Recently we visited our champion partners in South Africa, Zambia, and Malawi. We were very impressed with the growth in their ministries to orphans and widows in distress- impressed and moved with compassion.

Thanks to the availability of antiretroviral medicines the impact of HIV and AIDS has been mitigated but the impact of opportunistic diseases remains.

On this visit we met and prayed with several patients suffering from tuberculosis of both lung and bone. The bone tuberculosis is very painful. Sitting on the ground with these precious souls as they lay on their mats our hearts were broken. I wept as I prayed, their suffering was so intense. We felt both sorrow and frustration with their agony and the distance between our western world and theirs, wishing we could just summon an ambulance and wisk them away to first world medical care. But instead of an ambulance the critically ill have to be strapped to a bicycle or laid in an ox cart and transported to rudimentary rural clinics.  It’s hard to believe sometimes that we share the same planet.

As we pray with each one we remind them that the Lord knows their name and their need. But our souls ache. Our only comfort is that these dear ones are being gently cared for and we are able to faithfully pray for them every day wherever we are in the world.

Bottom line is our trust in the Lord who “sees the sparrow fall” and holds these fragile patients in his hands.

It struck me that we’re all kids at heart. Little things can thrill us and big things can overwhelm us, especially when the stimulus is the natural world. Vast mountain ranges, roaring rivers, endless forests, deep blue lakes, soaring birds, and so much more, enfold us in wonder. Indeed that wonder sometimes borders on worship. There’s something childlike in us that wants to look up, to exalt the Designer of the great design.

This is an essential spiritual quality common to us all. We have an intuitive knowledge of God. All it takes is a moment of wonder to bring it out. We are born to worship.

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.

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.