Yohannan: Persecution is Part of the Deal

Vikki Bland | ASSIST News Service | Published: Aug 17, 2006

Yohannan: Persecution is Part of the Deal

Gospel for Asia founder issues wake-up call on eve of New Zealand visit

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND (ANS) -- Fifty-six-year-old K.P. Yohannan, founder and president of Gospel for Asia - a Christian mission with 82 leaders in 10 nations, 16,000 native missionaries and 54 Bible colleges - and author of Revolution in World Missions, says he feels about 25.

“I do. I can’t wait to come to New Zealand because I have seen the Lord of the Rings movies,” says Mr. Yohannan, who is popularly called “Brother KP” because people have difficulty pronouncing his name.

He will visit Gospel for Asia New Zealand leaders this month before moving on to Australia and parts of Asia.

It’s difficult to imagine Brother KP at the movies, but the admission is testament to the warmth, humanity and accessibility of a remarkable man who has founded an equally remarkable mission.

Now more than 25 years old, Gospel for Asia is involved in evangelism and church planting in the unreached regions of Asia.

Its 16,000 native missionaries plant churches and evangelise in the face of persistent persecution, and Mr. Yohannan regularly comforts missionaries who have been beaten, imprisoned, threatened or had their churches destroyed. Occasionally, they are murdered.

“Regardless of name and organisation, India is a place of persecution and suffering for anyone fulfilling the Great Commission. Every week there are nine or 10 GFA missionaries abused and beaten in different parts of the country. Some are driven from homes and killed for their faith.

“Are we surprised? Not at all. Jesus said we would be sent out as sheep among wolves,” says Me Yohannan.

The persecution weighs heavily on him, as does the constant need for travel and communication with missionaries and leaders.

Mr. Yohannan’s wife, Gisela, is typically in a different part of the world from where he is (at the time of our interview he had worked out it was 1600km) and their two adult children are also active on the mission field.

“Someone asked me recently ‘where do you live?’ and I said, “in a suitcase”. I travel about 12 times a year and my family are on the mission field. So I am here, but I am there. Sometimes I look forward to being with Jesus just so I know I belong somewhere,” he says.

In the past 15 years GFA has honed its strategy to reach the largest group in the world that is unreached for Christ - those in the lower castes of northern India.

GFA is responsible for the education and wellbeing of some 35,000 “Bridge of Hope” children belonging to India’s illiterate Dalit caste, and delivers daily radio broadcasts in more than 92 languages which are heard by millions.

Next month, GFA will launch its first 24-hour television channel in India after three years of battle and opposition, and its 54 Bible colleges have thousands of native missionaries undertaking the three-year native missionary training program.

“God is leading us to concentrate on reaching the nearly 300 million people living in real slavery in this country and the Hindu caste system.”

Mr. Yohannan says Christians “have only minutes to work and an eternity to enjoy”, yet the heart of the world’s “free” Church “is barely beating.”

He says the churches in free countries are shallow and understand little of the heart of Jesus Christ.

“They are in a dark age like the one that occurred before the Reformation brought about by Martin Luther. If true persecution was to occur in any of these countries I think there would be a great falling away.“Christ calls us to follow him and to be his disciples. The free Church needs to understand that persecution is a normal part of this; [Christianity] is not about God delivering up what they want.

“Someday there will be millions and millions around the Throne and it will all make sense – persecution is a price worth paying,” says Mr. Yohannan.

Anyone feeling squirmy at this point can be assured that Mr. Yohannan has his own moments of struggle. While his personal journey began at the age of 8 when his mother led him to Christ, he says his walk with his Lord gets personally more difficult every year.

“I was talking to a group of young people the other day and they imagined I was this holy person, but I told them I fail a thousand times a day and the older I get the more I see in me the struggle just to continue the journey and finish the race.

“My prayer is that the Lord in his mercy will sustain me until the end, because all sorts of people fall away and that scares me.”

Mr. Yohannan says people are not godly because of doctrine, music or attending church, but by the way they live their lives – “their children watch when the doors are closed.”

But he wants New Zealand to know how much he is looking forward to visiting “such a beautiful country, and so many sheep!”

And he thanks the Lord for giving him the grace to get by without much sleep.

Mr. Yohannan will speak at four meetings in Auckland, including a men’s breakfast at Calvary Chapel at 8am on Saturday August 20, and one each in Whangarei, Hamilton and Wellington. He will not visit the South Island but hopes to on a future visit.

© 2006 ASSIST News Service, used with permission

 

Yohannan: Persecution is Part of the Deal