We believe in local church ministry.
WOW works with local pastors and their congregations, challenging and equipping them to be front-line workers in Home Based Care for the vulnerable and/or dying orphans and widows in their communities.
Local Churches Provide Volunteers.
WOW’s champion partners train, mobilize, and direct the volunteers.
“The Church must be a threat to injustice”
Theresa Malila,Founder, SCM, Malawi
Wow’s Singular Focus
WOW has a singular focus: “caring for orphans and widows in their distress” with a view to playing our part in God’s commitment to be “Father to the fatherless and defender of widows” (Ps. 68:5).
Our calling, therefore, begins with Home Based Care (HBC) to the vulnerable and dying – the “least of these” as Jesus put it – (Mt. 25:40-45).
Jim and Kathy Cantelon, Our Founders
In 1999 Jim and Kathy Cantelon incorporated Visionledd (now known as WOW – “Working for Orphans & Widows”) with a vision to mobilize the churches of Africa to care for orphans and widows impacted by HIV & AIDS. They saw the Church, both in North America (as a funding source) and in Africa (as a delivery mechanism), as the critical champions in the fight to care for “the least of these” dying from this devastating pandemic. Because of a long history of engagement with African churches when pastoring King of Kings Church in Jerusalem, Jim was ideally suited to bring the biblical call of Righteousness and Justice to the pastors’ network developed in the 1980s.
For over two decades, WOW’s impact has grown to encompass many thousands. The main focus of this unique ministry is “Home Based Care” (HBC) for those infected and affected by HIV and its many opportunistic infections, and most recently, COVID-19. Today WOW is seen as a major player in “visiting orphans and widows in their distress”.
