I'd like to move to this place from
Dallas, Texas and go to church here.
And I told my colleagues as I was
walking up to the building, every church should
construct a building like this.
You are blessed, you don't know how blessed
you are.
Well, praise the Lord.
I'm part of a mission called Gospel for
Asia.
We serve the Lord in the most unreached
nations in the 1040 window, especially in Asian
part of the world.
Some 2 billion people that never had a
chance to hear about our Lord live in
those nations where usually we as Americans or
Europeans are not allowed to be there as
missionaries to evangelize and baptize and plant churches.
But God has raised up tens of thousands
of nationals, people from their own countries that
we are training and sending them out.
And we are part of the Calvary Chapel
Fellowship.
Twenty-five years we've been doing it.
Today, by the grace of God, we have
nearly 15,000 full-time missionaries that we've
trained and sent out, and they have planted
24,000 churches among people that never had
a church before.
Praise God.
And we have 54 Bible colleges in these
10 nations with over 9,000 young people
studying between the age of 18 and 25.
They go through a three-year training before
they are sent out to the unreached areas.
And we have 92 languages, radio broadcasts, that
touches the lives of people in 11 nations.
Over a million people write to us every
year asking for more information about Jesus.
And the Lord willing, in a few months'
time, we are launching the 24-hour, seven
-days-a-week television channel that will touch
the lives of many, many nations in that
part of the world.
And people like Skip Heidsack and David Rosales
and Ken Ortiz and some of the senior
leaders of our fellowship from Calvary Chapel usually
go and teach us, our leaders on the
mission field.
And I'm praying that my dear brother, your
pastor, Jack, will go with us for a
couple of weeks on your behalf.
If you don't want to go, please, you
force him to go.
This is such a blessing to be here
to share with you what the Lord is
doing, and I believe it's going to be
a time of blessing.
Lots of people are praying for this day.
And last year, we took more than 200
young people from America for nearly three weeks
of time on the mission field to Sri
Lanka, India, Nepal.
For the exposure, they came back, their life
totally transformed.
And we also take adults to go for
short-term missions, and I understand this is
one of the more heavily committed church for
missions, and I encourage you to think about
maybe planning one of your trips with us,
and I assure you, you will never be
the same again after you've been there and
see what the Lord is doing and how
it impacts your own personal life.
And I'm so grateful just to hear from
Pastor Jack that some 1,500 or more,
I don't remember the number exactly, young people
being mobilized from here.
You know, the neat thing, they come back,
it's worth the investment you made in their
life.
They think different, they act different, they live
different.
And I thank you for your involvement in
the lost world.
May the Lord continue to give you the
grace to go forward to do much more.
To those much is given, much shall be
required.
Now, do you understand my English?
Wonderful.
Please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of
Mark, chapter 9, verse
36.
This is about Jesus.
He took a little child and had him
stand among them.
Taking him in his arms, he said to
them, Whoever welcomes one of these little children
in my name welcomes me.
And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me,
but the one who sent me.
Now, over to chapter 10, you will read
those verses.
When people were bringing little children to Jesus
to have him touch them, but the disciples
rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this, he was indignant, he
was upset.
He said to them, Let the little children
come to me and do not hinder them,
for the kingdom of God belongs to such
as these.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, in all these three Gospels,
we have this story repeated, which means something
quite significant.
The Holy Spirit made sure that as you
and I read the Scripture, we will read
in one Gospel, then go to the next
one, the next.
You say, wow, I read this before.
But the Holy Spirit is trying to say,
I am trying to tell you something so
very significant, especially words that came out of
the mouth of Jesus himself.
Some time ago, I took the red letter
edition of the Bible, and went through the
Gospels, just only reading the words of Jesus.
I tell you, it impacts you like nothing
else.
It is like my Lord just walks right
now into time, and then stands beside me
or sits in front of me, and then
talks to me, and I hear him talk.
And the same thing here.
In the midst of lots of people, he
just picks up a little kid, and holds
him up, and says, this is important.
You must take notice.
I give time and priority to something like
this.
Then later you find the disciples say, what
a bummer.
Christ is so busy, he has too many
other important things to do.
What is wrong with his parents?
Jesus said, leave them alone.
Let them come to me.
Our ministry began 27 years ago.
It is one of the largest ministries known
for what we do.
But for the first two decades, I didn't
think much about children.
Although I have two children.
My whole commitment, somehow preach the gospel to
people, and get them to repent, and convert,
and baptize them, and get a church planted.
If children don't come along, that's a problem.
I was coming back to the United States
from Bombay, India.
I had a few hours in the hotel,
and picked up this English newspaper called Indian
Express.
On the front page was a black and
white picture that arrested me, because I never
saw anything like this before.
It was a picture of a little boy,
4 or 5 year old little boy, laying
on the sidewalk of Bombay, crowded street.
But not just him laying on the sidewalk,
beside him lays a dog.
Not just a dog, but a female dog.
But then as you look at it, you
find the little boy drinking milk from this
dog.
The caption reads, This dog is his mother.
The three column article explained about over 100
,000 children that live on the streets of
Bombay, not knowing who their parents are.
It began to describe the pride, the agony,
the lostness, and the hunger of children by
hundreds of thousands on the streets.
And I sat there, and I said to
myself, What if it was my little son,
Danny, trying to survive, laying on the street
of Bombay, drinking milk from a female dog.
But I had much work to do, I
must move on.
Nearly a year will go by.
Another occasion, again in Bombay.
A city with 5 million people live in
the slums, the largest slum of the world.
I was waiting for the light to turn
green, so I can cross the street with
the multitudes.
If you have been to Bombay, you know
what happens, like many cities in this part
of the world.
You will have 10, 15, 20 little children
come, many of them half-naked, mothers carrying
little babies with bloated stomachs, having their hands
stretched out, asking for alms, money.
They are the beggar children on the streets.
And it is told to the tourists, when
you go to India on the streets, do
not give anything to anyone.
If you do, you will be mobbed, you
cannot get away.
So, keep your face turned and mad and
angry, walk through streets.
So, I stood there waiting for the light
to turn green, so I can cross the
street, but kids everywhere, and I would not
look at them.
But all of a sudden, from behind me,
I hear this voice.
Saab, sir, my father died.
My mother is sick.
She cannot beg anymore.
I have a little brother.
He is hungry and crying.
Would you give me a few pennies, I
can buy some bread and take it to
him.
Somehow those words pierced through my heart.
I could not move.
The light turned green and everybody walked away.
I turned around, looking at the face of
a seven, eight-year-old girl.
A girl that I will never be able
to forget.
One of the most beautiful faces of a
young girl I have ever seen in my
entire life.
Long, black, thick hair, as long as the
length of a body.
Dust mingled with sweat running down on her
face.
Dirty fingernails.
No shoes, no socks.
She wears a rag, holes everywhere.
Just standing there with her arms out.
I put my hands in my pocket, took
all the money I could find and gave
it to her and walked away.
But it was strange.
As though now Christ himself joined me on
the walk and asked me a simple question.
So, what do you think about the little
girl?
Is her life as precious and valuable as
your daughter Sarah?
Of the same age, born and raised in
Dallas, Texas.
Got her own private room, furniture, carpet.
Closet filled with beautiful clothes.
Her German mother makes sure that she is
cared for.
Loved, goes to school, prays, reads Bible, loves
Jesus.
Loved, cared for.
Being a missionary and a minister, my answer
to Christ was, Is now Jesus?
Absolutely, I do!
I wished he walked with me further.
He didn't.
Now he left me to walk alone on
the streets, weeping.
When we are so possessed and intoxicated with
our own self-centeredness.
With me, mine, my world, we become blind
to the plight of a world that did
not know our Lord, nor do they have
any hope.
I was speaking at the Carver Chapel in
South Bay a year ago, Steve May's church.
And after the service, somebody came and handed
me a CD by Stephen Curtis Chapman.
You know the guy?
Neat brother.
I was with his wife on a television
show, Beth, some time ago.
Neat people.
And this man said to me, Brother KP,
you may want to listen to this song
called, What Now?
Which was on the CD.
Listen to these words.
I saw the face of Jesus in a
little orphan girl.
She was standing in the corner on the
other side of the world.
And I heard the voice of Jesus gently
whisper to my heart.
Didn't you say you wanted to find me?
Well, here I am.
Here you are.
So what will you do now that you
have found me?
What now?
What will you do with this treasure you
have found?
I know I may not look like what
you expected.
But if you will remember, this is right
where I said I would be.
You found me.
What now?
Let me ask you.
What do you expect to find when you
look in the eyes of a one-year
-old, two-year-old, three-year-old little
kids?
You look for love and smile and affection
and security and warmth.
When those things are replaced with fear and
anxiety and starvation and hopelessness.
It must arrest us to stop and think,
Jesus, what do you think?
How must I respond?
And I am learning.
Listen to this.
In South Asia, 90 million go hungry every
day without anything for them to eat and
survive.
135 million between the ages of 7 and
18 have never been to school.
Never had the chance to learn ABCD.
160 million child laborers in India, the largest
number of working children in the world.
They start their work at the age of
4 and 5 and begin to work when
the sun rises and go to bed when
the sun sets, making 9, 10 cents for
the whole day's labor.
160 million child laborers.
Go to the website, you'll be shocked.
In carpet-making factories, brick-making factories, firecracker
-making factories, places where little kids, their legs
are chained to steel posts so they can
run away.
They have to work and work and work.
You say, brother KP, who are these children?
I tell you the answer.
These are the children of the untouchables, the
Dalits, the downtrodden.
In India, with 1.2 billion people of
that population, 300 million people are known as
the Dalits, the untouchables.
The curse of slavery that came upon the
nation because of caste system.
90% of illiteracy among these people.
I remember meeting with a leader of one
of the people groups called Banjara.
61 million people in that part of the
country.
This man told me, he said, sir, my
people are dying, we are slaves, we have
no hope.
We adults are lost, at least for our
children.
Would you please come and teach and help?
Then he said, you teach about Jesus also.
Teach them Bible.
You make all our people Christians, no problem.
I looked at him.
I said, you really mean what you are
saying?
He said, yes, we know.
For our people, nearly 300 million people, there
is no other hope except Christianity.
But we don't know what to do.
Help us.
I told you, as I began to talk
this morning, I had just laser beam focus,
just one thing on my mind.
Get people repent, get converted, baptize them, and
plant a church.
That's all I think about.
So when I ran into the Dalit community,
where places, they are saying, come and make
us Christians.
We want to be Christians.
And it's a phenomenon.
It's the biggest thing happening in the world,
missions, that is millions of people are saying,
come and tell us how to follow Christ.
But as I met with these leaders, about
five years ago, they said, you know what?
If you can come and start schools among
our people, it will be wonderful.
Because then we will know how to read
Bible and learn about Jesus.
And I said, oh no, no, this is
not something we want to do.
We are in the business of repent.
I said to my leaders, senior pastors, you
know, maybe we should do something a little
bit to help, you know, so they will
believe us.
You know, kind of go along with the
game a little bit.
And we began to start a few schools
among these people.
I had a strange dream one early morning.
I'm not a dreamer, by the way.
I'm not one of those spooky guys looking
for.
I'm just a normal in and out hamburger
French fries guy.
Believe it or not, every time I come
to California, one of the place I visit
as a holy site, it is an in
and out burger place.
I'm crusading for the whole American states to
have it, so we can have some in
Texas also.
But in this dream, most strange dream I
ever had.
I was looking at a harvest field.
Millions of acres of ripe field, wheat field,
golden color, just swaying in the breeze, just
so beautiful.
And in the dream I realized, this is
what Jesus talked about in John 4.
The harvest is now, not four months later.
And then I realized, this is what God
is doing for us now.
The nearly 300 billion untouchables, the poor, the
downtrodden, the nobodies in South Asia, in this
part of the world.
Because we are right in the midst of
these people.
I got so excited that this is a
gift the Lord has given to us.
We can scoop up all these people and
take them to heaven.
I began to run toward the harvest field
with such excitement saying, it is ours, it
is ours, we got it.
But then I was made to stop, I
couldn't go any further.
I came upon this river, so wide, so
deep, that I could do nothing about it.
There is no bridge to get across.
And the harvest is on the other side
of the river, and I am on this
side of the river.
And I stood there weeping, saying, oh, it's
all gone, what am I doing?
Because I come from a family where my
people are rice farmers back in India.
When the harvest time comes, my people are
like the chicken with the head cut off.
You don't sleep, you don't go anywhere, you
work day and night.
Because in two, three weeks time the monsoon
will come and the harvest will be destroyed.
And now I stand there just in panic.
And all of a sudden in my dream
I saw a bridge appear gaping from this
side to the other side of this massive
river.
Not a tiny bridge, but a massive one,
huge, humongous.
And all of a sudden children began to
be filled with this bridge.
The whole bridge became full of little kids,
black, white, pink, yellow, naked, all kinds of
little kids.
It's no more empty bridge, but packed with
children.
And I woke up.
Sad or not, I said, what on earth
is, what happened?
It was as though the Lord came into
the room and repeated these Bible verses.
This harvest is yours, it's mine, but will
you go and embrace these children?
This is the bridge for you to get
to these people.
In Tripura, in that part of the world,
we started 50 schools, centers for these kids
that never been to school.
Many times kids come to our place, totally
naked, little kids.
We provide them with uniform and clothes and
books and medical checkup and meals and all
those things.
In one year, there we had 37 churches
planted.
You say, how does it work?
One story out of hundreds, I'll tell you.
First grader, Naboon, the name of the little
boy, he came to our center, started learning
about Jesus, choruses.
Of course he learns the normal, you know,
math and English and all the other stuff
also.
And he learned Bible stories because every day,
an hour and a half, they learn about
Jesus and Bible stories.
So he goes home and tells his father,
Father, there is Jesus who can heal mummy.
His mother was dying without any hope.
They went to which doctors and all kind
of stuff they did.
The poor woman was laying on the mat
in the little hut, dying.
And the father thought that there is a
medical doctor called Jesus who can come and
heal his wife.
So next day, this man comes with the
boy to the school and says, you have
a medical doctor named Jesus.
Would you please tell him to come and
help my wife?
And our people realize, he didn't know what
he was thinking.
Two missionaries go with him, explain the Bible,
share the good news, lay a hand on
the dying woman, say, Lord Jesus, for your
name's sake, would you do something?
And the Lord heals the lady.
Hallelujah!
And that became the first stone, the beginning
of the church, now a beautiful church in
the community.
Today we have 35,000 children in our
280 centers.
And recently I asked one of our leaders,
how long it takes for the kids to
give their heart to Jesus?
They said, what do you mean how long?
Within hours!
Hallelujah!
And then the same leader said, you know,
I tell you, interesting, last week, a nine
-year-old girl who was in our school,
became responsible for 14 members of our family
and relatives come to know the Lord Jesus
Christ, all got baptized and now became part
of the local church.
They become evangelists and missionaries.
But then there's also some sad stories.
That touched my heart one time when one
of our pastors was telling me about one
of our schools.
The school was let out three o'clock
in the afternoon.
All the kids running home, their little huts
and places they lived with their backpack and
such laughter and making noises.
The teacher saw a young girl, seven, eight
-year-old young girl, standing outside the school
just weeping.
She's not part of our Bridge of Hope
school.
And the teacher said, what are you doing?
Where are you from?
What's your name?
Why are you weeping?
She won't say nothing.
She just stood there just crying and crying.
And finally, the first sentence she uttered goes
like this.
My brother also died.
She and her parents lived on the railway
tracks.
And one by one, they all died.
And the only thing she had left was
her brother, a little boy.
And he also died.
And then she said, I had a friend
who plays with me.
If you're wondering what I'm talking about, when
you go to the railway stations in Bombay,
Calcutta, places, you'll find kids running like mad
when the train come to a halt to
go into the compartments looking for crumbs of
food laying all over the place.
That's how they survive.
And she said, my friend who used to
play with me, he's no more playing with
me.
He comes to your school.
And I have come to ask if he
will take me or so I have nowhere
to go.
Of course, you know the answer.
We didn't say no, there's no place for
you.
Who knows, someday that girl will be Amy
Carmichael.
Or someone like you who will raise a
family and love Jesus.
How can I explain this to you better
than showing you a few pictures.
It takes just hardly a couple of minutes.
I want you to look at some of
these pictures and see what actually goes on
on the mission field.
And if you can have the lights turned
off and look at this.
And as you watch this, please ask the
Lord to speak to your heart and give
you His heart, His compassion.
Let's look at this.
I thank
God for the 15,000 plus aggressive well
-trained missionaries we have on the mission field.
And I have a dream.
The dream is, Lord, I'd like to see
at least 100 million of these untouchables come
to know you.
Since they are crying out, telling us, please
come and help us.
In Nepal, in Bangladesh, in India, in Sri
Lanka, these nations, the heart of the 1040
window.
And my dream is this.
Not just 35,000 children we just got.
What is that?
When you think about 160 million child laborers
and the lost generation.
But then, I know the way to get
these people to come to know Jesus.
It's not just handing out food and clothes
and medicines.
No, it is bringing Jesus along with all
these things.
And that's what you see we are doing.
The question is this.
So, what are you going to do with
this little one?
What now?
My brothers and sisters, for me, it was
a journey with Jesus.
Repenting, changing, learning.
And I'm one of the most happiest human
beings on planet earth.
With the dream that I can now be
like Jesus, embracing these little kids.
They are not so far away.
They are so near, so close.
I wish I had time to tell you
story after story of little kids like you
saw on the screen this morning.
How their lives are transformed.
And some time ago, one of these little
boys that came to our center.
His story is a perfect story to tell
you the story of hundreds of thousands.
And listen to these words that is explained
in this brief poem.
Dark, skinny body, this was my mother.
Eyes sunken with pain, turns and look at
us.
As she disappears into the woods.
It is late in the afternoon.
All we children eat nothing all day.
Waiting and watching for mother.
After selling the sticks to come home with
food.
This is a poor broken Dalit woman that
goes into the forest to collect woods.
Firewoods that go to the market and sell
to get pennies to buy food and bring
it home.
Next answer.
Our father left for nearby state looking for
a coolies job.
For untouchables here like us.
There is no job except cleaning latrines, that
is toilets.
Poverty and hunger took its toll.
My mother died without help.
My brothers and I didn't know what to
do.
Wandering on streets all day long.
Our father came home, a broken man.
Held us in arms, cried bitterly.
He sits and gaze into the dark.
Mutters to himself, I don't know what.
The sun rose with bright hope.
Some kind people took us to school.
At first I didn't know much at all.
Now I know we have hope.
Often my eyes seek my mother.
I still cry and grieve.
When I see a dark skinny vendor of
wood.
I wish I had money to buy her
sticks.
For me, I'm so grateful that little boy
finally says I know I have hope.
My brothers and sisters, some of us don't
realize our life on earth is very brief.
I tell you a secret.
A hundred years from now, you are not
going to be living in your house.
Driving a car.
Wearing your clothes.
Looking for the diamond ring.
Planning to buy that new car.
Impress some people around you.
Don't be so foolish.
It's over before you know it.
But the question is this.
Can I be like Jesus?
To embrace a bunch of people that will
not perish in time.
Along with all the materialism.
But I can take them into eternity.
And that take.
Commitment.
And determination.
And compassion.
May the Lord continue to break my heart
and your heart.
For the things that he's concerned about.
You say, Brother KP, now what am I
supposed to do?
I hear you.
And I understand.
This is my request.
Not because of guilt or condemnation.
Or any other reason.
If the Lord speaks to your heart.
Would you think about helping us to touch
the lives of a few thousands more kids.
So desperately in need.
We have right now about 20,000 children.
That desperately need someone to love them.
To embrace them.
Take them home.
To help them to find life.
If you say, I'd like to know what
you're talking about.
There's a card like this in your bulletin.
If you please look at your bulletin.
You'll find a card like this.
Wow, that's cool.
Look at that.
This amazing machine.
The green stripe.
It simply says there, I want help.
Starting now, I'll probably help sponsor.
You can help two or three or ten
or 15 or 20 children.
Whatever.
About $28 a month.
You can provide food, clothes, tuition, medical help.
Whatever for that little one.
I have two children.
My both kids were born and raised in
America.
They finished their studies.
They are missionaries on the mission field.
But my wife and I took two children
to begin with.
Then we added more.
And I know this Christmas time, some of
my staff in Dallas.
We've got some hundred people that work on
our staff in Dallas.
Some of them gave Christmas gifts.
Little kids.
And somebody gave me a Christmas gift.
They didn't give me a nice shirt.
But they gave me a little kid framed.
This is the gift they gave.
They're supporting the kid on our behalf.
And what happens is this.
If you have two or three children.
Take three children with you today.
You say, what are you talking about?
See, when you fill this card out and
bring to the table outside.
We actually give you your child, your children.
It will go, your girl, take home with
you.
And they become part of your family.
They actually are yours.
No one else supports the little kid.
And no one else is there to pray
for them and care for them.
And every year they write to you a
couple of times.
You can write back to them.
It's a wonderful relationship.
If you ever went to the field, which
I believe this church will send people.
You can visit those schools and see these
kids.
And what a day it is.
Just to realize that they be some of
the best missionaries in the days to come.
For Jesus' sake.
And if you're grandparents, pick up the number
of kids according to the number of grandchildren
you have.
If you're not married, if you're thinking about
getting married and have about 25 children.
Get 25!
And whatever the Lord lays upon your heart.
And all you need to do is just
fill out the card.
And bring to the table and we'll give
you the number of children that you want.
And you say, well, I didn't bring any
money or check with me.
Don't worry about that.
Even if you don't have any money, nothing,
you still can get your children.
All you need to do is fill this
out.
We'll write you a letter later.
And you can send your money back.
But we encourage most people to support through
the credit card system on the back of
the card.
So that a lot of work is also
avoided for us.
And we save money in all the processing.
So on the back of the card it's
explained about that also.
You may look at it.
I encourage you and I pray that you
will ask the Lord.
And see this as a privilege, not as
a burden.
And I tell you something.
When the Lord broke my heart.
When I see thousands of people getting baptized
and come to Christ.
And I said, I only wish I understood
this 20 years ago.
But I want to do the right thing
right now.
And with your help, I tell you.
You have one church here.
There will be not two or three.
Maybe 50,000, 70,000 churches in these
nations as we go after these kids.
And they find hope too.
I love you and appreciate you so much.
And may the Lord give us the wisdom
to do what he calls us to do.
Amen.
John.