Difference between revisions of "Gospel for Asia"
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Revision as of 14:58, September 20, 2021
Gospel for Asia (GFA) is a Christian NGO[1] organization founded by K.P. Yohannan[2] in 1979 that focuses on helping the poor in 16 Asian countries and Rwanda through national workers. The organization is located in Wills Point, TX. GFA World’s stated primary objective is to support indigenous mission workers to “transform communities through God's love”[3] as they serve the 'least of these' around the world."[4]
GFA World is presently working throughout South and Southeast Asia including Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.[5] GFA World also works in Rwanda.[6]
History
In 1981, current president Dr. K.P. Yohannan formed a branch of GFA World in his native Kerala, with an Indian headquarters being set up in Tiruvalla in 1983. GFA World directly administers Bible colleges, whose graduates receive financial support to found new congregations. GFA World directly supports more than 50 Bible colleges in various countries.[7]
In 1993, GFA World began organizing its own network of congregations in Asia,[8] and established them under an independent entity called Believers Eastern Church which uses an Episcopal Polity form of governance.[9] Scholar Michael Bergunder considers it to have been “One of the most influential new foundations in the second half of the twentieth century.”[10]
Timeline
1979 — GFA World officially starts.
1982 — GFA World publishes its first “SEND!” magazine (now “GFA World”).
1984 — GFA World Canada Office Opens. Eventually to follow are offices in Australia, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
1986 — GFA-World-supported radio records its first program. Since then these programs have been broadcast in 110 languages. Revolution in World Missions, Dr. K.P. Yohannan’s first book, is published. There are currently more than 4 million copies of this title in print.
1988 — GFA World helps send out 100 mobile film teams who show movies about Jesus in remote places.
1994 — GFA World begins printing its own literature.
1998 — GFA World begins slum ministry in four cities.
2000 — GFA World begins installing “Jesus Wells” in communities.
2004 — GFA World begins Bridge of Hope Program, a child sponsorship program, ultimately enrolling 139,000 children across Asia. Young people, aged 18-27, come to Texas for the inaugural year of GFA’s U.S.-based discipleship program Road to Reality (now called School of Discipleship).
2005 — GFA World begins Women’s Fellowships in churches led by GFA pastors. During 2019, these fellowships taught 60,000 illiterate women to read and write, and it provided vocational training to more than 12,000 women.
2006 — GFA World hold first Renewing Your Passion Conference.
2007 — GFA World begins leprosy ministry.
2008 — GFA Prints First Christmas Catalog. In 2020 over 142,000 families were helped through income-generating or quality-of-life gifts.
2009 — Dr. K.P. Yohannan releases his book No Longer a Slumdog, highlighting the suffering of children in Asia and the hope many are discovering through GFA World’s Bridge of Hope Program. Brother Manja is released. In 2000, Brother Manja, a GFA worker, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being falsely accused of murder.
2010 — GFA World Compassion Services teams hand out emergency food packets to victims of natural disasters in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh.
2011 — GFA World helps to open widow-care centers for abandoned widows, which includes income-generating gifts, vocational training, clothing, and other basic essentials.
2014 — GFA World releases the feature-length documentary “Veil of Tears,” which focuses on how GFA women’s ministry is helping women escape poverty, illiteracy, slavery, and disease.
GFA World relocates its headquarters to Wills Point, Texas, USA.
2015 — GFA World responds to Nepal earthquake.
2017 — GFA World workers organize 1,245 medical camps that provide free medical exams and free medicine and vitamins.
2018 — Mission Support Team launched
2020 — American Lawsuit settled
GFA World helps 2 million in Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 — GFA World expands into Rwanda, Africa.
External links
References
- ↑ https://conservapedia.com/NGO
- ↑ https://conservapedia.com/K.P._Yohannan
- ↑ http://www.gfa.org/about/who-we-are/
- ↑ http://www.gfa.org/about/who-we-are/
- ↑ https://www.gfa.org/regions/
- ↑ https://www.gfa.org/africa/
- ↑ Philip, Shaju. An archbishop’s spiritual factory. The Indian Express. Retrieved on 5 April 2021. Bergunder, Michael (2008). The South Indian Pentecostal Movement in the Twentieth Century. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-2734-9.
- ↑ Asian and Pentecostal: The Charismatic face of Christianity in Asia. Regnum Books International. ISBN 1-870345-43-6
- ↑ https://www.bec.org/
- ↑ Bergunder, Michael (2008), The South Indian Pentecostal Movement in the Twentieth Century, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, page 53