GFA World Newsletter

September 2016, Vol. 12, No. 6

Sisters of Compassion in Asia stretch out loving hands to the helpless and downtrodden, ministering to their everyday needs.

Most of 12-year-old Mareechi’s neighbors were poor and uneducated, like him. Many adults worked as laborers, street cleaners or garbage pickers, and some of the children did too. Although some kids could go to school, the majority spent their time roaming the narrow, refuse-filled alleyways, often picking pockets, swiping food and even sneaking into other people’s homes to take from their meager possessions.

Life in the slum was never easy, never safe and never clean.

Entering the Slum

Many people find themselves in slums when they move to cities in hopes of better wages. Others, like Mareechi, are born into them.

But Sabita, Kala and Kuntal, three Gospel for Asia-supported Sisters of Compassion, traveled to Mareechi’s slum for another reason: They wanted to display the love of their Creator.

They gave people practical advice about health and hygiene. They visited the sick and downtrodden. They held literacy classes to help women who never had a chance to be educated. And they started “Sunday school” classes on Wednesdays and Saturdays to help children like Mareechi discover a better way to spend their idle time. Above all, they prayed for God to touch hearts.

Love and Prayers Heal Mother, Son

During Sunday school, Mareechi didn’t interact with the other students. When Sabita, Kala and Kuntal asked him why, he told them about his health problems. An inexplicable dizziness and nausea often caused him to lose his balance and collapse. The same condition affected his mother, Pehr. Though the family often prayed to their gods and goddesses, and Mareechi’s hard-working father spent far more than the family could afford on doctors’ visits and treatments, neither mother nor son found healing, and their lives remained miserable.

When the Sisters of Compassion found out about Mareechi’s condition, they responded with love and prayer.

After a few months, Mareechi’s mother suddenly realized her son was better. She asked him about it, and he responded, “The sisters prayed to Jesus, and He healed me.”

Mareechi and his mother (right)

Overjoyed, Pehr found the three women at church that Sunday and told them what God had done. She came back week after week and started learning more about Jesus. It didn’t take long for Pehr to experience His grace, joy, peace and healing in her life, and she received the gift of becoming a child of the Living God. Her husband, witnessing God’s power in his family’s life, made the same choice.

All this is made possible because God hears the prayers of His children—whether those prayers come from three Sisters of Compassion serving in an Asian slum or from your very own home. Thank you for your prayers for the people of Asia.

Pieces of literature help answer questions that people like Niriksh (not pictured) often have about Jesus.

Niriksh was impressed by what he saw.

The elderly man sat at a distance, watching a group of 50 women who had gathered in an open space below. At the front of the crowd stood the women from a local Women’s Fellowship group who had organized the meeting. It was September 8, World Literacy Day.

They shared about the significance and importance of education, and several women from the village came forward at the end, eager to participate in a Gospel for Asia - supported literacy class. The Women’s Fellowship sisters had seen Niriksh, and after the event, they went over to speak with him.

What the Old Man Said

“You are doing a very good work,” Niriksh said to the women shortly after they approached.

As the conversation continued, one of the women offered Niriksh a piece of literature.

“I am illiterate,” Niriksh said in reply. “Please tell me what is written in it.”

The women explained the piece of literature, and the conversation turned to the church and Jesus. Seeking more information, Niriksh learned about Jesus’ miraculous birth, death and resurrection.

As Niriksh heard the story, excitement stirred within him. He joyfully took hold of Jesus’ offer of eternal life and begged the Women’s Fellowship team to visit his wife and tell her the same thing they had told him.

At his request, the sisters visited Niriksh’s wife later that day and told her the message of great joy as well. She, too, chose to take hold of the Savior’s hand.

Within a couple years after that day, Niriksh and his wife both passed away. Today, they’re enjoying fellowship with Christ, face to face.

Just like Niriksh’s, our lives on earth will come to a close someday. Thank you for investing yourself into seeing more people like Niriksh understand the grace of our Savior.

Every day, our brothers and sisters in Asia are crying out to God on behalf of needy people around them. Interceding for those who have various physical ailments is just one of their prayers. We receive countless stories about God touching people’s lives through prayer, and when He brings healing, it’s often the catalyst for an individual, a family and sometimes an entire community to understand who He is.

Christians and non-Christians alike often seek out a pastor or a national worker to pray for friends and family who have fallen sick.

Praying from 1–3 a.m.

Haimi couldn’t move the left side of her body. Frequent seizures left her exhausted, and she gradually lost her ability to see. When she took a sudden turn for the worse, her son took her to a hospital, but to no avail. Desperate, he called Gospel for Asia-supported pastor Tapas, who lived in the village.

Pastor Tapas visited Haimi and prayed for her. After his visit, he set a regular time of prayer for her every morning from 1–3 a.m. In answer to these prayers, God healed Haimi of her paralysis and restored her eyesight.

Through this miracle, Haimi and her family found eternal healing in the Great Physician.

Escaping Epilepsy

As a child, Navin, now 24, had wanted to go to school with his friends, but epilepsy and physical weakness often confined him to his bed. His mother decided to borrow money for his treatment, yet his condition only grew worse.

“I . . . prayed to my gods to heal me, but my prayers were never answered,” Navin shares.

Then a Gospel for Asia-supported woman missionary named Heera encouraged the family from the Word of God, prayed for Navin and told them about Jesus’ great love and power to heal. When the Lord healed Navin completely, Navin and his entire family also received everlasting joy and eternal security.

What Money Couldn’t Fix

Ritu and her wealthy husband thought their son was going to die. He couldn’t speak and could barely move. They paid for expensive treatments—money was no object— yet nothing helped 4-year-old Janu. He was slowly wasting away. When a Gospel for Asia-supported pastor named Nilay heard about Ritu’s son, he went to their home to pray for Janu. The hopeful family brought him to Nilay’s church the next morning, where believers were eager to pray for the little boy. The congregation prayed for Janu twice a day for two months, until God answered their pleas. Today, Janu is healthy, and the whole family has found true riches in Christ—something money can’t buy.

Pregnancy Brings Abundant Life

Shway Khin and Mya Htet

Shway Khin and Mya Htet had been married for 13 years, but they still had no children. The treatments doctors prescribed did nothing, so the couple turned to their gods in desperation. Still, nothing happened.

When they asked a Gospel for Asia-supported woman missionary named Hla Shein to pray for a child, however, things began to change. A week later, Mya Htet became pregnant, and the couple asked Hla Shein to tell them more about her Savior. As a result, today this happy family knows and loves Jesus—the God of mercy who answered their cry.

6-Year-Old Couldn’t Walk

Babita and her mother

Stuck suddenly with paralysis, little Babita hadn’t walked for five months. Every day, her mother sacrificed hens, money, fruit—anything the witch doctors asked—seeking healing from her gods, but Babita never improved. Then one day, the distraught mother contacted a local Gospel for Asia-supported pastor named Pratap and told him about their situation. He came to her home and prayed for her little girl, and three days later, Babita began to show improvement. The congregation Pastor Pratap led also prayed for her. Seeing her daughter’s health progress, her mother began to pray, too. When God healed Babita completely in a single week, Babita’s entire family found hope in Jesus.

Bridge of Hope gives tens of thousands of children a new chance at life, empowering them to reach their full potential and become responsible members of society.

Mamta’s husband abandoned their family while she was still pregnant with their third son, Dayamay. More than a decade later, this mother of three children still remembers how she cried and pleaded with her husband to stay—but nothing could change his mind.

Mamta assumed her role as the family’s sole provider by working as a housemaid with two sons under her wing and a baby on the way. A feeling of emptiness threatened to swallow her as she worried about her children’s future. Over the years, Mamta and her three boys managed to scrape by, but not without daily hardship.

‘Jesus Christ Loves Us’

When the staff at the local Gospel for Asia-supported Bridge of Hope center learned about the family’s situation, they invited Dayamay to enroll in the program, knowing that without an education, the future of a child in Asia is especially difficult. The centre provided him with quality education, nutritious meals and school supplies, and the staff encouraged him to study well and stay in school. Dayamay also received Vitamin A supplements—essential to maintaining good eyesight and aiding the immune system—and deworming treatments through Bridge of Hope’s medical care.

Dayamay

“Teachers here are so good to my son, and they love him so much,” Mamta says. “We are poor, and my husband abandoned us, but Jesus Christ loves us and brought us into His family. … [Dayamay] is continually going to school and has improved so much in his studies and other activities.”

Though abandoned by his earthly father, Dayamay knows his Heavenly Father will never leave him alone. Today, Dayamay wants to become a doctor and serve the poor in his village. Your prayers are helping make dreams like his possible!

Like these men, Narottam carried heavy loads of firewood. Now a bicycle helps him support his family without overstraining his body.

Beads of sweat formed on Narottam’s forehead as he walked the long road to his destination. The heavy loads of bamboo and firewood that he carried day after day made his 37-year-old body ache. Deep down, Narottam wondered how much longer his body could withstand the strain, but he forced himself to keep going. His family depended on him.

A Tired Body and Weary Mind

Narottam sold wood and bamboo in addition to his work as a farmer to provide for his family’s basic needs. With no vehicle to transport the heavy loads, he had to carry them by hand and on foot wherever he went—a slow and gruelling task. Yet for all the effort Narottam put forth, he couldn’t afford to send his children to a good school, and his unreliable income made it impossible to pull his family out of poverty.

Then one day, a simple gift changed Narottam’s future. When the struggling father attended a Gospel for Asia-supported gift distribution, he received a bicycle, and his joy knew no bounds. Now he is able to carry and sell larger loads of wood without straining his body, and his mind is at ease, knowing he’ll be able to provide for his family in years to come. Narottam is thankful to those who sponsored a gift in his time of need—he has received help for his weary body and found peace in God’s hands.

Giving People a Living Hope

Maybe you’ve given a bicycle, a sewing machine or a flock of chickens to someone in Asia when they needed it most. Or maybe you provide a Bridge of Hope child with education and medical care and pray for them on a regular basis. Whether you give financially, pray regularly for a specific area of ministry, or volunteer your time to bless people like Narottam, we are grateful for your commitment and sacrifice. Thank you for partnering with Gospel for Asia to transform lives and give people hope that lasts.

Rejoice!

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