National Workers are ‘Unstoppable Compassion Force’ Says GFA World Report
National workers ‘new pioneers’ of 21st century, ‘transforming their own communities’
WILLS POINT, TX — National missionaries — those working in their own countries — are the “new pioneers” of the 21st century, and they’re proving to be an “unstoppable compassion force,” a new report reveals.
“More and more, local missionaries are driving ministry projects in their own countries and transforming their own communities,” said K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan), founder of global mission organization Gospel for Asia (GFA World).
According to GFA World’s new report, National Workers: Unstoppable Compassion Force, (www.gfa.org/press/workers) there’s a natural progression toward “indigenous” workers who understand their own culture, language, and neighbors far better than foreign missionaries.
In 2021, there were 430,000 foreign “expat” mission workers overseas, compared with 13.2 million national missionaries serving on their home soil, the report says.
National Workers ‘Far Less Costly’
National workers also serve in their own countries at far less expense — and with fewer restrictions — than expat Western workers who often incur costs associated with emergency medical insurance, security, and immigration, as well as safety restrictions on movement, says Gospel for Asia (GFA World).
It can cost between $50,000-$120,000 a year to support an American family in a developing nation — an annual sum that could help support 50 national workers.
“National workers live at the same level as the local people,” Yohannan said, “working alongside them, living among them in the villages and slums, dressing the same, speaking the same language, eating the same food, drinking from the same well.”
Today, 80% of the world’s countries are either completely closed or severely restricted to foreigners doing any form of religious work — Afghanistan being one example.
“Then again,” Yohannan said, “no matter what closed doors, restrictions or financial costs might be, God still calls his people to evangelize, to go, and send missionaries to preach the gospel and fulfill the Great Commission.”
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