There had been many issues involving Gospel for Asia that I gradually became uncomfortable with, and those are outlined in the enclosed letter so I will not expound on them here.
I was serving overseas in the GFA New Zealand office when I realized I could no longer ignore the warning signs that had been ever increasing. It was not until I was instructed that I would be staying overseas longer than my initial assignment that I came face to face with some problems I had become aware of, but not experienced personally.
When I say I was “instructed,” I mean it was announced to me that I would stay overseas. For a young, single woman, that is a substantial demand. When I asked questions to ascertain the details of this significant change, I was rebuffed, and my commitment to GFA (and even ministry in general) was called into question. Not only that, but I was specifically told that Gospel for Asia leadership did not expect me to pray, and even more than that, did not want me to pray, about whether or not this was God’s will for my life.
For a ministry that touts its dependence on prayer, this was absolutely shocking. All of my life, I have grown up in the church; my father is a pastor, I graduated from Bible college and have served in various ministry roles before coming to Gospel for Asia. The Bible has many teachings on prayer that I could quote, but I believe 1 Thess. 5:17 is pretty clear: “Pray continually.” There are also numerous Scriptures on testing what people say to make sure that it is sound teaching. Paul even states in 1 Corinthians 10:15, “I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.” If we are to judge even an apostle for ourselves, and also to pray continually, then I see no Scriptural basis for any Gospel for Asia leader to ever tell any person, regardless of the situation, that they “are not asking them to pray.” Questioning Gospel for Asia is in no way tantamount to questioning God, but somehow it has become one and the same.