Jim’s Blog

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

St.Paul, who wrote several letters to churches he planted and to young leaders he appointed to pastor them, had two key messages that have stood the test of time. The foremost of the two was his gospel (in four points): Christ died Christ was buried Christ rose from the dead He appeared to many witnesses. […]

In a 1968 BBC interview with JRR Tolkien, the author of “The Lord of the Rings”, Tolkien stated that “human stories are ultimately about one thing-death”. He read a quote from Simone de Beauvoir where she writes about her mother’s hanging on to life in the last few days before she died. “There’s no such […]

2024 has arrived with all the hope and optimism that usually accompanies a new year. Mind you the hype is more than a bit muted in that 2023 was so fraught with sorrow. The wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Yemen, accompanied by volcanos, earthquakes, droughts, and various ecological crises have left […]

I think most of us find the angelic song, “Peace on earth good will to men”, which they sang over the hills surrounding Bethlehem a bit of an unrealizable hope in these troubled days. It seems that chaos on earth has eclipsed the heavenly choir’s rejoicing at our saviour’s birth. Wherever we look we see […]

Among the several(!)books I’m currently reading is “Church History in Plain Language” by prof Bruce Shelley. It’s a great overview of both church and world history written in everyday terms. His description of the tumultuous Middle Ages (6th -16th centuries) can be captured in a few sentences when he quotes Pope Gregory’s sermonic lament at […]