This is by the founder of Gospel For Asia, Y.P. Yohannan. It is a combination of a personal autobiography, the story of Gospel For Asia and the missionaries connected with it, and a wakeup call for those in the West who are living primarily for temporal purposes.
I really enjoyed this book – I found that it had a thoroughly biblical view of the importance of reaching people with the gospel and of combatting poverty, something that a lot of organisations have only one or the other of. It’s wonderful to see that an organisation believes that the gospel is the most important, but that addressing poverty is both a biblical command and that it helps people to be able to listen effectively to the gospel.
It also touches on the effectiveness of missions. Many missionaries are not very effective, especially in areas that are only slightly reached, in part because the unreached can see Christianity as a religion for white people. Native missionaries, something foundational to GFA, are able to more effectively reach others in these areas. They also have the language down (or nearly so, if from a nearby region), and are less likely to make cultural faux pas. Yohannan asks why we are not willing to put more money into things that are effective rather than just continuing with things that are not working as well.
Definitely a worthwhile read – and you can usually get it for free at the GFA website!
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