Hope for the Hurting — K.P. Yohannan

Thousands of children in Asia are living on the streets in the slums. They're desperate and hopeless. And though we're thousands of miles away, there is something that we can do to help. Stay tuned. The Road to Reality is next.

Well, a very warm welcome to each of you. This is The Road to Reality, the ministry of Gospel for Asia. For millions of dear children in Asia, believe it or not, a toothbrush is considered a luxury item.

To have clean clothes, not just a distant dream, and only a few have heard the name of Jesus. How would you like to share the love of Christ with them? Well, today we'll tell you what you can do to help break the cycle of poverty and also express the love of God in a very tangible way.

Jesus' Teaching About Children in Matthew 18

We meet up with Brother KP Yohanan in Matthew chapter 18.

Practical Steps in Walking With the Lord

My reason for being here is today to kind of share with you some practical steps that we can take in walking with the Lord. For a lot of people, spirituality or being godly is basically having a lot of information.

And forever they learn, but their lives are not becoming radical as Christ's life, and it's meant to be. So some of these things I recommend today, they are things that you may want to consider to do as we walk with the Lord.

The Gospel of Matthew chapter 18, it's a very familiar passage where Jesus talked about the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. It's about little kids. You know, he picked up a little three-year-old or four-year-old little child and said, you must become like these children, and so on.

And look at verse 10, Matthew's Gospel chapter 18 verse 10. See that you do not look down on one of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

When I first read it, it just confused me a little bit. It's like I'm saying, I'm looking at you, and I am. But then you say, I'm looking at my wife, where she's in Dallas, Texas. Even if I try, you know, a couple hours of flight from here to get to Dallas, so how can I do this simultaneously?

Looking at this brother here, or the sister there, and looking at my wife, it just makes no sense. But that's what it says there. Angels are assigned to guard these little kids, protect them, but also they are beholding the face of the Father.

What is the connection? The connection is what Jesus said, you embrace these children, receive them in my name, and I will be there, and my Father will be there. What an incredible statement. I remember one time I was in Bombay, India, waiting for my Lufthansa flight to go to Frankfurt, Germany, and I picked up this newspaper, English newspaper, and right on the front of the paper was a huge black-and-white picture, picture of a little boy, maybe four or five year old little boy, kind of semi-naked, wearing rags, laying on the busy sidewalk of Bombay.

But beside him lays a dog. It's a female dog. But you look at the picture, you see the little boy actually drinking milk from this dog. And the caption reads, this dog is his mother. The three-column article explained about over 100 ,000 children that live on the streets not knowing who their parents are, where they're going, what is to happen to them, and the plight and the hopelessness of these kids.

The Suffering of Children in the Slums

And I remember as I was looking at this picture and reading these stories, it was as though the Lord would speak to me and say, what do you think? Can you imagine that this happened with your little son, Danny, trying to survive by drinking milk from a stray dog on the streets?

I couldn't process that information. I couldn't handle it. I'm too busy with evangelizing the whole world. I'm too busy with writing books and being on the radio and traveling to so many nations. This is strange.

How many of you had a chance to see the Slumdog Millionaire movie, would you raise your hand? All of you raise your hands, you will go to heaven. All the rest of you, please get to it before it's too late.

You know, my brothers and sisters, when I watch that movie, I'm not terribly an emotional person. I don't cry that easily. But I couldn't help but cry and cry. I told my secretary to put that movie on my iPhone, and I tried to watch it again.

I can't. I had to turn it off, it's too painful. Those of you who watch it, you will understand it. But for our sake of understanding, let me explain it like this. Just imagine, you, your husband, your wife, you have two children, your home, the slum in Bombay.

There are five million people live in the slum. Your home is just on the street. A few plastic sheets, you put over some sticks, and that's where you live. It so happened, as time went by, through starvation struggle, the husband dies.

If you're a husband, now you're gone. And the wife, trying to make a living by going through the garbage heaps during the nights and pick up stuff she can sell and make a living. And your daughter is nine years old, and your son, seven years old.

But then, your fate is also sealed. The mother is dead. Two kids are left out on the streets. Within a short time, a man would come by and find all these kids running all over the place, and he says, you want Coca-Cola?

Only these kids heard about it. They never tasted it. Sure. So he hands to them this bottle of Coca-Cola. And they drink it. They're so happy. Then he says, I'll give you food and clothes. You come with me.

So he takes his kids hours away to a camp. And then he asks all the kids there, 100, 200 kids, to perform and do things like singing. And this seven-year-old boy, among the many that stands up and sing this Hindi song, it seems that he has the ability to keep the tune.

So he does it well. The next scene, he's taken to a different building that is hidden away. And this man who picked up these kids, obviously, he's the boss. So he turns to the man standing in the corner with a beard and very mean-looking man, says, is everything ready?

He says, yes, sir. The next thing you see, a man takes a piece of cloth or cotton and pour chloroform. And then he brings that to the little boy and put it on his mouth. The boy struggles, but within a few seconds, he goes out.

And the next scene, the boy is laying on this table. And this mean-looking man comes over with a pan with boiling oil. And he opened the lid of the little boy and pour hot oil into his eyes and bandage it up.

The next scene, after months, you'll find the little boy on the street begging, asking for alms, money. So thousands of these kids, both blind or maimed or in normal shape, going around collecting money, they are known as the beggar children on the streets.

Child Labor and Bonded Servitude

It is estimated there are 160 million child laborers in our world, and the largest number in India, 15 million bonded child laborers. I never forget the story about one village where our missionaries went and saw this man and his wife just sitting there like somebody's dead there, so depressed, so lost and unhappy.

And the wife just cries and cries, living in a hut on the outskirts of the village. And when our missionary asked, what happened to you? And then she just breaks down and weeps and say, my children, my children, my children.

And then he asked the man, what happened to your children? He says, what can we do? My wife was sick and we didn't have any money. So we've been the landlord and we borrowed some money. And in turn, we returned, we gave our children for him to work in his field.

To find out what he borrowed was less than $40 worth of money. From morning till night, these little kids work, making eight, nine cents for the whole day's labor. Now I say this to you, please listen to me.

I have no agenda to put you on any kind of guilt trip or condemnation and collect some money from you and go to the next place. That's not the issue here. But I ask you only one thing to consider right now.

God's Love for Every Nation and Every Child

That is this. For God so loved the world that it's not Americans, people in Albuquerque or Texas or Romania or China. He loves people from all over the world, every tribe, every kindred, and also these precious children living on the streets in the slums.

And I say this to you. Please listen to me. It is your moral, godly obligation to say, I care. I feel. I pain. I ache. I cannot anymore say they are not my problem. You are the Christ. I am the Christ in our generation.

Dying to Self-Centered Christianity

Christianity, when it comes to the place, it is all about me, my health, my wealth, my security, my weight, and my kids, my savings, my future. You are missing it. Christ calls me to come and die and so he can live once again through my earthen vessels.

Because if that is not your understanding of Christianity, may God give you the grace someday to wake up through some experience you realize nothing matters other than God and eternity and his interest.

And my encounter with the street children and things like that broke my heart again and again and again. And when I come to the scripture like this, how many times I studied this, to realize the Lord saying, don't ignore, don't walk away, don't pretend that they are not there.

And for the Father cares about them.

And if God cares about them, so too should we. You're listening to K .P. Yohannan from Gospel for Asia. The program is called The Road to Reality. We'll hear more from K .P. in just a second. Think back to your childhood for a moment.

Now imagine being on the street alone, no place to sleep at night, not knowing where your next meal is going to come from. Most likely having to dig through a dumpster for food. That's the reality for thousands of Asian children today.

And our heart's desire is to not only break the cycle of poverty with your help, but share Jesus with these precious children. It takes just $28 a month to support a child, and 100 of that will be used to meet their physical and spiritual needs.

Won't you prayerfully consider making a difference in one child's life through Gospel for Asia's Bridge of Hope? Come by WinAsia .org and sponsor a child today. You can also call us toll-free, 866-WinAsia.

Again, we're online at WinAsia .org. And for those of you in Canada, you can visit us at GospelForAsia .ca or call 888 -946 -2742. Well, as we return to K .P., he reflects for a moment on his life.

A Family Heritage of Serving God

You know, my journey is quite interesting. Some of you know me for 30 years or so, I think, reading some of my books. I never cared about these kind of things in the early days of our ministry. But then, kind of interesting, I used to tell people, if it was not for my wife, Gisela, born and raised in Germany, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today.

15 ,000 missionaries, 17 churches planting every single day among people that never heard the Gospel, radio broadcasting 110 languages, and on and on and on, 56 minor seminaries. I mean, it's a huge amount of work going on.

And I say, if it was not for my wife, none of these things would be there. Then I say, if it was not for my mother, who prayed three and a half years every Friday, fasting, that one of her six boys would go to serve God, and I happen to be the answer to her call and prayer.

My son, Danny, was born here in the States, and he's now a missionary serving God. And his wife grew up in Pastor Damien Kyle's church in Montastir, California, was a missionary serving God in Nepal. My daughter, Sarah, when she finished her school in the States, she felt the Lord wanted her to go to India to serve God.

And her husband, oh, by the way, you know, we prayed a lot about my daughter getting married. You know, we don't arrange marriage, but we cannot recommend. So a lot of young people wanted to marry my daughter.

She's incredibly a beautiful girl, very sob, just like her mother. And I said, two dozen young people, I don't think you want to marry my daughter. I hate you. Get out. No. But she said to me, Daddy, I don't want to live in America.

I don't want to live in Europe. I want to live in India and serve God and die here. And please, you know, find someone who want to do the same. And so this young man came along, and I said, you want to marry my daughter?

Yeah. I said, tell me about your life. And he started talking. I said, look, Danny, that's his name. I said, you are a medical doctor. Most of your people are in the United States. And what is your life about?

He said, you know, as a young boy, I gave my life to Christ. And when I was studying in college, the Lord told me to go to study medicine. And he said, as a youngster in school, the Lord called me to serve him.

And so I obeyed what he told me to. Then he said a classic statement. My call is to serve the Lord and do his will to preach the gospel. But my vocation happened to be I'm a medical doctor. I said, I got it.

Yeah, you can marry my daughter. And that's how I got him. And they both are serving the Lord. And the reason I'm telling all this, there's a common denominator with all these names I mentioned. My mother, my wife, my kids, and Dr. Danny, and my daughter, my son.

You know what that is? All of us came to know the Lord as little boys and girls. I was eight years old when the Lord saved me. So I think about what a wonderful world we have. Millions of children that are desperate and hurting.

Bridge of Hope Centers and Children's Ministry

And we can go and scoop up all of them and love them and take them to heaven in the name of Jesus. And this is what Gospel of Asia began to do. Some years ago, we started now some 580 centers called Bridge of Hope.

And we get these kids, up to 200 children in each center. And they're taught, given food and medical checkup and clothes and all these different things. Every day, a couple of hours, they hear about Jesus.

I remember Naboon, a little boy in one of our centers. First time in his life, he's hearing about Jesus. He come from a Dalit, untouchable family. His parents living in a hut. And one day, he went home and told his father, Father, Jesus can heal mommy.

His mother was dying without any hope and help. The man thought we had a medical doctor named Jesus at our school. Really. So he comes next day and says, can you please allow, have your doctor come and heal my wife?

My wife is sick. And they realized, he just didn't know what he was talking about. He thought little Naboon, his son, first grader, telling about Jesus. He thought he was a medical doctor. Our two missionaries goes with this man, talks about the Lord, prays for the woman.

Jesus heals her right on the spot. And the whole family give their life to Christ. And the first church was planted in that community. Today, there are 37 churches in and around that whole region. All began with the little Naboon.

This is the beauty of loving and caring. Not ignoring the possibility of reaching a generation that the Lord has given to us. I will ask you to pray and say, Lord, in the light of this reality of huge crisis and pain and opportunity, what do you want me to do?

It is not something you do out of sympathy or you have a lot of money. Oh, by the way, I'll tell you something you don't know maybe. Did you know that in the United States of America, the poverty line, it is average income of $30 a day income.

But did you know that 80 of the world live on less than $2 a day? And we talk about, oh, the economy is all going haywire. Don't worry, you will never die here. I can assure you. And we are blessed so much.

And let's not say, you know, I can't get involved with the lost world because this is an opportunity. Hey, you know what? Would you please be praying, saying, Lord, touch my heart. And what is it you want me to do in terms of fulfilling the scripture?

Seeing Jesus in the Suffering

Stephen Curtis Chapman is a musician. He wrote this very powerful song. Don't worry, I'm not going to sing for you. But the first time I heard this, I just gripped my heart. 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 now?

What will you do now that you have found me? What now? I know I may not look like what you expected. But if you remember, this is right where I said I would be. You have found me. What now? When we go to the airports, which somebody asked me recently, where do you live?

I said in the suitcase. That's where my life is kind of. But, you know, they ask you ID. Either you pull out your passport or your driver's license. And you know how old you are. Some of you look 16, but you are 60.

We look younger than we are, maybe. But the driver's license tells the story. When I came to America in 1974, I used to watch the television. I liked this guy very much on television. His name, George Burns.

Anyone remember his name? I liked him. He had this cigar in his mouth. But when he signs off, he sings this song. I wish I was 16 again. I was 16, actually, when the Lord called me to serve him. And today, I am 60.

Eternal Priorities and Loving What God Loves

I don't know how the time slipped away. 100 years from now, what does it matter? All the stuff that we are fighting for. The reputation, the honor, the money, the books, this, that, all kind of stuff.

Oh, may God deliver us from the tyranny of the dust and self-centeredness. And to set us free to love him and love the things he loves. And weep for the things he weeps about. And if that be the case, I really believe the Lord will want us to respond to this incredible opportunity and his call.

And I pray that you don't do anything out of guilt or condemnation or this and that. But, oh, the privilege the Lord gave us to love these children and embrace them. And the angel, beholding the face of the Father, says, Father, I just want to let you know my child is rescued.

Just like the little boy in the Slumdog Millionaire who was caught and blinded. That will never will have to happen again if we will do our part to pray, to share our life and see these kids as our own.

What you've done for the least of these, you've done it unto me. That says it all, doesn't it? You're listening to K .P. Yohannan on the Road to Reality. And today, he's been sharing a great opportunity before us to share the love of Jesus with very needy children in Asia.

Earlier, you heard K .P. mention the over 500 Bridge of Hope Centers strategically located throughout Asia. Now there, children are not only taught about Jesus, but are also having their physical needs taken care of as well.

And maybe after listening to today's message, the Lord is stirring up in your heart an idea and desire to get involved. For only $28 a month, you can sponsor a child today, knowing that what you've done for that child is actually what you've done unto Christ.

Simply stop by winasia .org, or if you'd like to learn more, maybe sponsor one or more children today, you can give us a call. Again, that's winasia .org, and then to speak to a ministry representative, just call us at 866-WIN-ASIA.

And if you're in Canada, go online to gospelforasia .ca or call 888 -946 -2742. Thank you for whatever God leads you to do. At Gospel for Asia, our heart's desire is to reach the unreached of Asia. Next week on The Road to Reality, we'll again hear from K .P. Yohannan, who will share more exciting stories from the mission field, coupled with biblical encouragement.

Until then, may the Lord richly bless you.