Where Are Christian Missionaries Needed Most?

Our founder K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan) saw that the traditional missions model was not sustainable, so he advocated that people in the West should support and train national workers who are already in the countries. He argued that local workers are better suited to serve the people of Asia as they already live among them, work with them, dress the same as them and eat the same food. National missionaries also intrinsically know the culture and customs, making it easier for them and their message to be accepted. They also have access to places where outsiders are not permitted to go.

Thus, GFA World works to train and send out national missionaries who are passionate to share Christ’s love. The workers go through an intensive, three-year training period and then set off, usually into places where no missions or humanitarian agencies have been before. They immediately begin seeing and meeting the spiritual and physical needs of those around them: praying for the sick, sharing Gospel literature, bringing clean water to a remote village through a Jesus Well; starting a branch of GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program, allowing kids to attend school for the first time; and helping fight poverty with income generating gifts like sewing machines, fishing nets and vocational training.[4] That is just the beginning of answering what do Christian missionaries do, and they cannot do it alone.