Rejoice!

As the train pulled to a stop, Arvinda made his decision: He was getting off.

Deciding to Get Off

All his life, Arvinda had devoutly followed all the teachings and observed all the rituals of his religion but problems in his family left him without hope or joy. Then he lost his job and remained unemployed for more than a year.

Arvinda traveled by train each day. And every day, he found that peace filled his troubled heart when he looked out the window at one particular building along the railway.

Arvinda began making sure to look at this building whenever he traveled by it so he could experience the sense of calm that nothing else ever gave him.

One Friday, as he looked out the window, he saw a sign on the building and was able to read its name.

Curiosity consumed him, and he made his way off the train.

Hope Explained

Arvinda entered the building — a church building — and sat in the back as a prayer meeting took place. Comfort welled up in his heart as he listened to the pastor, Gospel for Asia missionary Jujhar, share from the Bible. Afterward, Pastor Jujhar invited him to come to the Sunday worship service.

Arvinda visited the church again two days later, this time feeling deeply discouraged. But once again, he felt calm inside the church. This Sunday, a visiting church leader, Pastor Bibhas, shared a message about Christmas, citing John 1:10–12: “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”

The pastor’s words filled Arvinda with hope.

Rejoicing in God’s Provision

Excited to speak with the visitor, Pastor Bibhas talked with Arvinda after the message. He encouraged Arvinda, sharing stories of Jesus’ miracles and his own personal experiences of what God had done. Arvinda, in turn, told Pastor Bibhas how he had often felt peace as he looked at the church building from the train, and he was overjoyed to have learned about the Living God because of it. Hearing Arvinda’s testimony, Pastor Bibhas praised God for providing a church building and using it to lead Arvinda to the Good News.

Arvinda has decided to follow God all the days of his life, and he, his wife and three children attend church regularly and participate in all church activities. Additionally, Pastor Bibhas and the believers prayed faithfully for Arvinda’s work situation, and this new believer now has a job at a hospital. All this happened because the Lord used the generosity of believers around the world to provide a congregation with a permanent house of worship.

The four girls, ages 6, 10, 12 and 14, looked dirty and malnourished as they accompanied their mother to the women’s health seminar.

With 12 children, Ranjana and her husband struggled to provide adequate nutrition or proper clothes for their daughters. Saddened by the girls’ appearance, the believers teaching the seminar shared with Ranjana about the importance of giving her daughters proper nutrition, encouraged her to send them to school and gave a dress to the oldest daughter.

No one had ever taught her things like this before, Ranjana told them.

“From now on, I will try my best to give good food to my children,” she said.

Because of the seminar, GFA workers had the opportunity to continue blessing this needy family—and many others. Soon, Ranjana welcomed some women missionaries and the local pastor’s wife to start a literacy class in her home. Through this class, she, her children and some of their neighbors are learning to read and write, in addition to hearing Bible stories and gaining basic math skills.

Through your support of Gospel for Asia’s Women’s Ministry, women like Ranjana—and their children—are receiving vital knowledge about health and nutrition and, more important, experiencing Christ’s love.

With no one to turn to, Mayuri began selling her body, using the little she earned to feed her daughters.

Mayuri’s father was a drunkard. Mayuri and her mother worked each day, and Mayuri’s father sometimes demanded their earnings so he could fuel his addiction. If they refused, he’d beat them badly.

Mayuri’s hurting mother begged deity after deity to change her husband, but the family only continued to suffer.

When Mayuri was 14, her mother married her off in hopes of saving her from more abuse. Five years into her marriage, Mayuri bore a child—a girl. Mayuri’s husband, angered by the birth of a daughter, turned cruel. A few years later, Mayuri bore another daughter.

Young Mother Abused for Bearing Two Daughters

Enraged, Mayuri’s husband beat her, and together with his mother began torturing her, driving her toward the brink of death.

So Mayuri ran, taking her two girls to live with her at her mother’s home. She planned, as many in South Asia do, to move to the Middle East to find work. She borrowed money to pay her liaison, but the liaison swindled her. Indebted and helpless, the single mother and her two daughters went hungry.

With no one to turn to, Mayuri began selling her body, using the little she earned to feed her daughters. Even so, prostitution didn’t make her enough money to meet her family’s needs.

Then, in 2010, Mayuri felt a burning sensation in her stomach. She made it to a doctor who found a cancerous tumor in her uterus. With no money for treatment, she sought help from the temples, but none came.

The God She Didn’t Call Answered

Around this time, GFA pastor Patakin began sharing the Good News with Mayuri and offering her Gospel literature. As the prostitute realized that Christians didn’t isolate or look down on her like others did, she took Pastor Patakin’s invitation to come to a Christmas service.

There, a joy previously unknown to Mayuri filled her heart. The love she experienced through the believers began to change her, so she decided to join them each week.

One Sunday, the Lord spoke to her heart about the healing He brings. The pastor also shared stories recorded in Scripture of women who were healed by the Lord Jesus, asserting that God could do the same for them.

That day, Mayuri put her trust in Christ, and the Lord gave her new life. On top of that, He completely healed her of cancer!

Since that day, the Lord has provided a daily wage labor job for Mayuri. Her daughters have also been redeemed from shame, and they are growing in the Lord in their Sunday school.

“Jesus Christ is the true God,” Mayuri shares. “Today I am living; that is only by the grace of God.”

Even though Minati was 45 years old, receiving a Christmas gift was still the highlight of her year. When Gospel for Asia presented her with a sewing machine, a very specific dream of hers finally came true.

Minati and her husband, both believers, live in a community where people once had no other source of income except working as laborers in a tea garden. Minati saw the challenges faced by her fellow villagers as they strove for their families’ survival. Her husband was a daily laborer himself, working hard to provide for their five children. Moved by compassion, Minati wanted to help her community.

With a background in tailoring, Minati gathered several neighbor women together with the hopes of teaching them to sew. The skill of sewing would represent a financial breakthrough for the women and their families, as their meager incomes could often barely provide food. If the family was in debt or someone got sick, their situation could spiral downward fast.

Unfortunately, the group could not come up with enough money to buy a sewing machine for classes.

A Miracle Revives Her Dream

Minati was disappointed, feeling there was no way she could help her neighbors.

“For some time, I thought, ‘I want to do good for people, but why isn’t God hearing my prayer?’ ” Minati remembers.

But the Lord knew Minati’s desires. Her pastor, Gunalan, had the privilege to distribute sewing machines from GFA’s Christmas Gift Catalogue—and one went to Minati.

A Hardworking Sewing Machine

Overjoyed, Minati lost no time putting her gift to work. The very next day, she went from house to house spreading the word that she would be teaching free tailoring classes. She started teaching four women, only one of whom was a Christian.

Minati passionately served her community because she knew the love of Jesus would bring transformation to their hearts and lives. She faithfully shared Gospel literature and New Testaments as she sewed for her neighbors.

When Pastor Gunalan heard that Minati was both repairing clothing for free and teaching multiple tailoring classes, he immediately made arrangements for the hardworking seamstress to receive a second sewing machine.

Minati’s goals have only grown. Her desire now is to teach 30 women each year to sew.

Gifts Bring Spiritual Fruit

Aditi is one of Minati’s students whose life has changed dramatically, thanks in part to her tailoring class.

“I am from a poor family background, and my husband is a worker in the tea garden,” says Aditi.

“Whatever he earns he spends for drinking alcohol, and I struggle to provide meals for my children. When I came to know about the free tailoring center, I was happy that I can also do something to earn money and give a good life to my children.

“Today, I am learning here because of the free teaching. Otherwise I could not afford it. I would like to put [in] a word for our teacher: She is very kind and loving and [is showing me] the true way and life of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

In response to God’s grace toward her, Aditi chose to follow the Lord.

“God delights in fulfilling our desires in due time,” Minati says. “Now I can say that He has fulfilled all my desire and gives me more than what I need. The people in the village give me more respect and honor for what I am doing, and I give all the glory and honor to my Almighty God.”

He always hoped his son could get a good education and lead a better life than he did.

Mahaj is a daily wage labourer who barely makes enough to provide for his wife, Faria, and their son, Chahel. He always hoped his son could get a good education and lead a better life than he did. But on top of the family’s low income, sickness often debilitated Faria, adding more strain to their finances and endangering Chahel’s chances of a quality education and escaping the cycle of poverty.

Mahaj looked for a solution, and he found it in a Gospel for Asia Bridge of Hope centre. He enrolled his son, and Chahel did well in his classes.

Then, for almost six months, paralysis grabbed hold of Faria, keeping her bedridden. Without resources, the family couldn't even take her to a good hospital.

Chahel asked the staff of his Bridge of Hope centre to pray for his mother’s healing, and they prayed earnestly. Even beyond that, the staff gave of their finances to help Chahel’s mom. Ladli, the Bridge of Hope coordinator’s wife, donated the equivalent of $130 for Faria’s treatment and spent three days taking care of her in the hospital.

As an answer to prayer, God completely healed Faria! She is now able to walk and take care of household chores.

As Chahel and his family saw God’s miracle in their lives and understood more about Jesus, they chose to follow Him.

Bridge of Hope has helped provide for Chahel’s basic needs, and he is showing remarkable progress in his studies. Beyond that, this family has found in Christ a much brighter future than they ever could have dreamed of.

The doctors discharged Abhiraj from the medical facility, giving his mother, Bahula, little hope for his survival.

Pastor Santua picked up the phone. The person on the other end of the line asked the pastor to go to a certain village in the region.

After trekking two hours across the hilly landscape of his remote region of South Asia, Pastor Santua arrived at the home of one of the villagers, Mahijith Bhuinya, and found out why he had been called.

Mahijith’s grandson, 1-year-old Abhiraj, struggled to breathe. The baby was dying.

Treatment Fails Sick Child

Baby Abhiraj was born with respiratory problems. He had been to the hospital many times, but at the end of a failed treatment, the baby was in worse condition than before. His family then admitted him to another medical facility.

The whole time Abhiraj was under treatment, the family prayed to their god with high hopes and expectation that the baby would be healed. Slowly, they came to the sad realization that their god wasn’t going to answer.

The doctors discharged Abhiraj from the medical facility, giving his mother, Bahula, little hope for his survival.

Pastor Prays, Family Waits

Pastor Santua walked in the door and saw the baby. Gripped by the seriousness of Abhiraj’s condition, he began two days of fasting and praying for the child’s recovery. The first day, Abhiraj’s health didn't improve at all. As morning dawned the second day, the baby’s strength was still failing. Hours passed and night fell, the baby inching closer to death.

But the morning of the third day, baby Abhiraj’s health began improving, his small body straining toward life. Then, after a while, Abhiraj let out a cry—he was going to live!

Family Moved by Jesus’ Power

Jesus healed the child completely. As the baby miraculously gained strength, the family stood in awe of the God who had touched him.

Mahijith, 60, and his wife and their daughter Bahula decided to follow Jesus. Mahijith’s two brothers and their wives, who lived elsewhere, also came to know the Lord through the miracle.

They all now join Pastor Santua’s congregation to worship the Lord each Sunday and for other church activities during the week.

Thank you for your part in baby Abhiraj’s story and the stories of so many others who are being transformed by the life-giving love of our Lord.

Imagine you are packing your bag, preparing to take a one-way trip to another part of the country. You get on a train, travel about 1,500 miles and end up in a colony of run-down shacks—and you are going to live there.

Where you’ll be staying, you have no running water, no bathroom and no guarantee of safety. You are there to serve leprosy patients, helping them bathe, cutting their hair, cleaning their wounds and feeding them. You will experience suffering, physical and emotional, but through your sacrifice, these people will know Christ’s love for them.

Last December, more than 100 women from our Sisters of Compassion program faced situations like this one. After receiving six months of training for special compassion ministry among people like leprosy patients, slum dwellers, widows and abandoned children, these women travelled to the challenging areas where God has called them, committing three years of their lives to minister in this way. They are willing to sacrifice their comfort, ambitions and hopes to serve those whom their society sees as the lowest of the low.

Even though you and I are not serving in the same way these missionaries are, we have the privilege to play a small part in their ministry. I rejoice to see that these women and others, like Minati, are sharing the hope of Christ among people who were once perishing without ever knowing He loves them.

I'm excited to watch our sisters in Asia embracing the precious call God has placed on their lives. As they work together with their brothers in Christ to share His love, women like Mayuri are experiencing the hope and grace of the Lord.

You, my friend, are helping to make these stories possible. Through your prayers and generosity, God’s light is shining among some of the world’s most oppressed and unreached groups—including Asia’s women. Thank you for continuing to labour with us to bring Christ’s healing, restoration and transformation to millions of hungry souls. I hope you are encouraged thinking of the day when we will get to stand together with them in the presence of our Lord!