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.
I’ve been connecting recently with an old friend who has just gone through a serious medical crisis and surgery. As we’ve conversed it has struck me again that in the midst of ongoing global dramas, both geopolitical and environmental, there are daily stresses suffered by all of us personally. Most relate to health and some to random accidents but all have impact. Suddenly we may be in a hospital bed surrounded by medical personnel and concerned family members and the vulnerabilities of life take centre stage. We’re thrown physically, emotionally, and spiritually, face to face with our mortality. None of us wants this even though we know, as Shakespeare put it, “life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more”.
At times like this the scriptures take on sudden comforting relevance. The Bible says, “The times of our lives are in His hands”, and, “As your days so shall your strength be”. Yes we’re mortal but there is so much more to life than this short space and time adventure. Our creator has plans for us on the other side of the grave. In His vast universe we will have a role. His word says we’ll “rule and reign with Him”. Whoa! One’s mind boggles at the possibilities. Perhaps this is why St.Paul said he’d rather be with the Lord but he’d redeem the time on earth until that glorious day of entry into the heavenly realm. There’s more to life than meets the eye.
“But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me!” Matthew 14:30
In Exodus 17 we read the story of the battle between Israel and the Amalekites championed by three men in their eighties! Moses (80 years), his brother Aaron (83 years), and their brother-in-law Hur (must have been of similar age), stood on a hill above the conflict. Moses with the “staff of God” raised over his head and his brother and brother-in-law holding up his arms as they tired, saw the Lord vanquish the enemy with Joshua leading Israel’s army. It was a classic biblical example of God’s power enabling those who pray, support, and fight in the cause of righteousness and justice.
WOW is currently engaged in a battle for righteousness and justice, but not with a temporal enemy. We’re facing a war with the one who the Bible says “seeks to kill and destroy”. His weapon is HIV & AIDS. Ours is the combination of prayer, funding, and faithfulness.
We’ve fought this battle for 25 years, and with the arrival of very expensive yet vital Antiretroviral (ARV) medications 20 years ago, funded by PEPFAR – President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief – there has been real progress. Now that USAID support for PEPFAR has been suspended our ministry partners in Africa and India are in crisis. We may be back to the early days when AIDS was always fatal.
Here’s the latest from one of our champion pastors:
“The last few weeks have been a true roller coaster. We were told to stop all programs supported by the US government but we put a small group of our dedicated staff together to keep serving the most pressing needs. Our Kabwe site has lost all its USAID support so it’s now permanently closed. Our Livingstone and Lusaka clinics have been allowed to continue until September 2025. We are urgently looking for ways to keep the ministry going but so far we have no solution. One third of our support for general pharmaceuticals (dealing with opportunistic infections) has been discontinued due to recently revealed Zambian government corruption. Thus we have added stress. We may soon be stymied.”
Rev Helmut Reutter, Founder and President CHRESO ministries Zambia
I’m hearing similar expressions of deep concern from all of our champion ministry partners in Zambia, South Africa, Malawi, and India.
These “salt of the earth” champions are “Jesus’ hands extended” to the “least of these”. Like Moses’ extended hands they are growing weary. They need an Aaron and a Hur.
WOW continues to provide the pharma and selenium funding, an integral part of the Home Based Care (HBC) ministry with the weekly visits to thousands of people under our partners’ care. WOW has increased food support by 35% to our partner “Somebody Cares” in Malawi where we’re feeding 8000 orphans, widows, and grannies each month, and we’ve funded solar electric systems to ICO (Impact Community Outreach) and CHRESO in Zambia. Now Somebody Cares needs a solar system as well.
As never before in our 25 year history we need “Aaron and Hur” to hold up the hands of our humble, faithful ministry friends. Their sense of urgency is palpable. WOW is a proven champion of champions. Together we have and will continue to pray, support, and fight the good fight.
The analogy may be a bit of a stretch but I see WOW as “Moses”, you as “Aaron and Hur”, and our on the ground champions as “Joshua”.
In faithful concert we will prevail! Ultimately “the battle is the Lord’s”.
