundation for a better future, a future that now includes dreams of becoming a teacher to help others gain an education.

“I thank God for giving me good teachers and for the [child sponsorship program], which showed me the correct and good way to be educated,” Abana says. “I have received all my school needs from the center freely, which are so valuable. … Today, I am learning more without paying any additional fees, which is a great blessing to me. I am praying that God will bless our family and many other children and families like us.”

K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan)

Many times in my life, I have been overwhelmed by the circumstances around me. There are always a hundred different things to do and little time to do them in. It’s easy to fall into anxiety.

Maybe you are in the same place, having started out on a great adventure with excitement and vision, but now you struggle to see any reason to persevere.

When I feel weak in my own abilities, I remember the Lord Himself is doing the fighting. All He looks for is a willing vessel through whom to work. It doesn’t matter how fragile that vessel might be because the battle is the Lord’s and so is the victory. The narrow road will always be difficult, but the Son of God left His footprints on it, and at the end of the road, we will meet Him face to face.

The person who gives Christ his or her life will always face an uphill battle. Whether we are retired, a part-time employee, a company manager or serving in ministry, God has purpose in where He’s placed us. But we must remember that it is our greatest privilege to serve the Lord out of love. When we fail to understand this great truth, we serve Him with the wrong motives and lose our joy. With wrong motives, our service for Christ becomes a burden or even a guilt trip.

My friend, wherever you are, may I encourage you to keep going in all the Lord has called you to do? Your part in GFA World’s efforts is just one way the Lord is using your life, and you have already made a tremendous difference in the lives of people like Jadine, Yona and Abana. But our journey is not yet done.

Let us once again return to loving the Lord above all, above even our very lives. Then our service, our giving and our praying will turn from being a burden into the greatest privilege and joy we have on this earth.

“Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” —James 1:12, NKJV