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.
