Gospel for Asia

We had one of their missionaries speak and sing at our church a few weeks ago and I was impressed. He left us with a positive feeling toward him and GFA.

 

I have been supporting a Gospel for Asia missionary for almost 10 years. I love that 100% of my gift goes toward the mission field and they do not bombard me with mail continually asking for more money. This is a great organization and God is using these missionaries to reach the lost in India and Asia.

 

I have heard one of their representatives speak about a year ago, and I hear their program on the radio from time to time. The book "Revolution in World Missions" is just outstanding. They seem like a first rate organization to me.

Dan

 

I would not want to quash any effort to get the Gospel out world wide, and I'm sure this is a worthy organization, as far as that goes.

Having said that, I'd like to simply mention that there is an very different philosophy called "the indigenous policy" in the mission board I belong to. The goal is that each national should be supported by his own people, not American money. There are several important reasons for this.

(1) The national Christians can resent the fact that their national preacher is getting money from America.

(2) The national preacher receiving money under such a scheme is sometimes able to live well above the economic level of the people he is ministering to. This has repercussions when he tries to train his people, and it also may spoil him to a degree. Few in America realize how well a person can live in many places in Asia with just a small amount of American money coming in.

(2) With this type of method there can be accountability problems. (I do not know that this is true with this particular board.) I would be careful about sending money through such a board unless I knew that a board representative travelled to the field often to see how the money was being spent. My mission board requires me to account for what I spend, and our Asia Director is empowered to check up on me.

With the indigenous policy (self-supporting, self-propagating, self-governing) as my guide, I am planting a church here in Japan with the goal of training a Japanese pastor to replace me. With that in mind, I am teaching the believers to give faithfully, teaching them to work in the church and help the pastor, teaching them to witness for Christ.

God bless.

John of Japan, Missionary

 

Hi, JackRUS.

I did go back and give their website a closer examination, and found that some of my objections were answered.

One inaccuracy that I did see was the statement that it takes $75,000 to get a typical missionary to the field. That figure is extremely high for a "faith mission" missionary in that part of the world.

I do know that it is virtually impossible for a Western missionary to get into India to work. If a person has a burden to help reach India, this organization may be the way to go.

If I get time I'll read the book, but I've got a lot on my schedule right now.

God bless!

 

You misunderstand, JackRUS. My point was not that a missionary should not receive funds from another country. The indigenous method that I follow has the goal of the founder of a church planning to be supported by the church he plants, if he plans to be the permanent pastor of that church. On the other hand, most church-planting missionaries wish to get a national pastor as soon as possible so they can start another church, as the Apostle Paul did.

I receive support from America to minister in Japan. And I know Japanese men who went to America to raise support so they could come back here and work. I have no problem with that. My objections were practical, not theological.

 

JackRUS--I am also familiar with Gospel for Asia, I donate to them monthly. (They are based not too far from where I live) I consider their ministry to be first rate and very practical considering most of the countries where the Gospel is needed are closed to westerners.

 

They may have more than that. Remember their missionaries are in areas where persecution is active and widespread, so that they may have to take names off from time to time for protective purposes. I personally give it in an undesignated manner and let them decide where the need is the greatest.