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Box 358 Grande Cache T0E 0Y0, Alberta, Canada
An organization of ordinary people who want to be a blessing to the world.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

A Visitor for Gilgal.


At our monthly meeting, held July 29th in Wetaskiwin, we were blessed to have a special guest. Antoinette is a widow from Nigeria who shared with us her struggle living as a widow in Africa. Her powerful story gave our group a better understanding of what it is that widows and children are facing in some African countries, and clearer picture of our ministry role.
Antoinette and her son Michael and Daughter Danielle.

Meet John Oche Omale...




The vision for the Gilgal Ministry was established in the heart of John Oche Omale, a Nigerian man now living in Canada. John and his wife Esther have previous experience working with Nigerian widows and children, and the Gilgal Ministry is their attempt to re-establish a ministry in their home country. John explains his mission:

My mission--I say my mission because I have always felt like a man on a mission--is to restore honor and dignity into lives through the Word of God and to see the Lord Jesus Christ restore and transform lives. Our commission and mandate from the Lord is to let people know that with God anything is possible; to show God's children that there is ability even in disability if we give God full control of our circumstance. By giving God control, we refuse to limit ourselves by making a permanent decision over a temporal circumstance.

I desire to help men and women escape the devil's trap, to let people know that they have other options in life, that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the answer to every situation they are facing or ever will face in life. I want to let people know about the unconditional love of Christ Jesus...love without angles. I want to help mankind answer two of the greatest questions in the Bible from God:

1. Genesis 3:9, "And the Lord called to Adam and said, 'Where are you?'" For us to be set free we must come out of hiding and stand before God as men and women and allow God to deal with the issues in our lives. My mission is to help people come out of hiding. Hiding under issues such as drugs, lust, alcoholism, working too much, religiosity, etc., leads to the deterioration of our honor and dignity and prevents us from being the people who God created/intended us to be. I want mankind to know that they can go to God the Father as they are.

2. Genesis 4:9, "And the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is your brother?' And Cain replied, 'I do not know: Am I my brother's keeper?'"(If you are not your brother's keeper, then you are your brother's killer). My vision is to see people everywhere rise up in love for one another: reaching out in love to one another, wiping the tears away from one another's faces, each individual reaching another individual. I desire to see children growing up and refusing to allow their past to destroy their future. I want to see them embrace the love of Christ and allow the word of God (that is the same yesterday today and forever) to speak to their past, bringing them into a hopeful today and toward a glorious tomorrow in Jesus name. Amen.

The Gilgal Women and Children Ministry is born out of a passion to liberate children, from every reproach and bondage of poverty and sickness and abuse. Habakkuk 2:2-3 says, "Then the LORD answered me and said, 'Record the vision, and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay." To bring hope to those who have given up on themselves and to show them that God cares for them is my mission. These people are not alone in their suffering, for God has raised an army of help for them, men and women who desire to use the blessings that the Lord has bestowed on them to be a voice of God to the hopeless. Through my actions I want to show them that the Lord cares as HE is using us today to roll away the reproach of poverty, sickness and sorrow in Jesus name.
My prayer is to see lives change through the power of love in Jesus name. Love is giving. We give not just because we have to, but because we want to, and we love to give. I desire to be an instrument of change. The Lord's warning in Amos 6:1 "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion" speaks to me a lot. I don't want to be at ease while hundreds of women and children all over the world live in poverty and hardship. Especially the hundreds of women and children that I know who are in need daily. I want to be used by God to bring hope to the hopeless. I want God to make me a blessing and not just bless me.

Our Vision

The vision for the Gilgal Women and Children Ministry International is based on Joshua 5:9 which says,
"And the LORD said unto Joshua, this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day."

Our vision is:
To create opportunities for the less privileged in Africa, especially in Nigeria by: 

  • Giving children an opportunity to be educated and cared for by building a school and a children's home in Nigeria.
  • Creating a scholarship program for children who are living in poverty and are unable to afford basic education training. 
  • Encouraging widows and empowering them to stand on their own, through learning trades and helping them to start small scale businesses.
  • Becoming a bridge between Canada and Africa; giving the two societies an opportunity to be a blessing to each other. 

We aspire to do this particularly through:

  • Providing caring, compassionate families, churches and organizations the opportunity to be involved in short and/or long term work in Africa.
  • Enabling men and women from Canada to go to Africa to help train and equip African women in different trades and skills.
  •  Helping pastors from Canada organize teaching seminars and conferences and to set up mission stations in Africa.
  • Helping African churches and pastors shoulder their load by giving manual labor and material support.
  • Providing materials and resources that will be of great help to the widows and churches in Africa (toys, clothing, books, teaching aids, working tools, farming tools).

The vision for the Gilgal Ministry was established in the heart of John Oche Omale, a Nigerian man now living in Canada. John and his wife Esther have previous experience working with Nigerian widows and children, and the Gilgal Ministry is their attempt to re-establish a ministry in their home country. Gilgal began with a few couples who met together sharing the 'need' for such a ministry and brainstorming about possibilities