Readers Respond . . .

Revolution in World Missions was actually a revolution in my

mind and heart.
—Marysabel M., Montreal, Canada

I’ve read Revolution in World Missions several times. Just like the
message of salvation, the book never grows old.
—Elizabeth K., Queens Village, New York

I started reading it and could not put it down. It was like part
two of the book of Acts.
—Gareth W., Staffordshire, England

I just read Revolution in World Missions. The Holy Spirit has

led me today to stop just going to church but to BE the church!
—Susan S., Altoona, Iowa

Revolution in World Missions made me realize that the difference

between poor and rich people is not just a fairy tale, something
we see only in movies. This discovery broke my heart.
—Thelma P., Debrecen, Hungary

I was caught up in the book. It made me study and pray more

often and harder.
—David S., Jacksonville, Illinois

Revolution in World Missions spoke volumes to me. My budget

was/is filled with things that have no eternal value. God con-
victed my heart!
—Pastor Rudi B., Western Cape, South Africa
I am convinced, having served 20 years as a pastor and in other
church ministries, that this is the way missions is supposed to
be done!
—Pastor Samuel M., Bluff City, Tennessee

I can tell you that this reading literally blew my mind. It is as-
tonishing to see what God is doing in Asia. I am so excited to
be part of this.
—Armando R., Panama City, Panama

I was a Christian who mainly believed that God no longer

worked in the same way He did in the book of Acts. When I
read Revolution in World Missions I realized I was dead wrong.
—James B., Nacogdoches, Texas

I read Revolution in World Missions, and I could feel the Lord

working in me with every page I read. I felt my heart open to the
Lord in a new way and His desires being planted in me.
—Alba S., Toronto, Canada

I was born and raised a missionary kid in Tokyo, Japan, and

Revolution in World Missions changed my whole perspective.
—Penelope W., Troy, Missouri

I gave Revolution in World Missions to my parents to read, and it

has generated a lot of interest within our church. Respectfully I
request a replacement copy of the book so that I can re-read it.
—Anthony F., Goolwa, South Australia
 What International Christian
Leaders Say . . .

There are many that talk a good message, but not too many who
actually live it out. GFA has what it takes to penetrate the 10/40
Window.
—Dr. Luis Bush, International Facilitator
of Transform World Connections

Gospel for Asia has become one of the more significant pioneer
missionary agencies, with a good accountability structure.  .  .  .
They are doing an excellent job.
—Patrick Johnstone, Author
Emeritus of Operation World

Gospel for Asia is not a movement, but a phenomenon. GFA

has become one of the most significant mission organizations
of this century.
—Dr. George Verwer, Founder and former International
Director of Operation Mobilization

K.P. Yohannan leads one of the largest, if not the largest mis-
sionary movement, working across Southeast Asia to bring the
love of Christ to the most unreached. . . . The impact of GFA’s
ministry in Asia is very significant.
—Dr. Joseph D’Souza, Executive Director
of Operation Mobilization India
Revolution in World Missions is one of the great classics of
Christian literature. It is essential reading for those who desire
to obey the mission of Jesus Christ. We get so used to apathetic
and halfhearted ideas about missions . . . and then K.P.’s book
turns our world upside down!
—Rev. Dr. Paul Blackham, CEO of
Biblical Frameworks, London

You need to read Revolution in World Missions. For a guy in our

generation to be speaking these words—I don’t know that any-
one else is saying them as clearly as he is. It’s a ministry that I
not only endorse, but it’s the model of how I want to continue in
ministry for the rest of my life.
—Pastor Francis Chan,
Author of Crazy Love

My guess is that few realize the extraordinary breadth and depth

of the ministry outreach of Gospel for Asia. When I journeyed
to South Asia, I was astonished at GFA’s amazing outreach and
witness for Christ.
—Dr. Frank Wright, President and CEO
of D. James Kennedy Ministries

We are very particular when it comes to partnering with other

ministries. But we don’t have any hesitation when it comes to
Gospel for Asia.
—Ray Comfort, CEO of Living Waters and
Co-Host of The Way of the Master
 “To open their eyes, and to turn them from
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,
that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance
among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”

Acts 26:18
a di v i si on of gospel for a si a

www.gfa.org
Revolution in World Missions
© 1986, 1989, 1992, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2017
By K.P. Yohannan
All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior

written permission of the publisher.

Revised and Updated Edition © 2017

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-59589-169-3
Paperback Library of Congress Control Number: 2016940449

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982
by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Published by gfa books, a division of Gospel for Asia

1116 St. Thomas Way, Wills Point, TX 75169 USA
Phone: (800) 946-2742

Printed in the United States of America

1st printing, July 1986 20th printing, November 1998 39th printing, June 2012
2nd printing, November 1986 21st printing, March 2000 40th printing, May 2013
3rd printing, May 1987 22nd printing, April 2001 41st printing, November 2013
4th printing, December 1987 23rd printing, November 2001 42nd printing, May 2014
5th printing, July 1989 24th printing, June 2002 43rd printing, October 2014
6th printing, May 1991 25th printing, October 2002 44th printing, March 2015
7th printing, January 1992 26th printing, May 2003 45th printing, September 2015
8th printing, June 1992 27th printing, October 2003 46th printing, January 2017
9th printing, August 1993 28th printing, March 2004
10th printing, March 1994 29th printing, July 2004
11th printing, June 1994 30th printing, January 2005
12th printing, March 1995 31st printing, January 2006
13th printing, October 1995 32nd printing, May 2007
14th printing, May 1996 33rd printing, August 2007
15th printing, October 1996 34th printing, November 2008
16th printing, March 1997 35th printing, October 2009
17th printing, July 1997 36th printing, June 2010
18th printing, January 1998 37th printing, December 2010
19th printing, August 1998 38th printing, October 2011

For more information about other materials, visit our website www.gfa.org.
 This book is dedicated to George Verwer,
founder and former international director of Operation
Mobilization, whom the Lord used to call me into the
ministry and whose life and example have influenced
me more than any other single individual’s.
 Contents

Foreword 13
Acknowledgments 15
Introduction 17
1. Only the Beginning 21
2. “O God, Let One of My Boys Preach!” 25
3. The Seeds of Future Change 33
4. I Walked in a Daze 39
5. A Nation Asleep in Bondage 45
6. What Are You Doing Here? 51
7. “It Is a Privilege” 63
8. A New Day in Missions 73
9. Is Missions an Option? 81
10. God Is Withholding Judgment 87
11. Why Should I Make Waves? 97
12. Hope Has Many Names 107
13. Enemies of the Cross 121
14. A Global Vision 129
 15. “I Became One Among Them” 137
16. The Church’s Primary Task 145
17. The Vision of Asia’s Need 153
18. “Lord, Help Us Remain True to You” 159
Conclusion 169
Appendix 1: Questions and Answers 175
Appendix 2: Contact Information 185
Notes 187
 Foreword

W e all are skeptical of Christians with big dreams. We don’t

know why exactly—perhaps we have met too many who
pursued visions but whose personal lives were nightmares.
The first time we remember meeting K.P. Yohannan we
brought him home for dinner, and our family dragged this
slight Indian along with us to a high school gymnasium to sit
through an American rite of passage—an all-school spaghetti
supper. Across the paper tablecloth, the garlic bread and the
centerpieces—shellacked lunch sacks filled with an assortment
of dried weeds and pasta (created by members of the Mains
family!)—we heard of a dream to win not only India but all of
Asia for Christ.
Since that evening in the noisy gymnasium in West Chicago,
Illinois, there have been many more shared experiences—phone
calls from Dallas; trips to the cities and backwaters of India;
pastors’ conferences in open thatched-roofed, bamboo-sided pa-
vilions; laughter; travel on Two-Thirds World roads; and times
of prayer.
Very simply said, we have come to believe in K.P.
And we believe in his plan for evangelization that, with the
profundity of simplicity, bypasses the complexity of technology
and challenges Asians to give up their lives to win their fellow
countrymen to Christ.
 Revolution in World Missions

This book, Revolution in World Missions, reveals one of

God’s master plans to reach the world before the end of time.
With absolute confidence we know we can endorse the integrity
of its author, a man of God, and we are thrilled with the work
of Gospel for Asia.
You can read knowing that those evangelists traveling into
the unreached villages of Asia have more heart, more fervor,
more passion to spread the Gospel of Christ than most of us
who are surrounded by the comforts and conveniences of our
Western world.
We know because we have seen them and talked with them,
and they have put us to shame.
Internationals are the new wave of the missionary effort.
K.P. Yohannan’s book paints the picture of how that dream is
becoming reality.
This is one dreamer of whom we are no longer skeptical. We
think you will find reason to believe as well.
—David and Karen Mains

14
 Acknowledgments

H undreds of people have had an impact on this volume—

from those who have made suggestions, to those who
have given encouragement, to those who have influenced my life
and ministry. I want to thank all of them—and all of you—and
thank the Lord for placing you in my path.
Of those especially close to me during the long writing,
editing and review of this manuscript, I would like to thank
William T. Bray, David and Karen Mains, Gayle Erwin, Dave
Hicks and Martin Bennett for their honest criticism and un-
wavering support of this entire project. Special thanks also are
due Margaret Jordan, Heidi Chupp and Katie McCall, who
typed the manuscript. Thanks to my secretary, Teresa Chupp,
and her assistants for their hard work on updated editions. And
my sincere thanks to Kim Smith for the long hours and careful
attention to detail she spent working on revisions and edits for
this new edition. And thank you, Cindy Young, for the beautiful
cover you created.
And my special thanks to Bob Granholm, former executive
director of Frontiers in Canada, for his suggestions for the revi-
sion that helped bring balance and clear up misunderstanding.
Most of all, of course, my greatest debt is to my wife, Gisela,
for her careful reading and for suggestions that made the criti-
cal difference in several passages. Her emotional and spiritual
support made the writing of this book possible. Without her
standing beside me and encouraging me during these eventful
years, this book—and the message it proclaims—would not
have been possible.
 Introduction

T his is the story of my journey from a small Indian village

to the shores of Europe and North America and from co-
lonial missions to a move of God among national missionaries
across the globe. It is my own personal story full of the difficul-
ties I had to overcome and God’s amazing provision each step
along the way. He is so very faithful.
Missions as it is today is not as it has always been. In the
1980s, most evangelical Christians in the West viewed mis-
sion history in terms of two great waves. The first wave broke
over the New Testament world as the apostles obeyed the
Great Commission. The second wave began around the time of
William Carey’s pioneer work in 18th-century India, and in the
19th and 20th centuries there was a flood of missionaries to the
colonies of the great European powers.
Now around the world today, the Holy Spirit is moving
over Asian and African nations, raising up thousands of ded-
icated men and women to take the story of salvation to their
own people. Millions are hearing for the first time about the
love of God through these national missionaries. They are hum-
ble, obscure pioneers of the Gospel taking up the banner of the
cross where colonial-era missions left off. This work of the Holy
Spirit among these national believers is the third wave of mis-
sion history—the indigenous missionary movement.
 Revolution in World Missions

What does this mean for us? The call of Christ is for all of
us to “go” or “send”—to bring His love to all peoples on Earth.
This move of the Holy Spirit is an incredible opportunity for
us to join in this end-time work of God, to link our hearts with
what God is doing across the world and send these national be-
lievers out among their own people.
And if God is speaking to you to go, you should go! There
has never been a time in history when the call to “go” changed.
There are no closed doors for God. The book of Acts and the
Church of the early centuries are proof of that. The question
to ask ourselves is not “How are we going to reach them?” but
instead, “How will they be reached with the Good News?”
There is a cry now for us to run forward and make our lives
count. I truly hope that God will use this book to raise up a gen-
eration of believers who are united by and overwhelmed with
love for the entire world, especially for those who have never
once heard the name of Christ. No one should die without hear-
ing about our Lord Jesus and His love.

18
 View Powerful
Videos Online

RevolutionBook.org
 1
Only the Beginning

T he silence of the great hall in Kochi was broken only by

soft, choking sobs. The Spirit of God was moving over the
room with awesome power—convicting of sin and calling men
and women into His service. Before the meeting ended, 120 of
the 1,200 pastors and Christian leaders present made their way
to the altar, responding to the “Great Commission.”
They made the choice to leave home, village and fam-
ily, business or career and go where they would be hated and
feared. Meanwhile, another 600 pastors pledged to return to
their congregations and pray for more workers who would go
to the needy regions.
I stood silently in the holy hush, praying for the earnest pas-
tors crowded around the altar. I was humbled by the presence
of God.
As I prayed, my heart ached for these men. How many
would be beaten and go hungry or be cold and lonely in the
years ahead? How many would sit in jails for their faith? I prayed
for the blessing and protection of God on them—and for more
sponsors across the seas to stand with them.
They were leaving material comforts, family ties and per-
sonal ambitions. Ahead lay a new life among strangers. But I
 Revolution in World Missions

also knew they would witness spiritual victory as many thou-

sands turned to Christ and helped form new congregations in
the unreached villages.
With me in the meeting was David Mains, a serious student
of revival. He had joined us in Kochi as one of the conference
speakers. He later testified how the Lord had taken over the
meeting in a most unusual way.
“It would hardly have been different,” he wrote later, “had
Jesus Himself been bodily among us. The spirit of worship filled
the hall. The singing was electrifying. The power of the Holy
Spirit came upon the audience. Men actually groaned aloud. I
have read of such conviction in early Church history and during
the two Great Awakenings, but I had never anticipated experi-
encing it firsthand.”
But the Lord is not simply calling out huge numbers of na-
tional workers. God is at work saving people in numbers we never
before dreamed possible. People are coming to know the love of
Christ all across Asia at an accelerated rate wherever Christ is
being proclaimed. In areas such as China, Malaysia, Myanmar
and others, it is not uncommon now for the Christian commu-
nity to grow as much in only one month as it formerly did in a
whole year.
Typical of the many indigenous missionary movements
that have sprung up overnight is the work of a brother from
India—a former military officer who gave up a commission and
army career to help start a Gospel team in an unreached area.
He now leads more than 400 full-time missionaries.
Like other indigenous mission leaders, he has discipled 10
“Timothys” who are directing the work. Each of them in turn
will be able to lead dozens of additional workers who will have
their own disciples.

22
 Only the Beginning

With his wife he set an apostolic pattern for their work-

ers similar to that of the Apostle Paul. On one mission tour
that lasted 53 days, he and his family traveled by bullock cart
and foot into some of the most needy areas of an eastern state.
There, working in the intense heat among people whose lifestyle
was extremely primitive, he saw hundreds come to know the
Lord. Throughout the journey, demons were cast out and mi-
raculous physical healings took place daily. Thousands heard the
Gospel eagerly. In just one month, he formed 15 fellowships and
assigned elders to stay behind and build them up in the faith.
Similar miraculous movements are starting almost every-
where in Asia.
National missionary Jesu Das was horrified when he first
visited one village and found no believers there. The people were
all worshiping hundreds of different deities, and four men con-
trolled them through their witchcraft.
Stories were told of how these witch doctors could kill
people’s cattle and destroy their crops with black magic. People
suddenly became ill and died without explanation. The destruc-
tion and bondage the villagers were living in are hard to imagine.
Scars, decay and death marked their faces because they were to-
tally controlled by the powers of darkness.
When Jesu Das told them about Christ, it was the first time
they ever heard of a God who did not require sacrifices and of-
ferings to appease His anger. As Jesu Das continued to preach in
the marketplace, many people came to know the Lord.
But the leaders in the community were outraged. They
warned Jesu Das that if he did not leave the village, they would
call on evil spirits to kill him, his wife and their children. Jesu
Das did not leave. He continued to preach, and villagers contin-
ued to be saved.

23
 Revolution in World Missions

Finally, after a few weeks, the witch doctors came to Jesu

Das and asked him the secret of his power.
“This is the first time our power did not work,” they told
him. “After doing our black magic, we asked the spirits to go and
kill your family. But the spirits came back and told us they could
not approach you or your family because you were always sur-
rounded by fire. Then we called more powerful spirits to come
after you—but they too returned, saying not only were you sur-
rounded by fire, but angels were also around you all the time.”
Jesu Das told them about Christ. The Holy Spirit convicted
each of them of their sin of following evil spirits and of the
judgment to come. With tears, they repented and received Jesus
Christ as Lord. As a result, hundreds of other villagers were set
free from sin and bondage.
Through an indigenous organization in Thailand, where
more than 200 national missionaries are doing pioneer village
evangelism, one group personally shared their faith with 10,463
people in two months. Of these, 171 gave their lives to Christ, and
six new churches were formed. More than 1,000 came to Christ
in the same reporting period. Remember, this great harvest is
happening in a Buddhist nation that never has seen such results.
Reports like these come to us daily from national outreach
teams in almost every Asian nation. But I am convinced these
are only the first few drops of revival rain. In order to make the
necessary impact, we must see hundreds of thousands more
workers sent out. We are no longer praying for the proverbial
“showers of blessings.” Instead I am believing God for virtual
thunderstorms of blessings in the days ahead.
How I became a part of this astonishing spiritual renewal
in Asia is what this book is all about. And it all began with the
prayers of a simple village mother.

24
 2
“O God, Let One of My
Boys Preach!”

A chyamma’s eyes stung with salty tears. But they were not
from the cooking fire or the hot spices that wafted up from
the pan. She realized time was short. Her six sons were growing
beyond her influence. Yet not one showed signs of going into the
Gospel ministry.
Except for the youngest—little “Yohannachan” as I was
known—every one of her children seemed destined for secular
work. My brothers seemed content to live and work around our
native village of Niranam in Kerala, South India.
“O God,” she prayed in despair, “let just one of my boys
preach!” Like Hannah and so many other saintly mothers in the
Bible, my mother had dedicated her children to the Lord. That
morning, while preparing breakfast, she vowed to fast secretly
until God called one of her sons into His service. Every Friday
for the next three-and-a-half years, she fasted. Her prayer was
always the same.
But nothing happened. Finally, only I, scrawny and little—
the baby of the family—was left. There seemed little chance
I would preach. Although I had stood up in an evangelistic
 Revolution in World Missions

meeting at age 8, I was shy and timid and kept my faith mostly
to myself. I showed no leadership skills and avoided sports and
school functions. I was comfortable on the edge of village and
family life, a shadowy figure who moved in and out of the scene
almost unnoticed.
Then, when I was 16, my mother’s prayers were answered.
A visiting Gospel team from Operation Mobilization came to
our church to present the challenge of faraway North India. My
90-pound frame strained to catch every word as the team spoke
and showed slides of the North.
They told of stonings and beatings they received while
preaching Christ in the non-Christian villages of North India.
Sheltered from contact with the rest of India by the high peaks
of the Western Ghats, the lush jungles of Kerala on the Malabar
Coast were all I knew of my homeland. And the Malabar Coast
had long nourished India’s oldest Christian community, begun
when the flourishing sea trade with the Persian Gulf made it
possible for St. Thomas to introduce Jesus Christ at nearby
Cranagore in A.D. 52. Other Jews already were there, having
arrived 200 years earlier. The rest of India seemed an ocean away
to the Malayalam-speaking people of the southwest coast, and I
was no exception.
As the Gospel team explained the desperately poor condi-
tion of the subcontinent—tens of thousands of villages without
any hope—I felt a strange sorrow for them. That day I vowed
to help bring the love of Jesus Christ to those mysterious states
to the North. At the challenge to “forsake all and follow Christ,”
I somewhat rashly took the leap, agreeing to join the student
group for a short summer crusade in needy parts of North India.
My decision to go into the ministry largely resulted from
my mother’s faithful prayers. Although I still had not received

26
 “O God, Let One of My
Boys Preach!”

what I later understood to be my real call from the Lord, my

mother encouraged me to follow my heart in the matter. When
I announced my decision, she wordlessly handed over 25 ru-
pees—enough for my train ticket. I set off to apply to the
mission’s headquarters in Trivandrum.
There I got my first rebuff. Because I was underage, the mis-
sion’s directors at first refused to let me join the teams going
north. But I was permitted to attend the annual training confer-
ence to be held in Bangalore, Karnataka. At the conference I first
heard missionary statesman George Verwer, who challenged me
as never before to commit myself to a life of breathtaking, radi-
cal discipleship.
Alone that night in my bed, I argued with both God and my
own conscience. By two o’clock in the morning, my pillow wet
with sweat and tears, I shook with fear. What if God asked me
to preach in the streets? How would I ever be able to stand up in
public and speak? What if I were stoned and beaten?
I knew myself only too well. I could hardly bear to look a
friend in the eye during a conversation, let alone speak publicly
to hostile crowds on behalf of God. As I spoke the words, I real-
ized that I was behaving as Moses did when he was called.
Suddenly, I felt that I was not alone in the room. A great
sense of love and of my being loved filled the place. I felt the
presence of God and fell on my knees beside the bed.
“Lord God,” I gasped in surrender to His presence and will,
“I’ll give myself to speak for You—but help me to know that
You’re with me.”
In the morning, I awoke to a world and people suddenly
different. As I walked outside, the Indian street scenes looked
the same as before: Children ran between the legs of people and
cows, pigs and chickens wandered about, vendors carried bas-
kets of bright fruit and flowers on their heads. But I loved them

27
 Revolution in World Missions

all with a supernatural, unconditional love I’d never felt before.

It was as if God had removed my eyes and replaced them with
His so I could see people as the heavenly Father sees them—lost
and needy but with potential to glorify and reflect Him.
I walked to the bus station. My eyes filled with tears of
love. I knew that these people were all heading toward eternity
without Christ—and I knew God did not want that. Suddenly
I had such a burden for these masses that I had to stop and
lean against a wall just to keep my balance. This was it; I knew I
was feeling the burden of love God feels for the lost and needy.
His loving heart was pounding within mine, and I could hardly
breathe. The tension was great. I paced back and forth restlessly
to keep my knees from knocking in fright.
“Lord!” I cried. “If You want me to do something, say it, and
give me courage.”
Looking up from my prayer, I saw a huge stone. I knew im-
mediately I had to climb that stone and preach to the crowds in
the bus station. Scrambling up, I felt a force like 10,000 volts of
electricity shooting through my body.
I began by singing a simple children’s chorus. It was all I
knew. By the time I finished, a crowd stood at the foot of
the rock. I had not prepared myself to speak, but all at once
God took over and filled my mouth with words of His love. I
preached the Gospel to the poor as Jesus commanded His dis-
ciples to do. As the authority and power of God flowed through
me, I had superhuman boldness. Words came out I never knew
I had—and with a power clearly from above.
Others from the Gospel teams stopped to listen. The ques-
tion of my age and calling never came up again. That was 1966,
and I continued moving with mobile evangelistic teams for the
next seven years. We traveled all over North India, never staying

28
 “O God, Let One of My
Boys Preach!”

very long in any one village. Everywhere we went I preached in the

streets while others distributed books and tracts. Occasionally,
in smaller villages, we witnessed from house to house.
My urgent, overpowering love for the village people of India
and the poor masses grew with the years. People even began to
nickname me “Gandhi Man” after the father of modern India,
Mahatma Gandhi. Like him, I realized without being told that
if the village people of India were ever to be won, it would have
to be by brown-skinned nationals who loved them.
As I studied the Gospels, it became clear to me that Jesus
understood well the principle of reaching the poor. He avoided
the major cities, the rich, the famous and the powerful, concen-
trating His ministry on the poor laboring class. If we reach the
poor, we have touched the masses of Asia.
The battle against hunger and poverty is really a spiritual
battle, not a physical or social one as secularists would have
us believe. It is through the love of Christ that we will effec-
tively win the war against disease, hunger, injustice and poverty
in Asia. To look into the sad eyes of a hungry child or see the
wasted life of a drug addict is to witness the evidence of Satan’s
hold on this world. All bad things, whether in Asia or the West,
are his handiwork. He is the ultimate enemy of mankind, and
he will do everything within his considerable power to kill and
destroy human beings. Fighting this powerful enemy with phys-
ical weapons alone is like fighting an armored tank with stones.
I can never forget one of the more dramatic encounters
we had with these demonic powers. It was a hot and unusu-
ally humid day in 1970. We were preaching in a place called the
“desert of kings.”
As was our practice before a street meeting, my seven
co-workers and I stood in a circle to sing and clap hands to the

29
 Revolution in World Missions

rhythm of Christian folk songs. A sizeable crowd gathered, and

I began to speak in Hindi, the local language. Many heard the
Gospel for the first time and eagerly took our Gospels and tracts
to read.
One young man came up to me and asked for a book to read.
As I talked to him, I sensed in my spirit that he was hungry to
know God. When we got ready to climb aboard our Gospel van,
he asked to join us.
As the van lurched forward, he cried and wailed. “I am a
terrible sinner,” he shrieked. “How can I sit among you?” With
that he started to jump from the moving van. We held on to him
and forced him to the floor to prevent injury.
That night he stayed at our base and the next morning
joined us for the prayer meeting. While we were praising and
interceding, we heard a sudden scream. The young man was
lying on the ground, tongue lolling out of his mouth, his eyes
rolled back.
We knew immediately he was demon-possessed. We gath-
ered around him and began taking authority over the forces of
hell as they spoke through his mouth.
“We are 74 of us. . . . For the past seven years we have made
him walk barefoot all over India. He is ours. . . . ” They spoke on,
blaspheming and cursing, challenging us and our authority.
But as three of us prayed, the demons could not keep their
hold on the young man. They came out when we commanded
them to leave in the name of Jesus.
Sundar was delivered and gave his life to Jesus. Later he
went to Bible college, and since then the Lord has enabled
him to teach and preach to thousands of people about Christ.
Several Indian churches have started as a result of his remark-
able ministry—all from a man many people would have locked
up in an insane asylum.

30
 “O God, Let One of My
Boys Preach!”

This kind of miracle kept me going from village to village

for those seven years of itinerant preaching. Our lives read like
pages from the book of Acts. Most nights we slept between
villages in roadside ditches, where we were relatively safe. Our
team always created a stir, and at times we even faced stonings
and beatings.
The mobile Gospel teams I worked with—and often led—
were just like family to me. I began to enjoy the gypsy lifestyle
we lived and the total abandonment to the cause of Christ that
is demanded of an itinerant evangelist. We were persecuted,
hated and despised. Yet we kept going, knowing that we were
blazing a trail for the Gospel in districts that had never before
experienced an encounter with Christ.
One such village was in Rajasthan. This was the first place
I was beaten and stoned for preaching the Gospel. Often when
we were there, our literature was destroyed. It seemed that mobs
were always on the watch for us, and six times our street meet-
ings were broken up. Our team leaders began to work elsewhere,
avoiding this village as much as possible. Three years later, a new
team of national missionaries moved into the area under differ-
ent leadership and preached again at this busy crossroads town.
Almost as soon as they arrived, one man began tearing up
literature and grabbed a 19-year-old missionary, Samuel, by the
throat. Although beaten severely, Samuel knelt in the street and
prayed for the people in that hateful city.
“Lord,” he prayed, “I want to come back here and serve You.
I’m willing to die here, but I want to come back and serve You
in this place.”
Many older Christian leaders advised him against his de-
cision, but being determined, Samuel went back and rented a
small room. Shipments of literature arrived, and he preached in

31
 Revolution in World Missions

the face of many difficulties. Today there are hundreds of pre-

cious brothers and sisters worshiping the Lord.
This is the kind of commitment and faith it takes to reach
the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ.
One time we arrived in a town at daybreak to preach. But
word had already gone ahead from the nearby village where we
had preached the day before.
As we had morning tea in a roadside stall, the local militant
leader approached me politely. In a low voice that betrayed little
emotion, he spoke:
“Get in your vehicle and get out of town in five minutes, or
we’ll burn it and you with it.”
I knew he was serious. He was backed by a menacing crowd.
Although we did “shake the dust from our feet” that day, today a
church meets in that same village. In order to plant the Gospel,
we must take risks.
For months at a time I traveled the dusty roads in the heat
of the day and shivered through cold nights—suffering just
as many are suffering today to bring the Gospel to the lost. In
future years I would look back on those seven years of village
evangelism as one of the greatest learning experiences of my life.
We walked in Jesus’ steps, incarnating and representing Him to
masses of people who had never before heard the Gospel.
I was living a frenetic, busy life—too busy and thrilled with
the work of the Gospel to think much about the future. There
was always another campaign just ahead. But I was about to
reach a turning point.

32
 3
The Seeds of Future Change

I n 1971, I was invited to spend one month in Singapore at a

new institute that had been started by John Haggai. It was
still in the formative stages then—a place where Asian church
leaders would be trained and challenged to witness for Christ.
Today, more than 40 years later, the Haggai Institute leadership
training program is world-renowned, and Dr. Haggai is still at
the helm.
Haggai was full of stories. In them all, Christians were
overcomers and giants—men and women who received a vision
from God and refused to let go of it. Diligence to your calling
was a virtue to be highly prized.
Haggai was the first person who made me believe that noth-
ing is impossible with God. And in Haggai I found a man who
refused to accept impossibilities. If the world was not evange-
lized, why not? If people were hungry, what could we do about
it? Haggai refused to accept the world as it was. And I discov-
ered that he was willing to accept personal responsibility to
become an agent of change.
Toward the end of my month at the institute, John Haggai
challenged me into the most painful introspection I have ever
experienced. I know now it implanted a restlessness in me that
 Revolution in World Missions

would last for years, eventually causing me to leave India to

search abroad for God’s ultimate will in my life.
Haggai’s challenge seemed simple at first. He wanted me to
go to my room and write down—in one sentence—the single
most important thing I was going to do with the rest of my life.
He stipulated that it could not be self-centered or worldly in
nature. And one more thing—it had to bring glory to God.
I went to my room to write that one sentence. But the paper
remained blank for hours and days. Disturbed that I might not
be reaching my full potential in Christ, I began at that confer-
ence to reevaluate every part of my lifestyle and ministry. I left
the conference with the question still ringing in my ears, and for
years I would continue to hear the words of John Haggai, “One
thing . . . by God’s grace you have to do one thing.”
I left Singapore newly liberated to think of myself in terms
of an individual for the first time. Up until that time—like
most Asians—I always had viewed myself as part of a group,
either my family or a Gospel team. Although I had no idea what
special work God would have for me as an individual, I began
thinking of doing my “personal best” for Him. The seeds for
future change had been planted, and nothing could stop the ap-
proaching storms in my life.
While my greatest passion was still for the villages of the
North, I now was traveling all over India. On one of these
speaking trips in 1973, I was invited to teach at the spring
Operation Mobilization training conference in Madras (now
Chennai). That was where I first saw the attractive German
girl. As a student in one of my classes, she impressed me with
the simplicity of her faith. Soon I found myself thinking that if
she were an Indian, she would be the kind of woman I would
like to marry someday.

34
 The Seeds of Future Change

Once, when our eyes met, we held each other’s gaze for a
brief, extra moment, until I self-consciously broke the spell and
quickly fled the room. I was uncomfortable in such male-female
encounters. In our culture, single people seldom speak to each
other. Even in church and on Gospel teams, the sexes are kept
strictly separate.
Certain that I would never again see her, I pushed the
thought of the attractive German girl from my mind. But mar-
riage was on my mind. I had made a list of the six qualities I
most wanted in a wife and frequently prayed for the right choice
to be made for me.
Of course, in India, marriages are arranged by the parents,
and I would have to rely on their judgment in selecting the right
person for my life partner. I wondered where my parents would
find a wife who was willing to share my mobile lifestyle and com-
mitment to the work of the Gospel. But as the conference ended,
plans for the summer outreach soon crowded out these thoughts.
That summer, along with a few co-workers, I returned to all
the places we had visited during the last few years in the state of
Punjab. I had been in and out of the state many times and was
eager to see the fruit of our ministry there.
Punjab, the breadbasket of India, is dominated by turbaned
Sikhs, a fiercely independent and hardworking people who have
always been a caste of warriors. Before the partition of India
and Pakistan, the state also had a huge Muslim population. It
remains one of the least reached areas of the world.
We had trucked and street-preached our way through
hundreds of towns and villages in this state over the previous
two years. Although British missionaries had founded many
hospitals and schools in the state, very few congregations of
believers now existed. The intensely nationalistic Sikhs refused

35
 Revolution in World Missions

to consider Christianity because they closely associated it with

British colonialism.
I traveled with a good-sized team of men. A separate wom-
en’s team also was assigned to the state, working out of Jullundur.
On my way north to link up with the men’s team I would lead, I
stopped in at the North India headquarters in New Delhi.
To my surprise, there she was again—the German girl. This
time she was dressed in a sari, one of the most popular forms of
our national dress. I learned she also had been assigned to work
in Punjab for the summer with the women’s team.
The local director asked me to escort her northward as far
as Jullundur, and so we rode in the same van. I learned her name
was Gisela, and the more I saw of her the more enchanted I be-
came. She ate the food and drank the water and unconsciously
followed all the rules of our culture. The little conversation we
had focused on spiritual things and the lost villages of India. I
soon realized I had finally found a soul mate who shared my
vision and calling.
Romantic love, for most Indians, is something you read
about only in storybooks. Daring cinema films, while they fre-
quently deal with the concept, are careful to end the film in a
proper Indian manner. So I was faced with the big problem of
communicating my forbidden and impossible love. I said noth-
ing to Gisela, of course. But something in her eyes told me we
both understood. Could God be bringing us together?
In a few hours we would be separated again, and I reminded
myself I had other things to do. Besides, I thought, at the end of
the summer she’ll be flying to Germany, and I’ll probably never
see her again. Throughout the summer, surprisingly, our paths
did cross again. Each time I felt my love grow stronger. Then I
tentatively took a chance at expressing my love with a letter.

36
 The Seeds of Future Change

Meanwhile, the Punjab survey broke my heart. In village

after village, our literature and preaching appeared to have had
little lasting impact. The fruit had not remained. Most of the
villages we visited appeared just as lost as ever. The people were
still locked in disease, poverty and suffering. The Gospel, it
seemed to me, hadn’t taken root.
In one town, I felt such deep despair that I literally sat down on
a curb and sobbed. I wept the bitter tears that only a child can cry.
“Your work is for nothing,” taunted a demon in my ear. “Your
words are rolling off these people like water off a duck’s back!”
Without realizing I was burning out—or what was hap-
pening to me spiritually—I fell into listlessness. Like Jonah and
Elijah in the Bible, I was too tired to go on. I could see only one
thing. The fruit of my work wasn’t remaining. More than ever
before, I needed time to reassess my ministry.
I corresponded with Gisela. She had, in the meantime, re-
turned to Germany. I decided I would take two years off from
the work to study and make some life choices about my ministry
and possible marriage.
I began writing letters abroad and became interested in the
possibility of attending a Bible school in England. I also had
invitations to speak in churches in Germany. In December, I
bought an air ticket out of India, planning to be in Europe for
Christmas with Gisela’s family.
While there I got the first tremors of what soon would be-
come an earthquake-size case of culture shock. As the snow fell,
it was obvious to everyone I would have to buy a winter coat and
boots—obvious, that is, to everyone except me. One look at the
price tags sent me into deep trauma. For the cost of my coat and
boots in Germany, I could have lived comfortably for months
back in India.

37
 Revolution in World Missions

And this concept of living by faith was hard for Gisela’s

parents to accept. Here was this penniless street preacher from
India, without a single dollar of his own, insisting he was going
to school but didn’t know where—and, by now, asking to marry
their daughter.
One by one the miracles occurred, though, and God met
every need.
First, a letter arrived from a friend in Dallas, Texas. He had
heard about me from a Scottish friend and invited me to come
to the United States for two years of study at what was then
the Criswell Bible Institute in Dallas. I replied positively and
booked myself on a low-cost charter flight to New York with
the last money I had.
This flight, it turned out, also was to become a miracle. Not
knowing I needed a special student visa, I bought a nonrefund-
able ticket. If I missed the flight, I would lose both my seat and
the ticket.
Praying with my last ounce of faith, I asked God to inter-
vene and somehow get the paperwork for the visa. As I prayed,
this friend in Dallas was strangely moved by God to get out
of his car, go back to the office, complete my paperwork and
personally take it to the post office. In a continuous series of
divinely arranged “coincidences,” the forms arrived within hours
of the deadline.
Before leaving for America, Gisela and I became engaged. I
would go on to seminary alone, however. We had no idea when
we would see each other again.

38
 4
I Walked in a Daze

A s I changed planes for Dallas at JFK International in New

York, I was overcome at the sights and sounds around me.
Those of us who grow up in Asia hear stories about the afflu-
ence and prosperity of the United States, but until you see it
with your own eyes, the stories seem like fairy tales.
Westerners are more than just unaware of their affluence—
they almost seem to despise it at times. Finding a lounge chair, I
stared in amazement at how they treated their beautiful clothes
and shoes. The richness of the fabrics and colors was beyond
anything I had ever seen. As I would discover again and again,
this nation routinely takes its astonishing wealth for granted.
As I would do many times—almost daily—in the weeks
ahead, I compared their clothing to that of the national mission-
ary evangelists whom I had left only a few weeks before. Many
of them walk barefoot between villages or work in flimsy san-
dals. Their threadbare cotton garments would not be acceptable
as cleaning rags in the United States. Then I discovered most
Americans have closets full of clothing they wear only occasion-
ally—and I remembered the years I traveled and worked with
only the clothes on my back. And I had lived the normal lifestyle
of most village evangelists.
 Revolution in World Missions

Economist Robert Heilbroner describes the luxuries a

typical American family would have to surrender if they lived
among the 1 billion hungry people in the Two-Thirds World:

We begin by invading the house of our imaginary

American family to strip it of its furniture. Everything
goes: beds, chairs, tables, television sets, lamps. We will
leave the family with a few old blankets, a kitchen table,
a wooden chair. Along with the bureaus go the clothes.
Each member of the family may keep in his wardrobe his
oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. We will permit a pair
of shoes for the head of the family, but none for the wife
or children.
We move to the kitchen. The appliances have already
been taken out, so we turn to the cupboards. . . . The box
of matches may stay, a small bag of flour, some sugar and
salt. A few moldy potatoes, already in the garbage can,
must be rescued, for they will provide much of tonight’s
meal. We will leave a handful of onions and a dish of dried
beans. All the rest we take away: the meat, the fresh vege-
tables, the canned goods, the crackers, the candy.
Now we have stripped the house: the bathroom has
been dismantled, the running water shut off, the electric
wires taken out. Next we take away the house. The family
can move to the tool shed. . . . Communications must go
next. No more newspapers, magazines, books—not that
they are missed, since we must take away our family’s lit-
eracy as well. Instead, in our shantytown we will allow
one radio. . . .
Now government services must go next. No more post-
men, no more firemen. There is a school, but it is three
miles away and consists of two classrooms. . . . There are,
of course, no hospitals or doctors nearby. The nearest
clinic is ten miles away and is tended by a midwife. It can

40
 I Walked in a Daze

be reached by bicycle, provided the family has a bicycle,

which is unlikely. . . .
Finally, money. We will allow our family a cash hoard of
five dollars. This will prevent our breadwinner from expe-
riencing the tragedy of an Iranian peasant who went blind
because he could not raise the $3.94 which he mistak-
enly thought he needed to receive admission to a hospital
where he could have been cured.1

This is an accurate description of the lifestyle and world from

which I came. From the moment I touched foot on American
soil, I walked in an unbelieving daze. How can two so different
economies coexist simultaneously on the earth? Everything was
so overpowering and confusing to me at first. Not only did I have
to learn the simplest procedures—like using the pay telephones
and making change—but as a sensitive Christian, I found my-
self constantly making spiritual evaluations of everything I saw.
In Texas, a land that in many ways epitomizes America, I
reeled with shock at the most common things. My hosts eagerly
pointed out what they considered their greatest achievements. I
nodded with politeness as they showed me their huge churches,
high-rise buildings and universities. But these didn’t impress me
very much. After all, I had seen the Golden Temple in Amritsar,
the Taj Mahal, the Palaces of Jhans and the University of Baroda
in Gujarat.
What impresses visitors from the Two-Thirds World are the
simple things Americans take for granted: fresh water available
24 hours a day, unlimited electrical power, telephones that work
and a most remarkable network of paved roads. Compared to
Western countries, things in Asia are still in the process of de-
velopment. At the time, we still had no television in India, but
my American hosts seemed to have TV sets in every room—and

41
 Revolution in World Missions

they operated day and night. This ever-present blast of media dis-
turbed me. For some reason, Americans seemed to have a need to
surround themselves with sound all the time. Even in their cars, I
noticed the radios were on even when no one was listening.
I was amazed at how important eating was in the Western
lifestyle. Even among Christians, food was a major part of fel-
lowship events. This, of course, is not bad in itself. “Love feasts”
were an important part of the New Testament church life. But
eating can be taken to extremes. One of the ironies of this is the
relatively small price those in developed countries pay for food.
The average person in the United States or Australia spends
less than 10 percent of his disposable income on food and has a
surplus of US$30,000-plus for other expenses. By contrast, the
average person in Pakistan or Vietnam spends more than 30
percent of his disposable income on food and has less than the
equivalent of US$1,000 left over for other needs for the entire
year.2 I had lived with this reality every day, but Westerners have
real trouble thinking in these terms.
Often when I spoke at a church, the people would appear
moved as I told of the suffering and needs of the national evange-
lists. They usually took an offering and presented me with a check
for what seemed like a great amount of money. Then with their
usual hospitality, they invited me to eat with the leaders following
the meeting. To my horror, the food frequently cost more than
the money they had just given to missions. And I was amazed to
learn that European and North American families routinely eat
enough meat at one meal to feed an Asian family for a week.
Many national missionaries and their families experience
hunger—not because they are fasting voluntarily but because
they sometimes have no money to buy food. This occurs espe-
cially when they start new work far away from their families

42
 I Walked in a Daze

and community. The need became real to me through the

ministry of Brother Paul, one of the national missionaries we
would later sponsor.
Millions of poor, uneducated fisher-folk live along the thou-
sands of islands and endless miles of coastal backwaters in Asia.
Their homes usually are small huts made of leaves, and their
lifestyles are simple—hard work and little pleasure. These fisher-
men and their families are some of the most unreached people in
the world. But God called Paul and his family to take the Gospel
to the unreached fishing villages on the east coast of India.
I remember visiting Paul’s family. One of the first things
he discovered when he began visiting the villages was that the
literacy rate was so low he could not use printed materials ef-
fectively. He decided that something visual, such as a slideshow,
would work better. (This was before DVDs had been invented.)
However, he had no projector or money to purchase one. So he
made repeated trips to a hospital where he sold his blood until
he had the money he needed.
It was exciting to see the crowds his slide projector attracted.
As soon as he began to put up the white sheet that served as a
screen, hundreds of adults and children gathered along the beach.
Mrs. Paul sang Gospel songs over a loudspeaker powered by a car
battery, and their 5-year-old son quoted Bible verses to passersby.
When the sun had set, Brother Paul began his slide pre-
sentation. For several hours, people sat in the sand, listening to
the Gospel message while the sea murmured in the background.
When we finally packed to leave, I had to walk carefully to avoid
stepping on the children sleeping on the sand.
But the tragedy behind all this was the secret poverty that
Paul and his family faced. There was often not enough money in
the house for milk. Ashamed to let the non-Christian neighbors

43
 Revolution in World Missions

know he was without food, Paul kept the windows and doors
in his one-room rented house closed so they could not hear the
cries of his four hungry children.
On another occasion, one of his malnourished children
fell asleep in school because he was so weak from hunger. Even
when the teacher punished his children for lack of attention in
class, Paul would not tell his secret suffering and bring shame on
the name of Christ.
He told me later, “Only God, our children, and my wife and I
know the real story. We have no complaints or even unhappiness.
We’re joyfully and totally content in our service of the Lord. It is
a privilege to be counted worthy to suffer for His sake.”
Once we learned his need, we were able to send immediate
support to him, thanks to the help of generous Christians. But
for too many others, the story does not end as happily.
Is it God’s fault that men like Brother Paul are going hun-
gry? I do not think so. God has provided more than enough
money to meet Paul’s needs and all the needs of the Two-Thirds
World. The needed money is in the highly developed nations of
the West.
As the days passed into weeks, I began with alarm to under-
stand how misplaced are the spiritual values of most Western
believers. Sad to say, it appeared to me that for the most part
they had absorbed the same humanistic and materialistic val-
ues that dominated the secular culture. I sensed an awesome
judgment was coming—and that I had to warn God’s people
that He was not going to lavish this abundance on them forever.
But the message was still not formed in my heart, and it would
be many years before I would feel the anointing and courage to
speak out against such sin.

44
 5
A Nation Asleep in Bondage

R eligion, I discovered, is a multi-billion dollar business in

the West. One morning, for example, I picked up a pop-
ular Christian magazine containing many interesting articles,
stories and reports from all over the world—most written by fa-
mous Christian leaders in the West. I noticed that this magazine
offered ads for 21 Christian colleges, seminaries and correspon-
dence courses; 5 different English translations of the Bible; 7
conferences and retreats; 5 new Christian films; 19 commentar-
ies and devotional books; 7 Christian health or diet programs;
and 5 fund-raising services.
But that was not all. There were ads for all kinds of prod-
ucts and services: counseling, chaplaincy services, writing
courses, church steeples, choir robes, wall crosses, baptisteries
and water heaters, T-shirts, records, tapes, adoption agencies,
tracts, poems, gifts, book clubs and pen pals. Probably none of
these things were wrong in themselves, but it bothered me that
we should have such spiritual luxury while millions were dying
without hearing the Gospel even once.
If the affluence of the West impressed me, the affluence
of Western Christians impressed me even more. The United
States has thousands of Christian book and gift stores, carrying
 Revolution in World Missions

varieties of products beyond my ability to imagine—and many

secular stores also carry religious books. All this while more
than 4,000 of the world’s 7,000 languages are still without a sin-
gle portion of the Bible published in their own language!1 In his
book My Billion Bible Dream, Rochunga Pudaite says, “Eighty-
five percent of all Bibles printed today are in English for the nine
percent of the world who read English. Eighty percent of the
world’s people have never owned a Bible while Americans have
an average of four in every household.”2
Besides books, Christian magazines and websites flourish.
More than 2,400 Christian radio stations broadcast the Gospel,3
while many countries don’t even have their first Christian radio
station. A tiny 0.1 percent of all Christian radio and television
programming is directed toward the unevangelized world.4
The saddest observation I can make about most of the re-
ligious communication activity of the Western world is this:
Little, if any, of this media is designed to reach unbelievers.
Almost all is entertainment for the saints.
The United States, with its 600,000 congregations or groups,
is blessed with 1.5 million full-time Christian workers, the equiv-
alent of one full-time religious leader for every 182 people in the
nation.5 What a difference this is from the rest of the world, where
nearly 2 billion people are still waiting to hear about the love of
Christ. These needy people have only one full-time Christian
worker for every 30,000 people,6 and there are still 10,000 people
groups in the world without a single church among them.7 These
are the masses for whom Christ wept and died.
One of the most impressive blessings in Western nations is
religious liberty. Not only do Christians have access to Christian
radio and television, unheard of in most nations of Asia, but they
are also free to hold meetings, evangelize and print literature.

46
 A Nation Asleep in Bondage

How different this is from many Asian nations in which gov-

ernment persecution of Christians is common and often legal.
Such was the case for Brother P. This national missionary
served time in 14 different prisons between 1960 and 1975. He
spent 10 out of those 15 years suffering torture and ridicule for
preaching the Gospel to his people.
His ordeal began when he baptized nine new believers and
was arrested for doing so. These five men and four women also
were arrested, and each was sentenced to a year in prison. He
was sentenced to serve six years for influencing them.
The prison where they were sent was literally a dungeon of
death. About 25 to 30 people were jammed into one small room
with no ventilation or sanitation. The smell was so bad that
newcomers often passed out in less than half an hour.
The place where Brother P. and his fellow believers were
sent was crawling with lice and cockroaches. Prisoners slept on
dirt floors. Rats and mice gnawed on fingers and toes during
the night. In the winter there was no heat; in summer no ven-
tilation. For food, the prisoners were allowed one cup of rice
each day, but they had to build a fire on the ground to cook it.
The room was constantly filled with smoke because there was
no chimney. On that inadequate diet, most prisoners became
seriously ill, and the stench of vomit was added to the other pu-
trefying odors. Yet miraculously, none of the Christians was sick
for even one day during the entire year.
After serving their one-year sentences, the nine new believ-
ers were released. Then the authorities decided to break Brother
P. They took his Bible away from him, chained him hand and
foot, then forced him through a low doorway into a tiny cubicle
previously used to store bodies of dead prisoners until relatives
came to claim them.

47
 Revolution in World Missions

In the damp darkness, the jailer predicted his sanity would

not last more than a few days. The room was so small that
Brother P. could not stand up or even stretch out on the floor.
He could not build a fire to cook, so other prisoners slipped
food under the door to keep him alive.
Lice ate away his underwear, but he could not scratch be-
cause of the chains, which soon cut his wrists and ankles to the
bone. It was winter, and he nearly froze to death several times.
He could not tell day from night, but as he closed his eyes, God
let him see the pages of the New Testament. Although his Bible
had been taken away, he was still able to read it in total darkness.
It sustained him as he endured the terrible torture. For three
months he was not allowed to speak to another human being.
Brother P. was transferred to many other prisons. In each,
he continually shared his faith with both guards and prisoners.
I was beaten and stoned for my faith, so I know what it
is to be a persecuted minority in my own country. When I set
foot on Western soil, I could sense a spirit of religious liberty.
Westerners have never known the fear of persecution. Nothing
seems impossible to them.
I had always looked to the Western countries as fortresses
of Christianity. With their abundance of both spiritual and
material things, affluence beyond most nations on earth, and
a totally unfettered Church, I expected to see a bold witness.
God’s grace obviously has been poured out on these nations in a
way no other people have ever experienced.
Instead, I found a Church in spiritual decline. North
American believers were still the leading givers to missions, but
this appeared due more to historical accident than the deep-set
conviction I expected to find. As I spoke in churches and met av-
erage Christians, I discovered they had terrible misconceptions

48
 A Nation Asleep in Bondage

about the missionary mandate of the Church. In church meet-

ings, as I listened to the questions of my hosts and heard their
comments about the Two-Thirds World, my heart would almost
burst with pain. These people, I knew, were capable of so much
more. They were dying spiritually, but I knew God wanted to
give them life again. He wanted His Church to recover its moral
mandate and sense of mission.
By faith, I could see a change coming—the Body of Christ
rediscovering the power of the Gospel and their obligation to
it. But for the time being, all I could do was pray. God had not
given me the words to articulate what I was seeing—or a plat-
form from which to speak. Instead He still had some important
lessons to teach me, and I was to learn them in this alien land far
from my beloved India.

49
 6
What Are You Doing Here?

T he Bible says that “some plant” and “others water.” The liv-
ing God took me halfway around the world to teach me
about watering. Before He could trust me with the planting, I
had to learn the lesson I had not learned in India—the impor-
tance of the local church in God’s master plan for the world.
It really started through one of those strange coincidenc-
es—a divine appointment that only a sovereign God could
engineer. By now I was a busy divinity student in Dallas at the
Criswell Bible College, intently soaking up every one of my
classes. I was able to dig into God’s Word as never before. Now
I was doing formal, in-depth study, and the Bible was revealing
many of its secrets to me.
After my first term, Gisela and I were married, and she
joined me in Dallas at the beginning of the next school term,
October 1974. Except for preaching engagements and opportu-
nities to share about Asia on weekends, I was fully absorbed in
my studies and establishing our new home.
One weekend, a fellow student invited me to fill the pulpit at
a Southern Baptist church he was pastoring in Dallas. Strangely
challenged and burdened for this congregation, I preached my
heart out. Never once did I mention my vision and burden for
 Revolution in World Missions

Asia. Instead I expounded Scripture verse by verse. A great love

welled up in me for these people.
Although I did not know it, my pastor friend turned in his
resignation the same day. The deacons invited me to come back
the next week and the next. God gave us a supernatural love
for these people, and they loved us back. Late that month the
church board invited me to become the pastor, at the age of 23.
When Gisela and I accepted the call, I instantly found myself
carrying a burden for these people 24 hours a day.
More than once, I shamefacedly remembered how I had
despised pastors and their problems. Now that I was patching
up relationships, healing wounded spirits and holding a group
together, I started to see things in a wholly different light. Some
of the problems God’s people face are the same worldwide, so I
preached against sin and for holy living. Other problems unique
to Western culture I was completely unprepared to handle.
Although my weight had increased to 106 pounds, I still
nearly collapsed when I attempted to baptize a 250-pound new
believer at one of our regular water baptisms. People came to
Christ continually, making ours a growing, soul-winning church
with a hectic round of meetings that went six nights a week.
The days passed quickly into months. When I wasn’t in
classes, I was with my people, giving myself to them with the
same abandonment that characterized my village preaching.
We learned to visit in homes, call on the sick in hospitals, marry
and bury. Gisela and I were involved in the lives of our people
day and night.
This “staying power” and disciple-making were what my
earlier ministry had lacked. I saw why I had failed on the mis-
sion fields of Asia. Holding evangelistic crusades and bringing
people to Christ are not enough: Someone has to stay behind
and nurture the new believers into maturity.

52
Left: K.P.’s mother faithfully
prayed and fasted every Friday
for three-and-a-half years,
asking God to call one of her
sons to be a missionary. Her
prayer was answered when
K.P. began to serve the Lord at
the age of 16.

Below: K.P. Yohannan

(first row, third from left) with
an Operation Mobilization
evangelism team (circa 1970).
Above: Hopelessness exudes
from the eyes of this young family,
trapped by walls of caste and the
cruel cycle of poverty. God is calling
His Church to be the channel
through which His grace and mercy
can flow to this family and millions
like them.

Left: Blamed for the death of

her husband, this white-clad widow
struggles to survive on the outskirts
of society, shunned even by her
own family. She desperately needs
to hear that she is loved and valued
by her Maker.
Above: Filled to overflowing with the love of Christ, these national missionaries are
passionate to share that love with everyone they meet.
Left: In 1974, the Lord brought
K.P. and Gisela together to serve
Him with one purpose and one
goal—to live for Him and to give
all they have to reach the world
with His love.

Below: Their children, Daniel

and Sarah, prayed from an early
age that the Lord would call them
to be missionaries. After finishing
high school, they went on to study
the Word of God at the theological
seminary in India, and now both
serve the Lord with their own
families.
 What Are You Doing Here?

For the first time I began to understand the goal of all

mission work: the “perfecting” of the saints into sanctified,
committed disciples of Christ. The local church—a group of
believers—is God’s ordained place for the discipleship process
to take place. God’s Plan A for the redemption of the world is
the Church, and He has no Plan B.
As I shepherded a local congregation, the Lord revealed to
me that the same qualities are needed in national missionary
evangelists, the men and women who could reach the peoples of
Asia. In my imagination I saw these same discipleship concepts
being implemented throughout Asia. Like the early Methodist
circuit riders who planted churches on the American frontier, I
could see our missionaries adding church planting to their evan-
gelistic efforts.
But even as the concept captured me, I realized it would
take a host of God’s people to accomplish this task. In the
Indian Subcontinent alone, hundreds of thousands of villages
have never been reached. And then there are China, Southeast
Asia and the islands. We would need tens of thousands of work-
ers to finish the task.
This idea was too big for me to accept, so I pushed it from
my mind. After all, I reasoned, God had called me to this local
congregation here in Dallas, and He was blessing my ministry. I
was getting very comfortable where I was. The church supported
us well, and with our first baby on the way, I had begun to accept
the Western way of life as my own, complete with a house, auto-
mobile, credit cards, insurance policies and bank accounts.
My formal schooling continued as I prepared to settle into
building up the church. But my peace about staying in America
began slipping away. By the end of 1977, I heard an accusing
voice every time I stood in the pulpit: “What are you doing here?

57
 Revolution in World Missions

While you preach to an American congregation, millions are

dying without ever hearing about the love of Christ. Have you
forgotten your people?”
A terrible inner conflict developed. I was unable to recog-
nize the voice. Was it God? Was it my own conscience? Was it
demonic? In desperation, I decided to wait upon God for His
plan. I had said we would go anywhere, do anything. But we had
to hear definitely from God. I could not go on working with that
tormenting voice. I announced to the church that I was praying,
and I asked them to join with me in seeking the will of God for
our future ministry.
“I seem to have no peace,” I admitted to them, “about either
staying in the United States or returning to India.”
I wondered, “What is God really trying to say to me?” As
I prayed and fasted, God revealed Himself to me in a vision. It
came back several times before I understood the revelation. Many
faces would appear before me—the faces of Asian men and their
families from many lands. They were holy men and women, with
looks of dedication on their faces. Gradually I understood these
people to be an image of the indigenous Church that is now being
raised up to take the Gospel to every part of Asia.
Then the Lord spoke to me: “They cannot speak what you
will speak. They will not go where you will go. You are called
to be their servant. You must go where I will send you on their
behalf. You are called to be their servant.”
As lightning floods the sky in a storm, my whole life passed
before me in that instant. I had never spoken English until I was
16, yet now I was ministering in this strange language. I had
never worn shoes before I was 17. I was born and raised in a
jungle village. Suddenly I realized I had nothing to be proud of;
my talents or skills had not brought me to America. My coming

58
 What Are You Doing Here?

here was an act of God’s sovereign will. He wanted me to cross

cultures, marry a German wife and live in an alien land to give
me the experiences I would need to serve in a new move of God.
“I have led you to this point,” said God. “Your lifetime call is
to be the servant to My servants—men whom I have called out
and scattered among the villages of Asia.”
Knowing that at last I had found my life’s work, I eagerly
rushed to share my new vision with my church leaders and exec-
utives of missionary societies. To my utter bewilderment, God
seemed to have forgotten to tell anyone but me.
My friends thought I was crazy. Mission leaders questioned
either my integrity or my qualifications—and sometimes both.
Church leaders whom I trusted and respected wrapped fatherly
arms around my shoulders and counseled me against undue
emotionalism. Suddenly, through a simple announcement,
I found myself alone and forced to defend myself. Had I not
waited for such a clear calling, I would have collapsed under
those early storms of unbelief and doubt. But I remained con-
vinced of my call—certain that God was initiating a new day in
world missions. Still, no one seemed to catch my enthusiasm.
Secretly I had prided myself on being a good speaker and
salesman, but nothing I could do or say seemed to turn the tide
of public opinion. While I was arguing that “new wine needed
new wineskins,” others could only ask, “Where is the new wine?”
My only comfort was Gisela, who had been with me in
India and accepted the vision without question. In moments
of discouragement, when even my faith wavered, she refused to
allow us to let go of the vision. Rebuffed but certain we had
heard God correctly, we planted the first seeds by ourselves.
I wrote to an old friend in India whom I had known and
trusted for years, asking him to help me select some needy

59
 Revolution in World Missions

national workers who were already doing outstanding work. I

promised to come and meet them later, and we started planning
a survey trip to seek out more qualified workers.
Slowly, a portion of our own personal income and resources
was sent as missionary support to India. I became compulsive.
Soon I could not buy a hamburger or drink a cola without feel-
ing guilty. Gisela and I conformed our lives literally in the light
of eternity and the desperate need to reach and fulfill the call of
God. It was a joy to make these little sacrifices for the national
brethren. Besides, I knew that it was the only way we could get
the mission started.
In those early days, what kept me going was the assurance
that there was no other way. Western missions alone could not
get the job done. Because my own nation and many others were
closed to outsiders, we had to turn to the national believers. Even
if Western missionaries somehow were permitted back, the cost
of sending them would be in the billions each year. National
missionaries could do the same for only a fraction of the cost.
But as logical as it all was in my mind, I had some bitter
lessons to learn. Giving birth to a new mission society was going
to take much more energy and start-up capital than I could have
ever imagined. I had a lot to learn about the West and the way
things are done here. But I knew nothing about that yet. I just
knew it had to be done.
With youthful zest, Gisela and I went to India to do our first
field survey. We returned a month later, penniless but committed
to organizing what eventually would become Gospel for Asia.
Soon after our return, I revealed my decision to the congre-
gation. Reluctantly we cut the cords of fellowship and made plans
to move to Eufaula, Oklahoma, where another pastor friend had
offered me some free space to open offices for the mission.

60
 What Are You Doing Here?

On the last day at the church, I tearfully preached my fare-

well sermon. When the last good-bye was said and the last hand
was grasped, I locked the door and paused on the steps. I felt
the hand of God lifting the mantle from my shoulders. God was
releasing me of the burden for this church and the people of this
place. As I strolled across the gravel driveway, the mystery of
Christian service became real to me.
Pastors—like missionary evangelists—are placed in the
harvest fields of this world by God. I would not presume to
call the national brethren but simply to be a servant to the ones
whom God already had chosen for His service.
Once settled in our new home, I sought counsel from older
Christian leaders, listening eagerly to anyone who would give me
advice. Everywhere I went, I asked questions. However, much of
the advice I got was destructive, and we had to learn most of our
lessons by painful trial and error. The only way I escaped several
disastrous decisions was my stubborn refusal to compromise the
vision God had given. If something fit in with what God had said
to me, then I considered it. If not—no matter how attractive it
appeared—I refused. The secret of following God’s will, I discov-
ered, usually is wrapped up in rejecting the good for God’s best.
One piece of advice did stick, however. Every Christian
leader should have this engraved in his subconscious: No mat-
ter what you do, never take yourself too seriously. Paul Smith,
founder of Bible Translations on Tape, was the first executive
to say that to me, and it is one of the best single fragments of
wisdom I have received from anyone.
God always chooses the foolish things of this world to con-
found the wise. He shows His might only on the behalf of those
who trust in Him. Humility is the place where all Christian ser-
vice begins.

61
 7
“It Is a Privilege”

W e began Gospel for Asia without any kind of plan for

regular involvement, but God soon gave us one. On
one of my first trips, I went to Wheaton, Illinois, where I called
on almost all the evangelical mission leaders. A few encouraged
me—but not one offered the money we then needed desperately
to keep going another day. The friend I stayed with, however,
suggested we start a sponsorship plan through which Christian
families and individuals could support the work of national mis-
sionaries regularly. It turned out to be just what we needed.
The idea—to lay aside one dollar a day for national mis-
sionaries—gave us an instant handle for a program anyone
could understand. I asked everyone I met if he or she would
help sponsor national missionaries for one dollar a day. Some
said yes, and that is how the mission began to get regular donors.
We were just starting out though, and we were faced not in-
frequently with the need to cover our overhead expenses. Time
and time again, just when we were at our lowest point, God mi-
raculously intervened to keep us and the ministry going.
One Sunday, when we were down to our last dollar, I drove
our old $125 Nova to a nearby church for worship. I knew
no one and sat in the last row. When it came time to take the
 Revolution in World Missions

offering, I quickly made an excuse to God and held on to that

last dollar.
“This is my last dollar,” I prayed desperately, “and I need to
buy gas to get back home.” But knowing God loves a cheerful
giver, I stopped fighting and sacrificed that last dollar to the Lord.
As I left the church, an old man came up to me. I had never
seen him before and never have since. He shook my hand si-
lently, and I could feel a folded piece of paper in his palm. I knew
instinctively that it was money. In the car, I opened my hand to
find a neatly folded $10 bill.
Another afternoon, I sat grimly sulking on our sofa at home.
Gisela was busy in the kitchen, avoiding my eyes. She said noth-
ing, but both of us knew there wasn’t any food in the house.
“So,” said a coy voice from the enemy, “this is how you and
your God provide for the family, eh?” Up until that moment, I
don’t think I had ever felt such helplessness. Here we were, in
the middle of Oklahoma. Even if I had wanted to ask someone
for help, I didn’t know where to turn. Things had gotten so low
I had offered to get a job, but Gisela was the one who refused.
She was terrified that I would get into the world of business and
not have time to work for the national brethren. For her there
was no choice. We had to wait on the Lord. He would provide.
As the demonic voice continued to taunt me, I just sat still
under the abuse. I had used up my last bit of faith, declaring a
positive confession and praising God. Now I sat numb.
A knock came at the door. Gisela went to answer it. I was in
no mood to meet anyone. Someone brought two boxes of gro-
ceries to our doorstep. These friends had no way of knowing our
need—but we knew the source was God.
During those days, our needs continued to be met on a
day-to-day basis. I am convinced now that God knew the many

64
 “It Is a Privilege”

trials ahead and wanted to teach us to have faith and trust in

Him alone—even when I could not see Him.
In some way, which I still do not really understand, the try-
ing of our faith works patience and hope into the fabric of our
Christian lives. No one, I am convinced, will follow Jesus very
long without tribulation. It is His way of demonstrating His
presence. Sufferings and trials—like persecution—are a normal
part of the Christian walk. We must learn to accept them joy-
fully if we are to grow through them. Gospel for Asia was having
its first wilderness experience, and these days were characterized
by periods of the most painful waiting I had ever faced. We were
alone in a strange land, utterly at the end of our own strength
and desperately dependent on God.
Speaking engagements were hard to come by in the early
days, but they were the only way we could grow. Nobody knew
my name or the name of Gospel for Asia. I still was having a
hard time explaining what we were all about. I knew our mission
in my heart, but I hadn’t learned to articulate it yet for outsiders.
In a few short months, I had used up all the contacts I had.
Setting up a speaking tour took weeks of waiting, writing
and calling. By the winter of 1980, I was ready to start my first
major tour. I bought a budget air ticket that gave me unlimited
travel for 21 days—and somehow I managed to make appoint-
ments in 18 cities. My itinerary would take me through the
Southwest, from Dallas to Los Angeles.
On the day of my departure, a terrible winter storm hit the
region. All the buses—including the one I planned to take from
Oklahoma to Dallas—were cancelled.
Our old Nova had some engine problems, so a neighbor of-
fered to let me use an old pickup truck without a heater. The
vehicle looked as if it could not make it to the next town, let

65
 Revolution in World Missions

alone the six-hour drive to Dallas. But it was either the pickup
or nothing. If I missed my flight, the tightly packed schedule
would be ruined. I had to go now.
Doing the best I could to stay warm, I put on two pairs of
socks and all the clothing I could. But even with the extra pro-
tection, I was on U.S. Highway 75 only a few minutes when it
appeared I had made a terrible mistake. A freezing snow covered
the windshield within minutes. After every mile I had to stop,
get out and scrape the windows again. Soon my feet and gloves
were soaked and frozen. I realized that the journey was going to
take a lot longer than the six hours I had left. In my worst sce-
nario, I saw the newspaper headlines reading “Preacher Freezes
to Death in Winter Storm.” My head dropped to the steering
wheel, and I cried out to God.
“Lord, if You want me to go—if You believe in this mission
and in my helping the national evangelists—please do something.”
As I looked up, I saw a miracle on the windshield. The ice
was melting rapidly before my eyes. Warmth flooded the truck.
I looked at the heater, but nothing was coming out. Outside, the
storm continued to rage. It kept up all the way to Dallas, but the
truck was always warm, and the windshield was always clear.
This miraculous start was only the beginning of blessings.
For the next 18 days, I gained new sponsors and donors in every
city. The Lord gave me favor in the eyes of all I met.
On the last day of the tour, a man in California came to the
pastor and said that God had told him to donate his second car
to me. I cancelled my airline reservation and drove all the way
home, rejoicing in the car God had provided. I received new in-
spiration and instruction from God as I drove.
I followed this pattern for the next few years, surviving from
one meeting to the next, living out of the trunk of the car and

66
 “It Is a Privilege”

speaking anywhere I could get an invitation. All our new donors

and sponsors came from one-on-one contacts and through the
meetings. I knew there were faster, more efficient ways to ac-
quire new donors. Many times I studied the mass mailings and
radio/TV broadcasts of other missions, but everything they
were doing required large sums of money, which I did not have
and did not know how to get.
Eventually, we moved back to Dallas. By now I was travel-
ing full-time for the ministry, and the strain was taking a heavy
toll both on my family and on me. I was starting to burn out; I
almost hated the work.
Two factors were wearing me down.
First, I felt like a beggar. It is hard on the flesh to be traveling
and asking for money day after day and night after night. It was
almost becoming a sales operation for me, and I stopped feeling
good about myself.
Second, I was discouraged by the poor response—espe-
cially from churches and pastors. Many days I called on people
for hours to get only one or two new sponsors. Pastors and mis-
sion committees listened to me and promised to call back, but I
never heard from them again. It always seemed as though I was
competing against the building fund, new carpets for the fellow-
ship hall or next Saturday night’s Jesus rock concert.
Despite the solemn message of death, suffering and need I
was presenting, people still left the meetings with laughter and
gossip on their lips. I was offended at the spirit of jocularity in
the churches; it wounded me. So many times they went out to
eat after I had just shared the tragedy of the thousands starving
to death daily or the millions of homeless people living on the
streets of Asia. Because of this, I was becoming angry and judg-
mental. As I felt uglier and uglier inside, depression settled in.

67
 Revolution in World Missions

Early in 1981—while driving alone between meetings in a

rented car near Greensboro, North Carolina—all the dark feel-
ings of psychological burnout crept over me. I had a full-fledged
pity party, feeling sorry for myself and the hard life I was leading.
Then with a start, I began to tremble with fear. Suddenly I
felt the presence of someone else. I realized that the Spirit of the
Lord was speaking.
“I am not in any trouble,” He chided, “that I need someone
to beg for Me or help Me out. I made no promises that I will not
keep. It is not the largeness of the work that matters, but only
doing what I command. All I ask of you is that you be a servant.
For all who join with you in the work, it will be a privilege—a
light burden for them.”
The words echoed in my mind. This is His work, I told myself.
Why am I making it mine? The burden is light. Why am I making
it heavy? The work is a privilege. Why am I making it a chore?
I instantly repented of my sinful attitudes. God was sharing
His work with me, and He was speaking of others who would
join me. Although I still was doing the work alone, it was excit-
ing to think others would be joining with me and that they too
would find the burden to be light. From that moment until now,
I have not been overpowered by the burden of heading Gospel
for Asia. I find building this mission an exciting, joyful job. Even
my preaching has changed. My posture is different. Today the
pressure is gone. No longer do I feel I have to beg audiences or
make them feel guilty.
Because the work of Gospel for Asia—and the whole indig-
enous missionary movement—is initiated by God, it does not
need the worries and guidance of man. Whether our goal is to
support 10 thousand or 10 million workers, whether it is work-
ing in 10 states or 100, or whether I must supervise a staff of 5

68
 “It Is a Privilege”

or 500, I still can approach this work without stress. For this is
His work, and our burden is easy.
By now we had rented offices in Dallas, and the mission was
growing steadily. I sensed it was time for a big step forward and
waited upon God for a miracle breakthrough. By mid-1981 we
had hundreds of national workers needing support, and I real-
ized that we soon would have thousands more. I no longer could
communicate personally with every new sponsor. I knew we had
to use mass media. But I didn’t know where to begin.
Then I met Brother Lester Roloff.
Brother Roloff is now with the Lord, but during his life he
was a rugged individualist who preached his way across five de-
cades of outstanding Christian service. Near the end of his life,
I approached him for help in our ministry. His staff person, in
arranging the interview, said I would have only five minutes. To
his staff ’s astonishment, he gave me two hours of his time.
When I told Brother Roloff about the indigenous mission-
ary movement, he invited me to be his guest on Family Altar—his
daily radio broadcast. At that time we were helping only 100
national missionaries, and Brother Roloff announced over the
air that he personally was going to help support six more. He
called me one of the “greatest missionaries he had ever met” and
urged his listeners to support the work of national missionaries
as well. Soon we were getting letters from all over the country.
As I read the postmarks and the letters, I realized again
just how huge the United States and Canada really are. Brother
Roloff was the first Christian leader I had met who had done
what I knew we needed to do. He had learned how to speak to
the whole nation. For weeks I prayed for him, asking God to
show me how I could work with him and learn from his example.
When the answer came, it was quite different from any-
thing I had expected. The Lord gave me an idea that I now

69
 Revolution in World Missions

realize was unusual, almost bizarre. I would ask Brother Roloff

to loan me his mailing list and let me ask his people to support
national missionaries.
Trembling, I called his office and asked for another appoint-
ment. He saw me again but was very surprised at my request,
telling me that he had never loaned his list to anyone—even
his best friends. Many agencies had asked to rent his list, but he
had always said no. I thought my cause was lost, but he said he
would pray about it.
The next day he called me back, saying that the Lord had
told him to give us his list. He also offered to write a letter of
endorsement and interview me again on the radio broadcast at
the same time the letter went out. Elated, I praised God. But
I soon learned that this was only the beginning of the miracle.
The list was a fairly large one, and printing a brochure, my
letter and his letter, together with the mailing, would cost more
money than we had. There seemed to be only one way to get it.
I would have to borrow—just this once—from the missionary
funds that were earmarked to be sent to the field. I figured it out
again and again. If I worked it just right, I could get the money
to the field with only a few weeks’ delay. But I had no peace
about the plan.
When the time came to send the regular monies to the
field, I told our bookkeeper to hold the money for one day, and I
prayed. Still no peace. The next day I told her to hold the money
for another day, and I went back to prayer and fasting. Still no
peace. I delayed it for a third day—and still God would not re-
lease me to use these field funds.
I was miserable. Finally I decided I could not break the trust
of our donors—even for the Lord’s work. I told my secretary to
go ahead and send the missionary money.

70
 “It Is a Privilege”

I now realize we had gone through one of the greatest tests

of the ministry at that time. This was my first chance to get a
major increase in donors and income—but it had to be done
with integrity or not at all.
A half hour after the check had gone to the field, the tele-
phone rang. It was from a couple whom I had met only once
before at our annual banquet in Dallas. They had been praying
about helping us, and God had laid me on their hearts. They
asked if they could come and talk to me, and they wanted to
know what I needed.
After I explained the cost involved for printing and putting
out the mailing, they agreed to pick up the entire amount—
nearly $20,000. Then the printer became so moved by the
project that he did it for free! Plainly God had been testing me,
and He miraculously showed that if we were obedient, He in-
deed would provide.
The artwork went to the printers and soon printed letters
were sitting on skids, ready for the post office. I had prepared
a special radio broadcast to coincide with the arrival of the
mailing—and the broadcast tapes had already been shipped to
stations in many parts of the nation.
Timing was everything. The mail had to go on Monday.
It was Friday, and I had no money in the general fund for the
postage. This time there was no question of borrowing the mis-
sionary money. It stayed right where it was.
I called a special prayer meeting, and we met that night in
the living room of our home. Finally the Lord gave me peace.
Our prayers of faith would be answered, I announced. After ev-
eryone had gone home, the telephone rang. It was one of our
sponsors in Chicago. God had been speaking to her all day
about giving a $5,000 gift.

71
 Revolution in World Missions

“Praise God,” I said.

That mailing incident proved to be another turning point
in the history of Gospel for Asia. We received many new spon-
sors—a double increase in the number of evangelists we were
able to help.
In later years, other Christian leaders, like Bob Walker of
Christian Life Missions and David Mains of Chapel of the Air,
would help us in similar ways. Many of the people who joined
our ministry through those several early mailings have since
helped expand the ministry even further, giving us a base of con-
tacts around the world.

72
 8
A New Day in Missions

S everal hundred people now were supporting the work of

national workers on the field. But despite this aura of suc-
cess, many things broke my heart, especially the condition of
the Church in the West. What had happened to the zeal for
missions and outreach that made these people so great? Night
after night I stood before audiences, trying my best to commu-
nicate the global realities of our planet. But somehow I was not
getting through. I could see their unfulfilled destiny so clearly.
Why couldn’t they?
Here were people of great privilege—a Church more able,
more affluent and more free to act on the Great Commission
than in all of history. Yet my audiences did not seem to com-
prehend this. Even more confusing to me was the fact that in
personal dealings I found my hosts to be basically fair, often
generous and spiritually gifted. Like the church in first-century
Corinth, they appeared to excel in every spiritual blessing.
Why then, I asked the Lord, was I failing to get through?
If the indigenous missionary movement was really the will of
God—and I knew it was—then why were the people so slow
to respond?
 Revolution in World Missions

Something obviously had gone wrong. Satan had sprung a

trap, or perhaps many traps, on the minds of Christians. Plainly
they had lost the Gospel mandate, abdicating the heritage of
missionary outreach, the call of God that still rests on them.
I was certain then, and still am today, that God’s loving
hands of grace and forgiveness remain extended to His people.
In my prayers I began to seek a message from God that would
bring a change in lifestyle to the Western Church. It came over a
period of weeks. And that message came loud and clear: Unless
there is repentance among Christians—individually and in con-
cert as a community of believers—an awesome judgment will
fall on us.
Two reasons, it appeared to me, were the cause for the cur-
rent malaise that had fastened like cancer on believers. The first
is historical. The second is unconfessed sin related to three basic
iniquities: pride, unbelief and worldliness.
Historically, the Western Church lost its grip on the chal-
lenge for world missions at the end of World War II. Ever since
that time, the moral mandate and vision of the Western Church
for global outreach have continued to fade. In fact, the average
believer today can hardly pronounce the word missionary with-
out having cartoon caricatures of ridiculous little men in pith
helmets pop into mind—images of cannibals with spears and
huge black pots of boiling water.
Despite a valiant rear guard action by many outstanding
evangelical leaders and missions, it has been impossible for
the Western missionary movement to keep up with exploding
populations and the new political realities of nationalism in the
Two-Thirds World. Most Christians in the West still conceive
of missions in terms of blond-haired, blue-eyed white people
going to the dark-skinned Two-Thirds World nations. In reality,

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all of that changed when the Western powers lost political and
military control of their former colonies.
When I stand before audiences in churches and mission
conferences, people are astonished to hear the real facts of mis-
sions today. The frontline work of missions in Asia has been
taken over almost completely by indigenous missionaries. And
the results are outstanding. People are shocked to learn that
national workers are starting hundreds of new churches every
week in the Two-Thirds World, that thousands of people a day
are coming to Christ, and that tens of thousands of well-qual-
ified, spiritually able men and women are ready to start more
work if they can find the resources to do the job.
In nations that no longer permit Western missionaries,
more church growth and outreach are happening now than at
any point in history. China is a good example of the new reali-
ties. When the communists drove Western missionaries out and
closed the churches in 1950, it seemed that Christianity was
dead. In fact, most of the known leaders were imprisoned, and a
whole generation of Chinese pastors was killed or disappeared
in communist prisons and torture chambers.
But today with communication open again with China,
we are finding out that nearly 1 million underground churches
have sprung up during the communist persecution. Estimates
of the number of Christians today in China vary widely, but
responsible authorities place it around 100 million, compared to
1 million when Western missionaries were driven out.1 Again,
all this has happened under the spiritual direction of the indig-
enous Church movement.
Looking back, it is not difficult to trace how Western think-
ing has been confused by the march of history. In the early 1950s,
the destruction of the colonial missionary establishment was big

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news. For nearly 200 years of colonial rule in Asia, the Great
Commission had been accomplished mainly by a handful of
foreigners. After World War II, however, when the colonial-era
missionaries returned to take back control of the churches, hos-
pitals and schools, they found the political climate had changed.
They met a new hostility from Asian governments. Something
radical had happened during World War II. The nationalists
had organized and were on the march.
Soon political revolution was sweeping the Two-Thirds
World. With the independence of one nation after another, mis-
sionaries lost the positions of power and privilege they had held
under colonial rule. In the 25 years following World War II, 71
nations broke free of Western domination. And with their new
freedom, most decided Western missionaries would be among
the first symbols of the West to go.
As the doors of China, India, Myanmar, North Korea,
North Vietnam and many other newly independent nations
slammed shut on Western missionaries, it was natural for the
traditional churches and denominational missions to assume
that their day had ended. That, of course, was in itself untrue,
as evidenced by the growth of evangelical missions in the same
period. But many became convinced then that the age of mis-
sions had ended forever. Most believers today have lost hope
of seeing the Great Commission of Christ fulfilled on a global
scale. Indeed, except during the annual missions appeal at their
church, few give it a thought. Although it was rarely stated, the
implication was this: If Western-based mission boards were not
leading the way, then it could not happen.
Mission monies once used to proclaim the Gospel were
more and more sidetracked into the charitable social programs
toward which the new governments of the former colonies

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were more sympathetic. Many of the foreign missionaries who

did stay on in Asia were also deeply affected, and they began a
steady retreat from evangelism and discipleship, concentrating
for the most part on relief and social work instead. A convenient
theology of missions developed that equates social and political
action with the Great Commission of Christ.
True, in many cases it no longer is possible, for political rea-
sons, for Western missionaries to go overseas, but Christians
still have a vital role in the Two-Thirds World. I praise God for
the pioneer work done in Asia by Hudson Taylor and others
like him who were sent to these nations. Now, however, we need
to give financial and technical support to national workers who
are finishing the task.
Imagine the implications of being involved in the work of
the Great Commission, of getting your church and family to
join with you in supporting indigenous missions.
Picture this very possible scene. You finish your life on this
earth. You arrive in heaven. There, enthroned in all His glory, is
our Lord Jesus Christ. The other saints and martyrs you have
read about are there: Abraham, Moses, Peter and Paul, plus
great leaders from more recent times. Your family and loved
ones who obeyed the Gospel are also there. They are all welcom-
ing you into heaven. You walk around in bliss, filled with joy and
praises. All the promises of the Bible are true. The streets really
are gold, and the glory of God shines brightly, replacing the sun,
moon and stars. It is beyond the power of any man to describe.
Then, scores of strangers whom you don’t recognize start to
gather around with happy smiles and outstretched hands. They
embrace you with affection and gratitude.
“Thank you . . . thank you . . . thank you,” they repeat in
a chorus. With great surprise you ask, “What did I do? I have
never seen you before.”

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They tell you the story of how they came to be in heaven,

all because your love and concern reached out to them while
they were on earth. You see that these persons come from
“every tongue and tribe,” just as the Bible says—from India,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
“But what exactly did I do?” you ask. Then, like a replay of a
movie, your mind goes back to a day in your life on earth when
a local mission coordinator came to your church. He told you
about the lost millions of Asia. Then he told you about the dedi-
cated, poor national missionaries and challenged you to support
their work.
“As a result of your support,” the crowd of Asians contin-
ues, “one of our own—a national evangelist—came to us and
preached the Gospel of the kingdom. He lived simply, just like
us, speaking our language and dressed in our clothing. We were
able to accept his message easily. We learned for the first time
about the love of Jesus, who died on the cross for us, and how
His blood redeemed us from sin, Satan and death.”
As the crowd finishes, other whole families come up to you.
You can see the tenderness and gratefulness on their faces as
well. They join the others, taking you in their arms and thanking
you again.
“How can we ever express our appreciation for the love and
kindness you showed by supporting us on the earth in our ser-
vice to the Lord? We endured persecution and hardships as we
sought to witness to our own people who had never heard the
Gospel. Now they are here in eternity with us.
“In the middle of our suffering, you came into our lives
with your prayers and financial support. Your help relieved us
so much—making it possible for us to carry on the work of
the Lord.

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 A New Day in Missions

“We never had a chance to see you face-to-face in the world.

Now we can see you here and spend all eternity rejoicing with
you over the victories of the Lord.”
Now Jesus Himself appears. You bow as He quotes the fa-
miliar Scripture verses to you: “I was hungry and you gave Me
food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and
you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me. . . . Assuredly,
I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these
My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:35–36, 40).
Is this just a fanciful story, or will it be reality for many
thousands of Christians? I believe it could happen as Christians
arrive in heaven and see how they have laid up treasure where
moth and rust cannot corrupt.
Sadly, so many Christians today still have no idea that a new
day in missions has dawned and that their support of missions
is more desperately needed than ever before. They have yet to
realize the place of privilege the Lord has given them and what
that can mean for world missions.

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 9
Is Missions an Option?

I f the Apostle Paul had not brought the Gospel to Europe,

foundational principles such as freedom and human dignity
would not be part of the Western heritage. Because the Holy
Spirit instructed him to turn away from Asia and go west,
Western nations have been blessed with their systems of law
and economics—the principles that made them rich and free.
Think a moment about the vast difference between your
country and the poorer nations of the world.

•• While many of us struggle with our weight, the poor

in this world struggle to find their next meal. In most
countries where Gospel for Asia is supporting the in-
digenous missionary movement, the gross national
income per person was approximately US$1,500 a year
as of 2014. By contrast, in some of the most econom-
ically developed regions of the world it was more than
US$50,000 a year.1 And Christians in these countries,
because they tend to live in the upper half of the econ-
omy, earn even more!

•• In addition to freedom from want, people in most of

these free nations enjoy freedom of speech, press and
 Revolution in World Missions

assembly; freedom of religion; freedom to choose where

and how to live; and freedom to organize themselves to
correct injustices and problems both at home and abroad.

•• Large numbers of service networks in communications,

education, finance, mass media and transportation add
to the quality of life in the West. Not having these ser-
vices available is an enormous handicap to people living
in nations with less fortunate circumstances.

•• Finally, few domestic needs exist. Although unemploy-

ment is a serious problem in some areas, it is many
times higher in nearly every country of the Two-Thirds
World. How many of us can comprehend the suffering
of the millions of homeless and starving people in na-
tions like Bangladesh? Overseas the problems are on a
grand scale. Some nations struggle to help themselves
but still fail woefully.

This is just a short list of the many advantages of living in

the more affluent world where benefits have come largely be-
cause of a Biblical faith.
Every time I stand before an audience, I try early in my mes-
sage to ask two very important questions that every Christian
needs to ask himself:

•• Why do you think God has allowed you to be born

with such privileges, rather than among the desperately
poor slums in our world?

•• In light of the blessings you enjoy, what do you think is

your minimal responsibility to the untold millions of
lost and suffering people in our generation?

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Those who have been born into affluence, freedom and di-
vine blessings should be the most thankful people on earth. But
along with the privilege comes a responsibility. The Christian
must ask not only why, but also what he should do with these
unearned favors.
Throughout Scripture, we see only one correct response to
abundance: sharing.
God gives some people more than they need so that they
can be channels of blessing to others. God desires equity be-
tween His people on a worldwide basis. That is why the early
Church had no poverty.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the rich Christians in Corinth,
“For I do not mean that others should be eased and you bur-
dened; but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance
may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your
lack—that there may be equality” (2 Corinthians 8:13–14).
The Bible advocates and demands that we show love for the
needy brethren. Right now, because of historical and economic
factors that none of us can control, most of the needy brethren
are in Two-Thirds World countries. The conclusion is obvious:
We affluent believers must share with them.
“We know that we have passed from death to life, because
we love the brethren. . . . But whoever has this world’s goods,
and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him,
how does the love of God abide in him? My little children,
let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth”
(1 John 3:14, 17–18).
And, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says
he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a
brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one
of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but

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you do not give them the things which are needed for the body,
what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have
works, is dead” ( James 2:14–17).
God has not given us a superabundance of blessings so we
can sit back and enjoy luxuries—or even in spiritual terms, so
we can gorge ourselves on books and deeper-life conferences.
He has left us on this earth to be stewards of these spiritual
and material blessings, learning how to share with others and
administer our wealth to accomplish the purposes of God.
How are we doing in this regard? The sad facts speak for
themselves.
The average Christian gives only pennies a week to global
missions.2 Imagine what that means. Missions is the primary
task of the Church, our Lord’s final command to us before
His ascension. Jesus died on the cross to start a missionary
movement. He came to show God’s love, and we are left here
to continue that mission. Yet this most important task of the
Church is receiving far less than one percent of all our finances.
Remember, a high percentage of the missionaries who are
sent overseas are not involved in the primary tasks of preaching
the Gospel and planting churches. And approximately 85 per-
cent of all missionary finances go to support missionaries who
are working among already-established churches on the field—
not for pioneer evangelism to the lost.3 Consequently, most of
those pennies given to missions actually are spent on projects or
programs other than proclaiming the Gospel of Christ to those
who have never heard.
What is the bottom line? God is calling us as Christians to
alter our lifestyles, to give up the nonessentials of our lives so we
can better invest our wealth in the kingdom of God.
To start, I challenge believers to lay aside at least $1 a day to
help support the work of national missionaries in needy nations.

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This, of course, should be over and above our present commit-

ments to the local church and other ministries. My challenge is
for us to expand our giving over and above current levels.
Most believers can accomplish this easily by simply cutting
down on sweets, coffee and junk foods that harm our bodies
anyway. Anyone can save enough in this way to help one or even
two missionaries. Many are going beyond this and, without
affecting health or happiness, are able to help the ministry of
several missionaries.
There are, of course, many other ways to get involved. Some
cannot give more financially, but they can invest time in interces-
sory prayer and help recruit more people to give. And a few are
called to go overseas to become more directly involved.
Is missions an option—especially for wealthy countries?
The biblical answer is clear. Every Christian has some minimal
responsibility to get involved in helping the poor brethren in the
Church in other countries.

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God Is Withholding Judgment

A s I traveled and addressed God’s people, it became ap-

parent that one of the most significant hindrances to
reaching our generation for Christ is the lack of total involve-
ment by the Body of Christ. I am convinced that we have the
potential to finish the work God gave us to do. However, many
Christians still do not even consider what their part is in the
Great Commission. How can this be since this is the work
Christ left for us to do? Three major reasons why the Body of
Christ is falling so far short of the Great Commission are the
sins of pride, unbelief and worldliness.

Pride
Ask the average Christian why the Lord destroyed Sodom,
and he or she will cite the city’s gross immorality. The prophet
Ezekiel, however, reveals the real reason in chapter 16, verses 49
and 50: “Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She
and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of
idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and
needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination be-
fore Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.”
 Revolution in World Missions

Sodom refused to aid the needy poor because of pride. We

are caught up in a pride similar to Sodom’s. Yes, selfishness and
perversion come from that pride, but we need to see that pride
is the real root. Deal with that root and you cut off a multitude
of sins before they have a chance to grow.
One night while speaking at a church missionary confer-
ence, I was asked to meet privately with the church council to
give my reaction to a new mission program they were consider-
ing. I had already preached and was very tired. I did not feel like
sitting in a board meeting. The meeting, attended by 22 persons,
began in the usual way, more like a corporate board meeting at
IBM or General Motors than a church board.
The Lord spoke to me clearly: “Son, tonight you must speak
to people who are so self-sufficient they’ve never asked Me about
this plan. They think I’m helpless.”
When the chairman of the church council finally called on
me to respond with my opinion of the proposal, I stood and
read certain parts of Matthew 28:18–20: “And Jesus came and
spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in
heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things
that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always.’ ”
Then I closed my Bible and paused, looking each one in the eyes.
“How often have you met for prayer?” I asked rhetorically.
“How long since you have had an entire day of prayer to seek
God’s mind about your mission strategy?” From their eyes it was
easy to see they had prayed little about their mission budget,
which was then in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The discussion went on until 1:30 in the morning, but with
a new sense of repentance in the room.

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 God Is Withholding Judgment

“Brother K.P.,” said the leader to me afterward, “you have

destroyed everything we were trying to do tonight, but now
we’re ready to wait on God for His plan.”
That kind of humility will bring the Church back into the
center of God’s will and global plan. Churches today are not
experiencing the power and anointing of God in their ministries
because they do not have the humility to wait on Him.
We need to recover the quiet disciplines we have lost—prac-
tices such as contemplation, fasting, listening, prayer, Scripture
memory, meditation, silence, submission and reflection.
So little of evangelical Christian work is done in total de-
pendence upon the living God. Like our brothers and sisters in
that big church, we have devised methods, plans and techniques
to “do” God’s work. Those involved apparently sense no need to
pray or be filled with the Holy Spirit to do the work of Jesus.
How far we have drifted from the faith of the apostles and
the prophets! What a tragedy when the techniques of the world
and its agents are brought into the sanctuary of God. Only
when we are emptied of our own self-sufficiency can God use
us. When a church or a mission board spends more time in con-
sultation, planning and committee meetings than in prayer, it
is a clear indication the members have lost touch with the su-
pernatural and have ended up, as Watchman Nee describes it,
serving the house of God and forgetting the Lord Himself.
Part of the sin of pride is a subtle but deep racism. As I
travel, I often hear innocent-sounding questions such as, “How
do we know that the national church is ready to handle the
funds?” or “What kind of training have the national missionar-
ies had?”
So long as such questions are based on a sincere desire for
good stewardship, they are commendable, but I have found that

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sometimes the intent of these questions is less honorable. If

we’re satisfied that a certain national missionary is truly called
to the Gospel and the Lord is asking us to stand with him, then
we need to trust God and be willing to give just as we would to
another brother in our own culture. To try to control the min-
istry overseas from our foreign-based mission board is, without
our realizing it, an extension of colonialism. It can humiliate and
weaken the national missionaries in the long run.
Christians need to learn that they are not giving their money
to national workers. They are giving God’s money to His work
overseas.
We are driven by powerful egos always to be right. We are
often slaves to a strong tendency to “have it our way.” All of these
are manifestations of pride, the opposite of the servanthood
and humble sacrifice commanded by Christ. We need instead
to follow Christ’s example and set our hearts on serving Him
by serving our fellow Asian children of God. Making a sacrifice
for one of the unknown brethren—supporting his work to a
strange people in a strange place, using methods that are a mys-
tery to you—does take humility. But supporting the national
brethren begins with this kind of commitment to humility and
continues in the same spirit. Sadly, our pride too often stands in
the way of progress.

Unbelief
I have come to see that many evangelical Christians do not really
believe the Word of God, especially when it talks about hell and
judgment. Instead, they selectively accept only the portions that
allow them to continue living in their current lifestyles.
C.S. Lewis, that great British defender of the faith, wrote,
“There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from

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 God Is Withholding Judgment

Christianity than this [hell]. . . . I would pay any price to be able

to say truthfully, ‘All will be saved.’ ”1
But Lewis realized that was neither truthful nor within his
power to change.
It is painful to think about hell and judgment. I understand
why preachers do not like to talk about it, because I don’t either.
It is so much easier to preach that “God loves you and has a
wonderful plan for your life,” or to focus on the many delight-
ful aspects of “possibility thinking” and the “word of faith” that
brings health, wealth and happiness. The grace and love of God
are pleasant subjects, and no one more beautifully demonstrated
them than our Lord Jesus. Yet in His earthly ministry, He made
more references to hell and judgment than He did to heaven.
Jesus lived with the reality of hell, and He died on Calvary be-
cause He knew it was real and coming to everyone who doesn’t
turn to God in this life.
Believers are willing to accept the concept of heaven, but
many look the other way when they come to passages in the
Bible about hell. If we knew the horrors of the potential judg-
ment that hangs over us—if we really believed in what is
coming—how differently we would live.
Why aren’t Christians living in obedience to God? Because
of their unbelief.
Why did Eve fall into sin? Because she did not truly believe
in the judgment—that death really would come if she ate what
God forbade. This is the same reason many continue in lives of
sin and disobedience.
The crises facing our world today are only a slap on the
wrist compared to what lies ahead—wars, recessions, disease
and natural calamities. But God is withholding judgment now
to give us time to repent.

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Unfortunately for millions in our world, it will be too late

unless we can reach them before they slip off the edge into eter-
nal darkness.
For years I struggled with making this a reality in our meet-
ings. Finally I found a way.
I ask my listeners to hold their wrists and find their pulse.
Then I explain that every beat they feel represents the death of
someone who has died and plunged into eternity without ever
hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ even once.
“What if one of those beats represented your own mother?”
I ask. “Your own father, your spouse, your child . . . you yourself?”
We say we believe it—but what are we doing to act on that
faith? Without works, faith is dead.
No one should die without hearing about the Lord Jesus.
To me this is an atrocity much worse than the death camps of
Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Russia. If only a small percentage of
the people who claim to be born-again Christians were to sup-
port the work of national missionaries, we could have literally
hundreds of thousands of evangelists reaching the lost villages
of Asia. When we look at the unfinished Great Commission
and compare it to our personal lifestyles—or to the activity cal-
endars of our churches and organizations—how can we explain
our disobedience? We must see a great repentance from the sin
of our unbelief in God’s judgment.
C.T. Studd, the famous British athlete and founder of
W.E.C., was one who gave up all his achievements in this life for
Christ’s sake. He was challenged to his commitment by a tract
written by an atheist. That article in part said:

Did I firmly believe, as millions say they do, that the

knowledge and practice of religion in this life influences
destiny in another, religion would mean to me everything.

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 God Is Withholding Judgment

I would cast away earthly enjoyments as dross, earthly

cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity.
Religion would be my first waking thought, and my last
image before sleep sank me into unconsciousness. I would
labor in its cause alone. I would take thought for the mor-
row of eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained for
heaven worth a life of suffering. . . . I would strive to look
upon eternity alone, and on the immortal souls around
me, soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly mis-
erable. I would go forth to the world and preach to it in
season and out of season, and my text would be, WHAT
SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN IF HE GAIN THE
WHOLE WORLD AND LOSE HIS OWN SOUL?2

Worldliness
Once, on a 2,000-mile auto trip across the American West, I
made it a point to listen to Christian radio all along the way.
What I heard revealed much about the secret motivations that
drive many Christians. Some of the broadcasts would have
been hilarious if they weren’t exploiting the gullible—hawking
health, wealth and success in the name of Christianity.
Some speakers offered holy oil and lucky charms to those
who sent in money and requested them. One said he would
mail holy soap that he had blessed. If used with his instructions,
the soap would wash away bad luck, evil friends and sickness.
Again he promised “plenty of money” and everything else the
user wanted.
Christian magazines, TV shows and church services often
put the spotlight on famous athletes, beauty queens, business-
men and politicians who “make it in the world and have Jesus
too!” Today, Christian values are defined almost totally by suc-
cess as it is promoted by Madison Avenue advertising.

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But in contrast, John says in his first epistle, “Do not love
the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is
not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing
away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides
forever” (1 John 2:15–17).
The typical media testimony goes something like this: “I
was sick and broke, a total failure. Then I met Jesus. Now every-
thing is fine; my business is booming, and I am a great success.”
It sounds wonderful. Be a Christian and get that bigger
house and a boat and vacation in the Holy Land. But if that were
really God’s way, it would put believers living in anti-Christian
countries in a pretty bad light. Their testimonies often go some-
thing like this:
“I was happy. I had everything—prestige, recognition, a
good job, and a happy wife and children. Then I gave my life to
Jesus Christ. Now I am in prison, having lost my family, wealth,
reputation, job and health.
“Here I live, lonely, deserted by friends. I cannot see the face
of my wife and dear children. My crime is that I love Jesus.”
Christian martyrs have written their names on every page of
history. In the former Soviet Union, Ivan Moiseyev was tortured
and killed within two years of meeting Jesus. In China, Watchman
Nee spent 20 years in prison and finally died in bondage.
When Sadhu Sundar Singh, born and raised in a rich Sikh’s
home in Punjab, became a Christian, his own family tried to
poison him and banished him from their home. He lost his in-
heritance and walked away with one piece of clothing on his
body. Yet, following his Master, he made millions truly rich
through faith in Christ.

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 God Is Withholding Judgment

Today’s national workers often suffer for their commitment

also. Coming from non-Christian backgrounds, they often are
literally thrown out of their homes, lose their jobs and are beaten
and chased from their villages when they accept Christ. They
faithfully serve Christ daily, suffering untold hardships because
Jesus promised His followers, “In the world you will have tribu-
lation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” ( John
16:33). What He promised were trials and tribulations. But they
can face them because they know He already has won the battle.
God does promise to meet our physical needs. And He does,
indeed, bless His children materially. But He blesses us for a
purpose—not so we can squander those resources on ourselves
but so we can be good stewards, using our resources wisely to
win the lost to God’s saving grace.
I have spoken in churches that have no missionary program
of any kind, and this in spite of having a pastor known to be
an excellent Bible teacher with a love for people. How is this
possible?
“Evangelical Christianity,” commented Tozer prophetically
before his death, “is now tragically below the New Testament
standard. Worldliness is an accepted part of our way of life. Our
religious mood is social instead of spiritual.”
The Church Jesus called out of this world to be separated
unto Himself has, to a great extent, forgotten her reason for
existence. Her loss of balance is seen in the current absence of
holiness, spiritual reality and concern for the lost. Substituted
for the life she once knew are teaching and reaching for prosper-
ity, pleasure, politics and social involvement.
The further our leaders wander from the Lord, the more
they turn to the ways of the world. Many churches have become
like secular clubs with softball teams, golf lessons, schools and

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exercise classes to keep people coming to their buildings and

giving them their tithes.
What would Jesus do if He walked into our churches today?
I am afraid He would not be able to say to us: “You have
kept the faith, you have run the race without turning left or
right, and you have obeyed My command to reach this world.”
I believe He would go out to look for a whip, because we have
made His Father’s house a den of robbers. If that is so, then we
must repent of our sin of pride, unbelief and worldliness while
there is still time. The hour is too desperate for us to continue
to deceive ourselves. If this Gospel is to be preached in all the
world in our lifetime, we need more than revival or reformation.
We must cry out for a Christian, heaven-sent revolution.

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 11
Why Should I Make Waves?

B y the end of 1981, Gospel for Asia appeared to be gaining

acceptance. Many were beginning to share in the ministry
of equipping national missionaries to evangelize in their own
countries.
As Gisela and our office staff in Dallas worked to assign our
new sponsors to national missionaries, I felt led of the Lord to
plan a road tour of 14 Texas towns to meet personally with new
supporters. Calling ahead, I introduced myself and thanked the
people for taking on the sponsorship of a national missionary.
I was stunned by the response. Most of the people had
heard me on the radio and appeared thrilled with the idea of
meeting me. In every town, someone offered me lodging and
made arrangements for me to speak in small house meetings
and churches. People were referring to me in a new way—as the
president and director of an important missionary organization.
Far from being pleased, I was more terrified than ever—afraid
that I would fail or be rejected.
With the meetings booked solid and the publicity out, an
unreasonable fear took over. A weariness settled upon me. As
the day for my departure came closer, I looked for excuses to
cancel or postpone the whole venture.
 Revolution in World Missions

“My family and the office need me more,” I argued. “Besides,

I’ll be driving alone. It’s dangerous and difficult—I should really
wait until someone can go with me.”
Just when I had almost talked myself out of going, the Lord
spoke to me in an unmistakable voice during my personal morn-
ing devotion. As on other occasions, it was just as if He were in
the room with me.
“My sheep hear My voice,” said the Lord, using His words
from John 10, “and I know them and they follow Me: My sheep
follow Me because they know My voice.”
I did not need an interpretation; the message was clear. The
trip had been ordained by Him. He had arranged it and opened
the doors. I needed to picture myself as a little lamb and follow
my Shepherd over the miles. He would go ahead of me to every
church and every home in which I would stay.
It turned out to be a heavenly two weeks. In every home and
church, I had delightful fellowship with our new friends—and
we added a number of supporters as a result.
The church in Victoria, Texas, was almost my last stop, and
the Lord had a surprise waiting for me there.
My presentation went nicely. I showed the GFA slides and
made an impassioned plea for our work. I explained the philos-
ophy of our ministry, giving the biblical reasons why the people
of Asia are lost unless national missionaries go to them.
Suddenly, I felt the Spirit prompting me to talk about the
dangers of the humanist social gospel. I paused for the briefest
moment, then went on without mentioning it. I just did not
have the courage. I might make enemies everywhere. People
would think I was an unloving fool, a spoiler of Christian work
who did not even care about the hungry, naked, needy and suf-
fering. Why should I make waves? I managed to get through

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 Why Should I Make Waves?

my presentation, and feeling relieved, I opened up the meeting

to questions.
But the Holy Spirit was not about to let me off the hook.
From far in the back of the room, a tall man—at least “six
foot three” as they say in Texas—came walking steadily up the
aisle, looking bigger and bigger as he came closer to me. I did not
know who he was or what he had to say, but I felt instinctively
that God had sent him. When he reached me, he wrapped a
huge arm around my skinny shoulders and said some words I
can still hear ringing today: “This man here, our brother, is fear-
ful and afraid to speak the truth . . . and he’s struggling with it.”
I felt my face and neck getting hot with guilt. How did this big
cowboy know that? But it got worse, and I was about to see
proof that the Spirit of the living God was really using this tall
Texan to deliver a powerful confirmation and rebuke to me.
“The Lord has led you in ways others have not walked and
shown you things others have not seen,” he went on. “The souls
of millions are at stake. You must speak the truth about the mis-
placed priority on the mission field. You must call the Body of
Christ to return to the task of preaching salvation and snatching
souls from hell.”
I felt like a zero, yet this was undeniably a miraculous
prophecy inspired by God, confirming both my disobedience
and the very message God had called me to preach fearlessly. But
my humiliation and liberation were not over yet.
“The Lord has asked me,” the tall man said, “to call the elders
up here to pray for you that this fear of man will leave you.”
Suddenly I felt like even less than a zero. I had been intro-
duced as a great mission leader; now I felt like a little lamb. I
wanted to defend myself. I did not feel as if I were being con-
trolled by a spirit of fear; I felt that I was just acting logically

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to protect the interests of our mission. But I submitted anyway,

feeling a little ridiculous, as the elders crowded around me to
pray for an anointing of power on my preaching ministry.
Something happened. I felt the power of God envelop me. A
few minutes later I got up from my knees a changed man, released
from the bondage of fear that had gripped me. All doubts were
gone: God had placed a burden on my life to deliver this message.
Since that day I have insisted we recover the genuine mes-
sage of Jesus—that balanced New Testament message that
begins not with the physical needs of people, but with sharing
the Gospel of salvation.
Modern man unconsciously holds in highest regard the hu-
manistic ideals of happiness, freedom and economic, cultural
and social progress for all mankind. This secular view says there
is no God, heaven or hell; there is just one chance at life, so do
what makes you most happy. It also teaches that “since all men
are brothers,” we should work for that which contributes toward
the welfare of all men.
This teaching—so attractive on the surface—has entered
our churches in many ways, creating a man-centered and man-
made gospel based on changing the outside and social status of
man by meeting his physical needs. The cost is his eternal soul.
The so-called humanist gospel—which isn’t really the “good
news” at all—is called by many names. Some argue for it in
familiar biblical and theological terms; some call it the “social
gospel,” but the label is not important.
You can tell the humanist gospel because it refuses to admit
that the basic problem of humanity is not physical, but spiritual.
The humanist will never tell you that sin is the root cause of all
human suffering. A humanist ministry may claim to “care for the
whole man,” but the reality is that it provides help for only the
body and soul—ignoring the spirit.

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 Why Should I Make Waves?

Because of this teaching, many churches and mission so-

cieties now are redirecting their limited outreach funds and
personnel away from the life-changing power of the Gospel
to something vaguely called “social concern.” Today Christian
missionaries often find themselves primarily involved in social
work. This is done in the name of Jesus and supposedly is based
on His command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel
to every creature.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with social work when it
is combined with Christ’s lifesaving message of forgiveness. In
fact, Jesus taught us that, as His followers, this is exactly what
we are called to do. But the mission of the Church, as defined by
these humanists, can be almost anything except winning peo-
ple to Christ and discipling them.
History already has taught us that this gospel—without the
blood of Christ—is a total failure. In few countries is this more
apparent than in Thailand. There, after 150 years of missionar-
ies showing marvelous social compassion, Christians still make
up only two percent of the entire population.1
Self-sacrificing missionaries probably have done more to
modernize Thailand than has any other single force. The country
owes to missionaries its widespread literacy, first printing press,
first university, first hospital, first doctor and almost every other
benefit of education and science. In every area, including trade
and diplomacy, Christian missionaries put the needs of the host
nation first and helped usher in the 20th century. Meanwhile,
millions have slipped into eternity without the Lord. They died
more educated, better governed and healthier—but they died
without Christ and are bound for eternity without God.
By contrast, I have met poor, often minimally educated,
national brothers involved in Gospel work in pioneer areas.

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They had nothing material to offer the people to whom they

preached—no agricultural training and no medical relief or
school program. But hundreds of lives were transformed, and
congregations were established. What were these brothers doing
right to achieve such results, while others with many more ad-
vantages had failed?
Watchman Nee, an early Chinese national missionary, put
his finger on the problem in a series of lectures delivered in the
years before World War II. Read some of his comments on such
efforts, as recorded in the book Love Not the World:

When material things are under spiritual control they

fulfill their proper subordinate role. Released from that
restraint they manifest very quickly the power that lies be-
hind them. The law of their nature asserts itself, and their
worldly character is proved by the course they take.
The spread of missionary enterprise in our present
era gives us an opportunity to test this principle in the
religious institutions of our day and of our land. Over
a century ago the Church set out to establish in China
schools and hospitals with a definite spiritual tone and an
evangelistic objective. In those early days not much impor-
tance was attached to the buildings, while considerable
emphasis was placed on the institutions’ role in the proc-
lamation of the Gospel. Ten or fifteen years ago you could
go over the same ground and in many places find much
larger and finer institutions on those original sites, but
compared with the earlier years, far fewer converts. And
by today many of those splendid schools and colleges have
become purely educational centers, lacking in any truly
evangelistic motive at all, while to an almost equal extent,
many of the hospitals exist now solely as places merely of
physical and no longer spiritual healing. The men who

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initiated them had, by their close walk with God, held

those institutions steadfastly into His purpose; but when
they passed away, the institutions themselves quickly grav-
itated toward worldly standards and goals, and in doing so
classified themselves as “things of the world.” We should
not be surprised that this is so.

Nee continues to expand on the theme, this time addressing

the problem of emergency relief efforts for the suffering:

In the early chapters of the Acts we read how a contin-

gency arose which led the Church to institute relief for the
poorer saints. That urgent institution of social service was
clearly blessed of God, but it was of a temporary nature.
Do you exclaim, “How good if it had continued!”? Only
one who does not know God would say that. Had those
relief measures been prolonged indefinitely they would
certainly have veered in the direction of the world, once
the spiritual influence at work in their inception was re-
moved. It is inevitable.
For there is a distinction between the Church of God’s
building, on the one hand, and on the other, those valuable
social and charitable by-products that are thrown off by
it from time to time through the faith and vision of its
members. The latter, for all their origin in spiritual vision,
possess in themselves a power of independent survival
which the Church of God does not have. They are works
which the faith of God’s children may initiate and pioneer,
but which, once the way has been shown and the profes-
sional standard set, can be readily sustained or imitated by
men of the world quite apart from that faith.
The Church of God, let me repeat, never ceases to be
dependent upon the life of God for its maintenance.2

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 Revolution in World Missions

Our battle is not against flesh and blood or symptoms of

sin such as poverty and sickness. It is against Lucifer and count-
less demons who struggle day and night to take human souls
into a Christless eternity. If we intend to answer man’s great-
est problem—his separation from the eternal God—with rice
handouts, then we are throwing a drowning man a board in-
stead of helping him out of the water.
A spiritual battle fought with spiritual weapons will produce
eternal victories. Knowing this, Satan has woven a masterful
web of appealing half-truths to confuse the Church and ensure
that millions will perish without ever hearing the Gospel. Here
are a couple of his more common inventions:
One, how can we preach the Gospel to a man with an empty
stomach? A man’s stomach has nothing to do with his heart’s con-
dition of being a rebel against the holy God. A rich American on
Fifth Avenue in New York City or a poor beggar on the streets
of Kathmandu are both rebels against God Almighty, according
to the Bible.
I have sat on the streets of Mumbai with beggars—poor
men who very soon would die. In sharing the Gospel with many
of them, I told them I had no material goods to give them, but I
came to offer eternal life. I began to share the love of Jesus who
died for their souls, about the many mansions in my Father’s
house (see John 14:2) and the fact that they can go there to hun-
ger and thirst no more. The Lord Jesus will wipe away every tear
from their eyes, I said. They shall no longer be in any debt. There
shall no longer be any mourning, crying or pain (see Revelation
7:16, 21:4).
What a joy it was to see some of them opening their hearts
after hearing about the forgiveness of sin they can find in Jesus!
That is exactly what the Bible teaches in Romans 10:17, “So
then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

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Two, social work—meeting only the physical needs of man—is

mission work; in fact, it is equal to preaching. Luke 16:19–25 tells
us the pitiful story of the rich man and Lazarus. Of what benefit
were the possessions of the rich man? He could not pay his way
out of hell. His riches could not comfort him. The rich man
had lost everything, including his soul. What about Lazarus?
He didn’t have any possessions to lose, but he had made prepa-
rations for his soul. What was more important during their time
on earth? Was it the care for the “body temple” or the immortal
soul? “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world,
and is himself destroyed or lost?” (Luke 9:25).
If we could spend only one minute in the flames and tor-
ment of hell, we would see how unloving the so-called “gospel” is
that prevails in much of missions today. It is a crime against lost
humanity to go in the name of Christ just to do social work and
neglect calling men to repent—to give up their sin—and follow
Christ with all their hearts.
Do not be deceived by the devil’s ploys. Time is short, and
thousands are perishing daily without Christ. Unless we return
to the biblical balance—to the Gospel of Jesus as He Himself
proclaimed it, we will lose this generation to Satan.

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 12
Hope Has Many Names

T he question is, what is biblical balance? What does the

Bible say about social justice and compassion? What does
it teach us concerning the Church’s role in these matters?
A good place to start is to look at Christ’s example, how He
lived on this earth.
When Jesus came, He not only fed people’s souls with the
truths of heaven and Him as the Bread of Life, but He filled
their stomachs with fish and bread and wine as well.
He opened not only the eyes of people’s hearts to see the
truth, but also their physical eyes, restoring their sight so they
could see the world around them.
He strengthened the faith of the weak, while strengthening
the legs of the lame.
He who came to breathe eternal life into a valley of dry, dead
souls also breathed life into the widow’s son, raising him up once
more (see Ezekiel 37:1–9; Luke 7:11–15).
We see that with Jesus, it was not one or the other—it was
both, and both for the glory of God.
This example of ministry carries all throughout the Bible.
Look back through the Old Testament and you will see a strong
emphasis placed on compassion toward the needy and social
 Revolution in World Missions

justice for the downtrodden and poor. God demanded the care
and protection of all those who were oppressed (see Leviticus
19:18; Isaiah 1:17, 58:10–11), and some of the most terrible
judgments fell upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the
way that they exploited the poor and needy. Yet God’s mercy for
the weak never trumped His concern for their sin.
In Matthew 22:38–40, Jesus clearly marked the Christian’s
social responsibility when He said that loving God is the first
and greatest commandment and “the second is like it: ‘You shall
love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments
hang all the Law and the Prophets” (emphasis mine).
All the Law and Prophets are summed up in both—loving
God and loving others. It was not one or the other—but again
both, for the glory of God. We cannot say we love others if we
ignore their spiritual needs. Just the same, we cannot say we love
others if we ignore their physical needs. Jesus came for both.
Indeed, it was physical suffering that brought many to call
upon Him as the Savior of their soul.
In John 20:30–31 we are told, “Jesus did many other signs in
the presence of His disciples . . . that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have
life in His name.” The Gospels show that it was the sick, the de-
mon-possessed, the hungry and the poor who came to Jesus and
whose lives were changed by His healing touch. Jesus Himself
declared that He had come to preach the Good News to the
poor, the prisoners, the blind and the oppressed (see Luke 4:18).
Through the many who were healed from horrible diseases
and set free from satanic bondage, Jesus showed Himself as the
only One able to save their souls from sin and death. The mercy
ministries Jesus did were not an end in themselves, but were
rather a means for people to understand the Father’s love. And
it is the same today.

108
Above: For too many Dalit children in South Asia, the innocence of childhood is lost in poverty,
child labor and exploitation. The problem of illiteracy—90 percent in some areas—leaves little
room for hope.
Left: Through Gospel
for Asia’s Bridge of Hope
Program, children from
Dalit and other low-caste
communities receive quality
instruction and personal
attention from staff who
love them.

Below: This tasty and

nutritious meal provided
through GFA’s Bridge of Hope
Program may be the only
meal of the day for some of
these children.
Above: A GFA-supported
pastor and the people of his
village rejoice together as the
first drops of water flow out of
this newly installed “Jesus Well.” By
God’s grace, both the well and the
pastor will be faithful witnesses
of Jesus to this village for years to
come.

Right: Leprosy is a fearsome

disease because of the
disfigurement it causes and the
social stigma it carries. Following
the example of Jesus, GFA-
supported workers reach out with
compassion to those affected by
this dreaded disease.
Above: The majority of young
people who enroll in a GFA-
supported Bible college come with
a burden to take Christ’s love to
the poor and needy people of their
world. They receive three years of
spiritual and practical training to
equip them to effectively serve the
Lord on the mission field.

Left: During Bible college,

students learn the necessity of
seeking God’s will in prayer for
everything in their life and ministry.
 Hope Has Many Names

As I mentioned in the previous chapter, we must not mis-

understand or replace evangelism with social action. The Great
Commission is not a mandate for political liberation. The mak-
ing of disciples is our aim and goal in all things. But this in no
way means that we do not care about the physical suffering of
those whom we seek to serve.
Our spirits, which are eternal and infinitely more precious
than the whole physical world, are contained in perishable,
physical bodies. And throughout Scripture, we see that God
used the felt needs of the body to draw people to Himself.
And truly, the needs of suffering men, women and children
in this world are great—especially in Asia.
Calcutta alone is home to more than 100,000 street children
who know neither mother nor father, love nor care. They are
not just numbers or statistics—they are real children. Though
nameless and faceless on the streets where they live, each one
was created with love and is known by God.
It is doubtful they’ve ever held a toothbrush or a bar of soap;
they’ve never eaten an ice-cream cone or cradled a doll. The
child laborers of South Asia toil in fireworks, carpet and match
factories; quarries and coal mines; rice fields, tea plantations
and pastures. Because they are exposed to dust, toxic fumes and
pesticides, their health is compromised; their bodies are crip-
pled from carrying heavy weights. Some are bonded laborers,
enslaved to their tasks by family poverty.
According to the International Labour Organization, this
is life for an estimated 122 million children in Asia-Pacific.1 In
the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, 9-year-old Lakshmi works in a
factory as a cigarette roller. She tells her sister’s story, giving us a
glimpse into their world:

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 Revolution in World Missions

My sister is ten years old. Every morning at seven she

goes to the bonded labor man, and every night at nine she
comes home. He treats her badly; he hits her if he thinks
she is working slowly or if she talks to the other children,
he yells at her, he comes looking for her if she is sick and
cannot go to work. I feel this is very difficult for her.
I don’t care about school or playing. I don’t care about
any of that. All I want is to bring my sister home from
the bonded labor man. For 600 rupees I can bring her
home—that is our only chance to get her back.
We don’t have 600 rupees . . . we will never have 600
rupees [the equivalent of US$14].2

The hopeless situation facing Lakshmi’s family is, trag-

ically, a very common one among the Dalits, also known as
the “Untouchables.” For 3,000 years, countless millions of
Untouchables in South Asia have suffered oppression, slavery
and countless atrocities. They are trapped in a caste system
that denies them adequate education, safe drinking water, de-
cent-paying jobs and the right to own land or a home. Segregated
and oppressed, Dalits are frequently the victims of violent crime.
In recent years, there has been a growing desire for freedom
among Dalits and other low-caste groups that face similar re-
pressive treatment. The turning point came on November 4,
2001, when tens of thousands of Dalits gathered for one of the
most historic meetings of the 21st century, publicly declaring
their desire to follow a faith of their own choosing.
Since that event, the Lord has led us to tangibly express His
love to Dalit and low-caste families in a unique way: by reaching
out to their children.
Gospel for Asia’s Bridge of Hope Program is designed to
rescue children in Asia from a life of poverty and hopelessness

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 Hope Has Many Names

by helping to provide them an education and introducing them

to the love of God. Through this effort, entire communities are
being transformed.
Today more than 75,000 children are enrolled in hundreds
of Bridge of Hope centers, and the program continues to grow.
One of these centers is located in the village of a worker named
Samuel.
Samuel had no idea that the group of 35 Dalit and low-caste
children attending would make such a remarkable difference
in his ministry. But one little first-grade boy in his center was
about to show him otherwise.
Nibun’s mother had been ill with malaria for a long time,
and her death seemed inevitable. But Nibun had a little seed
of hope in his heart—God’s Word. Bible stories were a regular
part of the Bridge of Hope curriculum at the center, and like
many other children, Nibun would come home and narrate
every story he had heard to his family.
One night, as Nibun and his family sat together beside his
mother’s bed, he told them how Jesus raised a widow’s son from
the dead. It became a turning point in all their lives.
“That night, after hearing this story,” Nibun’s father later
shared, “I could not sleep. This story was burning in my heart
again and again.”
Nibun’s father sought out Samuel the next morning. After
hearing more about Jesus and His offer of salvation, the man
asked the pastor to come and pray for his wife. “I believe Jesus
will heal my wife just as He did the widow’s son,” he affirmed.
Nibun’s mother, though weak in body, shared the same con-
fidence: “My son talks about Jesus many times in our home. I
believe Jesus will heal me.”
Samuel laid hands on the dying woman and prayed for the
Lord to raise her up; then he returned to his home.

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The next day he saw Nibun and asked how his mother was
doing.
“My mommy is walking around,” he reported happily, “and
this morning she prepared breakfast for us!”
When Samuel arrived at Nibun’s house, he found a family
transformed both physically and spiritually.
From the very beginning of Gospel for Asia, we have taken
every opportunity to share the love and hope found in Jesus,
especially in the most poor and needy communities. The most
tangible way we have found to bring hope to desperately poor
families is to help provide an education for their children, which
often equals freedom in many of these nations. In fact, one of
the reasons why so many children and their families stay en-
slaved as bond-laborers is the simple fact that they cannot read
the contract made between them and their loaner. Because of
illiteracy, they are blindly taken advantage of and cheated out of
not just money and time, but their futures.
It is the love of Christ that constrains us to reach out in this
way, knowing that each child and his family are precious in the
sight of God.
Let me tell you an experience I had in the beginning stages
of this ministry to the Dalits that propelled us to move forward
with GFA’s Bridge of Hope Program.
It was while sleeping in the early hours of the morning that
I had a dream. I was standing in front of a vast wheat field, look-
ing out upon a harvest that was clearly ripe. I stood there for a
while, overwhelmed at the size of the harvest. The field contin-
ued for what seemed like millions of endless acres for as far as
the eye could see.
As I stood there watching the golden wheat sway in the
breeze, I got this sudden understanding that I was looking out

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 Hope Has Many Names

upon the harvest that Jesus spoke of in John 4 and Matthew 9. It

was as though the Lord was telling me that this harvest was free
for the taking, much as Psalm 2 tells us to ask for the nations
and He will give them to us.
Overcome with excitement, I ran toward the field. But as I
drew nearer, I was stopped. I couldn’t go any farther. There was
a wide, gaping river in between the harvest field and myself, a
river so deep and raging that I dared not step closer or try to
cross. I had not seen it from where I stood before, but now I did.
My heart broke. I was only able to look at the harvest, un-
able to embrace it. I stood there weeping, feeling so helpless and
full of despair.
All of a sudden there appeared before me a bridge reaching
from one side of the vast river to the other. It was not a narrow
bridge but was very broad and so huge.
As I watched, the bridge became completely filled with lit-
tle children from all over Asia—poor, destitute Dalit children,
like those I’d seen on the streets of Bombay, Calcutta, Dakar,
Kathmandu and other Asian cities.
I woke up from my dream and realized that the Lord was
speaking to me about something so significant: that if we fol-
low His instruction, we will see these endless millions of
Untouchables experience God’s love.
I shared this dream with my colleagues, and we realized that
God had given us this call to bring hope to the children of Asia.
Miraculously, this has been happening. God has been faithful to
carry out the plans that He placed in our hearts.
When national workers first went into communities in one
mission field to share the Gospel, they were strongly opposed.
But when these brothers began to set up Bridge of Hope centers
for the children, they were welcomed in a new light.

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Within time, dozens of Bridge of Hope centers were started

in that region. Less than a year later, 37 fellowships were started.
And it all began with the little children learning about Jesus,
going home and telling their parents; then miracle after miracle
began to transpire!
Nibun’s father speaks for many parents when he says, “I
thank God for this center and pray that He will use it to bring
His light into many homes, just as He has done in our family.”
Gospel for Asia’s Bridge of Hope Program shows what
can happen when Gospel proclamation and compassion min-
istry are kept in their proper balance. The same transforming
love of God is at work in other Gospel for Asia ministries that
introduce Christ to people through ministering to a felt need.
Today we support special ministries among widows and street
children, in leprosy colonies and slums, and many fellowships
have been started among these needy people.
Many people are surprised to hear that leprosy is still a
problem in the 21st century. It is true that this terrible skin dis-
ease is easily treated, but the world’s poor typically do not have
access to modern medicine. As a result, thousands of people in
South Asia suffer needlessly from leprosy’s devastating, disfig-
uring effects. And as in biblical times, they are usually pushed
out of their communities and forced to live out their days in
slum colonies along with others with the same disease.
When Jiva, one of the national missionaries we support,
first witnessed someone cleaning the wounds of a leprosy pa-
tient, he thought to himself, I could do a work like that. That
would be a great thing in my life.
Most of us would turn our eyes away from the repulsive
sight of decaying flesh. Instead, Jiva found himself wanting to
wash and bandage the mutilated hands and feet of these people.

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This desire grew in his heart, and he began asking the Lord for
an opportunity to take care of these precious people.
Jiva went on to pioneer a vibrant leprosy ministry. Today,
we support dozens of national workers who serve people with
leprosy. They visit leprosy colonies regularly to treat wounds,
distribute medication and help in other practical ways. With
each wound they dress, our workers pour on the healing balm
of Christ’s love and tell of His saving grace.
If you could visit one of these communities on a Sunday
morning, you would see something astonishing: patients in all
stages of the disease, gathered together under a tree or tent,
singing and worshiping the Lord. Their faces beam with joy as
they clap the stubs of their hands together to the rhythm of the
music. These people have been transformed from the inside by
the power of God. It happened through a touch of love.
Another desperate need in South Asia, especially for
Dalits, is safe drinking water. Often, the only available water
for cooking and drinking is the polluted, stagnant pond used
for bathing, washing dishes, watering livestock and who knows
what else. You can imagine how this contaminated water affects
their health—how many sicknesses they suffer, how many of
their children die.
By God’s grace, Gospel for Asia has helped to provide “Jesus
Wells” for thousands of needy communities. Every well includes
a plaque inscribed with the words from Jesus: “Whoever drinks
of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water
that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall
give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up
into everlasting life” ( John 4:13–14).
The free gift of clean water, available to everyone in the com-
munity, and Christ’s gracious words of invitation testify of His

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love to all passersby. The wells showcase His faithfulness, too.

During a hot summer in one region, every other well in the area
dried up, but amazingly the Jesus Well did not! In another lo-
cation, the new Jesus Well was the only one around that yielded
sweet water; all the other wells in the area were salty.
Many people, after sampling the fresh, clean water of a Jesus
Well and seeing the plaque, actually seek out the local GFA-
supported pastor or worker. They have many questions: “What
does ‘Jesus Well’ mean? What is written on the slab? What do
these words mean?” Their questions open the door for a spiri-
tual conversation to take place, a new friendship to be forged. In
this way, the Holy Spirit draws thirsty inquirers toward Christ,
the source of living water.
The Lord willing, as we move forward with a deep convic-
tion to see the Great Commission truly fulfilled, we will see
millions come to know the Lord. As we respond to their phys-
ical needs in the name of Jesus, they will hear the Good News
of forgiveness from sin and redemption through the death and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and entire communities
will be blessed.
When all is said and done, the bottom line must be “the
poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matthew 11:5). If that
is not done, we have failed.

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Enemies of the Cross

T he indigenous missionary movement, the best hope

for the unreached nations, is not going unchallenged.
Revivals of traditional religions, the growth of secular ma-
terialism including communism, and the rise of cultural and
nationalist barriers are all united in opposition to Christian
mission activity.
Yet the love of God can penetrate even this host of barriers.
“I was brought up in a home where we worshiped many
gods,” says Masih, who for years sought spiritual peace through
self-discipline and religious meditation as required by his caste.
He even became a spiritual leader in his village but couldn’t find
the peace that his heart longed for.
“One day I received a Gospel tract and read about the love of
Jesus Christ. I answered the offer on the leaflet and enrolled in
a correspondence course to learn more about Jesus. On January
1, 1978, I gave my life to Jesus Christ. My life was completely
transformed.”
When his parents realized their son had become a fol-
lower of Christ, they began a campaign of persecution. To
escape, Masih went to a city to search for a job. For six months
he worked in a factory and meanwhile joined a local group of
 Revolution in World Missions

believers. Through their encouragement, he enrolled in a Bible

school and began to study God’s Word.
During his three years of study, he made his first trip home.
“My father sent a telegram asking me to come home,” Masih
recalls. “He said he was ‘terribly ill.’ When I arrived, my family
and friends asked me to renounce Christ. When I didn’t, much
persecution followed, and my life was in danger. I had to flee.”
Returning to school, Masih thought God would lead him
to minister to some distant mission field. He was shocked at the
answer to his prayers.
“As I waited on the Lord, He guided me to go back and
work among my own people,” he says. “He wanted me to share
the love of God through Christ with them, like the healed de-
moniac of Gadara whom He sent back to his own village.”
Today, Masih is involved in church planting in his home
city and surrounding villages, working in a basically hostile en-
vironment.
Although Masih has not had to pay the ultimate price to
win his people to Christ, every year many Christian missionaries
and ordinary believers in Asia and around the world are killed
for their faith. The total number of Christian martyrs in the past
century is estimated at 45 million, undoubtedly more than the
total killed during the preceding 19 centuries of Church history.1

Religiosity—The Enemy of the Truth

Revivals of traditional religions are occurring all over Asia.
Although few countries have gone the route of Iran—where a
religious revival of Islam actually toppled the state—religious
factionalism is a major problem in many countries.
When government, media and educational institutions are
taken over by atheistic materialists, most nations experience a

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great backlash. As traditional religious leaders are finding out, it

is not enough to drive Western nations out. Secular humanists
are in firm control of most Asian governments, and many tradi-
tional religious leaders miss the power they once exercised.
At the grassroots level, traditional religion and national-
ism often are deliberately confused and exploited by political
leaders for short-term gain. In the villages, traditional religions
still have a powerful hold on the minds of most people. Almost
every village or community has a favorite deity—there are 330
million gods in the Hindu pantheon alone. In addition, various
animistic cults, which involve the worship of powerful spirits,
are openly practiced alongside many of these religions.
Into these regions, God is calling national missionaries to
take the Good News to millions who have never before heard
it. Their ministries are reminiscent of the Apostle Paul’s, who
wrote, “I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where
Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foun-
dation, but as it is written: ‘To whom He was not announced,
they shall see; And those who have not heard shall understand’ ”
(Romans 15:20–21).

The Spirit of the Antichrist

But the enemies of the cross include more than just tradi-
tional religionists. A new force, even more powerful, is now
sweeping across Asia. It is what the Bible calls the spirit of the
Antichrist—the new religion of secular materialism. Often
manifested as some form of communism, it has taken control
of governments in a number of countries, including Myanmar
(Burma), Cambodia, China, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam.
Even in those Asian nations with democracies like India and

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Japan, it has gained tremendous political influence in various

noncommunist forms.
Modern Asia, in the great cities and capitals where secular
humanism reigns supreme, is controlled by many of the same
drives and desires that have dominated the West for the past
100 years. The temples of this new religion are atomic reactors,
oil refineries, hospitals and shopping malls. The priests are most
often the technicians, scientists and military generals who are
impatiently striving to rebuild the nations of Asia in the image
of the industrial West. The shift of political power in most
of Asia has gone toward these men and women who promise
health, peace and prosperity without a supernatural god—for
man himself is their god.
In one sense, secular humanism and materialism are correct
in diagnosing traditional religion as a major source of oppres-
sion and poverty throughout Asia. But humanism, insofar as it
offers a worldly and scientific method to solve the problems of
mankind without God, makes itself the mortal enemy of all the-
istic religion. As a result of this growing scientific materialism,
strong secularist movements exist in every Asian nation. They
are united in seeking to eliminate the influence of all religion—
including Christianity—from society.

The Anti-Christian Pressure of the World—

The Culture
If traditional religions represent spiritual opposition to
Christianity, then secular humanism is an attack of the flesh.
That leaves only one enemy to discuss, the anti-Christian pres-
sure of the world. This final barrier to Christ, and still probably
the strongest of all, is the culture itself.

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When Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from years of

living in England and South Africa, he quickly realized the
“Quit India” movement was failing because its national leader-
ship was not willing to give up European ways. So even though
he was Indian, he had to renounce his Western dress and cus-
toms; otherwise, he would not have been able to lead his people
out from under the British yoke. He spent the rest of his life
learning how to become an Indian again—in dress, food, culture
and lifestyle. Eventually he gained acceptance by the common
people of India. The rest is history. He became the father of my
nation, the George Washington of modern India.
The same principle holds true of mission efforts. When
people in the West are approached by yellow-robed Krishna
worshipers—with their shaved heads and prayer beads—they
reject the foreign religion immediately. In the same way, peo-
ple from Eastern cultures reject Christianity when it comes in
Western forms.
Have Asians rejected Christ? Not really. In most cases they
have rejected only the trappings of Western culture that have
fastened themselves onto the Gospel. This is what the Apostle
Paul was referring to when he said he was willing to become “all
things to all men” in order that he might win some.
Sadhu Sundar Singh, a pioneer national missionary evan-
gelist, used to tell a story that illustrates the importance of
presenting the Gospel in culturally acceptable terms.
A high-caste Hindu, he said, had fainted one day from
the summer heat while sitting on a train in a railway station. A
train employee ran to a water faucet, filled a cup with water and
brought it to the man in an attempt to revive him. But in spite of
his condition, the man refused. He would rather die than accept
water in the cup of someone from another caste.

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Then someone else noticed that the high-caste passenger

had left his own cup on the seat beside him. So he grabbed it,
filled it with water and returned to offer it to the panting heat
victim who immediately accepted the water with gratitude.
Then Sundar Singh would say to his hearers, “This is what
I have been trying to say to missionaries from abroad. You have
been offering the water of life to the people of India in a foreign
cup, and we have been slow to receive it. If you will offer it in
our own cup—in an indigenous form—then we are much more
likely to accept it.”
When Asians share Christ with other Asians in a culturally
acceptable way, the results are startling. One national worker we
support in South Asia, Jager, has reached 60 villages with the
Good News and established 30 churches in a difficult area. He
has led hundreds to find the joy of knowing Christ. On one trip,
I went out of my way to visit Jager and his wife. I had to see for
myself what kind of program he was using.
Imagine my surprise when I found Jager was not using any
special technology at all—unless you want to call the motor
scooter and tracts that we supplied “technology.” He was living
just like the people. He had only a one-room house made of
mud. The kitchen was outside, also made of mud—the same
stuff with which everything else is constructed in that region. To
cook the food, his wife squatted in front of an open fire just like
the neighboring women. What was so remarkable about this
brother was that everything about him and his wife was so truly
native. There was absolutely nothing foreign.
I asked Jager what kept him going in the midst of such in-
credible challenge and suffering. He replied, “Waiting upon the
Lord.” I discovered he spent two to three hours daily in prayer,
reading and meditating on the Bible. This is what it takes to win
people for Christ.

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 Enemies of the Cross

Jager was led to Christ by another national missionary, who

explained the living God to Jager. He told of a God who hates
sin and became a man to die for sinners and set them free. This
was the first time the Gospel was ever shared in his village, and
Jager followed the man around for several days.
Finally, he received Jesus as his Lord and was disowned
by his family. Overjoyed and surprised by his newfound life,
he went about distributing Christian literature from village to
village, telling about Jesus. In the end, he sold his two shops.
With the money he earned, he conducted evangelistic meetings
in local villages.
This is a man of the culture, bringing Christ to his own
people in culturally acceptable ways. The support Asians need
from the West, if we are to complete the work Christ has left us,
must go to recruit, equip and send out more national workers
like him.
The challenge of Asia cries out to us. The enemies of the cross
abound, but none of them can stand against the power of Jesus’
love. The problems we face are indeed great, but they can be over-
come through the dedicated ministry of national missionaries.

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 14
A Global Vision

S hould all foreign missionaries pull out of Asia forever? Of

course not. God still sovereignly calls Western missionar-
ies to do unique and special tasks in Asia, as He does in other
locations. But we must understand that when it comes to na-
tions in which Western missionaries are no longer able to serve
as past eras allowed, the priority must then be to support the
efforts of indigenous missionaries through financial aid and in-
tercessory prayer.
As gently as I can, I have to say that anti-Western prejudice
is running high in most of Asia. In fact, this is a section I write
with the greatest fear and trembling—but these truths must be
said if we are to accomplish the will of God in the Asian mission
fields today.
“There are times in history,” writes Dennis E. Clark in The
Third World and Mission, “when however gifted a person may
be, he can no longer effectively proclaim the Gospel to those of
another culture. A German could not have done so in Britain in
1941 nor could an Indian in Pakistan during the war of 1967,
and it will be extremely difficult for Americans to do so in the
Third World of the 1980s and 1990s.”1 This is much more
true—and the situation is even worse—today.
 Revolution in World Missions

I am not calling for an end to denominational mission

programs or the closing down of the many hundreds of Western-
style missions, but I am asking us to reconsider the missionary
policies and practices that have guided us for the past 200 years.
As a general rule, for the following reasons, I believe it is wiser
to support national missionaries in their own lands than to send
Western missionaries.
One, it is wise stewardship. In most cases, missionaries in
South Asia are able to provide for their family and ministry
expenses on around US$10 a day. Outside of the ministry ex-
penses included, this is generally the same per capita income of
the community to whom they are ministering.
Western missionaries, however, are faced with many addi-
tional costs. Before even reaching the mission field, they incur
the costs of their cross-cultural and linguistic training, which
runs into many thousands of dollars. Then there is the cost to
transport the family and their possessions overseas. For the cost
of a single airplane ticket from New York to Kathmandu, a na-
tional missionary already on the field can support his family and
minister for months.
Once at their destination, Western missionaries will
typically require some sort of Western-style housing and
English-language schools for their children. Western mis-
sionaries frequently face pressure to maintain a semblance of
Western-style living, especially if their children attend private
schools alongside the sons and daughters of international busi-
nessmen and diplomats. Hence, the cost of food, clothing and
private transportation can be high. National missionaries, on
the other hand, live in villages on the same level as others in the
community whom they are seeking to reach for Christ.
Western missionaries also are faced with visa and other
legal fees, insurance, extra medical care, import duties and

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 A Global Vision

requirements to pay taxes in their home countries. The host

government may require foreign missionaries to meet special
tax or reporting requirements, usually with payments required.
Finally, there are the costs of furlough travel, communications
with donors and imported entertainment such as English-
language books and DVDs, none of which is part of the national
missionary’s lifestyle.
The result of all this is that Western missionaries typically
need several times more money for their support than does a
national missionary.
During a consultation on world evangelism in the 1990s,
Western missionary leaders called for 200,000 new missionar-
ies by the year 2000 just to keep pace with their estimates of
population growth. The cost of even that modest missionary
force would have run into multiplied billions of dollars annu-
ally. And populations continue to grow. Unless we take these
facts into account, we will lose the opportunity of our age to
reach untold millions with the Gospel. Today it is outrageously
extravagant to send Western missionaries overseas unless there
are compelling reasons to do so.
Two, in many places the presence of Western missionaries per-
petuates the myth that Christianity is the religion of the West. Bob
Granholm, former executive director of Frontiers in Canada,
states, “While the current internationalization of the missionary
task force is a very encouraging development, it is often wiser to
not have a Western face on the efforts to extend the Kingdom.”
Roland Allen says it better than I in his classic book, The
Spontaneous Expansion of the Church:

Even if the supply of men and funds from Western sources

was unlimited and we could cover the whole globe with
an army of millions of foreign missionaries and establish

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stations thickly all over the world, the method would speed-
ily reveal its weakness, as it is already beginning to reveal it.
The mere fact that Christianity was propagated by such
an army, established in foreign stations all over the world,
would inevitably alienate the native populations, who
would see in it the growth of the denomination of a for-
eign people. They would see themselves robbed of their
religious independence, and would more and more fear
the loss of their social independence.
Foreigners can never successfully direct the propagation
of any faith throughout a whole country. If the faith does
not become naturalized and expand among the people by
its own vital power, it exercises an alarming and hateful in-
fluence, and men fear and shun it as something alien. It is
then obvious that no sound missionary policy can be based
upon multiplication of missionaries and mission stations.
A thousand would not suffice; a dozen might be too many.2

Jesus set the example for indigenous missionary work. The

Lord became one of us in order to win us to the love of God. He
knew He could not be an alien from outer space so He became
incarnated into our bodies.
“As the Father has sent Me,” He said, “I also send you” ( John
20:21). For any missionary to be successful, he, like Jesus, must
identify with the people he plans to reach. Because Westerners
usually cannot do this, they are ineffective. We cannot maintain
a Western lifestyle or outlook and work among the poor of Asia.
A friend of mine who heads a missionary organization sim-
ilar to ours recently told me the story of a conversation he had
with some African church leaders.
“We want to evangelize our people,” they said, “but we can’t
do it so long as the white missionaries remain. Our people
won’t listen to us. The communists and the Muslims tell them

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 A Global Vision

all white missionaries are spies sent out by their governments

as agents for the capitalistic imperialists. We know it isn’t true,
but newspaper reports tell of how some missionaries are getting
funds from the CIA. We love the American missionaries in the
Lord. We wish they could stay, but the only hope for us to evan-
gelize our own country is for all white missionaries to leave.”
There was a time when Western missionaries needed to go
into these countries in which the Gospel was not preached. But
now a new era has begun, and it is important that we officially
acknowledge this. God has raised up indigenous leaders who are
more capable than outsiders to finish the job.
This does not mean we do not appreciate the legacy left to us
from Western missionaries. We praise God for the tremendous
contribution Western missionaries made in many Two-Thirds
World countries where Christ had never before been preached.
Through their faithfulness, many were won to Jesus, churches
were started and the Scriptures were translated. Their disciples
are today’s national missionaries.
Three, Western missionaries, and the money they bring, com-
promise the natural growth and independence of the national
Church. I once met with a missionary executive of one of the
major U.S. denominations. He is a loving man whom I deeply
respect as a brother in Christ. He heads the colonial-style exten-
sion of his denomination into Asia, and we talked about mutual
friends and the exciting growth that is occurring in the national
churches of India. We shared much in the Lord. I quickly found
he had as much respect as I did for the Indian brothers God is
choosing to use in India today. Yet he would not support these
men who are so obviously anointed by God.
“Our policy,” he admitted without shame, “is to use the
nationals only to expand churches with our denominational
distinctives.”

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The words rolled around in my mind,“use the nationals.” This

is what colonialism was all about, and it is still what the neocolo-
nialism of most Western missions is all about. With their money
and technology, many organizations are simply buying people to
perpetuate their foreign denominations, ways and beliefs.
In Thailand, a group of indigenous missionaries was “bought
away” by a powerful Western parachurch organization. Once ef-
fectively winning their own people to Christ and planting churches
in the Thai way, their leaders were given scholarships to train in
the United States. The foreign organization provided them with
expense accounts, vehicles and posh offices in Bangkok.
What price did these indigenous missionary leaders pay?
They must use foreign literature, films and the standard method
of this highly technical American organization. No consider-
ation is being made of how effective these tools and methods
will be in building the Thai Church. They will be used whether
they are effective or not because they are written into the train-
ing manuals and handbooks of this organization.
After all, the reasoning of this group goes, these programs
worked in London and Los Angeles—they must work in
Thailand as well!
This kind of thinking is the worst neocolonialism. To use
God-given money to hire people to perpetuate our ways and
theories is a modern method of old-fashioned imperialism. No
method could be more unbiblical.
The sad fact is this: God was already doing a wonderful
work in Thailand by His Holy Spirit in a culturally acceptable
way. Why didn’t this Western group have the humility to bow
before the Holy Spirit and say, “Have Thine own way, Lord”?
Often we become so preoccupied with expanding our own
organizations that we do not comprehend the great sweep of the

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 A Global Vision

Holy Spirit of God as He has moved upon the peoples of the

world. Intent upon building “our” churches, we have failed to see
how Christ is building “His” Church in every nation. We must
stop looking at the lost world through the eyes of our particular
organization.
Four, Western missionaries cannot easily go to the countries
where most so-called “hidden people” live. More than 2 billion of
these people exist in our world today. Millions upon millions
have never heard the Gospel. We hear many cries that we should
go to them, but who will go?
Of the more than 300,000 North American and European
missionaries now actively commissioned, fewer than 10,000 are
working among totally unreached peoples.3 The vast majority
are working among the existing churches or where the Gospel
already is preached.
The reason, of course, is that the hidden people almost all
live in countries closed or severely restricted to American and
European missionaries. Fortunately, the national missionary can
still go to the nearest hidden people group.
One particular people group, for example, lives in a very re-
mote part of the Himalayan Mountains, a six-day journey by
foot from the nearest village. Anyone wanting to be “the beautiful
feet upon the mountains, bringing the Good News” (see Isaiah
52:7) to these people would face a long, hard hike! Moreover,
the group is highly protective of their culture and quite closed to
outsiders of any kind. It took a huge sacrificial effort on the part
of two national missionaries to show these precious people how
much Christ loved them.
This is how it happened. The two young men had a desire to
share Jesus with this remote community, but when they reached
the remote area, the people wouldn’t let them in. The missionaries

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went to the village leader and asked what they needed to do in

order to be allowed to live among his people. The leader sug-
gested they become porters and serve the community. So they
did. They would trek six days down the treacherous mountain
to the nearest village. There they would gather supplies and then
laboriously journey back up the mountain with the supplies tied
on their backs. The round-trip took 15 days, and they did this
once a month. For the other 15 days per month, they were al-
lowed to live with the people, and soon the hearts of the villagers
warmed to these dedicated servants and their message of hope.
As a result of the faithfulness of these two brothers, a worship-
ing community was started among these people.
Migrant workers in far-off lands—such as the 700,000
Nepalis employed in Malaysia—must not be forgotten either.
Certainly a Nepali can go to Malaysia with the Gospel more eas-
ily than someone from the West. And who better to take Christ’s
love to these homesick people than a fellow countryman? A few
years ago, I learned of some young Nepali missionaries who did
this very thing. They obeyed Christ’s call to leave their moun-
tainous homeland for the flatlands of Malaysia. There they will
be able to share Christ, not only among the Nepali workers, but
to a diverse multinational migrant population.
Unlike the Western missionary, the national missionary can
reach the hidden peoples and can preach, teach and evangelize
without being blocked by most of the barriers that confront
Westerners. As a native of the country or region, he knows the
cultural taboos instinctively. He can move around freely and is
accepted in good times and bad as one who belongs.
Right now, national workers are seeing thousands turn to
Christ in revival movements on every continent. Hundreds of
new congregations are being formed every week by national
missionaries in the Two-Thirds World!

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 15
“I Became One Among Them”

W hen we think about the awesome challenge of Asia, it

is not too much to ask for a new outpouring of workers
to reach these nations for Christ. Tens of thousands of national
workers are being raised up by the Lord in all of these Two-
Thirds World nations right now. They are Asians, many of
whom already live in the nation they must reach or in nearby
cultures just a few hundred miles from the villages to which they
will be sent by the Lord.
The situation in world missions is depressing only when
you think of it in terms of 19th-century Western colonialism.
Think about it. During the colonial rule, it was impossible for
Western missionaries to even imagine reaching all the thou-
sands of distinct cultural groups in the colonies. They focused
their attention on the major cultural groups in easy-to-reach
centers of trade and government. Even the few churches that
were established among the dominant cultural groups appeared
weak. They were directly controlled by foreigners, and not sur-
prisingly, the masses shunned these strange centers of alien
religion, much as most Westerners avoid “Krishna missions” or
“Islamic missions” in the West today.
 Revolution in World Missions

For Western missionaries, the possibility of going beyond the

major cultural groups to the masses of people in rural areas, eth-
nic subcultures and minorities—reaching out to the unfinished
task—would have been generations away with these methods. If
the actual task of world evangelization depended on the “sending
of the white missionary,” obeying the Great Commission truly
would become more impossible every day. The withdrawal of
foreign missionaries freed the Gospel from the Western tradi-
tions that they had unwittingly added to it, and churches of Asia
have now emerged on fire. The indigenous missionary movement
is growing, ready today to complete the task.
But, one may ask, are national workers prepared to carry
on cross-cultural ministry? The answer is yes, and with great ef-
fectiveness! Most of the national missionaries we support are
involved in some form of cross-cultural missions. They may
have to learn a new language, adopt different dress or adjust to
dietary customs. However, because the cultures are frequently
neighbors or share a similar heritage, the transition is much eas-
ier than it would be for someone coming from the West. Almost
anyone in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Thailand and
Sri Lanka can be trained relatively quickly to cross-minister in a
neighboring culture.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that it is
always easy and pain-free for national missionaries to serve
cross-culturally. There is often a very high price the missionary
must pay, as in the case of Dayal.
After attending Bible college, Dayal had prayed about where
the Lord was calling him to serve. When his leader suggested
this one particular region, he was dismayed, but he agreed to
pray about it. Soon, he had confirmation that this was God’s
choice for him.

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He did not have to cross any national borders to reach his

new mission field, but it felt to him like the other side of the world.
On the day of his arrival, he was invited to dinner. There
he got his first dose of culture shock. In a pot before him sat a
boiled goat head, its eyeballs staring out at him from its boiled
skull. Beyond the pot of goat, Dayal’s hosts sat, watching him.
Dayal managed to swallow some bites of goat that night, to
the satisfaction of his hosts. But the food was just the beginning
of the loss he would experience—death to all that was familiar
and comfortable.
His new home was beautiful, surrounded by forested hills
and rice paddies. But behind the beauty were deep needs rooted
in spiritual darkness. The people were animists who worshiped
the sun and moon and feared the violent gods of the rivers and
storms. Among the population, immorality, alcoholism and
family violence were rampant.
The first two months were an intense struggle. He lost
weight. He was homesick and lonely. Twice he packed his bags.
Finally, Dayal laid his heart open before the Lord.
“This is too difficult,” he prayed. “I want to go back, because
things are not good here.” The response he received from the
Lord marked a turning point.
“If everything were good here,” Dayal sensed God speak-
ing, “why would you need to come here? It is because things are
not good—because things are not convenient—that I called you
here. I am giving you 2 million people.”
Dayal’s own life changed that day. He began to view the
challenges with a perspective that was bigger than his own. And
as he persevered in his ministry work, things began to happen.
Among the fruit of Dayal’s ministry are hundreds of young
disciples, both men and women, many of whom have started
congregations in other areas.

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He also launched the first-ever Gospel radio broadcast in

the local language. The radio signal raced through the region,
and just a month later, Dayal received an earnest letter from a
village 45 kilometers away.
“For the first time in our lives, we heard a radio broadcast in
our own language,” the letter read. “We are 13 people here, ready
to know Jesus more. We don’t know what to do. Something is
happening in our hearts; please come and help us.”
Dayal and another believer traveled by bicycle and reached
the village in the afternoon.
The group of 13 became the first congregation started
through Dayal’s ministry. Soon, four other congregations were
established, along with two “radio churches” made up of listen-
ers who spread the word about the broadcast to their relatives
and neighbors.
“I have become one among them,” Dayal explains. “They
don’t see me as an outsider anymore because I visit with them, I
eat with them, I dance with them, I pray with them. They have
even given me a new last name.”
Although Dayal’s mission field lay hidden within his own
country, other missionaries are called to cross national boundar-
ies to bring Christ to new areas. For example, a handful of Bible
college graduates from Myanmar responded to the Lord’s call to
“go” to a neighboring country that until recently was completely
closed to the Gospel. Their leader instructed them to assimilate
into the culture and learn how to communicate the Gospel ef-
fectively in their new homeland. If any of them wanted to marry,
he was to marry a godly local woman and raise his family there.
In other words, this was not a short-term mission trip; these
young men were sent off with “one-way tickets.”
A couple of years later, one of these missionaries sent a re-
quest for what sounded like a huge amount of money to construct

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a church building there in that country. Naturally, his leader in-

quired, “Why so much money? What sort of building are you
planning to construct?” The missionary answered back, “Just a
normal building, except that it needs to be large enough to hold
700 worshipers.” In just two years, this one missionary had al-
ready established a congregation of more than 500 believers, and
the Lord was adding to their numbers daily. In building this large
church, he was merely planning ahead for the expected growth.
In talking about hidden, hard-to-reach people groups, I
have yet to mention the largest and most inaccessible group of
all. Do you know who they are?
The correct answer is, women.
Think about it. In many Eastern and Middle-Eastern cul-
tures, women live very secluded lives. They are far less likely
than men to be able to read and write. They often have little
or no freedom to take part in public life. They are not generally
allowed to even talk to men outside their immediate family.
These restrictions make it next to impossible for a male mis-
sionary to share about Christ with a woman. How then will she hear?
There is only one solution. We must help train and send
women missionaries. Unlike men, women have easy access to
other women in these cultures.
Gospel for Asia today supports thousands of women mis-
sionaries who are taking the Gospel where men can’t. They visit
homes during the day, spending time with the women in the
household, building friendships, praying for their needs and
sharing the Gospel in sensitive ways. Everywhere they go, doors
and hearts open.
These women are rigorously prepared for their unique role
in the ministry. In addition to receiving biblical training, they also
learn how to teach literacy, basic health and child care and other
practical subjects to help needy women on their mission fields.

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Women missionary teams are going to some very difficult

places. One such place is a group of small islands off the coast of
India. The only way to make a living on these remote, primitive
islands is by fishing, but unfortunately over the years, tigers have
killed off large numbers of men as they go out on the waters for
a catch. As a result, the islands are filled with grieving widows,
many with small children, struggling to survive, surrounded by
wild beasts.
Several women’s teams have chosen to live on these islands
so that they can minister to the widows. These sisters go house
to house, visiting the shut-ins, praying for the sick and sharing
the Word of God. They also have started literacy, basic health
care and vocational training classes to help the widows provide
for themselves and take care of their children. The love of Christ
being poured out through these women missionaries is attract-
ing many to their Savior.
Far from these swampy tropical islands, another woman
missionary serves the Lord high up in the Himalayas. Her
country is completely off-limits to outside Christian workers,
yet we are able to support national workers there, including
Sister Tashi.
One particular village has a reputation for its violent opposi-
tion to Christianity. At various times, different male missionaries
attempted to visit the village, but they experienced nothing but
threats and abuse from the townspeople. Fully aware of the risk,
Tashi said yes when the Lord called her to go to this village and
show them His love.
She approached the village with an offer to start a free tu-
toring center for their children. Because most of the people were
poor, eking out a living off the land, they were excited about
her offer and said they would discuss it among themselves and
inform her of their decision.

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Within a week, Tashi visited the village again, talked to more

families, and came to the conclusion that, whatever the cost, she
would start a tutoring center there. By God’s grace, the villagers
agreed, and as a result, she was able to move into the village.
In the beginning, just six children came for tutoring, but
every month the number increased. Sister Tashi gave the chil-
dren baths, taught them action songs, told them short stories
from the Bible and helped them learn basic things like the al-
phabet and numbers, etc. She also taught them how to pray.
Every two months, she would hold a meeting for the parents to
counsel them on family matters and share the Good News.
After a while, a few of the villagers who did not have children
started to oppose her work, knowing that she was a Christian.
But the majority stood by Tashi’s side, saying, “If you want Sister
Tashi to leave our village just because she is a Christian, then
first find another sincere, caring, loving and committed woman
like her from some other faith who will take care of our children
like she is doing.”
After much heated debate, the opposing individuals were
overruled. From then on, the ministry flourished. Tashi started
a Sunday school, then a weekly prayer meeting, then a Bible
study. As more people started showing interest in Jesus, another
missionary joined her in the work. There is now a worshiping
community in this place, and the entire village is being trans-
formed by Christ’s love.
In almost every country of Asia, men and women mis-
sionaries are effectively winning their people to Christ using
culturally acceptable methods and styles. Although persecution
against Christians is on the rise in many of these nations, still
the work goes on. The commission of the Church will not cease
until Jesus returns.

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We are all called to be involved by sharing prayerfully and

financially in the great work that lies ahead. As we do this,
perhaps we will see together the fulfillment of that awesome
prophecy in Revelation 7:9–10:

And behold, a great multitude which no one could num-

ber, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing
before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out
with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God
who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

This prediction is about to come true. Now, for the first

time in history, we can see the final thrust taking place as God’s
people everywhere unite to make it possible.
What should intrigue us is the way the indigenous mis-
sionary movement is flourishing without the help and genius of
our Western planning. The Holy Spirit, when we give Him the
freedom to work, prompts spontaneous growth and expansion.
Until we recognize the indigenous missionary movement as the
plan of God for this period in history, and until we are willing
to become servants to what He is doing, we are in danger of
frustrating the will of God.

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The Church’s Primary Task

T hese are the wonderful, final days of Christian history.

Now is the time for the whole family of God to unite and
share with one another as the New Testament Church did, the
richer churches giving to the poorer.
As I sit on platforms and stand in pulpits, both in the East
and in the West, I am speaking on behalf of the national breth-
ren. God has called me to be the servant of the needy brothers
who cannot speak up for themselves.
As I wait to speak, I look out over the congregation, and
I often pray for some of the workers by name. Usually I pray
something like this: “Lord Jesus, I am about to stand here on
behalf of Thomas John and P.T. Steven tonight. May I represent
them faithfully. Help us meet their needs through this meeting.”
Of course, the names of the national workers change each
time. But I believe the will of God will not be accomplished in
our generation unless this audience and many others like it re-
spond to the cry of the lost. Each of us must follow the Lord in
the place to which He has called us—the national evangelist in
his land and the sponsors in their lands. Some obey by going;
others obey by supporting; some by praying. Even if you cannot
 Revolution in World Missions

go to Asia, you can fulfill the Great Commission by helping

send national workers to the pioneer fields.
This and many other similar truths about missions are no
longer understood by the people of God. Preaching and teach-
ing about missions have been lost in most of our churches. The
sad result is seen everywhere. Most believers no longer can de-
fine what a missionary is, what he or she does or what the work
of the Church is as it relates to the Great Commission.
A declining interest in missions is the sure sign that a
church and people have left their first love. Nothing is more in-
dicative of the moral decline than Christians who have lost the
passion of Christ for a lost and dying world. Many churches
have slipped so far from biblical teaching that Christians cannot
explain why the Lord left us here on earth.
All of us are called for a purpose. Some years ago when I
was in North India, a little boy about eight years old watched
me as I prepared for my morning meditations. I began to talk to
him about Jesus and asked him several questions.
“What are you doing?” I asked the lad.
“I go to school,” was the reply.
“Why do you go to school?”
“To study,” he said.
“Why do you study?”
“To get smart.”
“Why do you want to get smart?”
“So I can get a good job.”
“Why do you want to get a good job?”
“So I can make lots of money.”
“Why do you want to make lots of money?”
“So I can buy food.”
“Why do you want to buy food?”

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“So I can eat.”

“Why do you want to eat?”
“To live.”
“Why do you live?”
At that point, the little boy thought for a minute, scratched
his head, looked me in the face and said, “Sir, why do I live?”
He paused a moment in mid-thought, then gave his own sad
answer, “To die!”
The question is the same for all of us: Why do we live?
What is the basic purpose of your living in this world, as
you claim to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it to ac-
cumulate wealth? Fame? Popularity? To fulfill the desires of the
flesh and of the mind? To somehow survive and, in the end, to
die and hopefully go to heaven?
No. The purpose of your life as a believer must be to obey
Jesus when He said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel. . . . ” That is what Paul did when he laid down his arms
and said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”
Jesus called two of His first disciples, Simon and Andrew,
with these words, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fish-
ers of men” (Mark 1:17). Do you remember what these two
brothers were doing when Jesus spoke these words to them?
They were fishing. These were professional fishermen who ex-
hausted themselves daily in hopes of a big catch, because their
livelihood depended on it.
Knowing what fish meant to these men, Jesus used a fish-
ing metaphor to explain God’s higher purpose for their lives. “As
valuable as these fish may be to you,” Jesus essentially was saying,
“the souls of men are infinitely more valuable to Me.”
Jesus calls each of us in the same way, although the meta-
phor of our heart may be different: “As valuable as (fill in the

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blank) may be to you, the souls of men are infinitely more valu-
able to Me. Follow Me.”
If all of your concern is about your own life, your job, your
clothes, your children’s good clothes, healthy bodies, a good
education, a good job and marriage, then your concerns are no
different from a pagan.
When Jesus was here on earth, His goal was to do noth-
ing but the will of His Father. Our commitment must be the
same. Jesus no longer is walking on earth, but we are. We are
His body; He is our head. That means our lips are the lips of
Jesus. Our hands are His hands; our eyes, His eyes; our hope,
His hope. My wife and children belong to Jesus. My money, my
talent, my education—all belong to Jesus.
So what is His will? What are we to do in this world with
all of these gifts He has given us?
“As the Father has sent Me, I also send you,” are His in-
structions. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have
commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end
of the age” ( John 20:21; Matthew 28:19–20).
Every Christian should know the answers to the following
three basic questions about missions in order to fulfill the call of
our Lord to reach the lost world for His name.
One, what is the primary task of the Church? Each of the four
Gospels gives us a mandate from our Lord Jesus, the mission
statement of the Church, known as the Great Commission.
See Matthew 28:18–20, Mark 16:15–16, Luke 24:47 and
John 20:21.
The Great Commission reveals the reason God has left us
here in this world, the main activity of the Church until Jesus

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returns as the King of kings to gather us to Himself. He desires

us to go everywhere proclaiming the love of God to a lost world.
This task involves more than handing out leaflets, holding street
meetings or showing compassionate love to the sick and hungry,
although these may be involved. But the Lord wants us to con-
tinue as His agents to redeem and transform the lives of people.
Disciple-making, as Jesus defined it, involves the long-term pro-
cess of establishing local congregations. These congregations
then become agents for positive change in their communities.
Note too that the references to the Great Commission are
accompanied by promises of divine power. This is obviously a
task for a special people who are living intimately enough with
God to discern and exercise His authority.
Two, who is a missionary? A missionary is anyone sent by the
Lord to establish a new Christian witness where such a witness is
yet unknown. Traditionally-defined missionary activity usually
involves leaving our own immediate culture for another, taking
the Gospel to people who differ in at least one aspect—such as
language, nationality, race or tribe—from our own ethnic group.
For some reason, many Westerners have come to believe
that a missionary is only someone from the West who goes to
Asia, Africa or some other foreign land. Not so. When a former
upper-caste person crosses the subtle caste lines of India and
works among low-caste people, he is a missionary just as much
as a person who goes from Detroit to Dhaka.
Christians in the West must abandon the totally unscrip-
tural idea that they should support only white missionaries
from their own country. Today it is essential that we support
missionaries going from India to Mongolia, from one island of
the Philippines to another or from Korea to China.
Unless we abandon the racism implied in our unwritten
definition of a missionary, we will never see the world reached

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for Christ. Although governments may close the borders of

their countries to Western missionaries, they cannot close them
to their own people. The Lord is raising up national missionar-
ies right now, but they cannot do it alone. In the words of Paul
the Apostle, “How shall they hear without a preacher? And how
shall they preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14–15 em-
phasis mine).
Three, where is the mission field? One of the biggest mistakes
we make is to define mission fields in terms of nation states.
These are only political boundaries established along arbitrary
lines through wars or by natural boundaries such as mountain
ranges and rivers.
A more biblical definition conforms to linguistic and tribal
groupings. Thus, a mission field is defined as any cultural group
that does not have an established group of disciples. The Arabs
of New York City, for example, or the people of the Hopi Indian
tribe in Dallas are unreached people groups in the United States.
More than 10,000 such hidden people groups worldwide repre-
sent the real pioneer mission fields of our time.
They will be reached only if someone from outside their
culture is willing to sacrifice his or her own comfortable com-
munity to reach them with the Gospel of Christ. And to go and
do so, that person needs believers at home who will stand be-
hind him with prayers and finances. The indigenous missionary
movement in Asia—because it is close at hand to most of the
world’s unreached peoples—can most easily send the workers.
But they cannot always raise the needed support among their
destitute populations. This is where Christians elsewhere can
come forward, sharing their abundance with God’s servants in
reaching the unreached.

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Missionary statesman George Verwer believes most

Christians are still only “playing soldier.” Verwer writes,

Some missionary magazines and books leave one with the

impression that worldwide evangelization is only a matter
of time. More careful research will show that in densely
populated areas the work of evangelism is going backward
rather than forward.
In view of this, our tactics are simply crazy. Perhaps
80 percent of our efforts for Christ—weak as they often
are—still are aimed at only 20 percent of the world’s
population. Literally hundreds of millions of dollars are
poured into every kind of Christian project at home, es-
pecially buildings, while only a thin trickle goes out to the
regions beyond. Half-hearted saints believe by giving just
a few hundred dollars they have done their share. We all
have measured ourselves so long by the man next to us
we barely can see the standard set by men like Paul or by
Jesus Himself.
During the Second World War, the British showed
themselves capable of astonishing sacrifices (as did many
other nations). They lived on meager, poor rations. They
cut down their railings and sent them for weapons man-
ufacture. Yet today, in what is more truly a (spiritual)
World War, Christians live as peacetime soldiers. Look at
Paul’s injunctions to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:3–4: “Thou
therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the
affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath cho-
sen him to be a soldier.” We seem to have a strange idea of
Christian service. We will buy books, travel miles to hear
a speaker on blessings, pay large sums to listen to a group
singing the latest Christian songs—but we forget that we
are soldiers.1

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You may never be called personally to reach the hidden peo-

ples of Asia, but through soldier-like suffering at home, you can
make it possible for millions to hear overseas.
Today I am calling on Christians to give up their stale
Christianity, use the weapons of spiritual warfare and advance.
We must stop skipping over the verses that read, “If anyone de-
sires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow Me,” and “So likewise, whoever of you does not
forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Matthew 16:24;
Luke 14:33).
Were these verses written only for the national missionaries
who are on the front lines being stoned and beaten and going
hungry for their faith? Or were they written only for certain
believers comfortably going through the motions of church,
teaching conferences and concerts?
Of course not. These verses apply equally to Christians in
Bristol, Boston and Bombay.
Day after day I continue with this one message: Godly na-
tional missionaries are waiting to go to the next village with the
Gospel, but they need your prayer and financial support. We are
facing a new day in missions, but it requires the cooperation of
Christians in both the East and West.

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 17
The Vision of Asia’s Need

M any Christians concerned about missions have grown

up hearing the classic approach: “Send our own peo-
ple.” They have never been asked to consider alternatives better
suited to changed geopolitical conditions. It is hard for some to
hear me reinterpret the stories told by Western missionaries of
hardship and fruitless ministry as indicators of outdated and
inappropriate methods.
But the biggest hurdle for most Westerners is the idea that
someone from somewhere else can do it better. So naturally they
have questions about our methods and safeguards for financial
accountability.
On one of my trips, I was invited to meet with the mission
committee of a church that supported more than 75 Western
missionaries. After I shared our vision for supporting national
missionaries, the committee chairman said, “We have been
asked to support national missionaries before, but we haven’t
found a satisfactory way to hold these nationals accountable
for either the money we send or the work they do.” I sensed he
spoke for the entire committee.
I could hardly wait to respond. This issue of accountabil-
ity is the objection most often raised about supporting national
 Revolution in World Missions

missionaries to the Two-Thirds World, and I can understand

why. Indeed, I agree it is extremely important that there be
adequate accountability in every area of ministry. Good stew-
ardship demands it.
So I detailed how we handle the subject.
“In order to make people accountable, we need some norm
by which to measure their performance,” I said.“But what criteria
should we use? Would the yearly independent audit missionar-
ies submit be adequate to see that they handled money wisely?”
I raised other questions. “What about the churches they
build or the projects they have undertaken? Should they be
judged according to the patterns and goals that other mission
headquarters or denominations prescribe? What about the
souls they’ve won and the disciples they’ve made? Does any de-
nomination have criteria to evaluate those? How about criteria
to evaluate their lifestyle on the field or the fruit they produce?
Which of these categories should be used to measure national
missionary accountability?”
Those who had been leaning back in their chairs were now
leaning forward. I had laid a foundation for a thought I was sure
they hadn’t considered before. I continued:
“Do you require the Western missionaries you send over-
seas to be accountable to you? What criteria have you used in
the past to account for the hundreds of thousands of dollars you
have invested through the missionaries you support now?”
I looked to the chairman for an answer. He stumbled
through a few phrases before admitting they never had thought
of requiring “their” missionaries to be accountable, nor was this
ever a concern to them.
“The problem,” I explained, “is not a matter of accountability
but one of prejudice, mistrust and feelings of superiority. These

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are the issues that hinder love and support for our brothers in
the Two-Thirds World who are working to win their own peo-
ple to Christ.” I followed with this illustration:
“Three months ago, I traveled to one South Asian country
to visit some of the brothers we support. In one country, I met
a Western missionary who had for 14 years been developing
some social programs for his denomination. He had come to
this country hoping he could establish his mission center, and
he had been successful. As I walked into his mission compound,
I passed a man with a gun, sitting at the gate. The compound
was bordered by a number of buildings with at least half-a-
dozen imported cars. The staff members were wearing Western
clothes, and a servant was caring for one of the missionary chil-
dren. The scene reminded me of a king living in a palace with
his court of serfs caring for his every need. I have, in 18 years of
travel, seen this scene repeated many times.
“From conversation with some of the national missionaries,”
I continued, “I learned that this missionary and his colleagues
did live like kings with their servants and cars. They had no
contact with the poor in the surrounding villages. God’s money
is invested in missionaries like these who enjoy a lifestyle they
could not afford back home—a lifestyle of a rich man, separated
by economy and distance from the national missionaries walk-
ing barefoot, poorly dressed even by their own standards and
sometimes going without food. These nationals, in my opinion,
are the real soldiers of the cross. Each one of the brothers we
support in that country has established a fellowship in less than
12 months, and some have started a dozen in three years.
“You are seeking accountability from national missionaries,
accountability that is required for you to give them support?
Remember that Jesus said, ‘For John came neither eating nor

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drinking, and they say, “He has a demon.” The Son of Man
came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a
winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” But wisdom
is justified by her children’ (Matthew 11:18–19).
“Fruit,” I pointed out, “is the real test. ‘By their fruits you will
know them,’ Jesus said (Matthew 7:20). Paul told Timothy to do
two things regarding his life. And these two things, I believe, are
the biblical criteria for accountability. He told Timothy to watch
his own life and to care for the ministry that was committed to
him. The life of the missionary is the medium of his message.”
Much time had passed, yet the room remained quiet. I
sensed I had their permission to continue.
“You asked me to give you a method to hold national
missionaries accountable. Gospel for Asia does have definite
procedures to ensure that we are good stewards of the monies
and opportunities the Lord commits to us. But our require-
ments and methods reflect a different perspective and way of
doing missions.
“First, Gospel for Asia assumes that those who are called
are called to serve and not to be served. The missionaries we
support walk before the millions of poor and destitute in Asia
with their lives as an open testimony and example. They breathe,
sleep and eat conscious of the perishing millions the Lord com-
mands us to love and rescue.”
Then I explained how God is reaching the lost, not through
programs but through individuals whose lives are so committed
to Him that He uses them as vessels to anoint a lost world. So
we give top priority to how the missionaries and their leaders
live. When we started to support one brother, he lived in two
small rooms with concrete floors. He, his wife and four children
slept on a mat on the floor.

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 The Vision of Asia’s Need

That was four years ago. On a recent visit to India, I saw him
living in the same place, sleeping on the same mat even though his
staff had grown from 30 to 349 workers. He handles hundreds
of thousands of dollars to keep this enormous ministry going, yet
his lifestyle has not changed. The brothers he has drawn into the
ministry are willing to die for Christ’s sake because they have seen
their leader sell out to Christ just as the Apostle Paul did.
“In the West, people look to men with power and riches.
In Asia, our people look for men like Gandhi who, to inspire a
following, was willing to give up all to become like the least of
the poor. Accountability begins with the life of the missionary.
“The second criterion we consider,” I explained, “is the
fruitfulness of that life. Our investment of money shows in the
result of lives changed and churches established. What greater
accountability can we require?
“When Western missionaries go into Two-Thirds World
countries, they are able to find nationals to follow them. But
these nationals too often get caught up in denominational
distinctives. Like produces like. Missionary leaders from de-
nominations who fly into these countries and live in five-star
hotels will draw to themselves so-called national leaders who are
like themselves. Then, unfortunately, it is the so-called national
leaders who are accused of wasting or misusing great amounts
of money, while they have often merely followed the example
provided by their Western counterparts.”
Again I addressed the chairman: “Have you studied the lives
and ministries of the Western missionaries you support? I be-
lieve you will find that very few of them are directly involved in
preaching Christ but are doing some sort of social work. If you
apply the biblical principles I have outlined, I doubt you would
support more than a handful of them.”

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 Revolution in World Missions

Then I turned and asked the committee members to assess

themselves.
“If your life is not totally committed to Christ, you are not
qualified to be on this committee. That means you cannot use
your time, your talents or your money the way you want to. If
you do and still think you can help direct God’s people to reach
a lost world, you mock God Himself. You have to evaluate how
you spend every dollar and everything else you do in the light
of eternity. The way each one of you lives is where we begin our
crusade to reach the lost of this world.”
I was gratified to see that the Lord spoke to many of them.
There were tears and a feeling of Christ’s awareness among us.
This had been a painful time for me, and I was glad when it was
over. But I needed to be faithful to God’s call on my life to share
the vision of Asia’s lost souls with the affluent Christian broth-
ers and sisters who have it in their power to help.

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 18
“Lord, Help Us Remain
True to You”

Y es, today God is working in a miraculous way. Thousands

of believers around the world are catching the vision of
God’s third wave in missions and are helping to support the
work of national missionaries. Many pastors, church leaders,
former missionaries and Christian broadcasters in the West are
also unselfishly lending their support. But I believe this is only a
foretaste of what will happen in the days ahead.
In addition to our sponsors and donors, hundreds of volun-
teers are coordinating efforts at the grassroots level. This network
of local workers is making a tremendous contribution in fulfilling
the Great Commission. They represent Gospel for Asia at confer-
ences and distribute literature to friends. They show GFA videos
and share what the Lord is doing through national missionaries
with churches, Sunday schools, home Bible studies, prayer meet-
ings and other Christian gatherings. By recruiting additional
senders, they multiply what they could have given on their own.
One young volunteer was barely out of high school when
she first caught the vision and began to sponsor a missionary.
Then, when she discovered our Christmas Gift Catalog and saw
 Revolution in World Missions

the different ways she could be involved in giving to the work

in Asia, she wrote to tell us how excited she was and how she
couldn’t stop telling people about it.
Next she got her church involved in the cause. “By myself
there was only so much I could do. But through the junior high
and college ministries, we were able to raise enough for a Jesus
Well. Thank you so much for this opportunity.”
I will never forget one dear retired widow whom I met on a
speaking tour. Excited about how much she still could do even
though she wasn’t working, she pledged to help support a mis-
sionary out of her tiny Social Security check.
After six months I received a very sad letter from her. “K.P.,”
she wrote, “I am so privileged to be supporting a missionary. I’m
living all alone now on only a fixed income. I know when I get
to heaven I’m going to meet people who have come to Christ
through my sharing, but I must reduce my support because my
utility bills have gone up. Please pray for me that I will find a
way to give my full support again.”
When my wife, Gisela, showed me the letter, I was deeply
touched. I called the woman and told her she need not feel
guilty—she was doing all she could. I even advised her not to
give if it became a greater hardship.
Two weeks later, another letter came. “Every day,” she wrote,
“I’ve been praying for a way to find some more money for my
missionary. As I prayed, the Lord showed me a way—I’ve dis-
connected my phone.”
I looked at the check. Tears came to my eyes as I thought
how much this woman was sacrificing. She must be lonely, I
thought. What would happen if she got sick? Without a phone,
she would be cut off from the world. “Lord,” I prayed, as I held
the check in both hands, “help us to remain true to You and
honor this great sacrifice.”

160
Above: The Asian culture of gender segregation makes it difficult for a male missionary
to reach out to women in the same way that a woman missionary easily can, by visiting with
other women and sharing about Jesus. GFA has helped train and send thousands of women
missionaries to tell the precious women of Asia about the love of their Savior.

Below: These national missionaries serve in the mountain regions. They must often hike
dangerous mountain trails, risking their very lives, to bring the Good News to those who haven’t
yet heard.
Above: Film is a powerful way to share the message of God’s love with the people of Asia,
especially in areas where the literacy rate is low. When a GFA-supported film team arrives in
a tiny village and requests permission to show a film about Jesus, often the entire town will
come out to see it. As villagers learn for the first time about Jesus’ love and sacrifice, tears
stream down many faces.

Below: Radio is another effective way to minister to people living in remote areas. GFA
funds Gospel broadcasts in more than 100 Asian languages. In response, every year more than
1 million people write or call, asking for prayer and information about the Lord.
Right: National missionaries
must often walk 10 to 15 miles
to reach the closest neighboring
village. A bicycle enables them
to reach many more. Gospel for
Asia helps provide bicycles for
national missionaries, enabling
them to go farther, faster.

Below: Every year, Gospel

for Asia provides the resources
to print millions of pieces of
literature to offer words of
hope and new life in all the
major languages of the Indian
Subcontinent.
Above: This church building is more than simply a worship center for believers. It also provides
a place to conduct literacy classes, medical clinics and other activities that bless the entire
community. New fellowships often worship in temporary shelters, exposed to summer heat,
monsoon rains, overcrowding and harassment, until they are able to construct a church building
of their own.

Below: When a massive earthquake struck Nepal in 2015, national missionaries in Nepal and
neighboring countries rushed to provide relief and comfort to the earthquake victims. GFA was
privileged to support their efforts with prayer and funds in partnership with the Body of Christ
around the world.
 “Lord, Help Us Remain True to You”

The widow’s sacrifice has inspired others in ways I never

would have imagined. One woman wrote in, “When I read the
story of the widow who disconnected her phone, I cried. As I
cried, the Holy Spirit reminded me about my expensive coffee
habit, and I knew that if this woman could go without a phone,
I could go without buying lattes.” A married couple responded
to the widow’s story by cutting off their own television service.
“And what a blessing that has been,” they wrote. “Not only do
we have more money to give to missions, but we can be better
stewards of our time.”
Another gift, this time from a 13-year-old boy named
Tommy, shows the same spirit of sacrifice. For more than a year,
Tommy had been saving for a new bicycle for school. Then he
read about the value of bicycles to national workers like Mohan
and his wife from a hot, dry region in South Asia. Since 1977,
Mohan had been walking in the scorching sun between villages,
engaged with his wife in disciple-making through Bible classes,
open-air evangelism, literature distribution, children’s minis-
try and Bible translation. He and his family lived in one rented
room and had to walk for miles or ride buses to do Gospel work.
A bicycle would mean more to him than a car would mean to
someone in suburban England.
But a new locally made bicycle in Asian nations, which
would cost around US$100 to $200, was totally out of reach
for his family’s budget. What amazed me when I came to the
West is that bikes here are considered children’s toys or a way to
lose weight. For national missionaries, they represent a way to
expand the ministry greatly and reduce suffering.
When Tommy heard that national missionaries use their
bikes to ride 17 to 20 miles a day, he made a big decision. He
decided to give to GFA the bike money he had saved.

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 Revolution in World Missions

“I can use my brother’s old bike,” he wrote. “My dad has

given me permission to send you my new bike money for the
national missionary.”
Some people find unusual ways to raise extra national mis-
sionary support. One factory worker went through all the trash
cans at his workplace collecting aluminum beverage cans. Each
month we would get a check from him—usually enough to help
support two or more missionaries.
One pastor personally helps support several national mis-
sionaries. Like other pastors, he has been overseas to learn about
the work of national missionaries. In addition to his congrega-
tion’s monthly support, he has invited Gospel for Asia speakers
to make several presentations at the church. As a result, sev-
eral hundred families are also supporting the work of national
missions. Through his influence, a number of other pastors also
started to include GFA in their regular mission budgets.
One of GFA’s dearest friends has been David Mains of
Mainstay Ministries in Wheaton, Illinois. Through my guest
visits on his radio broadcasts, sponsors have joined our family
from all across the United States. David and his wife, Karen,
have advised and helped us in a number of much-needed areas,
including the first edition of this book.
Support for the work of Gospel for Asia has come from
other Christian organizations in some unique ways. For exam-
ple, early in our ministry we were invited to participate in the
Keith Green Memorial Concert Tour as the official representa-
tive of Two-Thirds World missions.
Today, thanks to the Internet, people in many different
countries can help support national missionaries. We stay
connected with our global family through our website, social
media and email. They can even join in praying with the home

166
 “Lord, Help Us Remain True to You”

office staff through the wonder of internet live-streaming tech-

nology. By God’s grace, Gospel for Asia’s reach is becoming
truly international.
Perhaps the most exciting long-range development has been
a slow but steady shift in the attitude of Western mission agen-
cies and denominations toward indigenous mission movements.
One after another, older missions and denominations have
changed anti-national policies and are beginning to support in-
digenous missionary movements as equal partners in the work
of the Gospel. The old racism and colonial mind-set are slowly
but surely disappearing.
This, I believe, could have long-range impact. If older Western
mission societies would use their massive networks of support to
raise funding for indigenous missions, it would be possible for us
and similar indigenous missionary ministries to support thou-
sands more national workers in the Two-Thirds World.
The day of the indigenous missionary movement has come.
The seeds have been planted. Ahead of us lie much cultivation
and nurture, but it can happen if we will share our resources as
the Apostle Paul outlined in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. There he
urges the wealthy Christians to collect monies and send support
to the poor churches in order that equality may abound in the
whole Body of Christ. Those who have should share with those
who have not, he argues, because of Christ’s example:
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through
His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
There is joy and a sense of renewed purpose when we sim-
ply obey the Lord in this area of giving. One sponsor described
it this way:

167
 Revolution in World Missions

I already had a desire to live a simple life well below

my income so I can send money back out. But as I read
Revolution in World Missions, I came to see that I am not
giving money just because it is a joy for me but because
God has specifically made me this way. As of now anyway,
this is a specific calling on my life and His will for me to
be involved in the Great Commission—to live simply and
yet still bring in an income, thereby being able to support
several missionaries who will impact many lives.
I was overjoyed to realize that my desire to give was so
much more important than I previously thought. I was
so humbled and yet felt such a responsibility too. I never
fully understood the importance of giving until I saw that
I could help support a national missionary who would
share the Gospel with hundreds and thousands of peo-
ple. It gave me a greater dedication, devotion and joy to
forsake all.

One couple caught the message and demonstrated real spir-

itual understanding. They wrote, “While we were reading your
SEND! [now called GFA World] magazine, the Lord began to
speak to us about going to Asia. As we pondered this and asked
the Lord about it, He spoke again and said, ‘You’re not going
physically, but you’re going spiritually and financially.’
“Well, praise the Lord—here is our ‘first trip’ to Asia. Please
use this money where you see the greatest need. May God’s rich-
est blessing be upon you and your ministry.”
Enclosed was a check for $1,000. It was signed, “Fellow
workers in Christ, Jim and Betty.”
My prayer? For several hundred thousand more like Jim
and Betty with the spiritual sensitivity to hear what the Lord is
saying today to the Church.

168
 Conclusion

H ow can I ever forget the summer months I spent with

mission outreach teams in the region known as the
“graveyard of missions”? We were driven out from many villages
and stoned for preaching the Gospel. That was in 1968.
This desperately poor rural region with 100 million inhabi-
tants is said to be one of the most unreached places in the world.
Today, there is a Bible college to train and send out workers to
this spiritually needy area.
Brother S. was one of the young people who attended. In
these schools, the students are encouraged to pray and seek
God’s face as to where He wants them to go when they finish
their training. While Brother S. was studying at the Bible college,
he prayed that the Lord would guide him to a place where he
could reach the needy and start at least one local fellowship. The
Lord placed a special burden on his heart for a specific people
group in this very difficult region. So after his graduation, he was
sent there to serve and reach these souls for whom he had prayed.
Three years later, he had already established five churches!
All this began with the transformation of one lady named M.
Over the years, M. had earned the reputation of a holy
woman in her village. Many villagers became her followers and
came to her for counsel. They would bring gifts and sacrifices
to her because she was known for her spiritual powers. She had
 Revolution in World Missions

the reputation for doing many miracles, even causing sickness

and death.
When Brother S. arrived in that area, people told him what
a powerful woman M. was, with all her magical powers. But then
he heard that three years before, M. had become ill and now was
totally paralyzed from the neck down. This young brother re-
alized that this situation was God’s appointed opportunity for
him to share Christ’s love with her.
Despite the danger to his own life, Brother S. set out to visit
M. and talk to her about the Lord Jesus Christ. It was only on
his way that he learned more about her story. For weeks, many
ritual prayers with sacrifices had been carried out for her heal-
ing. Hundreds of her followers obeyed her careful instructions
to petition her favorite deities on her behalf, but nothing had
healed her. Recognizing that she must be under attack from evil
spirits more powerful than she could handle, she decided to ap-
proach even stronger witch doctors to conduct elaborate rituals
for her healing. But again, there was no deliverance or hope.
It was at this time that Brother S. came to her area. When
he arrived at her home, he began to witness to her about the
Lord Jesus Christ. She listened carefully and told him, “For
three years I have tried everything to appease these angry spir-
its. But they don’t answer. And now I am confused and terribly
frightened.”
He asked her, “If Jesus would heal you and make you well,
what would you do?” Without hesitating she replied, “If your
Jesus Christ can heal me and make me well, I will serve Him
the rest of my life.” Brother S. further explained to her about
the reality of God’s love and how Jesus Christ, the only Savior,
could set her free from sin and save her from entering eternity
without hope.

170
 Conclusion

God in His grace opened M.’s eyes to see the truth. She de-
cided to call upon Jesus to forgive her sin and save her. Brother
S. knelt beside her and prayed for Jesus to heal her. As he prayed
aloud, he also fervently prayed in his heart, “Lord Jesus, this may
be my only opportunity to see this entire village come to You.
Please, Lord, for Your kingdom’s sake, touch her and heal her.
Your Word says that You will work with me, confirming Your
Word, and that miracles would be a sign for these people to be-
lieve in You.”
As he finished praying, the power of the Holy Spirit and
the grace of God instantly touched M., and she was delivered
and healed immediately. Within a few hours she was running
around, shouting with joy, “Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!
Thank you, Jesus!”
Hearing the commotion, a large crowd gathered in front of
the house to see what was going on. There she was, a woman
who had been paralyzed for three years, now completely healed.
With tears running down her face, she was praising Jesus and
shouting His name. M. became the first individual in her village
to believe in Jesus.
The following week, more than 20 people gave their lives
to Christ. M. opened her house for these new believers to come
regularly and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like in Acts 19,
when the Ephesian church had its beginning, all evil practices
and rituals were completely eradicated, and there was a whole
new beginning for this village.
Brother S. began to preach the Gospel in the neighboring
villages as well, and even more people began to come to the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Hearing about these events, the leaders from the Bible
college asked Brother S. if he would visit other workers in the

171
 Revolution in World Missions

nearby regions and help them. He began to travel, and as a result

of his ministry, four more congregations were established and
several new mission stations opened up.
At one point, I talked with Brother S.’s leader and asked him,
“What is the secret to this brother’s ministry? What is it that
causes the Lord to use him so effectively?” The leader replied,
“His case is not an exception. Many of our brothers on the mis-
sion field are experiencing the same thing. This is harvest time.”
Then he told me something about Brother S.’s life. When
he was studying in our Bible college, every morning he would
get up early and spend at least three hours with the Lord, on his
knees in prayer and meditating on God’s Word. When he grad-
uated and went to the mission field, he didn’t cut back. Instead,
the amount of time he spent in prayer increased. Brother S.
doesn’t talk publicly about any of these things, but very quietly
and humbly goes about sharing the Gospel. Through his life,
hundreds are turning to Christ.
Today, hundreds of thousands of villages remain without a
Christian witness in countries like Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal—
the entire subcontinent. Millions and millions wait for someone
like Brother S. to come and bring the light of the Gospel.
Romans 10:13–17 says that if these multiplied millions sit-
ting in darkness call upon the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be
saved. But how can they call on Jesus if they don’t believe in
Him? And second, how can they believe in Jesus if no one has
ever gone to tell them about Him? Finally, you and I are asked
this question: How can a person like Brother S. go unless some-
one has sent him? This is the question we must answer.
Today, God is calling us to become senders of missionaries
who are waiting to go to these unreached villages. We have a God-
given privilege to link our lives with Brother S. and others like
him to see our generation come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

172
 Conclusion

I encourage you to seek the Lord and see if He is asking you

to pray for and help support the work of national missions. If He
puts this on your heart, let us know of your decision. You will
receive information about missionaries you can partner with,
which will be especially helpful as you lift them up in prayer.
It can take up to $360 a month for a national missionary to
be fully supported. By giving as little as $30 a month, you can
help GFA support their work and send them to villages that are
waiting to hear the Good News. Through your prayers and sup-
port, you can help them effectively communicate the message of
Jesus and establish local churches. Normally, missionaries will
start at least one fellowship their very first year on the mission
field.
Suppose you are the one who is privileged to pray for
Brother S. Someday in eternity, you will stand before the throne
with him, his family—and the thousands who have come to
know the Lord through his life and ministry!

173
 Appendix One
Questions and Answers

O ne of the most meaningful moments in our meetings is

the question-and-answer period. Many ask some very
provocative questions, which shows they have been thinking se-
riously about the implications of the message they just heard.
Some questions seek details about policies and practices on the
mission field. Certain questions come up repeatedly, and the fol-
lowing are my responses.

Question: What are the qualifications of workers you support?

Answer: We are looking for those who have a definite call upon
their lives to go to the most unreached areas to do evangelism
and start local churches. It is not a job. A hireling quits when the
going gets tough. Our commitment is to help train and send out
men and women who seek only God’s approval and God’s glory,
those who will not be bought with money or seek their own,
even in the work of the Lord.
They must also be people of integrity in the area of com-
mitment to the Word of God and correct doctrine, willing to
obey the Scriptures in all matters without question. They must
maintain a testimony above reproach, both in their walks with
the Lord and also with their families.
 Revolution in World Missions

We look for those who are willing to work hard to reach

the mission field where they are placed. Each worker is also
a shepherd of the flock that the Lord raises up. He will pro-
tect these new believers and lead them into maturity in Christ
through teaching God’s Word and equipping them to share
Christ with others.

Question: To whom are national workers accountable?

Answer: We take several steps to ensure that accountability
systems work without failure. In each area, the missionaries
meet together at least once a month for a few days of fasting
prayer and fellowship as they build the kingdom in their part
of the field. In all cases, national missionaries are supervised by
local indigenous elders under whom they work. In turn, these
field leaders spend much time meeting with godly senior lead-
ers. The senior leaders who oversee the ministry of an entire
region or country are men of integrity and testimony, both in
their lives and ministries, for many years.

Question: Are financial records audited on the field?

Answer: Yes, financial records are inspected by field administra-
tive offices to ensure that funds are used according to the purposes
intended. A detailed accounting in writing is required for projects
such as village crusades, training conferences and special pro-
grams. Missionary support funds are signed for and received both
by the leaders and the missionaries involved, and these receipts
are checked. All financial records on the field are also audited an-
nually by independent certified public accountants.

176
 Questions and Answers

Question: How are national workers trained?

Answer: Missionaries are trained in Bible colleges throughout
the heart of the 10/40 Window. After graduation, the students
go directly to the most unreached areas of Asia to fulfill the
Great Commission given by the Lord Jesus Christ.
The training for these students is intensive. Their days begin
at 5 A.M. The first hour is spent in prayer and meditation on
God’s Word. Teaching and practical training take place through-
out the remainder of the day. Around 11 P.M. their days end.
Each Friday evening is set apart for fasting and more than
two hours of prayer. Every weekend the students go to the
nearby unreached villages for evangelism. Usually before the
end of the school year, they have started dozens of local fellow-
ships through these weekend outreach ministries. Before they
finish their three-year training, each student will have carefully
read through the entire Bible at least three times.
The students spend the first Friday of every month in all-
night prayer, praying especially for those in greatest need of the
Gospel in their own country and abroad. Through these times
of prayer, the reality of the lost world becomes very close to
their hearts, as each student is given the opportunity to pray for
dozens of totally unreached people groups. At the same time,
each one seeks the Lord’s face as to where He will have them
go for ministry.
The most important part of the training is for the students
to become more like Christ in their character and nature and for
them to know the Lord intimately in their lives. Second, they
are taught the Word of God in such a way that they are well-
equipped, not only to do outreach work, but also to be effective
pastors and teachers in the churches they establish. An induc-
tive Bible study course is required for graduation. Third, during

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 Revolution in World Missions

their three years, the students receive a tremendous amount

of practical training for all aspects of the ministry, including
personal evangelism, serving the poor, caring for the needs of
widows, developing a congregation and pastoral care, to help
them be effective in the work of the Lord.

Question: What are the methods used by the national mis-

sionaries?
Answer: Although films, radio, television and the Internet are
becoming more common in Asia, some of the most effective
methods still sound more as if they came from the book of Acts!
The most effective evangelism is done face-to-face in the
streets. Most national missionaries walk or ride bicycles be-
tween villages, much like the Methodist circuit riders rode their
horses in America’s frontier days. Sometimes workers arrange
witnessing parades or tent campaigns and distribute simple
Gospel tracts during weeklong village crusades.
Because the majority of the world’s 1 billion illiterate people
live in Asia, the Gospel often must be explained to them with-
out using literature. This may be done through showing a film
on the life of Jesus and using flip charts or other visual aids to
communicate the Gospel.
Rugged vehicles, bicycles, film projectors, loudspeaker sys-
tems, Gospel literature and Bibles are all important tools for our
missionaries that do not shock the culture. They are available in
Asia and can be purchased locally without import duties. Today,
these simple ministry tools are supplemented with culturally
sensitive radio and television broadcasting.

178
 Questions and Answers

Question: With your emphasis on the indigenous missionary

movement, do you feel there is still a place for Western mission-
aries in Asia?
Answer: Yes, there still are places for Western missionaries.
One, there are still countries with no existing church from
which to draw national missionaries. Morocco, Afghanistan and
the Maldive Islands come to mind. In these places, missionaries
from outside—whether from the West, Africa or Asia—are a
good way for the Gospel to be spread.
Two, Christians in the West have technical skills that may be
needed by their brothers and sisters in Two-Thirds World churches.
The work of Wycliffe Bible Translators is a good example. Their
help in translation efforts in the more than 4,000 languages still
without a Bible is invaluable.
Three, there are short-term discipleship experiences that I
think are especially valuable. Organizations like Operation
Mobilization and W.E.C. have had a catalytic impact on both
Asian and Western churches. These are discipleship-building
ministries that benefit the Western participants as well as Asia’s
unevangelized millions.
Through cross-cultural and interracial contact, such minis-
tries are especially helpful because they allow Westerners to get
a better understanding of the situation in Asia. Alumni of these
programs are helping others in the West understand the real
needs of the Two-Thirds World.
And, of course, there is the simple fact that the Holy Spirit
does call individuals from one culture to witness to another.
When He calls, we should by all means respond.

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 Revolution in World Missions

Question: Why don’t indigenous churches support their own

missionaries in the Two-Thirds World?
Answer: They do. In fact, I believe most Asian Christians
give a far greater portion of their income to missions than do
Westerners. Scores of times I have seen them give chicken eggs,
rice, mangoes and tapioca roots because they frequently do not
have cash. The truth is that most growing churches in Asia are
made up of people from the poor masses, many of whom live on
less than US$1 per day.
As God’s Spirit continues to move, many new mission
boards are being formed. Some of the largest missionary societ-
ies in the world are now located in Asia. But in light of the need,
we literally need hundreds of thousands of additional workers,
who will, in turn, require more outside support.
Regrettably, there are some indigenous churches that do not
support national evangelists for the same reason some Western
congregations do not give—lack of vision and sin in the lives of
the pastors and congregations. But this is no excuse for Western
Christians to sit back and lose the greatest opportunity they
have ever had to help win a lost world to Jesus.

Question: Is there a danger that national missionary sponsorships

will have a reverse effect by causing national workers to depend on
the West for support rather than turning to the local churches?
Answer: The truth is, of course, that it is not outside money
that weakens a growing church, but outside control. Money
from the West actually liberates the missionaries and makes it
possible for them to follow the call of God.
After generations of domination by Western colonialists,
most Asians are acutely conscious of the potential problem of
foreign control through outside money. It is frequently brought

180
 Questions and Answers

up in discussions by indigenous missionary leaders, and most

indigenous missionary boards have developed policies and prac-
tices to provide for accountability without foreign control.
At Gospel for Asia, we have taken several steps to make
sure funds get to local workers in a responsible way without de-
stroying valuable local autonomy.
First, our selection process favors men and women who
begin with a right attitude—those who are dependent on God
for their support rather than on man.
Second, there is no direct or indirect supervision of the
work by Western supporters. The donor gives the Lord’s money
to support the work of national missions through Gospel for
Asia, and we, in turn, send the money to indigenous leaders who
oversee the financial affairs on each field. Therefore, the national
missionary is twice-removed from the source of the funds. This
procedure is being followed by several other organizations that
support national workers, and it seems to work very well.
Finally, as soon as a new work is established, the national
missionary is able to begin branching out to nearby unreached
villages. The new congregations he establishes will eventually
gain enough financial stability to fully support him while still
giving sacrificially to support missions. Many times, however, a
successful missionary will be almost crippled by his ministry’s
rapid growth. When a great move of the Holy Spirit occurs in a
village, the successful missionary may find he has several trained
and gifted co-workers as “Timothys” who are ready to establish
sister congregations. The rapid growth almost always outstrips
the original congregation’s ability to support him and the addi-
tional workers. This is when outside help is vitally needed.
Eventually, I am sure the indigenous churches will be able
to support most pioneer evangelism, but the job is too big now
without Western aid.

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 Revolution in World Missions

The quickest way to help Asian churches become self-sup-

porting, I believe, is to support a growing indigenous missionary
movement. As churches are established, the blessings of the
Gospel will abound, and the new Asian believers will be able to
support greater outreach. Sponsorship monies are like invest-
ment capital in the work of God. The best thing we can do to
help make the Asian Church independent now is to support as
many national missionaries as possible.

Question: It seems as if I am getting fund-raising appeals

every day from good Christian organizations. How can I know
who is genuine and really in the center of God’s will?
Answer: Obviously, you cannot respond to all the appeals, so
what criteria should you use to make your decision? We have put
together a few guidelines for mission giving, which I believe may be
helpful. These are not absolutes, and not everything on the list will
apply to every situation. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as you read
through these thoughts. The Lord will be faithful to guide you.

•• Do those asking for money believe in the fundamental

truths of God’s Word, or are they theologically liberal?
Any mission that seeks to carry out God’s work must be
totally committed to His Word. Is the group asking for
money affiliated with liberal organizations that deny the
truth of the Gospel, while keeping the name “Christian”?
Do their members openly declare their beliefs? Too many
today walk in a gray area, taking no stands and trying to
offend as few as possible so they can get money from all,
whether friends or enemies of the cross of Christ. The
Word of God is being fulfilled in them: “ . . . having a form
of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).

182
 Questions and Answers

•• Is the goal of their mission to win souls, or are they only

social-gospel oriented? The liberal person believes man
is basically good; therefore, all that is needed to solve his
problems is to change his environment. However, the
Bible says all—rich and poor—must repent and come to
Christ or be lost. You must know which gospel is being
preached by the mission group asking for your support.

•• Is the mission organization financially accountable? Do

they use the money for the purpose for which it was
given? Are their finances audited by independent au-
ditors according to accepted procedures? Do they send
an audited financial statement to anyone requesting it?

•• Do members of the mission group live by faith or man’s

wisdom? God never changes His plan: “The just shall live
by faith” (Galatians 3:11). When a mission continually
sends out crisis appeals for its maintenance rather than for
outreach, something is wrong with it. They seem to say,
“God made a commitment, but now He is in trouble, and
we must help Him out of some tight spot.” God makes no
promises He cannot keep. If a mission group constantly
begs and pleads for money, you need to ask if they are
doing what God wants them to do. We believe we must
wait upon God for His mind and do only what He leads us
to do, instead of taking foolish steps of faith without His
going before us. The end should never justify the means.

•• Finally, a word of caution. Do not look for a reason for not

giving to the work of God. These points are only consid-
erations to help guide you. Be open to the Spirit’s leading
as you decide how to give. Remember, we must give all we
can, keeping only enough to meet our needs so the Gospel

183
 Revolution in World Missions

can be preached because “ . . . the night is coming when no

one can work” ( John 9:4). The problem for most is not
that we give too much, but that we give too little.

Question: How can I help support national missionaries?

Answer: To support national missionaries through Gospel for
Asia, all you need to do is the following:

•• Visit Gospel for Asia online at www.gfa.org. Or mail in

the pre-addressed reply card included in this book.

•• Send in your first pledge payment. Most of our friends

help support the work of national missions for $30 a
month or more.

•• Each month, as you continue your support, we will

send you a statement. The lower portion of the state-
ment can be returned in the envelope provided to send
in your next month’s support.

•• If you prefer, you can arrange to have your monthly

pledged support charged to a credit card or automati-
cally withdrawn from your bank account.

•• For every $30 pledge to support the work of national

missions, you will receive a copy of a missionary’s photo
and personal testimony. This is the missionary you have
the privilege of linking your life with, especially through
your prayers. As soon as you receive information about
your missionary, pray for him and his family every day.

•• Periodically you will receive an update full of praise

reports and prayer requests from the specific region
where your missionary is working.

184
 Appendix Two
Contact Information
For more information contact the
organization nearest you.

Australia: Gospel for Asia Australia Inc.

PO Box 3587
Toowoomba QLD 4350
Freephone: 1300 889 339
[email protected]
Canada: Gospel for Asia
245 King Street E
Stoney Creek, ON L8G 1L9
Toll-free: 1-888-WIN-ASIA
[email protected]
Finland: Gospel for Asia Finland ry
PL 63, FI-65101, Vaasa
Phone: 050 036 9699
[email protected]
Korea:
(Gospel for Asia Korea)
Seok-Am Blg 5th floor
6-9 Tereran-ro 25 gil
Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu
Seoul 135-080
Toll-free: (080) 801-0191
[email protected]
(more on next page)
 Revolution in World Missions

New Zealand: Gospel for Asia

PO Box 302580
North Harbour
Auckland 0751
Toll-free: 0800-819-819
[email protected]
South Africa: Gospel for Asia (SA)
P.O. Box 28880
Sunridge Park
Port Elizabeth 6008
Phone: 041 360-0198
[email protected]
United Kingdom: GOSPEL FOR ASIA (U.K.)
PO Box 316
Manchester M22 2DJ
Phone: 0161 946 9484
[email protected]
United States: Gospel for Asia, Inc.
1116 St. Thomas Way
Wills Point, TX 75169
Toll-free: 1-800-WIN-ASIA
[email protected]

Revolution in World Missions

has been published in these languages:

Chinese Korean
English Polish
Finnish Portuguese
French Spanish
German

186
 Notes
Chapter 4: I Walked in a 3. Jason Mandryk, Operation
Daze World, 7th ed. (Colorado
1. Robert L. Heilbroner, The Springs, CO: Biblica, 2010),
Great Ascent: The Struggle for p. 869.
Economic Development in Our 4. David B. Barrett and Todd
Time (New York, NY: Harper M. Johnson, eds., World
& Row, 1963), pp. 33–36. Christian Trends, AD
2. Economic Research Service, 30-AD 2200 (Pasadena,
U.S.D.A., “Percent of CA: William Carey Library,
Consumer Expenditures 2001), p. 45.
Spent on Food, Alcoholic 5. Ibid., pp. 417–419.
Beverages, and Tobacco That 6. Ibid., p. 40.
Were Consumed at Home,
by Selected Countries, 2014” 7. Ibid., p. 60.
(http://www.ers.usda.gov/ Chapter 8: A New Day in
data-products/food-expen- Missions
ditures.aspx) (accessed April
11, 2016). 1. Mandryk, Operation World,
7th ed., pp. 215–216.
Chapter 5: A Nation Asleep
in Bondage Chapter 9: Is Missions an
Option?
1. Wycliffe Bible Translators,
Inc., “Why Bible 1. The World Bank, “2015 World
Translation?” (https://www. Development Indicators: Size
wycliffe.org/about/why) of the Economy” (http://wdi.
(accessed April 11, 2016). worldbank.org/table/1.1)
(accessed April 11, 2016).
2. Rochunga Pudaite, My Billion
Bible Dream (Nashville, TN: 2. Barrett and Johnson, World
Thomas Nelson Publishers, Christian Trends, AD 30-AD
1982), p. 129. 2200, p. 655.
3. Ibid., p. 40.
 Revolution in World Missions

Chapter 10: God Is Chapter 13: Enemies of the

Withholding Judgment Cross
1. C.S. Lewis, The Problem of 1. Barrett and Johnson, World
Pain (London, U.K.: Fontana Christian Trends, AD 30-AD
Publishers, 1957), 2200, p. 32.
pp. 106–107.
Chapter 14: A Global Vision
2. Janet Benge and Geoff Benge,
C.T. Studd: No Retreat (Seattle, 1. Dennis E. Clark, The Third
WA: Youth With A Mission World and Mission (Waco,
Publishing, 2005), p. 40. TX: Word Books, 1971),
p. 70.
Chapter 11: Why Should I 2. Roland Allen, The
Make Waves? Spontaneous Expansion of the
1. Barrett and Johnson, World Church (Grand Rapids, MI:
Christian Trends, AD 30-AD William B. Eerdmans, 1962),
2200, p. 429. p. 19.
2. Watchman Nee, Love Not the 3. Barrett and Johnson, World
World (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Trends, AD 30-AD
CLC, 1968), pp. 23–24. 2200, p. 421.

Chapter 12: Hope Has Many Chapter 16: The Church’s

Names Primary Task
1. International Labour 1. George Verwer, No Turning
Organization, “Child Labour Back (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale
in Asia and the Pacific,” House Publishers, 1983),
(http://www.ilo.org/asia/ pp. 89–90.
areas/child-labour/lang--en/
index.htm) (accessed August
11, 2016).
2. Human Rights Watch, “The
Small Hands of Slavery:
Bonded Child Labor in India,”
(https://www.hrw.org/
reports/1996/India3.htm)
(accessed April 11, 2016).

188
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 Gospel for Asia’s School of Discipleship

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You will:
Transform the lives of Asia’s
hurting and oppressed by
serving at Gospel for Asia’s
U.S. home office.
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disciplines through prayer,
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“I have never seen deeper growth
in my life than during my time here.”—Jordan
Get involved
with God’s work
in Asia.

Your life can expand the work of national missionaries when

you serve behind the scenes.

Become a Gospel for Asia Volunteer

•• Share the ministry with others through social media and blogs.
•• Hand out free books to challenge and inspire friends and family.
•• Represent GFA at local events. (We’ll train and equip you!)

Serve in a College Internship

•• Gain work experience and grow spiritually, too.
•• Programs are available for a range of majors.
•• Internships may qualify for college credit.

Join GFA’s Home Team Staff

•• Serve behind the scenes to send Christ’s love across the globe.
•• Be part of a community that pursues Christ passionately in prayer
and worship.
•• Servant-hearted people with a variety of skills—from network
administration to building maintenance—are needed.

Learn more about how you can get involved at

gfa.org/involved
Support missionaries eager to go
to villages in Asia needing to
know God’s love.
H
Make a choice today that will forever change the fate
of those who have yet to hear.

Choose a Missionary to Sponsor Filter results: Men Women All

Raja – My Testimony Khenkapa – My Testimony

Sponsor Raja Sponsor Khenkapa

See missionaries you can partner with at

gfa.org/missionaries
or contact the Gospel for Asia organization
nearest you. (See Appendix 2.)