How Can We Combine Service and Compassion While Sharing the Good News of Jesus?
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:15, NKJV). GFA World is committed to sharing the Good News of Jesus. But even further we demonstrate His love through tangible acts of compassion, which are transforming lives and communities in Africa and Asia.
GFA World has carried this vision forward for more than four decades, equipping national missionaries who bring the love of Jesus Christ to places that have never heard His name. These workers are raised up from the villages they serve, speaking the local language and knowing the culture in ways no outsider could. They are the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus, bringing both the message of hope and the help that makes it real.
At the center of this mission stands a simple conviction: eternal life is not a distant promise but something that lands in a village when a family drinks clean water for the first time, and takes root when a woman opens the Bible she has just learned to read. The love that sent Christ into the world that he gave His life for still reaches the most forgotten places through ordinary acts of kindness.
The message cannot be split apart from the good work it sparks. GFA World refuses to choose between speaking and serving, because words without action ring hollow and help without hope leaves the deepest need untouched. Across Africa and Asia, a well-digging crew and a Sunday school teacher belong to the same mission, each making love visible in ways that words alone could never do.
Reaching the Hardest-to-Reach with Hope
In remote regions where access to resources is limited, GFA provides bicycles to our missionaries to use to reach distant villages. These simple tools have allowed them to share the Good News and bring practical support to isolated communities. Villagers deeply appreciate their consistent visits, recognizing the missionaries’ dedication as a reflection of Christ’s love.[1]
Children in these communities also encounter Jesus’ love through Sunday school programs. In one village, children attending a GFA Sunday school heard about Jesus for the first time through stories and songs. Their excitement and newfound hope spread to many of their families, sparking curiosity and conversations about the Good News.[2]
A bicycle may look like a small thing, but in the hands of a national missionary it carries the truth of the Gospel where roads cannot go. These workers spend hours crossing rough ground, climbing hills, and wading through rivers. They press on because they know that somewhere ahead waits a person who has never had the chance to hear the Gospel. That patience, born of love rather than duty, sets GFA’s work apart from programs that arrive and depart.
In many villages, the Sunday school classroom is the first place a child ever hears the stories of Jesus. National missionaries lead these classes with songs, simple dramas, and picture Bibles — tools that cross the language barrier before a child can read. When those children run home and tell their families what they have learned, the Good News spreads in the most natural way: through the excitement of a child who has just heard something wonderful for the first time.
The same national missionary who teaches Sunday school on Saturday may be digging a well on Monday and praying with a sick neighbor on Wednesday. This is not a specialized workforce — it is one person living among one people, meeting whatever need comes. When love and truth travel together in the life of one trusted neighbor, the message carries weight that words alone could never hold.
More than 730 million adults worldwide still lack basic literacy skills, according to UNESCO. Without the ability to read, they cannot open a Bible for themselves. GFA’s national missionaries bridge this gap — not only by speaking the Good News aloud but by teaching people to read it. When a mother traces the words of a verse she has only ever heard spoken, faith becomes personal in a way nothing else can.
Clean Water, Literacy, and Healing Made Real
Access to clean water has brought hope and restoration to communities in need. In a village once plagued by water scarcity, the installation of a Jesus Well drastically improved the health and well-being of its residents. Villagers described the well as a blessing from God, grateful for the clean, life-sustaining water that improved their daily lives and symbolized divine care.[3]
Through literacy programs, GFA empowers women like Shona, who overcame illiteracy to experience the transformative power of education and Scripture. As Shona learned to read, she encountered the Bible for the first time. This deepened her faith and inspired her to become an active member of her local church, encouraging other women in her village to join the program.[4]
Something shifts in a community when clean water starts flowing and when women who could not read their own names begin reading Scripture aloud. These are not two separate stories — they are one story of transformation moving through ordinary gifts to do things no one expected. The Jesus Well and the literacy class belong together because both address the whole person: the body that needs water and the mind that longs to learn.
Across Africa and Asia, GFA has placed thousands of wells and started hundreds of literacy centers through its network of national missionaries.[5] Each site becomes a gathering place where relationships form and trust grows. The conversations around a water pump or a reading table often turn toward deeper questions — about hope, about suffering, about whether God is real. National missionaries stay for those talks because they belong to the community, and the people trust that they will not leave.
What begins with water often deepens into something far greater. A mother who came to the well for water may return asking about the God who put it there, and a father who joined a literacy class may stay to study the Scriptures. National missionaries walk with them through every step. Because these workers live in the village permanently, the relationship never ends when a program does — that is how relief becomes lasting transformation in the communities GFA serves.[6]
From Relief to a Lifetime of Transformation
GFA’s mission extends beyond immediate relief, aiming to foster lasting transformation. Programs like these not only address urgent needs but also create opportunities for individuals and families to break free from cycles of poverty and despair. The impact is felt for generations as communities are empowered and equipped with resources to flourish both physically and spiritually.
Lasting change does not come from a single visit or a one-time gift. Change builds slowly, over years of walking alongside people through dry seasons and harvests, through sickness and healing, through doubt and the slow return of faith. National missionaries raise their children in the villages where they serve, and their steady presence over decades turns a well into a church fellowship.
A literacy class grows into a movement of women teaching women, and a medical camp becomes a community that learns to care for its own sick. This is the pattern GFA has seen across Africa and Asia: when national missionaries stay, the community rises. What starts as outside help becomes local strength, carried forward by people who discovered that the well brought more than water — it brought a hope that lasts.
The results can be seen clearly in the field: communities that once depended entirely on outside aid begin to organize their own Sunday schools and manage their own wells. Fellowships established by national missionaries send workers to neighboring villages. The cycle of dependency breaks, and in its place grows something lasting — a people who know the truth of the Gospel and are ready to live it out.
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15, NKJV). National missionaries live this verse through every day of their service, serving with gentleness rather than pressure.
When a new believer is ready to share the Gospel with a neighbor who has seen the change in their life, the missionary steps back and lets that new voice speak. This is the work of sharing our faith — not a program but a natural overflow of a changed life.
Jesus gave His followers a command: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20, NKJV).
Every mile traveled moves toward one goal — not a completed project but a disciple who will carry the Good News forward. That is the work GFA’s national missionaries take up each day when they set out for the next village.
A disciple is someone who has been taught to follow Jesus and who will teach others to do the same. When GFA’s national missionaries train local believers to lead Sunday schools, dig wells, and care for their neighbors, they obey the Great Commission at its deepest level. The goal is a community that carries the Good News forward on its own, long after the first missionary has moved on to the next village that has yet to hear.
Be Part of the Mission
These stories highlight GFA World’s comprehensive mission of meeting both physical and spiritual needs while respecting cultural sensitivities. By helping individuals and families thrive, GFA not only addresses immediate needs but also provides hope for a better future.
Every act of service–whether it’s providing access to medical care, clean water or the gift of literacy–reflects God’s unconditional love and care for His people. Supporters play a vital role in this transformative work. Your contributions enable GFA to continue sharing the peace and joy of Jesus’ message with those who need it most. Together, we can build stronger, hope-filled communities and make a lasting impact for God’s kingdom.
Behind every well and literacy class stands a national missionary who has given their life to serving their own people. When you choose to support GFA World, you join these dedicated men and women in making sharing the Gospel of Jesus possible where no one else will go.
Sponsoring a national missionary equips a trained worker to bring clean water, literacy training, and the hope of Christ to their own community for a lifetime of faithful service among the people they love.
What was the good news that Jesus preached? Learn more![1] “Bicycles Lift Burdens through Gospel for Asia.” Patheos, January 1, 2020. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/gospelforasia/2020/01/bicycles-lift-burdens-through-gospel-for-asia/.
[2] “The Mustached Man at Sunday School.” Gospel for Asia (GFA World) Updates & Reports from the Mission Field, February 27, 2017. https://gospelforasia-reports.org/2017/02/mustached-man-sunday-school/.
[3] “Clean Water Brings Joy to a Parched Village.” GFA World. Accessed November 30, 2024. https://gfa-newsletter.org/issue/10/5/#clean-water-village.
[4] “Literacy Programs Empower Women.” GFA World. Accessed November 30, 2024. https://gfa-newsletter.org/issue/10/5/#literacy-programs-women.
[5] “Clean Water.” GFA World. Accessed May 7, 2026. https://www.gfa.org/water/.
[6] “About GFA World.” GFA World. Accessed May 7, 2026. https://www.gfa.org/about/.