Road to Reality - Bridge of Hope- Mark 9 — K.P. Yohannan

Welcome to Road to Reality, the radio ministry of Gospel for Asia. Today, Brother K .P. Yohanan brings us a message from Mark Chapter 9 and 10. Now, Brother K .P. will focus on the Lord's great interest in children, in their souls, what we learn about His kingdom, and how much He cares for them.

Let's join Brother K .P. Yohanan, shall we? If you've got a Bible, join us. We're in Mark Chapter 9, verse 36.

Jesus Welcomes Children Into His Kingdom

Mark Chapter 9, verse 36. It's about Jesus. He took a little child and had him stand among them, taking him in His arms. He said to them, Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me.

And whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me, but the one who sent Me. Very powerful, because He not only speaks about Himself, but He talks about the Father also. Then, Chapter 10, verse 14. Now, this is where the little children were brought to Jesus, and the disciples got mad at them, and tried to kick them out.

And Jesus responds in verse 14. When Jesus saw this, He was indignant, or very angry. He said to them, Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Hearing the Words of Christ in the Gospels

I've been going through the four Gospels to see the words of Jesus. How many of you have a Bible with a red letter, Christ's words? All of you, raise your hands, you are spiritual. This is one thing for Matthew, Mark, Luke, and everybody else writes about.

Jesus is another thing for me to sit at His feet and hear Him speak to me. If Christ were to come now in flesh, and talk to us, I mean, how would you respond to Him? It's not somebody coming and say, you know, by the way, I met Jesus, and He said all this stuff, and I just want to tell you all what happened to me in my relationship with Him.

No, it's Him. So I've been going through my New King James Bible, looking at the red verses, I mean, it's astounding. Finally I realized, oh my goodness, this is what He said with His own lips. It is absolutely awesome.

And it makes it much more serious when you realize, Matthew, Mark, Luke, three Gospels record the same story. The Holy Spirit, who want to impress upon us something so strong, tells each of these writers, oh by the way, don't forget, write this down, write this down.

Each one must write it down. So there is some weight, depth to this. If you take a glass with a mercury in it, and the same measure water in another glass, you try to hold it up, the glass with the mercury will, because the density is much more.

“What Now?” and Seeing Jesus in the Least

So it is when you take these words of Christ, something very, very significant. Right after the first service, somebody, dear brother, I mean, he gave me a CD. He said, you'll like this one. Stephen Curtis Chapman, one of the CDs, and there's a song in it called What Now?

Don't worry, I'm not going to sing. I know, you just got scared. These are the words, listen. I saw the face of Jesus in a little orphan girl. She was standing in the corner on the other side of the world.

And I heard the voice of Jesus gently whisper to my heart, didn't you say you wanted to find me? Well, here I am. Here you are. So what now? What will you do now that you have found me? What now? What will you do with this treasure you have found?

I know I may not look like what you expected, but if you'll remember, this is right where I said I would be. You found me. What now? He picked up this little child, not a teenager, so he could hold this little child up in his arms and spoke, and he speaks loud and clear this morning to you and me, if you'll embrace this little one, you have received me, and my father also.

A Child’s Suffering on the Streets of Bombay

Wow, how sobering. Some years ago, on my way to the United States from India, I picked up this Indian newspaper called Indian Express, and the front page had a picture, a black and white, very large picture, and it just grabbed me.

I never saw anything like that before or since then. It was a picture of a little boy, 4 or 5 some little boy, just almost naked, laying on the sidewalk of the busy street of Bombay, the city where over 15 million people live.

But as you look at this picture, you will see a dog laying just beside him, parallel to him. But as you look, it is not just a dog, it's a female dog. But then you look close, you'll find the little boy is drinking milk from this dog.

And the caption reads, this dog is his mother. And I began to read the three-column article. The secular newspaper reported about over 100 ,000 children that live on the streets of Bombay alone, not knowing who their parents are.

They described the tragedy and the wasted lives and hopelessness, and how sometimes the government pickups will come in the morning and pick up dead bodies or little kids that died overnight. But these were days I, as an evangelical mission leader, aggressively committed exclusively to preach and plant churches.

The poor and the rejected and the downtrodden and the kids, I would approach them if I think they will repent right there and give their life to Christ and baptize them and then put them in the church.

But God was beginning to do a new work in my own heart. I remember standing on the street for the light to turn green so I can cross the street with the multitudes that waited. And about two dozen kids all of a sudden ran, saying the same thing, please sir, please sir, bachish, bachish, bachish, please give me something.

But you know, you see this so many times, and the only way to get away from that mob is to harden your face and look mean like I'm gonna kill you right now. And I did that. I was minding my own business.

But all of a sudden I hear this voice in Hindi, Saab, my father died, my mother is sick, and I have a little baby brother, and he's so hungry. Will you give me a few pennies to buy some bread and take it to him and to my mother?

The Girl Whose Life Was as Precious as His Daughter’s

It arrested me! The light turned green, everybody just left, and I couldn't move and I turned around. Here stands this young girl, seven or eight-year-old, worsen, rags, holes everywhere, her upper body totally naked, large brown eyes, black thick hair falling behind her head, beneath the knees.

I never saw so much hair on a little girl, so beautiful, yet dust mingled with sweat runs down on her face. Dirty nails and barefooted, she stands there with his haunted eyes. I put my hands in my pocket and took all the money I had and gave it to her and walked away.

But then someone else joined me. I could see him, I could almost touch him, but I couldn't. He asked me a simple question. So, what do you think about the girl? Is her life as precious, as valuable as your own daughter?

Instantly I was transported from the streets of India to United States of America, to Dallas, Texas, where I live, and I have two children, my daughter almost the same age. Her German mother takes care of her like an angel.

Her own private room, her table, her chair, her bed, every week her pillow cover and bed sheet changed. She has clothes she wears during winter time and summer time and autumn and spring, tennis shoes and socks, and she has toothbrush and toothpaste and deodorant soap and shampoo, and she goes to a very nice school where she's been taught about Jesus, she prays and she's loved dearly.

Ah, but then I am a Christian leader, evangelical, Bible-believing, I must answer his question. Oh, yeah, Lord, yeah, absolutely. Yes, you love her as much and her life is as valuable as my daughter.

But there was silence. I was left alone to answer the question to myself. He walked away. And now I'm walking on the streets weeping. I realize how much, how much the Lord cares about these multitudes that He would take the time to put me through the experience and walk with me.

But He will not twist my arm to make any changes, except leave the choice with me. When you look into a child's eyes, you expect to see hope, trust and innocence. But when you see these signs of childhood are replaced by betrayal, hunger, fear and suspicion, we need to take serious talk of ourselves and the society we have created, said about the children living on the streets of India and the subcontinent.

Poverty, Caste, and the Need for Christian Education

Listen to this. In South Asia alone, more than 90 million children go hungry every day. 134 million children between the ages of 7 to 18 have never been to a school. Girls are more likely to go without schooling than boys.

Reported by UNICEF, 2003 statistics. With incredible estimate ranging from 60 to 115 million, India has the largest number of working children in the world. They start as laborers from the age of 4 or 5.

Who are these children? These are the children of the untouchables, the lowest of the low caste of India, Nepal and Bangladesh and the neighboring nations. They are sub-human. They are treated less than animals by the upper caste.

Living in abject poverty. I never forget meeting the spiritual leader of the Banjara, one of the Dalit group represented by 61 million people. This one man sat before me with tears and said, Would you please come and start little schools for my people?

90 illiteracy. We are slaves of the upper caste. We have no future. Our only hope, you come and teach us about Jesus and teach our children. We want to be Christians but we don't know how. We don't read and write.

And the Lord began to change my own thinking about this whole thing. This is where Gospel for Asia, the mission organization, with 14 ,000 missionaries and over 21 ,000 churches scattered throughout 10 nations, we said, Lord, we repent.

We must respond to your heart.

You've been listening to Road to Reality with Brother KP Yohanan, the founder of Gospel for Asia. Now, KP will be back in just a moment, so don't go anywhere. You know, he's been sharing with us as to how the Lord has impressed upon him this great need in India.

Now, that's why Gospel for Asia has begun a new children's outreach program. It's called Bridge of Hope. And you can learn more about Bridge of Hope at our website, the address gospelforasia .org. And if you've never heard about Gospel for Asia, we'd love to send you a free copy of Brother KP's book.

It's a great book entitled Revolution in World Missions. Again, visit our website at gospelforasia .org or call us at 866-WIN-ASIA. And now, back to Brother KP with more about this exciting outreach called the Bridge of Hope.

The Harvest Among the Dalits and Backward Castes

We are now looking on the face of the greatest revival which will result in literally hundreds of millions turned to Christ and churches planted. Literally, we are looking on the face of that. You say, Brother KP, what are you talking about?

I'm talking about 300 million untouchables, the Dalits, and over 300 million, the backward caste people, the poorest in these nations, open in their hearts saying, come and help us and we open our hearts to Jesus.

The whole story began called Bridge of Hope in one of God's dealing with my own heart. Some years ago, early morning hours, I had a dream. I'm not a prophet, I'm not a dreamer, I'm just an ordinary simple little human being.

And the dream was, I was looking at a massive field, literally millions of acres of land with the harvest that is just about to take place. Golden field, they're swaying in the breeze and I looked at it immediately in my dream.

I knew in my heart, this is what Jesus talked about, the harvest is now. And I was so excited in my dream. I was seeing, wow, I said, wow, we got it made, we got it made, we got it made. And then I was running toward it.

And then I had to stop. There's a river so wide that no one can cross, so deep no one dares to step in. And I stood there crying. The monsoon is coming, it's all been destroyed. What can I do? What shall I do?

I was in despair. Right at that moment, from out of nowhere, a bridge was formed. It's unthinkable, a bridge from this side to the other side of this huge river. And on the bridge, faces of little children just jump out, children all over the bridge.

And all of a sudden, the knowledge came into my heart in the dream. You want to reap this harvest? This is all yours. But the bridge, these are children. This is the way to get there. When my daughter was growing up in Dallas, I used to play with her and tell her, look at daddy's head.

Yeah, daddy's head. It is called coconut head. I grew up in southern part of India where we have coconut trees like you have in Hawaii. You know, coconuts, it's hard. And the Lord was trying to get through my thick skull.

Saying, there's a world that's ready to turn to me. But you must respond to these children and touch their life. This is how Gospel of Asia began to set up these schools. In Tripura, one of the area where we send missionaries prior to this.

Schools as a Bridge to Families and Churches

And these people kicked them out and said, we don't want your Jesus. They won't let us come in. But later when the Lord began to deal with us like this, our brothers went saying that we want to start some schools for your kids.

Not one go to school. And they said, okay. And these kids go home in the evening, tell stories what they learned. Jesus loves me, loves me this. Yeah, I told you I couldn't sing, but I'll try. And they're learning English.

And they go and tell the stories. They learn. And the parents are astonished. Would you believe if I told you, some of these kids when they come to our schools, they come naked, three, four, five-year-old boys and girls.

And we provide them with uniforms and clothes and books and meals and medical checkup and all. First time some of them are brushing their teeth with a toothbrush. How precious these kids are. But their minds are not ruined with MTV and the Google stuff that we have in this country.

This plain clean sheet. And they hear about Jesus and His love. And they go home and tell their parents. And the parents are amazed of what's happened to the kids. And they open their heart to Jesus. In Tripura, we started 50 schools.

You know what happened? In 11 months time, we have 37 churches planted among people that prior to that time we could not get among them. You talk about how it was taking place. Oh, this is the amazing time in history.

How do we respond to this? We have 19 ,000 children in our 370 schools in these nations. But we ran into a difficult situation. We didn't know when we opened the schools and said, send your kids, we will end up in this kind of trouble.

In the end, we had to say, we can't take anymore. And we said, Lord, we didn't know this is this huge. We don't know where the money is coming. We don't know what to do. And the Lord said, I own the cattle on the thousand hills.

Trust me. By faith, you go on. And I will touch the hearts of my people. And they will respond. My brothers and sisters, these are some of the stories that are difficult even to communicate. Recently, one of our leaders from the field was saying, when they start this particular school, the school starts in June and weeks goes by.

A Child’s Future Through the Bridge of Hope

And the kids are learning, they got a uniform, and they're happy and everything. And about 3 in the afternoon, one 8 or 9-year-old little girl just walks in like a little beggar girl. Stands there for a long time.

And one of our senior teachers went out and said, what can you do? Where are you coming from? And she looked down. She wouldn't talk. It took her a long time before she would open her mouth. Then she started crying.

And the first sentence she said, my brother also died. My brother also died. What do you mean also died? She said, out of poverty, my parents died. And my grandmother died also. And we were living on the railway tracks and railway station, and my brother also died.

And somebody who was with us now is in your school, and I do not know where to go. Would you please take me also? Of course, you know the answer. Jesus said, if you take this one, you are taking me in.

And now the girl will have a future, a hope. And I've been saying, Lord, we need a million missionaries to reach the two billion people. Where are we going to find? The Lord said, you are dumb, can't you see the possibility?

If we can get a million of these kids, there are 90 million waiting. Teach them about me. Yeah, they have homes, they are parents, but they are worse than slaves. They are the untouchables. Nobody cares about them.

Just take them, and embrace them, and love them, and teach them about me. And they will grow up as soldiers of the cross, and you can turn this world around. And my cockerel head finally got the message.

A Missionary School, Healing, and a Family’s Conversion

And we are marching forward as a mission with a new command from our Lord to touch the lost world. Let me conclude by saying, I take hours to tell you all the stories, but I'm just telling, you know. One of our missionary went to the mission field, and he said, I'm going to start a little school.

And one little boy named Naboon, this little boy, first grade. And he learned Bible every day, one hour. You know, one of the textbooks we give to every kid is Bible. And they mark where the Bible stories are.

And you know what? This kid went home and started telling about Jesus healing sick people. And his mother was dying. They went to witch doctors and temple priests, and nothing would help. And the father heard it.

The father came to our school and said, my son is saying about Jesus this. Would you come and pray for my wife? And our pastor went with him and prayed. The Lord healed the woman instantly. And the whole family came to Christ.

This is the tip of the iceberg. How do we respond to it? This is one of the most difficult part of my whole life. Because I never ask anything from anything. And this morning about 2 .30 I was awake. And I said, Lord, I don't know what to do with this.

I just, what shall I do, Lord? The Lord spoke to my heart from my words in Hebrews. Therefore, let us go without the gate, outside the gate, bearing his shame. And I stand before you doing something that I personally don't want to do for myself.

Saying, I plead with you, would you please help us to take these kids and give them hope. And bring them to Jesus and plant the churches. This is not a social program, welfare program. This is fulfilling the great commission and the child's health and the future.

As Curtis Chapman wrote those words. So what now? What will you do now that you have found me? May the Lord help us respond, knowing that it is for him we do this.

You've been listening to Brother K .P. Yohanan from Gospel for Asia. Now Brother K .P. has been sharing with us as to how the Lord has impressed upon him this great need in India. And that's why Gospel for Asia has begun a new children's outreach program called Bridge of Hope.

It's designed to rescue thousands of children in Asia from a life of poverty and hopelessness. By giving them an education, introducing them to the love of God. Now a sponsorship of just $28 a month will cover the cost of one child's tuition, books, uniforms.

One or two meals a day and a yearly medical checkup. 100 of your sponsorship is sent to the mission field. Nothing is taken out for administrative or fundraising purposes. And as a result, your child, his family, and community will hear the gospel.

To sponsor a child today or just learn more about Bridge of Hope, visit our website, gospelforasia .org. That's gospelforasia .org. Or call us toll free for more information. 866-WIN-ASIA. That's 866-WIN-ASIA.

And may we thank you in advance for your help and your prayers for this ministry. Thank you for listening to Road to Reality, the radio ministry of Gospel for Asia.