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Friend to Friend

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

Our world is not a happy place. Wars, rumours of war, earthquakes, raging wildfires, floods, drought, drying rivers, melting glaciers, and political instability are creating conditions never seen on this scale. We’re on the cusp of unknown crises to come. A recent international study reports that almost 50% of the world’s arable land is “depleted”. Food insecurity is widespread.

It’s no surprise, then, to hear that charitable funds are eroding. When we feel insecure we hold onto our money.

Yet the needs of those with whom we work – “the least of these” as Jesus put it – continue to grow. This means WOW has the challenge of facing increased need with potentially much reduced capacity to help.

By God’s grace our help, which “comes from the Lord” through you, has prevailed for over 25 years. But the prospect of less supply looms. We need your proactive help to not only avoid a crisis but to prevail in the battle.

In Exodus 17 there is an account of a battle between Israel and the Amalekites in the valley of Rephidim. Moses, accompanied by his friends, his brother Aaron and a trusted official Hur, stood on a hilltop overlooking the battle, his hands raised, holding “the staff of God”. From time to time, his arms weary, he lowered the staff. When he did so the Amalekites prevailed, when the staff was raised the Israelites prevailed. So his friends, Aaron and Hur, held up his arms until Israel won. Even the mighty man of God needed help. Help from his friends.

As you know our trusted “champions” in South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and India are proven Christian soldiers. They are all pastors overseeing a large army of volunteers providing Home Based Care (HBC) to a multitude of orphans and widows. WOW holds up their arms. And that means you. Together WE are WOW.

Like many of you Kathy and I have been donors to WOW from the beginning and from time to time we have increased our giving to meet the increased need. This quarter requires an increase in giving and I’m asking you to consider increasing your gift, as the Lord leads.

For those of you who watch “Jim Cantelon Today“ you know I see it as the teaching of the Gospel even as WOW is the living of the Gospel. Slowly but surely the donor response to the program has grown as we explain to viewers that support of JCT TV is support for WOW. We’re expanding that reach by placing the program on several podcast platforms. This, in combination with our national television release on Canadian and American networks and our YouTube and Roku channels, should see the donor response continue to grow.

As well as expanding our reach I want to broaden our base. What if each of you, our donors, recommended WOW to a friend? FRIEND-TO-FRIEND. We all know there’s no better way to promote growth than word of mouth. Your endorsement has a lot of influence with your friends.

You can encourage them to access WOW’s website <www.wowmission.com> and our social media networks. They’re sure to be inspired by the ministry with whom you partner!

A lot of people want to give but they want to know their gifts are going to a ministry they can trust, that has stood the test of time, that is making a difference.

Jesus is “a friend who sticks closer than a brother” and “he will never leave us nor forsake us”. He is the one who has called us to the least of these. He is their friend. He is our friend.

FRIEND TO FRIEND. God’s heart to ours. Ours to him and to others. FRIEND TO FRIEND holding up the faithful arms. Together there’s no fatigue.

Many blessings to you!

-Jim Cantelon

Yes, Jim, Count me as a FRIEND!

Sept 16, 2026

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

In the past 25 years with WOW my wife Kathy and I have not ceased to be humbled and inspired by the child-like faith of the orphans and widows to whom we minister. In our western world terms they have nothing but adversity. They are ravaged by HIV and AIDS and opportunistic afflictions like tuberculosis, blood cancers, dysentery, oral thrush, bed sores (yes, you can have excruciating bad sores from lying on the ground!), and even leprosy. And added to these physical sorrows is food insecurity. Yet, when we’re with them they laugh, sing, and dance (if able) with loud and heartfelt praise to the faithfulness of God. Kathy and I have often remarked at how they bless us with their joy.

These are all rural people far removed from global concerns. They know nothing or little of the wars in Ukraine, Iran, and the Middle East. Nothing of the raging wildfires and floods, the political intrigues, and the scary state of the world economy. They are isolated and in that sense protected from big picture sorrows. It’s as though they live in a parallel universe.

So while we are still in shock at the recent warnings from the three big AI companies re: AI’s potential to wipe out the human race in ten years(!), our WOW patients live as they’ve lived all their lives just wrestling with the urgencies of today with no concern for tomorrow.

This reminds me of Jesus’ teaching that we should “think not what the morrow bringeth. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”. There is comfort in these words. Indeed we might take a lesson from our African and Indian orphans and widows: Praise God for today’s provisions of grace and love and let tomorrow, under his fatherly care, look after itself.

May 27, 2026

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

Recently my wife Kathy and I spent a few hours with a childhood friend of hers who has been battling several serious diseases. It’s remarkable that she is yet alive but she is. Not only alive but buoyant, good humoured, and joyful. Indeed, her attitude and worldview in the face of constant vulnerability is both countercultural and truly inspiring. We went to see her, prepared to encourage her, but found ourselves as the ones encouraged. It reminded us of our visits these past 26 years to dying orphans and widows in Africa and India.

We have visited and prayed for countless numbers of what Jesus termed “the least of these” in our Home Based Care (HBC) ministry with WOW (Working for Orphans and Widows). In concert with hundreds of local pastors and church based volunteers we have done and are doing this to bring healing, blessing, and encouragement to the dying in Jesus’ name.

Interestingly, as happened with our visit to Kathy’s dying friend, we are encouraged and inspired. Even as we pray for these afflicted ones we find ourselves uplifted by their peaceful joy and the Lord’s presence. It’s as though we are “under the shadow of his wings” by proximity to the ones in need of his touch, their vulnerability a reminder of our own.

We are all “fearfully and wonderfully made”. And “the times of our lives are in his hands”. What’s more, our short lives here are merely preparation for everlasting life on the other side. Death awaits us all. But for those who die in faith it will be a glorious homecoming. So like our friend whose days are numbered so are ours. As lovers of God we both live and die in hope of resurrection and the life to come.

Song of Thanksgiving

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

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!

Many blessings,

Jim Cantelon – President

WOW – Working for Orphans & Widows

I’ll Help Bless WOW’s Champion Partners Today!

July 23, 2025

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

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.

May 28, 2025

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

I’ve been asked over the past 25 years why we do what we do with WOW. The short answer is that it’s clear from scripture that we should care for orphans and widows in their distress. The long answer is that one hears and obeys the Lord’s calling to service over one’s entire lifetime. Sometimes that “hearing and calling” comes via an “epiphany”.

In a book I’m currently writing, I reference the Apostle Paul’s conversion from Saul, the rabidly anti-christian rabbi, to Paul, the first missionary to the Gentiles and author of most of the New Testament’s theology:

“Blinded by the intense heavenly light Saul fell from his horse and hitting the ground called out, ’What should I do Lord?’ In this immediate response Saul knew with whom he was dealing. This was his enemy, Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified and resurrected one, but he was enemy no more- now he was ‘Lord’. There is no explanation for this instant recognition of the Lord other than this encounter was both vision and epiphany, a manifestation of the divine. It was focused on the solitary Saul. The others with him ‘saw the light’ but did not hear the voice. It was the moment this single soul became a ‘witness unto all men’ of the deity of the risen Christ.”

So, vision in combination with calling can produce unexpected and life changing outcomes. One needs to hear and obey the heavenly voice.

One Hand Up. One Hand Down.

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

Kathy and I will be in Africa as you read this letter.

We try to be there at least twice each year in compliance with government “monitoring & evaluation” requirements. But we find it’s so very important to be there to meet with our champion ministries and their orphans and widows both to inspire and to be updated in person. Every visit, however, we wonder who’s inspiring whom.

The widows inspire us with their child-like trust in God even as they live in abject poverty and disease.

They love Kathy especially. Whenever we enter a dusty rural village the children gather about her and follow wherever she goes. Sometimes a group of them will reach up and take her hands as she walks. One time I saw four children on each hand!

This total trust in “Momma Kattie”, as they call her, has often reminded me of a little song we used to sing as children in Sunday School:

And the picture of their hands reaching up and Kathy’s reaching down captures it.

We are just like them in so many ways. We may not be impoverished or diseased but we ARE ultimately  totally dependant on the Lord. This may be why Jesus said we’re to be like “little children” in our trust and obedience. We reach up even as our Father reaches down.

This hand-in-hand relationship is what the Father seeks.  He has taken the initiative. He has reached down. And his love captures our heart – so we reach up.

You need to know that our entire ministry with WOW is predicated on this truth. The orphans and widows in their desperate plight are reaching up to the Lord by reaching up for our hands. We too reach up to the Lord and down to them. As we do so we see ourselves as your hands extended to them in the name of Jesus. This truly is a partnership between heaven and earth.

So it’s one hand up and one hand down. Our faithful offerings  of our time, talent, and treasure are the evidence  of our trust and obedience as we humbly seek to do His will.

We truly value you! You are proven friends of “the least of these”. We’re so grateful for your support.

It’s Something Extraordinary!

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

Once a year WOW does something extraordinary!

In cooperation with a proven Christian global organization, “Health Partners International”, we are able to provide desperately needed medications to our African ministries at a 7:1 match. This, of course, means that our donated funds are magnified 7 times, as is the volume of pharma we are able to ship.

One of the areas where we administer these vital medications is in the Siavonga region of southern Zambia. Situated on the shores of the man-made Lake Kariba and bordering Zimbabwe, it is a semi-arid, harsh, remote area thinly populated by the historic Tonga people. It is unserviced and impoverished in every way. Thankfully, with our Lusaka-based ministry partner CHRESO, we are engaged in vital health care for approximately 5,000 of “the least of these” every month.

A saintly nurse practitioner named “Suitebertha” (pronounced Sweet-Bertha), with a skeleton staff and a well equipped 3 ton box van, does a circuit to 27 remote, rough hewn clinics. Faithfully, week after week, she and her driver-cum-triage nurse- cum-orderly-cum-mechanic process up to 150 people a day. She is truly an “angel of mercy” to her suffering clients. The people gather at these humble way stations as dawn breaks and patiently await her arrival. A cheer erupts as they see the dust trail of the van on the horizon and they greet Suitebertha with joy and not a few shouts of praise to God.

Every patient has a file and every medication is recorded, as is their current health status. It’s a totally efficient operation. We travelled to Siavonga last September and it was humbling for Kathy and me to witness the relief and gratitude on the people’s faces. As they gave thanks to the Lord so did we!

The medications we are able to provide are the “over-the-counter” products like pain killers, cold medicines, topical skin salves, antiseptics, etc. – all of which are unavailable apart from what we can provide. Our costs also include shipping, which can range from $16,000 to $20,000 for the air transport of meds overseas.

So with gratitude in my heart I encourage you to join us in this extraordinary opportunity to give a generous gift at a $7 – $1 ratio to the Lord’s dearly loved Tonga orphans and widows in Siavonga.

Together we have been faithfully ministering to thousands of orphans and widows in Jesus’ name for 23 years. What a privilege, what an honor! Such a blessing to bless others and hear them, from their hearts, give thanks and glory to the Lord.

 

 

The Cost of Survival

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

 

As I sat down to write this letter to you my WhatsApp pinged with a message from Pastor Kyle Tolman,
our partner champion in South Africa. Read it and weep…

 

The United Nations designates orphaned children raising children as “Child Headed Households”(CHH). We care for scores of these children in South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and India. They are “at risk” in every conceivable way. They break your heart. Truly they need “a Father to the fatherless and defender of widows” (Ps. 68:5). And the Lord calls his children to take up this challenge in his name.

WOW has been faithfully doing so for 21 years. Literally tens of thousands of orphans and widows have been cared for in our Home Based Care programs administered and championed by our vast network of pastor/champions and their local church volunteers. It’s a great story of God’s love shining through his servants to those lost in desperate need.

The Covid-19 pandemic has added more than an edge of urgency to this ministry, not only in terms of added sickness and death, but also in terms of the cost of providing basic commodities (cornmeal, cooking oil, sugar, blankets, medications, etc). The rise in prices for these basics is in the range of 300%. Needless to say this puts our partners under enormous financial stress.

“Cost of Living” is now “Cost of Survival”.

 

This is not a gimmick. This is brutal reality for our thousands of orphans and widows, especially for those humble mud hut households where children are raising themselves. Their “cost of survival” is now 300% higher than it was before Covid-19 began ravaging our world.

We are more than able to reach into our abundant resources and reach out to a world of suffering. WOW is one of many ministries doing a great job. But we are in relationship with you. You trust us and we trust you. This is strength. Strength to meet the challenge of the “cost of survival” for our vulnerable little brothers and sisters in need.