K.P. Yohannan was born in India, accepted Christ at the age of eight years old, and ministered in the subcontinent until 1974, when he accepted the invitation of Pastor W.A. Criswell to attend Criswell College, eventually becoming its first international graduate.
Dr. Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries says even though he was transplanted to the middle of Dallas, he never lost his heart for his homeland.
"In his first exposure to western Christianity, he had a lot to say to us about our affluence, about our love for money, about our materialism," Pritchard accounts.
In 1979, Yohannan and his wife, Gisela, started Gospel for Asia, which recently changed its name to GFA World to more accurately reflect the fact that it operates in multiple countries in Asia and also in Rwanda, Africa. 24 missionaries were trained in the ministry's first year, and by 1983, headquarters were established in India.
Yohannan spent the rest of his life ministering in Dallas and abroad, ultimately impacting nearly every continent.
"God used him in a big way to say to the American Church and to the western Church, 'If you believe in Jesus, you ought to care for the least of these,'" Pritchard relays.
He says Yohannan's heart for the poor and his ability to avoid the entrapment of wealth and power earned him a reputation as "the Protestant Mother Teresa."
"In his own way, K.P. Yohannan attempted to follow the words of the Master, of the Lord Jesus," the author continues. "He did not dress or act like a like a well-paid, affluent western businessman, and that may be one secret to the reason why he impacted so many millions of people in India. That's a good example for all of us."
Yohannan wrote more than 200 books published in the U.S. and in India, and his "Road to Reality" broadcast was heard on more than 900 radio stations in the US, Canada, the U.K., and Australia.
K.P. Yohannan was 74 years old.
