Author: Jim Cantelon

January 08, 2025

The new year has come. Who knew we’d see 2025? I remember the prophets of doom warning that the 21st century might never come to pass. Now we’ve already lived a quarter century in this millennium. And, even though there are crises of magnitude everywhere, our world is still turning and there is hope. Nevertheless many of us saw/see room for improvement in our personal lives. Thus the ubiquitous “new years resolutions”, great intentions that soon are lost as we pick up where we left off in 2024. Perhaps the proven words of the book of Proverbs might encourage us: Trust in the Lord with all your...

December 25, 2024

I’m writing today (Christmas Eve) in the beautiful Laurentian Mountains of Quebec. We’re at the home of one of our sons. It’s snowing with about a metre already guaranteeing a white Christmas. It’s an idyllic setting. Our 12 grandchildren range in age from 24 to 8 and when we’re all together it’s raucous and fun with everyone speaking (loudly!) at once. And last night as we gathered the laughter and noise was at its peak. What was different about this gathering, however, was a moment or two when the kids grew quiet and thoughtful as they discussed the state of our/THEIR world. Theirs is a generation...

December 11, 2024

Christmas for millions around the globe is the highlight of the year. “Peace on earth, goodwill to men” springs from the intuitive knowledge of God that we all possess. There is an upward call in our souls. This may be the impetus throughout the ages to build churches with a steeple causing us to look above and reach for the heavens. Speaking of steeples, the sight of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, rising like a phoenix from the ashes after a 5 year restoration, its beauty, sanctity, and steeple rebuilt, amazed us all. In so many ways it symbolizes hope. Our war weary world needs to know...

November 27, 2024

There’s a lot to be said in terms of this era of the internet in which we live. Information, communication, and interaction globally is literally at our fingertips, our computers and smartphones connecting us instantly to the world. Indeed no generation in history has been so connected. The downside, of course, is that we’re also connected with a world in chaos with war, famine, and sorrow on sorrow. Little wonder we sometimes lie awake at night praying for peace. I often turn to the Psalms where King David, who authored many of them, reached out to the Lord for comfort. Psalm 91 is one of my...

November 13, 2024

I’m writing this brief blog on November 11th, the day when the free world remembers the fallen in two world wars and scores of regional conflicts. For many of us who are a bit younger than those who participated in battle it seems surreal as we hear accounts of the personal horrors that they went through. And yet many of us have fathers or grandfathers, mothers or grandmothers who fought and survived. Their stories (if they’re willing to tell them—some aren’t) seem like scenes from a movie, too brutal to be real. But real they are. And you can see those memories come to life in their eyes as...

October 30, 2024

I think most of us have read of remarkable people who have accomplished a lot in the face of adversity. Usually that adversity is from without. But there are those who have battled challenges from both without and within. I blogged last time about the adversity our WOW champions are facing in South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and India. Drought in Africa, floods in India, food insecurity, disease, and huge gaps in the electrical grid in Zambia and Malawi, and on and on. All adversities from without. But one of our champions is facing chronic adversity from within. He has come close to death twice...

October 16, 2024

Kathy and I had no idea when we founded WOW 25 years ago that one day we’d be engaged with two of the five most needy counties in Sub Saharan Africa. Zambia and Malawi are in crisis with severe electricity and food shortages. WOW has a significant footprint in both countries where we’re involved in the care of thousands of widows, orphans, and others at risk of starvation and/ or death from disease and opportunistic infections. With 2-3 hours of electricity a day, and sometimes none for a couple of days at a time Zambia especially is suffering. Malawi at least has hydro. Added to that is the...

October 2, 2024

My wife Kathy and I recently participated in a Zoom call with our ministry partners in South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and India. They gave us and each other updates on their work with orphans, widows, and other vulnerable people in distress. They are true champions, soldiering on faithfully in the midst of limitless adversity. Facing drought, disease, violence and endemic food insecurity our WOW partners continue to reach out to “the least of these” (to use Jesus’ term) with home based (and in India, street based) care. They are like ministering angels. They could yield to discouragement and...

September 18, 2024

There’s no need to recount the plethora of environmental, political, and war zone crises facing us in 2024. You’re as up-to-date as I am and no doubt just as concerned. Indeed there’s more than a case for despair. And like me, you may be in need of a word from the Lord. “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,...

September 4, 2024

I don’t know about you but I’m more than a little tired with the glut of conspiracy theories out there. Whether about vaccines, politics, environment, or culture wars, a kind of social media swampland is incubating an ecosystem of fear. Indeed, it’s fear that fuels conspiracies. When someone with almost evangelical fervour tries to convince me of a current conspiracy I ask, “So what are you afraid of?” When I was a teenager my dad once said to me, “Fear God and nothing else”, and then reminded me that “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom”. I was rereading the book of Isaiah recently and...