Compassionate Care

Through compassionate care, GFA seeks to be the hands and feet of Christ.

In Matthew 25:40, Jesus says that in whatever ways we have served the “least of these” in the world, we have served Christ himself. Our national missionaries seek to treat those struggling in society with the same dignity and respect that we would give to our Lord Jesus. In such a way, we bring the tangible love of Christ to leprosy patients, forgotten widows and abandoned children.

Families gather with yellow water jugs at a Jesus Well

Clean Water

GFA’s clean water ministry delivers safe, disease-free water to families in Africa and Asia who would otherwise be using dirty water to cook and clean. Each of the wells we dig (called Jesus Wells) provides clean drinking water to an average of 300 people at a cost of less than $5 per person for up to two decades of supply.

Pray for Clean Water Projects
A Sister of the Cross helps a woman drink from a cup

Leprosy Ministry

Outcast by society, many leprosy patients struggle without adequate daily necessities like food, shelter and medical care. Our Sisters of the Cross follow Christ’s example and bring much-needed care—whether it’s cleaning wounds, sweeping houses, trimming nails or cooking meals—to individuals with leprosy and their families.

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Women sewing at a vocational training class

Vocational Training

Many people in Asia and Africa struggle to earn an income, with little option but to take backbreaking wage labor jobs or even beg on the streets, especially if they lack education. Widows who have been rejected by their families, a parent whose partner is addicted to alcohol, and people with disabilities face even greater obstacles to providing for themselves and their children. Vocational training gives them the tools they need to feed and educate their children and turn their lives around.

Pray for Vocational Training

Sisters of the Cross

“Whether it’s a literacy class, or cleaning their wounds, we do all of this because of the love of God.” —Geeta, a Sister of The Cross

Sisters of the Cross, specially trained women missionaries, joyfully serve impoverished communities such as slums and leprosy colonies. Sister Geeta is only one of the many women who have faithfully dedicated their lives to serve people suffering from leprosy, children once living on the streets, widows experiencing rejection from their own families and other people hungry for Christ’s love.

Rejection and stigma may have a grip on these hurting people’s lives, but women missionaries such as Geeta act as the hands and feet of Jesus to loosen that grip, one bandage and hug at a time.

Be the hands and feet of Christ

Show Christ’s love in word and deed to the suffering and hopeless.

Always More Ways to Serve

Even though our missionaries see great need, the opportunity is even greater. Our missionaries routinely identify the neediest families in their areas of ministry and work to find ways to help them experience the love of Christ.

A health worker checks a woman's blood pressure at a medical camp

Medical Ministry

By planning medical camps in cooperation with local medical professionals, GFA missionaries bring essential care to communities in need. At these camps, people receive free check-ups, along with practical information to help them practice good preventive health care and manage chronic conditions. Attendees also receive free medicine or referrals for further treatment when needed. They go home with hope that their health will improve, allowing them to live life more fully. Through it all, medical camp attendees see that Christ and His children have compassion for their most basic needs.

Rooftops of a crowded slum neighborhood

Slum Ministry

Our ministry to the slums began in 1999 with outreach to four major cities in South Asia. Today, our missionary teams serve in many slum neighborhoods, bringing hope by living out His sacrificial love and sharing the love of Christ. They conduct free medical clinics and teach basic hygiene and preventive health measures. They provide literacy classes for adults and conduct tutoring classes and weekly Sunday schools for children. Our missionaries have established hundreds of local fellowships, allowing thousands of people to hear the love of Christ. These missionaries exemplify tremendous self-sacrifice and patience as they work among often-neglected communities, befriend people there, share Christ’s love and meet unique needs.

A family stands beside their new outdoor toilet

Sanitation Projects

Approximately 2.4 million deaths could be prevented annually if people had appropriate hygiene practices, including reliable sanitation. Nearly 20 percent of the world’s population is forced to go to the bathroom out in the open. Through GFA’s sanitation projects, many families gain the dignity of a safe and private place to relieve themselves. These sanitation projects also ensure that the water in the area stays clean, decreasing the risk of waterborne illnesses.

Source: Jamie Bartram and Sandy Cairncross, “Hygiene, Sanitation, and Water: Forgotten Foundations of Health,” PLOS Medicine, November 9, 2010

Women receive supplies at a distribution

Widows Ministry

After the death of their husband, many widows experience traumatic stigma and rejection. Their society often considers them cursed, and their families sometimes even cast them out. They often can’t remarry, and they struggle to provide for any children they have. Our missionaries and Sisters of the Cross minister to these precious widows, helping them learn income-generating skills and assisting with household tasks like cooking and cleaning. Above all, Sisters of the Cross show widows that they are not forgotten by God. Christ commands us to care for the orphans and widows, and through our widows ministry we are able to do just that.

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Widows
Two girls wrapped in a new warm blanket

Winter Clothes Distribution

For our missionaries and income earners laboring through cold winters, the gift of winter clothing means more than mere comfort—it’s the ability to fulfill the daily work God has given them. Neighbors get to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ for the first time, and children go to bed with full stomachs. Whether recipients are sharing the love of God or providing for a family, winter clothing will offer them warmth for years to come.

A woman feeds her goats

Income-Generating Gifts

The simple gift of an income-generating animal can be the turning point for an impoverished family—one their family has likely been desiring for generations. With the additional income their animal provides, families can afford education, nourishing food, health care and a host of other essentials that will help them escape poverty and flourish. Additionally, each gift serves as a reminder of God’s unending love.

Lives and communities are changing

As GFA missionaries and local churches share Christ’s love in word and deed, the Holy Spirit is bringing transformation—to one heart, one family, one community at a time.

Kalani sewing at her tailoring shop

Stitching a New Life Through Vocational Training

No matter how much Kalani and her husband worked, the balance came to zero. She dreamed of running her own tailoring shop.

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Villagers carry water pots along a forest path

Two Villages Learn of a Well That ‘Never Runs Dry’

Twice a day, Azai’s family climbed a hill and waited in line for water, hoping they wouldn’t be too late.

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Shoshana and her son Simeon at home

Banking On … Goats?

Simeon was sick, but there was no money for a doctor. They never imagined the answer would end up living in their backyard.

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See Stories of Transformation