Many times over the years Kathy and I have visited remote African villages where our local church volunteers are compassionately providing home-based care (HBC) for afflicted and/or dying orphans and widows. In the dust, heat, and adversities of disease and soul stressing poverty, these indomitable volunteers provide the loving extension of Jesus’ hands to “the least of these”, as he put it. They are truly agents of healing and hope.
Many of them are widows themselves living on the edge. Some are living with HIV, their viral load managed by medication, and all are poor. But WOW, through our local champion pastors, makes sure they have food and medical care to enable them in their selfless work. WOW also provides bicycles enabling them to travel the long rutted roads to their patients in a third of the time it would take to walk.
I see them as ministering angels.
What has impressed and humbled us over and over these past 25 years is their total gratitude for our help. What’s more they see our support as a gift from God and they give him the glory with guileless child like enthusiasm. Even the elderly widows sing and dance for joy.
I’m always aware that our work is supported by the Lord and his people. It truly is a team effort. And we praise the Lord with our African brothers and sisters for his steadfast love and faithfulness.
Kathy and I have heard a lot of praise to the Lord from the lips of the suffering. It is truly astonishing and humbling to hear the voices of hundreds of villagers singing songs of thanksgiving even in the midst of constant disease and death. Over 25 years of WOW’s ministry to afflicted orphans and widows we’ve heard thousands of voices raised in praise in village after village.
Perhaps the most poignant of all was the faint and faltering spontaneous hymn of praise sung by a young dying widow as she lay on a blanket outside her mud hut one hot day in Malawi. Her voice quavered as she sang in her native tongue, “I praise you Father for your faithful love. I praise you Father for receiving me to yourself. I come to you now.” Then she breathed an almost inaudible prayer, “Please care for my children…” Two hours later she had passed into the Father’s presence. I wept.
Thanksgiving. What a concept! We will be thanking God this Fall for our abundance, celebrating his faithfulness around tables groaning with food. But what about thanksgiving when you’re living on less than 2 dollars a day and you’re dying from HIV&AIDS, cholera, COVID, or some opportunistic diseases like pneumonia or tuberculosis? How does one find the energy, let alone the faith, to lift one’s voice in a song of thanksgiving under such pressing adversity? There is no way that this can happen apart from supernatural strength. I believe such songs are evidence of the Spirit of Christ within.
King David was a master poet whose psalms are bathed in the spirit of thanksgiving. There are so many examples. Here’s one:
“The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.” Ps. 28:7
As founder and president of WOW, my heart is bursting with thanksgiving! First of all, I’m thankful for God’s unfailing love. Secondly, I’m thankful for the champion ministries with whom we partner. Let me give you an overview.
Kyle and Nicky Tolman CROSS CONNECT – South Africa
Kyle and Nicky Tolman are founders and leaders of this vital ministry to orphans and widows in the so called “irregular settlements” on the outer fringes of Johannesburg. With WOW’s support they have created “House Nehemiah”, a home of rescue for abandoned children and abused young women. They have won the respect of local government, police, and social services officials to the point that they are often asked to be first responders to reports of children in crisis. Everyone knows they represent the Lord in all they do. They and their staff of 35 are truly “salt and light”.
Pastor Helmut and Esther Reutter CHRESO – Lusaka, Zambia
Pastor Helmut and Esther Reutter are founders and leaders of this amazing ministry. Starting from scratch 30 years ago with a focus on the HIV&AIDS crisis, their hearts broken by the fatal consequences of this disease, they established a humble clinic in Lusaka where Esther’s nursing training was put to work. Helmut, an entrepreneurial pastor of the highest degree, got to work building adjunct ministries. A church, a radio station, a school, a television station, a university (!) fully accredited by the Zambian Ministry of Education, an orphanage, several rural clinics, and most recently a hospital (at Victoria Falls) and an extension of the university in the Copperbelt region. They are seen by Zambians as a national treasure and by us too. WOW provides funding for the purchase of medications, solar power for their rural clinics, and bicycles for their volunteer Home Based Care (HBC) workers. They are saints of God and we’re humbled and blessed to have worked with them since 2001.
Pastor Eric and Joyce Mwambelo IMPACT COMMUNITY OUTREACH – Kabwe, Zambia
Pastor Eric Mwambelo founded and leads ICO with unfailing love for the orphans and widows of central Zambia. With a faithful and talented ministry team, he is literally changing the culture of the town of Kabwe and its surrounding communities of the sick and dying. A key component in ICO’s outreach is a remarkable farm called “Rob’s Farm”, named after our son-in-law who suffered an accidental death while building a Bible college in Kitwe. The farm is a wonder to everyone in the region. It’s like an oasis of abundance growing and providing organic vegetables for ICO’s orphans and widows. It is doing so well that the excess produce is sold in the market, the profits providing the cost of farm maintenance. Eric’s church is bursting with thankful people and is the mother church to a number of new church plants. We’ve partnered with ICO since 2002 and we’re thankful.
Chief Theresa Malila SOMEBODY CARES – Malawi
I met Theresa Malila, founder and leader of SCM, in 2002 when I was preaching at a church service in Lilongwe, Malawi. In response to my call to the Church to practise both righteousness and justice, she asked me to pray with her about a call from the Lord to quit her well-paid government work and start a ministry to AIDS afflicted orphans and widows. True to that call she began a ministry that now has national attention and respect. Today SCM has a huge national footprint incorporating HBC, feeding programs, schools, gender based violence mitigation, safe houses for abused girls and young women, Bible training for young adults, and various social and paralegal interventions in concert with law enforcement authorities. On top of all this, she is also a regional chief and a dedicated pastor. When we’re with her and her well-educated and committed staff, we feel we’re walking with angels. We’re thankful that we can both inspire and help fund this world class ministry.
Ed Dickson LOADS OF LOVE – Ukraine
We also partner with LOADS OF LOVE in Ukraine, providing food and clothing for women widowed by the war and their fatherless children. Ed Dickson has a humble spirit and a servant’s heart. His compassion for the displaced widows and orphans in Ukraine is truly inspiring. We’re honoured to support his ministry.
And we have another partnership with a humble church providing vital food, medicines, and general poverty interventions for street orphans and widows in a country that shall remain unnamed because of national government pressure.
Needless to say I find myself singing songs of thanksgiving in my early morning prayer times each day. It is such a privilege, and a humbling one at that, to partner with saints of God faithfully preaching and living the Gospel.
Finally, let me say it LOUD & CLEAR, I’m so thankful for YOU and your faithful support of WOW. You are PILLARS for us.
I’m thankful that you’re singing songs of thanksgiving too!
One of WOW’s ministry countries is Malawi in Southern Africa. It is the 4th poorest nation in that massive continent. Like most other African nations, over 50% of the population is under 30 yrs of age. Under educated and under employed, this huge number of young adults are an explosion waiting to happen, especially now in that a general election is about to take place. During the last election, hundreds of young adults demonstrated against what they saw as a rigged process with stone throwing, burning tires on the roadways, and threatening unwary drivers with violence. We were caught in one of those uprisings with our ministry team but escaped unharmed. Scary nonetheless.
Election tensions in combination with food shortages, electrical “brown outs”, ongoing HIV and AIDS crises, opportunistic diseases, a massive fuel shortage, and the stresses of ongoing poverty are some of the heavy burdens Malawians have to bear. Malawi is broken.
But there is hope. WOW’s champion partner “Somebody Cares” is lighting a candle in the darkness. Caring for thousands of orphans and widows in the name of Jesus they are without doubt “salt and light”. We’ve been working together for 23 years seamlessly and redemptively. Many of the young orphans we cared for two decades ago are now proactive young adults making a saving impact on the nation.
The scriptures say that the Lord knows them that are His. There’s no doubt that His known ones are present and hard at work bringing hope to “the least of these”. Malawi may be down but by God’s grace they’re not out.
Without doubt Jesus captured the essence of the prophetic message of the Old Testament when he responded to a young lawyer’s inquiry: what does God expect of us? Jesus said, “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:28-31).
First of all, Jesus declares there is one God. This was/is light to the idolatrous nations surrounding Israel whose gods were numerous. Then he says that the love of God and of neighbor fulfills God’s expectation that we be both righteous and just. There is no call to religious fervour or legalistic dogma but a command that we love God and neighbor with our intellect (soul/mind), emotion (heart), and will (strength). These summarize all that God requires of us.
Sounds fairly succinct but it encompasses all of life. Indeed it engages us every day.
This is why in our ministry we stress both gospel teaching (Jim Cantelon Today TV) and gospel living (Working for Orphans & Widows). Righteousness and justice. It’s our mandate. By God’s grace we march to the beat of that heavenly drum.
I visited recently with a friend who’s recovering from open heart surgery. He received 5(!) bypasses. This procedure was called “beating heart surgery” which means the surgeons operated while the heart continued to beat. Truly amazing.
As we talked, our conversation turned to mutual friends who are going through health crises: battles with Parkinson’s, dementia, kidney failure, diabetes, arthritis, hearing loss etc, etc. We agreed that we’re all vulnerable regardless of age and that we are, indeed, “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). But we also remarked on human resilience and the ability of the body to heal itself. After all, the surgeons wield the scalpel but the Lord provides the healing.
We also remembered the scripture saying, “the times of our lives are in His hands” (Psalm 31:15). And, ”as your days so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25). What a comfort to know that the hands of healing and the sustainer of life is our Heavenly Father.
I was talking with an old friend who is/was also a pastor. Both of us have been in the ministry for over 50 years. We were discussing the common themes we have dealt with in the lives of our congregants. We referred to issues like domestic conflicts, loss of employment, illness, encroaching death from disease, concern about sons and daughters, spiritual needs, etc, etc.
But underlying all these we agreed that for everyone, including ourselves, life brings burdens. Indeed, as the saying goes,” life happens”.
Sometimes life breaks us. I could give so many examples of the brokenness I’ve encountered in precious children of God, but suffice it to say we’re all, on occasion if not permanently, broken.
I always refer to Psalm 34 for comfort: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Ps.34:18).
This is not an ideological nor even a religious truth. Rather, it is simply truth. The scriptures say that we “are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward”(Job 5:7) and that “God knoweth our frame that it is dust” (Psalm 103:14). We are fragile, small, and easily broken. Yet we have deep down an intuitive homing instinct for Heaven. We know God exists and is as near as a feeble upward call. Because He lives we have hope.
To quote Psalm 34 again,” The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry.”(v.15). There is genius in taking our burdens to the Lord and leaving them there, remembering the wisdom of the words, “In thee o Lord do I put my trust.”(Ps. 31:1).
In the gospel of Mark there is an interesting anecdote about children. Let me quote my comments on this passage from my book, Cantelon’s Casual Commentary:
Jesus had a high view of [children], as he did of women…Mark tells us about Jesus and the little children. He mentions that Jesus and the disciples were “in the house”. He doesn’t tell us whose it was or where it was. Regardless, a crowd gathered and began to press in with their children hoping Jesus “would place his hands on them” in order to bless them. The guard-dog disciples tried to push them back, but Jesus, “indignant” at his disciples and compassionate towards the children, opened his arms and said,” Let the little children come to me.” These youngsters were the ones to whom “the kingdom of God belongs.” He took each one in his arms and blessed them. I’d love to read the story of what those blessed children became.
[Then] Jesus gave another blunt teaching when he said,” anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Adult doubts, skepticism, and second thoughts can sabotage faith. Only those with the childlike capacity to throw oneself into Jesus’ arms, as it were, will ever enter into the Lord’s eternal presence. The guileless child has the imagination and trust to act on simple belief. “Jesus loves me? Great! I’m his.”
I remember this always as we at WOW minister to children at risk in Africa and India. The kingdom of heaven is theirs.
As I write there is an ongoing search for missing children and adults in the aftermath of the horrific floods in Texas. We’re all shocked and saddened by the loss of life, especially the little girls who were swept away from their idyllic summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River. It’s hard to comprehend how a river can rise 26 feet in only 45 minutes, from a meander to a torrent. It’s a grim reminder of the irresistible forces of nature that can suddenly overtake us.
At times like this there is the predictable call for “thoughts and prayers”. And rightly so. It’s an indication of the latent sense of our dependence on our Maker. I say latent because for many of us it is. We don’t call on God except when we’re in trouble.
Perhaps a better word would be “intuitive”. There’s an upward call in all of us because, in biblical terms, we’ve been made “in the image of God” and we have a homing instinct for heaven. In that sense we’re pilgrims with only a few moments to “strut and fret our hour upon the stage and then be heard no more”, as Shakespeare famously wrote.
This world is not our home.
So even as we pray for the bereaved Texan families our hearts look upward. Dear Lord have mercy.
As I write our world is fraught. None of us has lived on the cusp of international disaster before. This is new and it is scary. I turn to scripture for guidance and comfort and the following stands out:
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust… Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, last thou dash thy foot against a stone… Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life I will satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.”
Excerpted from Psalm 91 KJV
Indeed, as the old hymn puts it, “In thee O Lord do I put my trust…”. He is no absentee landlord. He is Lord and Father of us all.
