My Friend Jon Cassel (CBN Director) And His Amazing Work
December 20, 2010
Below I share with you my friend Jon Cassel's latest travels and work in Africa. I love listening to Jon, for the stories he tells are real, where suffering and hope merge together by God's love to change lives.
Over the years, Jon has helped my husband Bob and I to understand the African people and the many dangers that lurk if we are not careful, and wise. Coming together as friends by way of our asst Pastor in our home church in Melbourne, FL was only something God could have done.
When our asst Pastor saw how often we traveled to Dakar he told us about a friend of his who has a friend who does mission work in Dakar, and that we needed to connect. Then given an email, my husband Bob tried to write Jon but it came back returned. Then I felt the need to try, and finally the connecting was made and we've all been close friends ever since.
So in this post I would like to share with you my special friend Jon Cassel and his work for CBN within all the French speaking countries in Africa. May you be blessed in reading it, as Bob and I have been in having Jon as our dear friend. Be Blessed!
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Dear friends,
Season’s greetings from Dakar! Your humble servant is just back from a three-week odyssey to east and central Africa – visiting Rwanda, Burundi, and both Congos. My boss Kim Mitchell met me in Kigali after my return from unsettled eastern Congo, so I needed to be on my best behavior for the last part of the trip…
(Above) CBN video projection at a Goma school.
(Righ) The Goma team – I’m fourth from the left.
I am so pleased to report to you that I was able to conclude negotiations with a reputable clinic and a small group of Christian men who will now partner with CBN in providing corrective cleft lip and palate surgeries for children and we will be offering surgery to repair the incredible damage that has been done to women and girls that have been horribly violated in Goma in eastern Congo.
I’ll go into no more detail on that! I started this project back in 2006, and I am praising the Lord that we have finally put everything together and the first of the funding has been wired to start our program. Women who have lived in sheer misery after their violation, many for years, will now, by the grace of God, receive surgery to allow their bodies to return to normal and they can go back to their villages and a somewhat normal lifestyle. This is the best Christmas present I could ever receive! Thank you, Jesus!
While in Goma, I was also able to sign the regional national television affiliate to a new contract. In addition, I was able to visit the Dina Foundation safe haven for the girls there – you might remember that I wrote quite a bit about that last year. The girls are doing well!
Sunset over a fishing boat on Lake Kivu
The above-mentioned group of men are going from school to school there in Goma with CBN videos. They took me to see one of the projections – here in one of the remotest places on earth!
Goma is in an active range of volcanoes. From where I stayed you could watch the steam roll out of one of the large volcanoes with an eerie orange-red glow at night. Just beautiful! It was quite the African bus ride to/from Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, to Goma.
In Rwanda, I met with our CBN rep, Enoch Dusingizimana. His church has several Christian schools that are in some financial difficulty that he’d like CBN to help him out with. One day he took me up to the northeast to see one, and down south the next day to see the other one. My boss Kim Mitchell then flew in, and we met with Bro. Enoch before we headed to Burundi to visit with our rep there, Pasteur Charles Nduwumukama. We visited the only Christian television station in Burundi, and had a wonderful time of sharing and fellowship with the owner, Libérat Hatungimana. Here’s Kim with some of the kids at the Burundi schools, one picture with my friend and headmaster Gaspard:
(Above) With CBN DR Congo rep Etienne Babu-Kanu and Kim in front of the CBN Christian schools.
We continue to broadcast in Mandarin to the Chinese community in Kinshasa and the ten million-plus population metropolitan area there, and Kim and I were able to meet with the dear Chinese sister who answers the phones for the calls we receive.
We then took the ferry across the river to Brazzaville – the other Congo. We met with our representative there, Pasteur Victor Nzaji. Kim had brought him a nice projector that will also work with an inverter and a 12 volt battery, so Victor can go into the bush and show videos using the vehicle battery for power. We visited several of our partner television stations, including the national station, where I’ve never succeeded in getting a contract. However, this time, we had a warm welcome with the directeur général, who told us he was a Christian, was familiar with our program, Le Club 700, and would be happy to consider our contract! Wow! Praise the Lord!
Congo-Brazzaville is one of the last of the national stations that I don’t have a contract with in francophone Africa! I started with six stations in six countries in 2005 and today, by the grace of God, we are broadcasting on well over 60 stations in 18 countries! God has been so faithful!
Kim and I are adventurous eaters, and Victor took us to a Congolese restaurant where we were able to chow down on crocodile…
We also are going to be able to perform surgery on a young boy who has a serious and complicated deformity on his jaw there in Brazzaville. This will be such a blessing to the boy and his parents.
That’s a brief summary of the trip. Back in Dakar, my staff is working on our next wells in Senegal, developing new partners for our Orphan’s Promise program work here and elsewhere, and advancing with our website and monthly e-letter to reach French-speaking Africans.
Take a look at our site! www.leclub700.tv. If you click on the ‘INFO – pays L-Z’ tab near the top, then click on ‘Senegal’, you can see my home church’s well in the village of Fissel, and the article about our cleft lip and palate procedures that we will now be doing on a regular basis here in Senegal.
A Williamsport, PA dentist is supplying us with quality used surgical equipment to help with these surgeries! The development of our internet capacities is very important to me, as I believe that the internet is the future in winning young Africans to the Lord! I have hired a new young man to manage our sites in my office here in Senegal, and I see he is making good progress in this area! Here is our regional site in English for you:
www.cbn.com/worldreach/worldreach_region_africa_french_west.aspx
Another project is a container load of wheelchairs that we are bringing in early next year for free distribution to the handicapped here in Senegal. This on top of the $30,000,000+ in medicines we have imported to date for free distribution to the Senegalese population. The entire focus of all that I/we/CBN does here is to introduce people to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
I’ve been charged with working with an Orphan’s Promise partner, Pastor Phil May, in the construction of an orphanage in Sierra Leone. Pastor Phil is from Mill Creek, PA. The orphanage is scheduled to be completed in January, and CBN’s Terry Meeuwsen wants to go to attend the dedication service. You may guess who is to put this together and make the appropriate arrangements. My friends, there is no rest for the weary!
A photo I took in Johannesburg in August with the children praying has become quite popular within CBN circles. It has been the ‘Photo of the Day’ for Operation Blessing, appears on the Orphan’s Promise website, and now it will appear in the CBN monthly newsletter, Frontlines:
My friends, let me take this opportunity to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for any of you that have offered your support – be it in prayer, or in writing me, or financially, for me and the ministry here. As you might see from the above, what the Lord is allowing me to do is above and beyond all that I could ask or think. And you can be very much a part of this if you wish…
This year CBN set up a dedicated website for donations to the CBN Afrique ministry: www.cbn.com/frenchafrica. If you would be led to give a Christmas or year-end gift to the ministry on ‘my’ dedicated website, I would receive 100% of your donation and would administrate it personally right here in Africa. You would, of course, receive a tax-deductible receipt from CBN. You can join me in proclaiming the gospel in truly some of the ‘uttermost parts of the earth’, and to, at the same time, follow the mandate to care for widows and orphans in their distress. I receive a detailed report of any contributions at the end of every month and I can personally acknowledge your gift, as well. Know that your partnership in this growing ministry would be greatly appreciated! Please consider what the Lord might have you to do to help.
I also want to mention this – I’ve only on rare occasion had the pleasure of having a friend come to visit me in Africa. Please take this a standing invitation for you to consider – or if you(or anyone you know) would like to visit any part of Africa. I’ve visited over 40 of the countries on the continent now, and I, like the Beach Boys, ‘get around’ here. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions about a visit anywhere in Africa!
In closing, here is one of my favorite songs for Christmas I’d like to share with you: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULHn978OJh4.
My thanks for your prayers and for those of you who write from time to time. May God bless you – in this blessed season of His Son’s birth. I extend my love to you all - as God extended His love to us with the gift of His Son!
In Christ,
Jon Cassel
Directeur Régional pour CBN Afrique
BP 29788 Yoff
Dakar, Sénégal
Bureau: +221 33 867 43 45
Cellulaire: +221 77 569 85 01
Domicile: +221 33 820 34 51
Skype: joncassel
Jon and I on Ngor Island, in Dakar, Senegal over two years ago. God has used Jon to teach me the ropes and dangers of working in the mission fields in Africa. To me Jon is truly a gift from God!
Patricia Maier