Avoiding Cynicism - Part 1 — K.P. Yohannan

Next, on The Road to Reality, Brother KP O 'Hanlon speaks about the plight of little children in Asia.

They start working at the age of 4 and 5 for landlords, brick-making factories, firecracker-making factories, carpet-making factories. Morning till night they labor, making 9, 10 cents for the whole day's work.

Little kids being chained to steel posts so they can run away, keep on working.

Welcome to Road to Reality, the radio ministry of Gospel for Asia. Our speaker on the program is Gospel for Asia founder, KP O 'Hanlon. Now today, Brother KP will talk about one of those significant crossroads of life when the Lord challenges us to have our practice in line with our faith.

The result of this crossroads was Bridge of Hope, a ministry to these desperate children that KP just mentioned. Now the message is based in Mark chapter 9 and 10. It's there that Jesus expresses his love and care for children.

Before we go to Brother KP, here's our website in case you need it to leave early. But want to learn more about Bridge of Hope? It's very simple. The website is winasia .org. That's winasia, all one word, dot org.

Jesus’ Welcome of Children

Let's join Brother KP O 'Hanlon now. Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Mark chapter 9 and verse 36.

I want to share some practical things with you today that I hope the Lord will use to help each one of us to know him better and to become a more meaningful extension of his heart's desire to touch a lost world in our generation.

Turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark chapter 9. You know, when it comes to world evangelism, finishing the task of reaching the most unreached in our generation, reaping the final harvest before Jesus come back.

Often we think about mega crusades, television shows, and I mean, things that we adults can usually understand. We refuse to think about the little children. Yet if I were to ask you today, as I have in many places, how many of you came to know Jesus before the age of 15?

Great majority will raise their hand. Some 80 of the Christian workers came to know Jesus when they were young. I was eight years when I gave my life to Jesus. My wife in Germany, just after the age of 10, gave her life to the Lord.

My mother in India, in a remote tiny village, gave her life to Jesus when she was a teenager in a Sunday school. And think about it. My two little children, six and seven, they gave their lives to the Lord, now missionaries.

Yet we don't think much about it. Nearly half of the population of India, a nation with 1 .2 billion people, are children. Little people. But we don't think much about them. Yet Christ gave so much time and importance and priority for children.

It's beautiful when you think about it. Now look at that passage in Mark 9, verse 36, talking about Jesus. He took a little child and had him stand among them. Take 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. How significant, enormous, the depth, the density of those words. You take this little kid, you embrace this one. You are receiving me and my father also.

You don't need Greek and Hebrew to understand that. Over chapter 10, verse 13, you find the passage where parents were bringing little kids for Jesus to touch them and bless them and all those things.

And the disciples thought, what a bummer. The word bummer is not in the Bible, please. I learned that from California. Christ is so busy, he has huge things to do. I mean, what is little kids? And Jesus saw this and said, leave them alone.

He was upset. Let the little children come to me. I think Jesus was very funny. Unlike the church painted him gloomy, sad, donkey faced, baptized in lemon juice. You know, I think he was, he was so open and smiling and playing with the kids.

They could run to him. There was no hindrance. He loved them. Someone like me in the world of missions, for years, when I thought about reaching the lost world, all I could think was go and preach the gospel, get people baptized and plant church and disciple them and send missionaries out to do the same.

Seeing the Forgotten Children

Children, if they want to come, that's okay, their problem. And the Lord began to work on my heart to help me understand his priorities. One time I was getting ready to board a Lufthansa flight from Bombay to the United States.

Having a few hours, I picked up this Indian Express English newspaper and right there on the front, the first page of the newspaper, there was this picture, a black and white large picture that arrested me.

And I was looking at a little boy, five, six year old little boy laying on the busy sidewalk of Bombay, the streets of Bombay. At that time, some 15 million people, the population of the city, 5 million live in the slums of Bombay, the largest slum of the world.

If you walk into those slums, if you simply walk among these people, you have to pinch your nose, otherwise you'll throw up. You'll find hundreds of little kids, naked little kids playing in the murky, dirty sewage waters in the open.

The suffering, the pain, the anguish, unimaginable. And there I was looking at the little boy laying on the sidewalk, but beside him lays a dog, a female dog. But then you look at the picture, the little boy is drinking milk from this stray dog.

And the caption reads, this dog is his mother. The three column article explained about the 100 ,000 plus children live on the streets not knowing who their parents are. It described about the plight and the hopelessness of millions of children.

And I remember, I said to myself, my, if this was my little son, Daniel, trying to survive, drinking milk from a stray dog on the street of Bombay, emotionally I was sad. I was sad, but I had much more important things to do.

Another occasion, again, the Lord was trying to speak to me. Along with a multitude, I was standing on the street waiting for the light to turn green so I can cross the street. And tourists, as you know this, are told when you go to these nations, do not give money to beggars on the streets, lest you be mobbed, you cannot get away, too many of them.

That is true of Bombay streets. Dozens of little kids coming and asking for something, they are the beggar children of the streets. Then mothers carrying little babies, naked kids with a bloated stomach, holding their hands out, begging.

And I kept my eyes fixed on the light, don't look at anyone, just keep moving. But all of a sudden, I hear this voice from behind me in the native language, Sir, my father died. My mother is too ill, she can't beg anymore.

I have a little brother, he's crying, he's hungry, would you give me a few pennies to buy some bread and take it to him? Somehow, those words pierced through my heart and I couldn't move. The light turned green and everybody walked away and I turned around and looked at this young girl, seven or eight year old young girl, truly one of the most beautiful faces of a young girl I have ever seen in my life, I testify to you, big brown eyes, thick black hair, just flowing down as long as the length of a body, wearing rags, holes everywhere, dirty fingernails, no shoes, no socks, dust, mingled with sweat running down on her face, just stood there.

I put my hands in my pocket and took all the money I could find and gave it to her and began to walk. It was as though Christ himself joined me on the walk and simply asked me a question, So, what do you think about this little girl?

Is her life as precious and valuable as your daughter? It so happened, my daughter Sarah, born and raised in this country, her own private beautiful carpeted air-conditioned room, furnitures, plenty of clothes, parents that love her and her German mother that cares about her so much.

She loves Jesus, goes to school, never, ever, my wife and I, ever, never, we heard our daughter saying, I'm dying, I'm dying, please give me something to eat. We never saw her crying and crying and crying and going to bed with empty stomach and pain.

No. Of course, being an ordained minister, my response to Christ on the street of Bombay was very quick, Oh, Jesus, absolutely, her life is as precious and valuable. But he didn't ask many more questions, no more comments.

I will walk alone weeping for a long time.

You're listening to Road to Reality with Brother KP Yochanan, the founder of Gospel for Asia. Now, KP will be back in just a moment. He's been sharing as to how the Lord impressed on him this great need in India.

And that's why Gospel for Asia began the children's outreach program called Bridge of Hope. Now, Brother KP feels that this not only helps rescue thousands of children from a wasted life, but an important part of Bridge of Hope is that the gospel is shared with those children.

And in many cases, other family members come to faith in Christ as well. You can learn more about Bridge of Hope at our website, the address winasia .org, winasia .org or call 866-WIN-ASIA. And now back to Brother KP with more on the progress of Bridge of Hope.

Compassion as a Bridge to the Gospel

Speaking at a church a year ago after the first service, somebody came up and gave me a CD by Stephen Curtis Chapman. Anybody know the guy's name? A dear brother. I was with his wife, Beth, on a television program sent to go.

Need, need people, by the way. And this man said, Kp, you like to listen to the song titled What Now? Don't worry, I'm not going to sing. But listen to these words. 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 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 will remember. This is right where I said I would be. You found me. What now? That is the picture of multiplied millions of children that are crying out for hope.

And Jesus cares. Question, do I? When you look in the eyes of a little child, what do you expect to find? Hope and trust and innocence and smile. But when these are replaced with hunger and fear and molestation, hopelessness, it must arrest us to stop and think for Christ's sake.

Child Labor and the Dignity of the Dalits

When I watch and listen the pain of these children. In South Asia, 90 million children go hungry every day. 135 million between the ages of 7 and 18 have never been to school. But more shocking, that hurts me personally also.

Listen to this. 160 million child laborers in India. The largest number of working children in the world. They start working at the age of 4 and 5. For landlords, brick making factories, firecracker making factories, carpet making factories.

Morning till night they labor making 9, 10 cents for the whole day's work. Go to the website and look at these pictures. Little kids being chained to steel post so they can run away, keep on working. You say, who are these children?

These are the children of the untouchables, the Dalits. India with over a billion people, nearly 300 million of those people are called the Dalits, the untouchables, the curse of caste system of the country of India.

These people's lives worthless. They have no value, even the value of animals, mistreated, abused. If you want to know the plight, the suffering of these people, read the history of the slaves in the United States or Europe and multiply that 100 times.

That will not even come near. I remember meeting one of the leaders of 61 million, the Banjara, one of these untouchables leader, face to face. This is what he said to me. Sir, we are lost. We are slaves.

We have no hope. Our people are raped, abused, killed, lynched. And we are illiterate. 90 illiteracy among his people, he said. Then he said, would you please come? Please come and help us. Teach our children.

We have no hope. We adults, we have no hope, at least for our children. Then he said, teach them about Jesus. Teach your Bible. Then the shocking statement, make all of us Christians. We will become Christians.

You tell us how to do it. Desperate. You may have read this, heard it in the news over the years, how during the last seven years or so, the leaders of the untouchables, the Dalits in India, crying out publicly saying, we are quitting Hinduism.

Our only hope is Christianity or Buddhism. But when these people began to tell me about helping their kids, I said, oh, no. God is speaking to me once again. You see, I'm the one who became the champion of anti-social gospel crusade.

Some of you read my writings in the earlier days. Now to go after kids with food and clothes and medicine and education. This is not me. But the Lord will have to tell me, you better repent and change your ways.

The Harvest Dream and the Children as a Bridge

I had a strange dream. Now, I'm not a dreamer. I'm not looking for spooky, weird things to happen. I'm a normal in and out hamburger guy. Every time I come to California, I make a holy trip to the in and out.

Early morning hours. In my dream, I was looking at an awesome harvest field. Millions of acres, golden color wheat field ready for harvest. In my dream, I realized this is what Jesus talked about in John's gospel chapter four.

The harvest is now, not later. And I realized this is what God is giving to us. Millions and millions of these people. And it is ours to take the harvest of souls. Millions we can take into heaven. And what a thrill.

And I was so excited. I was running toward the harvest, just shouting with happiness and joy. And all of a sudden, I couldn't go any farther. I came upon this river. So wide, so deep. There's no bridge.

I just stood there, began to weep, saying, oh, no, it's all gone. It's all lost. What am I going to do? Because the harvest I'm looking at is on the other side of the river, not on this side. You see, I come from a home where my people are rice farmers.

When the harvest time comes, our people, as you say here often, like the chicken with the head cut off, you don't take a vacation at that time. Why? Because in a few weeks time, the monsoon, the rain will start.

The harvest will be destroyed. It is panic time. And I stood looking at this field, just weeping. All of a sudden, a bridge appeared. Humongous, huge bridge. Gapping the river from this side to the other side.

And then the bridge began to be filled with little kids, black, white, pink and all kind of kids. And I woke up from my dream. I sat on my bed saying, what on earth is this? And the Holy Spirit gently spoke to my heart, son, you've been talking about at least 100 million people coming to know me.

Go after the children. They are the bridge. And the Lord reminded me of this passage that I read before you. And I told our leaders on the mission field, brothers, let's go and embrace these kids. In Tripurath, where prior to this, our missionaries went, they were chased out and beaten.

Now we are going back saying that we want to start these schools for the kids. And everybody agreed. First, they were suspicious. 50 centers were set up. In one year, we have 37 churches established. Hundreds of stories I can tell you, but let me recite one.

Children’s Outreach and Transformation Through Faith

You know, many times we pick up these kids. They come to our school totally naked. And we provide them with clothes and uniform and books and medical checkup and all this other stuff and food and the whole thing.

Little Naboon was enrolled in our school, first grader. Of course, in every day, they learn an hour and a half minimum about Jesus, Bible verses, choruses. So they go home and singing these choruses, reciting Bible verse and all those things.

And he learned about Jesus healing the sick and casting out demons and stuff like that. So he goes home and tell his father, Father, Jesus can heal mummy. His mother was dying, laying on the mat. They tried the witch doctors, all this mantra, yantra, puja and all those things.

But there was no hope. Father hearing about it, thought that we had a medical doctor named Jesus at our school. Next morning, he comes to our school and says, my son says, you have a doctor here named Jesus.

Would you please tell him to come and help my wife? This guy didn't know what was going on. Two of our missionaries went with him. Explained the gospel, read Bible verses and laid hand on the sick, dying woman.

You know what Jesus did? Heal her instantly. And the whole family opened their heart to the Lord. Today, there is a beautiful church in that community. The first church that came out of this miracle. I was coming back from India just a few weeks ago.

And on the way, I got this call from one of our area leaders who manages many of these centers and asked, he tell me, how long it take before these kids open their heart to Jesus? And he said, what do you mean?

How long? I said, you mean? He said, almost all of them within days, they opened their heart to Jesus. Then he said, one of the student, a nine year old girl became responsible for 14 of her family members and relatives come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don't ask me how this all work. This is the way Jesus does things. That's good enough for me. By the grace of God, we are able to now take care of 35 ,000 such children. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

You've been listening to Brother KP Yohanan from Gospel for Asia. Brother KP has been sharing how the Lord impressed on him this great need in India. That's why Gospel for Asia has begun a new children's outreach program.

It's 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 and introducing them to the love of God. And, you know, we always want to try and capture the spirit of Christmas throughout the year.

And Bridge of Hope is that concrete expression of the love of God throughout the year. 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.

And 100 of your sponsorship is sent to the mission field. Nothing is taken out for administrative or fundraising. 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, winasia .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 prayers for this ministry. The Road to Reality is sponsored by Gospel for Asia. On Brother KP's behalf and all of us here at Gospel for Asia, may the Lord richly bless you.

Recalling the Call to Care for Children

Bridge of Hope. Speaking at a church a year ago after the first service, somebody came up and gave me a CD by Stephen Curtis Chapman. Anybody know the guy's name? A dear brother. I was with his wife, Beth, on a television program sent to go.

Neat, neat people, by the way. And this man said, Brother KP, you'd like to listen to the song titled, What Now? Don't worry. I'm not going to sing. But listen to these words. 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 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 will remember. This is right where I said I would be. You found me. What now? That is the picture of multiplied millions of children that are crying out.

For hope. And Jesus cares. Question, do I? When you look in the eyes of a little child, what do you expect to find? Hope and trust and innocence and smile. But when these are replaced with hunger and fear and molestation, hopelessness.

It must arrest us to stop and think for Christ's sake. When I watch and listen. The pain of these children. In South Asia, 90 million children go hungry every day. 135 million between the ages of 7 and 18 have never been to school.

But more shocking. That hurts me personally also. Listen to this. 160 million child laborers in India, the largest number of working children in the world. They start working at the age of 4 and 5. For landlords, brick making factories, firecracker making factories, carpet making factories.

Morning till night, they labor making 9, 10 cents for the whole day's work. Go to the website and look at these pictures. Little kids been chained to steel post so they can run away, keep on working. You say, who are these children?

These are the children of the untouchables, the Dalits. India with over a billion people, nearly 300 million of those people are called the Dalits, the untouchables, the curse of caste system of the country of India.

These people's lives worthless. They have no value, even the value of animals, mistreated, abused. If you want to know the plight, the suffering of these people, read the history of the slaves in the United States or Europe and multiply that 100 times.

That will not even come near. I remember meeting one of the leaders of 61 million, the Banjara, one of these untouchables leader, face to face. This is what he said to me, Sir, we are lost. We are slaves.

We have no hope. Our people are raped, abused, killed, lynched. And we are illiterate. 90 illiteracy among his people, he said. Then he said, would you please come? Please come and help us. Teach our children.

We have no hope. We adults, we have no hope, at least for our children. Then he said, teach them about Jesus. Teach your Bible. Then the shocking statement, make all of us Christians. We will become Christians.

You tell us how to do it. Desperate. You may have read this, heard it in the news over the years, how during the last seven years or so, the leaders of the untouchables, the Dalits in India, crying out publicly saying we are quitting Hinduism.

Our only hope is Christianity or Buddhism. But when these people began to tell me about helping their kids, I said, oh, no. God is speaking to me once again. You see, I'm the one who became the champion of anti-social gospel crusade.

Some of you read my writings in the earlier days. Now to go after kids with food and clothes and medicine and education. This is not me. But the Lord will have to tell me, you better repent and change your ways.

I had a strange dream. Now, I'm not a dreamer. I'm not looking for spooky, weird things to happen. I'm a normal in and out hamburger guy. Every time I come to California, I make a holy trip to the in and out.

Early morning hours. In my dream, I was looking at an awesome harvest field. Millions of acres, golden color wheat field ready for harvest. In my dream, I realized this is what Jesus talked about in John's gospel chapter four.

The harvest is now, not later. And I realized this is what God is giving to us. Millions and millions of these people. And it is ours to take the harvest of souls. Millions we can take into heaven. And what a thrill.

And I was so excited. I was running toward the harvest, just shouting with happiness and joy. And all of a sudden, I couldn't go any farther. I came upon this river. So wide, so deep. There's no bridge.

I just stood there, began to weep, saying, Oh, no, it's all gone. It's all lost. What am I going to do? Because the harvest I'm looking at is on the other side of the river, not on this side. You see, I come from a home where my people are rice farmers.

When the harvest time comes, our people, as you say here often, like the chicken with the head cut off. You don't take a vacation at that time. Why? Because in a few weeks time, the monsoon, the rain will start.

The harvest will be destroyed. It is panic time. And I stood looking at this field, just weeping. All of a sudden, a bridge appeared. Humongous, huge bridge. Gapping the river from this side to the other side.

And then the bridge began to be filled with little kids. Black, white, pink and all kinds of kids. And I woke up from my dream. I sat on my bed saying, What on earth is this? And the Holy Spirit gently spoke to my heart, Son, you've been talking about at least 100 million people coming to know me.

Go after the children. They are the bridge. And the Lord reminded me of this passage that I read before you. And I told our leaders on the mission field, Brothers, let's go and embrace these kids. In Tripura, where prior to this, our missionaries went, they were chased out and beaten.

Now we are going back saying that we want to start these schools for the kids. And everybody agreed. First, they were suspicious. 50 centers were set up. In one year, we have 37 churches established. Hundreds of stories I can tell you, but let me recite one.

You know, many times we pick up these kids, they come to our school totally naked. And we provide them with clothes and uniform and books and medical checkup and all this other stuff and food and the whole thing.

Little Naboon was enrolled in our school. First grader, of course, in every day, they learn an hour and a half minimum about Jesus, Bible verses, choruses. So they go home and singing these choruses, reciting Bible verse and all those things.

And he learned about Jesus healing the sick and casting out demons and stuff like that. So he goes home and tell his father, Father, Jesus can heal mummy. His mother was dying, laying on the mat. They tried the witch doctors, all this mantra, all those things, but there was no hope.

Father hearing about it, thought that we had a medical doctor named Jesus at our school. Next morning, he comes to our school and says, my son says, you have a doctor here named Jesus. Would you please tell him to come and help my wife?

This guy didn't know what was going on. Two of our missionaries went with him, explained the gospel, read Bible verses and laid hand on the sick dying woman. You know what Jesus did? Heal her instantly.

And the whole family opened their heart to the Lord. Today, there is a beautiful church in that community. The first church that came out of this miracle. I was coming back from India just a few weeks ago.

And on the way, I got this call from one of our area leaders who manages many of these centers and asked, you tell me how long it takes before these kids open their heart to Jesus? And he said, what do you mean?

How long? I said, you mean? He said, almost all of them within days, they opened their heart to Jesus. Then he said, one of the student, a nine year old girl, became responsible for 14 of her family members and relatives come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don't ask me how this all work. This is the way Jesus does things. That's good enough for me. By the grace of God, we are able to now take care of 35 ,000 such children. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

You've been listening to Brother KP Yohanan from Gospel for Asia. Brother KP has been sharing how the Lord impressed on him this great need in India. That's why Gospel for Asia has begun a new children's outreach program.

It's 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 and introducing them to the love of God. And, you know, we always want to try and capture the spirit of Christmas throughout the year.

And Bridge of Hope is that concrete expression of the love of God throughout the year. 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.

And 100 of your sponsorship is sent to the mission field. Nothing is taken out for administrative or fundraising. 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, winasia .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 prayers for this ministry. The Road to Reality is sponsored by Gospel for Asia. On Brother KP's behalf and all of us here at Gospel for Asia, may the Lord richly bless you.