Rejoice!

Staff at GFA-supported Bridge of Hope centres offer encouragement and counsel to students’ families, some of which face extreme poverty (like the family pictured), or abusive relationships, like Deena and her family.

Her father had come home late that night. Drunk. Again. As he beat her mother, tears streamed down Deena’s cheeks. Her stomach rumbled faintly, having hardly been filled the whole day. Deena didn’t know what to do—and neither did her two older sisters. The entire situation troubled them, and they wished things would change.

A Chance for the Youngest Child

Deena’s family was poor. They labored to fill their bellies, and Deena, barely a teenager, struggled to continue her studies. Her parents couldn’t afford to give her the books and supplies she needed. This not only made it difficult for Deena to study, it also made her feel embarrassed about going to school. As a result, she often didn’t go at all—a “solution” that only perpetuated her struggles to learn.

Deena had stopped going to school because she felt ashamed of her poverty. But now, through a GFA supported Bridge of Hope center, she has everything she needs to excel in her studies.

But then a group of GFA-supported Bridge of Hope workers did a survey in Deena’s area, and they learned about this girl with great need and unused potential. They enrolled Deena, and her life took a drastic turn. Armed with the necessary supplies and further equipped with special tutoring, Deena began to excel. At the Bridge of Hope center, a nutritious meal also filled her young stomach every school day.

Impacting a Family and a Generation

During a meeting between Deena’s father and her Bridge of Hope coordinator, change started to happen in Deena’s home as well. Deena’s father realized how harmful his alcoholism was to his family, and he determined in his heart to stop. He even found a better job to support his family and stopped draining their resources one bottle at a time.

Peace now reigns in Deena’s home.

Not only that, but Deena’s sister, touched by the love Deena experienced, decided to start working to impact the lives of more children as well—she joined the Bridge of Hope center as a teacher. Now she is able to help children whose families, like Deena’s, couldn’t afford to give their children the supplies they needed to succeed.

Deena is very thankful for the help she received through Bridge of Hope—help provided through the generosity of GFA friends. She wants to see more children blessed through her life, just as she has been blessed.

“No one [else] gave me such a valuable gift to continue my studies,” Deena shares. “I will study well and be a bank manager and help many like me who are unable to continue their studies.”

Thank you for helping to make stories like this possible. May God bless you.

Every child in House of Hope has a story.

Little Kapil’s childhood has held trauma no child should have to experience— but now, in House of Hope, he is happy, nurtured and thriving.

Seven-year-old Kapil had thought his family was just fine, until the day he watched flames climb his mother’s screaming form—flames ignited by his father’s hand.

Neighbors arrived in time to save her life, but not her body. They rushed her to the hospital, where doctors started her on the long road to recovery. While she slowly gained some strength, her husband left.

Because Kapil’s mother simply could not provide for her children alone, one of her neighbors suggested she contact the government authorities for help. Kapil soon found himself in House of Hope, a home for abandoned, runaway and especially needy children.

Kapil is happy to be part of House of Hope, where he receives food, love and care from the GFA-supported staff. All of his needs are met. He has even enrolled in school and has discovered a passion for soccer.

Every child in House of Hope has a story. Most enter the home with heart-wrenching histories. Our desire is to see these children thrive and to minister to their families as well, whenever possible. By the grace of God, we have seen more than 200 children reunited with their families or relatives.

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” —John 10:10

These two widowed women, and more than 100 others, received life-changing gifts through a special program held in their honor.

One hundred and ten women gathered together, invited by the local GFA-supported pastor and workers. Some were young; some were old. Some were Christians; others were not. Some had young children; others were bereft. Each one was a widow. Each one was loved.

It was June 23, International Widows’ Day, and this church—along with countless others across Asia—planned to do something to honor them.

Some widows received goats. Others, cows. Some were given tin sheets to help build better homes. Others received sewing machines. Each one was blessed. Each one was helped.

‘God Loves All Human Beings’

In many areas of Asia, widowhood brings with it a terrible stigma. Widows, blamed for the deaths of their husbands, are frequently abandoned, mistreated and even exploited—sometimes by the ones who should care for them most.

But God hears the cry of the widow, and He has enabled us to minister to many such needy women.

“Widows, no need to worry, because you are not alone,” they heard from GFA-supported pastor Sonit during the program. “The church is with you. You have lost your dear one from your life, but God loves you all. This is the reason why we are here.”

Malvika gratefully received a sewing machine. “This sewing machine will become a great blessing for the survival of my family,” she said.

Bindu received tin sheets. “This is given by my loving Lord,” she shared.

At the event, another pastor shared: “We want to help our society. ... Take this small gift, and go with a cheerful heart, so that you may know that God loves all human beings.”

One of the widows, who attends the local church, said, “I am very much thankful to my God because He has given a church for us that has great concerns for the poor, orphan, widow and needy community.”

Thank you for standing with us to share that great love.

Fulmala’s young hands swept floors, laundered clothes and washed dishes.

Young hands of a child that should have been playing. Young hands that should have been learning. Young hands that carried home meager wages day after day, night after night, year after year—wages Fulmala couldn’t even count.

As darkness fell once more, she made her way home through the twisted maze of shanties to the one she called home, slipping past piles of rubbish and streams of refuse along her way.

She didn’t know how to hope for a better future.

Teen Struggles in Silence

Through the years, Fulmala, now late in her teens, slowly grew accustomed to the monotonous rhythms of poverty.

Tears still slipped down her cheeks at night because of her loneliness. Her mother, brother and father all worked as hard as she, but they still couldn’t escape their poor condition. They hadn’t even been able to send Fulmala to school. Her father took to drinking at nights in an effort to relieve his own pain, adding yet another burden to their already difficult lives.

The familiarity of poverty, perpetuated by the lack of education, continued unabated, until the day a few women dressed in white quietly slipped into Fulmala’s slum. Like the first flowers of spring, a soothing balm of peace in the midst of a world of pain and shame, the Sisters of Compassion came.

Compassionate Sisters Start Literacy Class

When the sisters showed up at Fulmala’s front door and invited her to attend literacy classes, joy blossomed within her heart. Fulmala eagerly gathered with others in her community, women who, like her, couldn’t even write their own names, read warnings on labels or verify their wages.

One night out of every week, Fulmala’s hands—hands that were not as young as most first-time students’ but were just as eager—raced from her labor to grasp the stub of chalk and learn the skill she had been denied in her childhood.

As the indecipherable characters of her mother tongue expanded to take on meaning in her mind, Fulmala’s joy expanded with them. A new kind of joy also grew in her heart, one that couldn’t be explained in so many words.

Witnessing the conduct of the GFA-supported Sisters of Compassion, the kind women who had brought the aroma of grace into her life, Fulmala realized there was yet still more joy to be grasped, a joy she observed in these sisters and was eager to learn more about.

Learning of the One Who Loves Her

Across Asia, women are discovering—for the first time—the joys of writing their own name, reading an encouraging verse and confidently agreeing to a fair deal in the marketplace. Fulmala (not pictured) found these treasures through the literacy classes given by GFA-supported Sisters of Compassion.

Fulmala’s heart learned to hope before her classes ever finished. Tears don’t fall down her cheeks nearly as often as they once did. Every day, her eyes search out the Scriptures, deciphering one character, one word at a time, a daily verse to sustain her.

“As an uneducated person,” Fulmala shares, “I was ashamed of myself. I never imagined that I would be able to read and even to write my own name. But these classes help me to think positively, and I am sure that I will become a real blessing to my family.”

Fulmala found that Jesus loves her and hears her prayers. One of the first prayers He answered was her plea for a better job.

Fulmala’s heart has been swept clean. New clothes are waiting for her, radiant and white in the kingdom to come. All this has been done by the One with the nail-scarred hands—Jesus.

Women like Berit (not pictured) struggle to eke out a living by selling produce on the streets. Simple gifts, like pull-carts, can make a tremendous impact on their lives.

Fruit and vegetable vendors littered the sides of the road. GFA-supported pastor Varin approached a woman whose pile of CURRENT_USER vegetables looked promising. The papery skin of an onion crinkled as he picked it up, and while he considered his purchase, he asked the woman, a young widow named Berit, about her life. Her answer was swift and torrential.

She told him how she had struggled to provide for her children ever since her husband had died 10 years before, when she was just 28 years old. She sold vegetables on a mat by the roadside every day, but she never earned quite enough. She slowly had less and less to provide for her two children, who were now in their teens. Life became significantly more challenging when the city decided to expand the road where she once sold vegetables, effectively evicting her and others like her. Berit struggled to find a new place to sell her vegetables. She knew she needed a pull cart to transport and sell her wares in new locations, but there was absolutely no way she could afford one. Through the next four months, her meager finances rapidly decreased, and she felt completely hopeless.

Rolling Out a Better Future

As Pastor Varin walked away that day, he felt burdened to pray for the widow many times in the days ahead. Then God showed him a way he could help. Thanks to the generosity of GFA friends, Pastor Varin could soon conduct a Christmas gift distribution in his area. Berit quickly came to his mind.

When she came to the distribution event and heard her name called, she couldn’t hold back her tears. There it was, waiting for her—her very own pull cart.

“With the pull cart, I can travel around and sell onions and potatoes,” Berit shares. “Wherever I find a suitable place, I stand and sell. My earnings have also increased. I can go different places for the sale.”

Warmed by God’s provision, Berit decided to start attending church, eager to learn more about the God who provided for her in her time of need.

Kulvir found full freedom from his alcohol addiction by trusting in Jesus to help him. Now he and his wife have a fresh start in life.

Jaihayal heard that his uncle, Kulvir, had fallen into a bad way. His uncle formerly held a good reputation as a humble and gentle man, but now a steadily growing bondage to alcohol was sapping away his life and the life of his family.

It hurt Jaihayal, a Christian, to see his uncle in such a disparaging place, and he wanted to do something to help. That’s why he and his wife went to visit Kulvir. Jaihayal shared about Jesus’ love and encouraged Kulvir to give up his destructive habit. To Jaihayal’s dismay, Kulvir responded with the discouraging words, “I can’t live without drinking.”

Undaunted, Nephew Returns

Jaihayal and his wife left the troubled home that day, but they prayed daily and returned the following week. This time Jaihayal invited his pastor, GFA-supported pastor Nihar, to join him on his visit. They encouraged Kulvir to leave his alcoholism and find a fresh start.

Kulvir learned that Jesus could set him free from all kinds of bondage.

That day, Kulvir received a New Testament and was invited to attend church. Driven by the love of Christ and the desire to see Kulvir free and back to his old self, Pastor Nihar and Jaihayal continued to pray for Kulvir to change his ways.

With a great deal of prayer on his behalf and through several personal visits from the pastor and from his nephew, Kulvir did.

Thank You!

Today, Kulvir is completely free from his addiction to alcohol and has found a fresh start in Christ. His entire manner of life has been transformed, and he wants to reflect the love he saw in his nephew and pastor.

Thanks to the persistent prayers of pastors like Nihar and people like Jaihayal—and you—lives are being freed from bondage every day, whether that is bondage to alcohol, drugs or something worse.

Thank you for your partnership. Through your prayers, you help people like Kulvir live an overcoming life in Christ.

There are two words that are significant for us to hold on to if we want to survive until the end: trust and surrender. They go hand in hand; one who trusts, surrenders.

“Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you.” David, mighty king David, the shepherd boy who faced the giant, prayed these words in Psalm 56:3.

My brother, my sister, if you have been walking with Jesus for any length of time, I’m sure you have encountered trials and difficulties and setbacks. There have been things that have caused you to be afraid, whether it’s an illness, a financial struggle, some relationship issue or misunderstanding. There are always battles we must face.

So the question isn’t so much whether we will face them, but how we will respond.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:25–34 not to worry. Several times in these 10 verses He says, “Do not worry.”

When Jaihayal, whom you read about in this Harvest, discovered his uncle was becoming a drunkard, he responded with prayer. Jaihayal trusted God and surrendered his uncle into God’s hands, and God answered.

Oftentimes when we talk about surrendering to the Lord, we talk about surrendering gifts and talents, abilities, education and the like. But there is more to surrender than just that—we also must learn to surrender our fears, agonies, expectations and feelings of hopelessness when we just don’t know what to do.

When we are afraid, that is when we need to put our trust in God. When we relinquish our rights and our expectations about whatever it is that we are dealing with, peace and courage come into our hearts.

And so, may I encourage you as we continue in this journey: Let’s understand there will be challenges until we see Jesus face to face. When you finish one, there is often another one waiting for you. There is no shortcut, no easy way through. But understand this: He gives grace.

I pray you will find His grace to sustain you in whatever it is you are going through.

No matter what it is you are facing, I want to encourage you and remind you that you can trust Him with all your heart.