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March 27, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

WOW (Working for Orphans and Widows) is 25 years old, founded by my wife and I in January 1999.

 

We did so in response to the devastating HIV and AIDS pandemic that swept through Sub-Saharan Africa in the last two decades of the twentieth century, creating the biggest orphan and widow crisis in history. Our response was directly informed by the scripture stating that “God is a father to the fatherless and defender of widows” (Psalm 68:5). Our call to the African churches was “Every church a Mother Theresa”. If that little Albanian nun could challenge the world by her ministry to the dying in India what might the impact of thousands of churches be if they committed to doing the same in Africa? We resigned our great church in Vancouver and began from scratch, living out of suit cases for the first eight months as we ground it out pursuing a vision to mobilize the churches of Africa to become active in the rescue and care of “the least of these” as Jesus put it. Needless to say our humble efforts have seen us immersed in sorrow on sorrow as WOW has engaged some of the poorest and beleaguered people on earth. And, even though we have seen thousands cared for in the name of Jesus, the relentless impact of disease, poverty, and weather disasters continues.

 

A case in point is the massive drought in two nations where we work, Zambia and Malawi. Both countries have declared national emergencies and have appealed for emergency aid from the European Union, United Nations, and the West. And, on a much smaller scale our ministry partners have appealed to us as well.

 

We respond not only out of compassion but of duty. The Lord has called us to do what we can and our faithful supporters here in North America have risen to the challenge. We’re doing our best to light a candle of hope. I’m very grateful for all who have and will continue to “hold up our arms” at this difficult time.

March 13, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

I just received a report on the drought and consequent pending famine that Zambia is now facing. This on the heels of a cholera pandemic. Sorrow on sorrow.

Our partner ministries there, CHRESO in Lusaka and Impact Community Outreach (ICO) in Kabwe, are in the midst of all this and by extension so is WOW (Working for Orphans and Widows). We’ve been helping fund their desperate struggle against cholera, now this.

We’re assessing the need and will respond with the compassionate support of WOW’s faithful supporters. The world is in trouble on several fronts but it’s a great privilege and responsibility for us to step into Zambia’s crisis with our care.

I need make no remark on the geopolitical challenges of our suffering planet other than thank the Lord that we can be a small player in easing the travails of the suffering. I want to ask you to pray and do what you can to help us in the struggle. May the Lord continue to supply the need.

February 28, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

Recently as I was driving to the television studio to record “Jim Cantelon Today”( JCT TV) the black clouds and driving rain made visibility almost impossible. Along with all the other drivers I had to reduce speed to a crawl. I say “all” but there were, as you would expect, a few cars and a truck or two that rushed past at a reckless rate, spewing swathes of standing water onto our already overwhelmed windshields. At any moment I expected the worst. For sure there would be a pileup of crashed vehicles. As it turned out I made it through unscathed but it took an hour or so when I reached the studio for the adrenaline to subside.

 
It struck me as I drove that this was an instance of driving “by faith and not by sight”. I had to have faith in the other drivers with no guarantee that they would keep to their lanes and not race through the storm like those few irresponsible speeders.
Indeed, even in the best driving conditions we drive by faith in other drivers that they will obey the rules of the road and not careen through the traffic like they’re in a car race. And, to change analogies, we eat the food we’ve purchased, we sleep in our beds at night, and live our daily lives trusting the integrity of those who supply our needs.

From time to time our faith in others is tested. A case in point would be scores of drivers who are facing huge repair costs because a local gas station last week in Ontario served gasoline that was mixed with windshield washer fluid. They filled their tanks in faith albeit without any sense that faith was involved. Good gasoline is a given no?

The Bible states that we “walk by faith and not by sight”. We put our trust in the Lord even though He is unseen. We hope for a home after death in an as yet unseen heaven. We order our core values and day to day lives with a sense of accountability even though “no one  has seen God at any time”. Little wonder that those who don’t believe see us as offside with the general culture of the world. St. Paul captured it when he said, ”We see through a glass darkly”. We’re more blind than sighted, but we put our trust in our Heavenly Father, holding his hand as a little child, believing “He knows the way that we take”.

February 14, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

We recently received a report from our WOW partner in Zambia,ICO (Impact Community Outreach). They  have been engaged in a cholera mitigation project in the Kabwe region in response to the spread of this extremely virulent disease. Thousands of Zambians have been infected with hundreds of deaths.

Poverty, dirty water, and poor sanitation all contribute to Cholera’s spread. These factors are rife in the villages where ICO works. So they made an urgent appeal to WOW for emergency funding in order to purchase soap, chlorine, and disinfectants. We responded and ICO set out to train their volunteers in hand washing and disinfecting methods who then went into the villages to teach our orphans and widows how to combat this wasting affliction.

 You would think that basic sanitation is a given, but it’s not. These impoverished dear ones have no money to buy soap, and rarely have access to clean water. So the rules of sanitation which we here in the West take for granted are like a foreign language to rural Zambians. The idea, for instance , of adding chlorine to their water is beyond their grasp.

Nevertheless our champion volunteers went to work and in the past few weeks the spread of this nasty disease has lessened. Amazing that just soap and clean water can make such a difference no? It’s a matter of life and death.

This is a powerful reminder to us that what we take for granted should be reason for gratitude. Grateful for soap? for clean water? Yes. Grateful.

January 31, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

I read something on the internet recently that astonished me. It was a story about Elmo, the cuddly character on Sesame Street TV, and his question to his social media followers about how they were doing:” Elmo is just checking in. How is everybody doing?” he asked on X. The response was huge. Thousands of people including celebrities (even President Biden!) responded. The general message : “We’re sad. Our world is on fire. We’re having trouble sleeping at night. Where is this world heading?”

Isn’t it sad in itself that the outreach to our suffering world is from a puppet? And even sadder is that people are moved by this fuzzy compassion to open their hearts?

Perhaps this unprecedented relational interaction between real people and a Sesame Street “personality” is evidence of our isolation. We’re connected like never before (due to social media) and marginalized like never before. We are silos desperately in need of someone who truly cares. We are spiritual and emotional orphans. Little wonder there seems to be an epidemic of mental health issues.

We need to rediscover the promise that our Creator cares “He will never leave us nor forsake us…He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother”. Indeed, “for God so loved the world…”.

You and I are that “world”. It’s time to reconnect lovingly with both Him and our neighbor. We need it.

 

January 17, 2024

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

Every New Year the number one resolution by us westerners is to lose weight. We seem to be chronically over-fed and under- exercised. In light of the World Food Program’s reports we might consider being ashamed of ourselves.

The WFP reports that 783 million people in our world live with chronic hunger and 300-350 are food insecure (meaning they don’t know if there will be food tomorrow). The main cause is war. Indeed 70% of hunger is conflict based while the remaining 30% is caused by climate crises and operational underfunding. Apparently international donations to the WFP are down by 50%. The greatest hunger emergencies are reported to be in 14 areas: Afghanistan, Central Sahel, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Myanmar, N.E. Nigeria, Somalia, S. Madagascar, S. Sudan, Gaza, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen. There would be few in these regions, if any, resolving to lose weight in 2024.

Contrast these devastating realities to a headline I just read on the BBC news website: “Weight-loss Surgeon Told Patient to ‘eat, eat, eat’ in Order to Qualify for his Gastric Sleeve Surgery”. He owns and operates a weight-loss “holiday” business that provides cut rate surgeries in Turkey. But to qualify a patient must meet a minimum weight. So, if one is on the cusp of that weight minimum one must eat copiously to gain the needed pounds.
There’s no need to moralize here. We all can see the gross inequities that plague our world. Yet we live in a parallel universe of entitlement and complacency. Nevertheless there are millions of compassionate souls who care and act. Multitudes of charities raise millions of dollars in mitigating the hunger gap. These are thoughtful, loving people who look at our suffering world and say,” There but for the grace of God go I”.

These are the ones who choose every day of the year to change the world by ministering to “the least of these” one hungry soul at a time. Let’s resolve to be among them.

 

March 8, 2021

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

I’ve been thinking of the impact of the home on a child’s life. Rather than my thoughts here’s something from a late 19th century theologian:

 

       “ The father and mother of an unnoticed family, who, in their seclusion awaken the mind of one child to the idea and love of perfect goodness, who awaken in him a strength of will to repel all temptation, and who send him out prepared to profit by the conflicts of life, surpass in influence a Napoleon breaking the world to his sway.”

 

Parents have a “captive audience” of their children during Covid. Now’s the time to change the world.

February 22, 2021

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

Photo by Doğukan Şahin on Unsplash

 

We’ve passed the one year mark in the Covid era. Vaccinations and variants are vying for victory. Who will win?

Seems that both may prevail. The experts are predicting that Covid is here to stay but vaccination will see a plague becoming some sort of ever present flu. Who knows? One thing we know is that predictions are just that.

Our sense of vulnerability has not only been heightened but burned into our social, familial, and spiritual lives. We suffer and remember how it used to be. But that “new normal” we lightly referred to a year ago has become a burden that refuses to disappear. From now on we’re walking with a limp.

Jesus said,” Come unto me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest”. This would be a good time to take him at his word.

 

February 8, 2021

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

 

So how are you doing 12 months into this COVID-19 era? If the media reports are anywhere close to the heart of the matter you’re not doing well. Infections and deaths increase every day, depression is up, divorce, thoughts of suicide, alcoholism climbing, disturbing increase of abused infants at emergency wards, sorrow on sorrow…we’re suffering a global pandemic of fear and sadness.

 

This is no time for trite solutions. We’ve got to admit our lostness on a scale never before imagined. We need help.

 

I was listening to one of the most loved hymns in history being sung recently. It resonated acutely:

   Our hope for years to come,
   Our shelter from the stormy blast
   And our eternal home…”

 

Now is the time for us to reach out to our Creator and call for His intervention. Indeed, that constant cry of ancient church liturgy rings truer today than ever:” Lord have mercy”.

January 18, 2021

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

The “Golden Rule” is under duress these days. A casual summary of Covid protocols from a governmental medical authority was recently posted, “Stay away from other people”. Blunt, succinct, and counter-intuitive, if not biblically dissonant. Indeed,
culturally dissonant too.
The core value of reaching out to those in need, let alone achieving social harmony via “quid pro quo”, has been carved into human relations over millennia. It’s a principle that has stood the rest of time. But not today. We’re locked down.
Social media connectivity, which has proven, ironically, to disconnect us in the name of “friending” and “liking”, has found its match in “social distancing”. The result is social isolation like never before in history. We feel the “gulf fixed” keenly. We’re all suffering.
But there may be a silver lining. It’s called “prayer”. Praying for others is an act of love. As you lift your neighbors and loved ones before our Heavenly Father there is connectivity on a higher level. “Bearing one another’s’ burdens” gives one a sense of family and mutual care. It has always proved to be a fulfilling exchange. And, a great aspect of praying for someone else is that it gets your focus off yourself. That’s always a good thing.

January 11, 2021

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

This week a “day of infamy” occurred in Washington DC. We all watched it unfold and we’re all troubled not only by the insurrection itself but by the implications. There’s a lot of blame-shifting and/or soul searching going on depending on political ideologies and adherence or non-adherence to conspiracy theories. But, regardless of polarities, no one is immune to the collateral damage from the incitement of riotous behaviour.
There’s a profound irony in that this attack on democracy took place on the same day that the USA had a record breaking one day death toll from the Corona virus. The nation seems under siege.
Yet the House and the Senate still managed to regroup and certify the election. Democracy was dealt a blow, but it was not fatal. For this we thank the Lord.
No need to scold or berate, rather to mourn and pray that the “God in whom we trust” will have mercy and heal the nation.

December 21, 2020

Written by Jim Cantelon on . Posted in Blog.

 

Everywhere people are gearing up for a truncated, if not solitary, Christmas Day. The Covid news keeps deteriorating. As of the past few days we’re suddenly aware of a Covid “variant” that has emerged in the UK. Yikes! Scores of countries are closing borders to any British attempts at entry. All this while Brexit is in final death throes.

 

It’s not inappropriate to refer to 2020 as an “apocalyptic” year, with more to come. We can try to mitigate but we can’t avoid the impact of sorrow on sorrows, not just in terms of Covid, but also convulsions of war, famine, and political upheavals.

 

Nevertheless we will prevail. History has its undulations but the human heart has deep resources of hope and joy. We can truly sing our belief that there are and will be continual “tidings of comfort and joy” in this sin stricken world.

 

Jesus is here. His spirit is present. His words resonate, “Come into me all you who are weary and heavily laden, and I will give you rest”. I’m weary. Are you? If so let us find rest in the Savior born in a stable, crucified on a Roman cross, dying and rising again for our salvation. The angels over those shepherds’ fields got it right. Our world, with all its woe still resounds with,” Peace on earth, good will to men”.