Avoiding Cynicism - Part 2 — K.P. Yohannan

Discover how to help the children of Asia get on the road to reality, next. This is the Road to Reality with Gospel for Asia founder, K .P. Yohannan. And this is the radio ministry of Gospel for Asia.

Reaching Unreached Children Through the Gospel

The primary aim of the ministry is to plant churches among the unreached, those who have never heard the gospel. One branch of Gospel for Asia is Bridge of Hope, where the gospel is taken to the children of Asia.

And in many cases, both the children and their families turn to Christ. Of course, we know that children are near and dear to the heart of Jesus. Mark chapter 9 reinforces that. And that's where we happen to catch up with K .P. here on today's edition of Road to Reality.

Seeing Jesus in Vulnerable Children

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.

Neat, neat people, by the way. And this man said, K .P., you'd like to listen to this 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.

The Suffering of Child Laborers and Dalit Communities

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 posts 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 are 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 7 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.

From Anti-Social-Gospel Criticism to Holistic Ministry

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.

The Harvest Field and Children as the Bridge

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 4. 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 is 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 all 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 gaping 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 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 had 37 churches established. Hundreds of stories I can tell you, but let me recite one.

Naboon and the Healing of His Mother

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 these 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? Healed her instantly.

And the whole family opened their heart to the Lord. Today, there's 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 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.

You're listening to The Road to Reality with Brother K .P. Yohanan, founder of Gospel for Asia. K .P. will be back in just a moment. He's been sharing how the Lord had pressed upon him this great need in India, and that's why Gospel for Asia began the children's outreach program called Bridge of Hope.

Brother K .P. 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. Again, visit our website at winasia .org or call us, 866-WIN-ASIA. Well, as we return to Brother K .P., he describes a dream the Lord gave him that brought about the vision to begin Bridge of Hope.

Let's listen in.

The Dream of the Bridge Revisited

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 4.

The harvest is now, not later. And I realized this is what God has given 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 all 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.

A School, a Miracle, and a Growing Church

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's a beautiful church in the 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 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. And we have about 20 ,000 that need help.

What is 100 ,000, 200 ,000, half a million in the light of 160 million child laborers, the little kids that Jesus loves so much. But we can help one at a time. One of our schools, when the kids were all running home with their backpack and smiling and so joyful, a teacher found a young girl standing outside the school just weeping.

She was not part of our school. And the teacher said, Who are you? What's your name? Where did you come from? What happened to you? She will not answer. Kept on crying. In the end, the first statement she uttered, My brother also died.

Her story is the story of hundreds of families that live on the streets and railway stations. And her parents died. The only thing she had left was her brother. Now he also is gone. And then she said, I had a friend who played with me, but he's no more playing with me.

He's studying in your school here. I have come to ask, Would you please take me also? I have nowhere to go. Of course, you know the answer. Could it be that that young girl will grow up learning about Jesus, someone to love her and become another Amy Carmichael?

Could it be Naboon will become a missionary calling millions to Christ and His grace? And Jesus said this, Whatever you have done for the least of this, you have done it for me. When I went to Sri Lanka after the tsunami and heard from the government officials about 10 ,000 children that lost everything and parents and all, we took in 3 ,000 of those children that are now having found hope in Jesus through us.

A Dalit Boy Finds Hope Through Education

Listen to these words of a little boy who came from a Dalit untouchables family. He came to our school, and this is his story. He talks about his mother. For untouchables in many parts of this land, they are not only poor, but often their job is cleaning latrines or toilets.

And the mother, these women, morning they go into the forest to collect firewoods, sticks. They bind it, carry it on their head in bundles and sell it there in the market and use that money to buy food for the kids that are waiting home, hungry.

Here it is. Dark, skinny body, this was my mother. Eyes sunken with pain, turns and looks at us as she disappears into the woods. It is late in the afternoon, all the children eat nothing all day, waiting and watching for mother after selling the sticks to come home with food.

Our father left for nearby state looking for a coolie's job. For untouchables here like us, there's no job except cleaning latrines. Poverty and hunger took its toll. My mother died without help. My brothers and I didn't know what to do.

Wandering on streets all day long. Our father came home, a broken man, held us in arms, cried bitterly. He sits and gazes into the dark, mutters to himself, I don't know what. The sun rose with bright hope.

Some kind people took us to school. At first I didn't know much at all. Now I know we have hope. Often my eyes seek my mother. I still cry and grieve when I see a dark, skinny vendor of wood. I wish I had money to buy her sticks.

Do I care about that little boy like I care for my son? I should. I want to. And the beautiful thing, by the grace of God, we are able to now take care of 35 ,000 such children. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Entering heaven will be an amazing thing for us, but to think that we can play a part in helping to rescue so many we've never met before, it's a great opportunity the Lord has set before us. You've been listening to Brother K .P. Ohannon from Gospel for Asia.

Brother K .P. has been sharing how the Lord impressed on him this great need in India, and that's why Gospel for Asia has a 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.

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, uniform, 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 administration 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, the address, 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 K .P.'s behalf and all of us here at Gospel for Asia, may the Lord richly bless you.

The Bridge of Children and the Harvest of Souls

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 all 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.

Naboon’s Story of Healing and Evangelism

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's a beautiful church in the 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. And we have about 20 ,000 that need help.

What is 100 ,000, 200 ,000, half a million in the light of 160 million child laborers, the little kids that Jesus loves so much. But we can help one at a time. One of our schools, when the kids were all running home with their backpack and smiling and so joyful, a teacher found a young girl standing outside the school just weeping.

She was not part of our school. And the teacher said, Who are you? What's your name? Where did you come from? What happened to you? She will not answer. Kept on crying. In the end, the first statement she uttered, My brother also died.

Her story is the story of hundreds of families that live on the streets and the railway stations. And her parents died. The only thing she had left was her brother. Now he also is gone. And then she said, I had a friend who played with me, but he is no more playing with me.

He is studying in your school here. I have come to ask, would you please take me also? I have nowhere to go. Of course, you know the answer. Could it be that that young girl will grow up learning about Jesus, someone to love her and become another Amy Carmichael?

Could it be Naboon will become a missionary calling millions to Christ and His grace? And Jesus said this, Whatever you have done for the least of this, you have done it for me. When I went to Sri Lanka after the tsunami and heard from the government officials about 10 ,000 children that lost everything, and parents and all, we took in 3 ,000 of those children that are now having found hope in Jesus through us.

A Child’s Testimony of Poverty and Hope

Listen to these words of a little boy who came from a Dalit untouchables family. He came to our school and this is his story. He talks about his mother. For untouchables in many parts of this land, they are not only poor, but often their job is cleaning latrines or toilets.

And the mother, these women, morning they go into the forest to collect firewoods, sticks. They bind it, carry it on their head in bundles and sell it there in the market and use that money to buy food for the kids that are waiting home, hungry.

Here it is. Dark, skinny body, this was my mother. Eyes sunken with pain, turns and looks at us as she disappears into the woods. It is late in the afternoon, all the children eat nothing all day, waiting and watching for mother after selling the sticks to come home with food.

Our father left for nearby state looking for a coolie's job. For untouchables here like us, there's no job except cleaning latrines. Poverty and hunger took its toll. My mother died without help. My brothers and I didn't know what to do, wandering on streets all day long.

Our father came home, a broken man, held us in arms, cried bitterly. He sits and gazes into the dark, mutters to himself, I don't know what. The sun rose with bright hope. Some kind people took us to school.

At first, I didn't know much at all. Now I know we have hope. Often, my eyes seek my mother. I still cry and grieve when I see a dark, skinny vendor of wood. I wish I had money to buy her sticks. Do I care about that little boy like I care for my son?

I should. I want to. And the beautiful thing, by the grace of God, we are able to now take care of 35 ,000 such children. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Entering heaven will be an amazing thing for us, but to think that we can play a part in helping to rescue so many we've never met before, it's a great opportunity the Lord has set before us. You've been listening to Brother K .P. Yohannan from Gospel for Asia.

Brother K .P. has been sharing how the Lord impressed on him this great need in India, and that's why Gospel for Asia has a 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.

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, uniform, 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 administration 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, the address, 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.