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Emily: Welcome back to the 4:18 Podcast. I’m Emily Frenzen and we are so grateful you’re gathering with us today. God is moving through partners, pastors, and entrepreneurs in African countries. This podcast shares the untold stories of what God is doing through the ministry of Possibilities Africa and testifies to the power of Jesus as described in Luke 4:18, which reads… 

Doug: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” 

Hi, I’m Doug Reed. And today we have the pleasure of diving into the book of Nehemiah. Joining us today in Africa is Possibilities Africa Founder and International Director, Martin Simiyu. Martin, welcome. Where are you at today? And maybe give us just a little bit of a brief description of where you’ve been the last week or two. 

Martin: Well, good morning for you guys, Emily and Doug. It’s a good afternoon going to good evening for me here in Kenya. Nice to connect again on this podcast 4:18, just to reflect on what God is doing. And I’m in Nairobi right now. Last week, I was out in Malawi where we did some training for a number of pastors that are finishing the program and going through some of the major last trainings. Then I also took some time to visit a number of the communities to see what the pastors and their churches are doing as they translate what they have been learning into activities and programs that can bring transformation and change in their lives. It was very encouraging just to hear the stories of how pastors have taken the knowledge and taken it back to their churches, to their communities, at their own level, in their own homes. They are beginning to implement the things they are learning. And at the same time, how they are rallying the members of their churches into groups where they train them, they equip them, and help them to think about how to mentor the next generation to raise up children in a Godly way, how to grow spiritually in their own lives and to be agents of spiritual transformation in the community, how to provide leadership in their homes, in their communities, and also particularly much more so in these very, very poor communities, they are also helping them to think of how to take responsibility and rebuild the economic situation of their lives, the economic status of their lives. We met with women, we met with men, we met with younger people, older people, and a lot of these people are just excited about what the pastors are teaching them. And the pastors are energized about what they have learned from Possibilities Africa, in particular, how to bring the Word of God and make it alive in their ministry, in their families, in their churches, and in their communities. 

So, I’ve been in Malawi. Now I’m in Kenya. During the time I was in Malawi, I also had a team in Burundi. that was also doing similar things among the pastors and the communities there. And so we keep seeing God working amazingly. This week, I have one of my team members joining our team in Ethiopia, doing the same things, going out into the communities and pouring into the lives of pastors. And we are blessed to do this work. 

Emily: Yeah, that is so encouraging. Do you have any specific stories or moments that come to mind from your time in Malawi that you would like to share?

Martin: Well, there are many stories. I think one that I could mention, I mean, there are a number, it’s just that time probably wouldn’t allow us to go through most of them. But one particular one was we visited a pastor who is working with his church members. He has turned them into a Shalom group and he basically meets with them on a field under some bush, there’s a tree canopy. They have turned that space into a Bible study spot and he basically meets his Shalom group members there to teach them the Word of God, to have Bible study with them. But right there by that canopy, there is a piece of land where the Shalom group is starting to do work on that farm to be able to provide for their families and they are pulling together to do that. So there was just a very sweet connection of seeing people sitting on a farm to spend time in the Word of God, and then immediately looking at their work on the field where they are trying to raise vegetables and a few other crops so that they can be able to support their families. 

And then this pastor tells us a story–after he came to the training, he learned that though he’s poor and he ministers among poor people, he had been expecting the very, very poor people to support his life. But after our training, he realized that he can do something more, including that even he as a minister of the Gospel, he needs to have resources so that he can also give tithe and offering in the church. Because a number of these ministers believe, you know, it is the church members that bring money to us, the Levites. And we, the pastors, don’t have to give tithe and offering. And so our trainings have equipped them to think about that. So what this pastor did when he got back after the first training is to go and lease a piece of land and plant rice. And after harvesting rice, he raised enough money to buy a few acres of land. And now he owns a piece of land that he did not own before the training. And he’s now cultivating that whole land. So to see the connection of what is happening with him but also the fact that he’s sitting under a canopy on a farm teaching church members the Word of God and then the church members are also practicing that on the ground. Many, many stories like that we’re able to see again and again. 

Emily: Yeah, I think the canopy example is a really cool visual of the mustard seed story in scripture and how it becomes this beautiful tree and it’s flourishing and it’s just awesome to think about people gathering and doing it in the beautiful place of Malawi that God has provided. But we’re gathered here today to talk about the book of Nehemiah, which has been the vision for much of what we do with Possibilities Africa. So Doug, would you set the stage for us and tell us what’s happening as we look to dive into this book today? 

Doug: Yes, I would love to. You know, it’s interesting, Martin, you talk about the importance of teaching the word of God in Africa and it is equally important for us to study God’s Word. And the book of Nehemiah is just a really amazing book that has a lot of themes that run throughout it. One of the major themes is leadership, but just to set up the context or the time in history that this is taking place and how Nehemiah gets into the particular place that he’s in, you have to almost go back 200 plus years. And so just in a couple of minutes, I’m gonna give you a brief history lesson here. So, Nehemiah is actually about 465 B.C., but if you go all the way back to 700 BC, the people of Jerusalem are not following God. And so, the prophet Isaiah in 700 B.C. warns them that if they don’t turn away and follow God’s ways, that there would be judgment on Jerusalem. 

And then you fast forward about 100 years and you got another prophet, Habakkuk. who also warns about the fall of Jerusalem. And then about the same time, Jeremiah the prophet lives in that same timeframe and he predicts the fall of Jerusalem and he actually lives it out. So, he lives during this time. And so, in 586 B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, conquers Jerusalem and during this timeframe, Daniel and his three friends are taken to Jerusalem and to Babylon. And the walls of Jerusalem, the temples destroyed in 586, just complete destruction of the city. And then you have Babylon, okay, now is conquered and ruling over this area. But then if you keep going, and as we go forward in time, the numbers go down. So in 539, Persia actually conquers Babylon, that’s King Cyrus. And then you go another bunch of years to get to 465 B.C., you have a new king of Persia, Artaxerxes. And so that’s where we find ourselves today in the book of Nehemiah, about the 20th year of King Artaxerxes and about 445 BC. And Nehemiah is a cupbearer to the king. Nehemiah is a descendant of some of the people taken out of Jerusalem back when they conquered Jerusalem, and like when Daniel came, and so Nehemiah would be a descendant of some of those exiled out of Jerusalem. 

So, Nehemiah finds himself as a cupbearer to the king. And the cupbearer, typically we think of somebody who just tastes the wine and tastes the food so that it doesn’t poison the king. But he’s actually very high in a trusted position, a place of comfort. And they got to live in the king’s palace, they got to be with the king. It was probably somebody that the king trusted and actually probably was more of a confidant or somebody who the king would ask their perspective on things and just enjoy talking to. So, he was in a place where he was enjoying a lot of life’s comforts. But he asked his brother, who came back from Jerusalem and was asking about, “how is the city where his ancestors were buried, Jerusalem.” And his brother gives the report that the walls of Jerusalem are broken down, the gates are destroyed by fire, and just this destruction that had been… for way back since the fall in 586 B.C. and so we’re currently in 445, so a long time. And these walls and nothing had changed. And so Nehemiah has a heart. He cared enough to ask, “How are the people that were left in Jerusalem?” And living in a city that has walls that are unprotected, so they’re not safe. And so he has this heart for rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. And so that’s where we find Nehemiah and he’s living in Persia, which is over 800 miles from Jerusalem. So it’s not this quick, like, oh, I’ll just run over there. And in that time it was a long journey and also he needed supplies. And so there’s just a lot of hurdles that he has to overcome. But throughout this book, as we read it, he overcomes those and he is bold and he prays and so that’s a little bit of the background going into the book of Nehemiah. 

Emily: So fast forward today, it’s 2024. And again, much of what Possibilities Africa is doing mirrors this book. So Martin, how does the story in Africa mirror the story of God’s people in Nehemiah? 

Martin: Thank you, Doug, for just highlighting that background to the book of Nehemiah. It’s been a very big inspiration in what we do here at Possibilities Africa. Great leadership example from Nehemiah right from thinking about the leadership that Nehemiah displays, which Doug has talked about, sense of vision, sense of compassion for the people, sense of action to do something about the situation that people are chasing and dealing with. and just even the sense of a heart for God that Nehemiah displays. And I think those are important themes that we try to learn from at Possibilities Africa. When we started thinking and praying and, you know, trusting God about this ministry, we had in mind the idea of, how can we get believers who are gifted by God in different ways. They are educated, they have careers and they are professionals, they are talented and resourced in different ways. How can we get such believers to be part of the solution to the problems that are facing Africa? In fact, our very first name, the name of our organization was the Partnership of Christian Professionals for Africa, quite a long name before we found something more catchy, Possibilities Africa. But that long name was carrying the idea behind what we were trying to do. They believe that there are people like Nehemiah on our continent who God has gifted and blessed. People that came from their homes or their villages and they were living in urban cities or in towns or in other countries and they have privileges more like really for me, leaving my village to come to the city of Nairobi or leaving Nairobi to go to the U.S. 

People like that, we have education, we have careers, we have a little bit more resources than other people. How can we go back and be a solution to the needs that people in our communities are facing? So that is really the first inspiration of connecting our vision to the book of Nehemiah. And of course, as a student of the Bible, having been a pastor in a church and having gone to Bible school and done a leadership program at Biola, from both the theological and the leadership point of view again and again. And so while wrestling through this, it was kind of just the Holy Spirit drawing me to the truths that are in the book of Nehemiah, as some of the key guiding principles and values that we wanted to embody as we go out into the villages to develop this ministry forward. 

Emily: Yeah, it really is amazing to think about your time with God and the Holy Spirit prompting this because it’s really incredible to think about how this ministry has now touched over 260,000 households and it’s just so powerful and amazing to see what can happen. And I remember Doug preached on the Book of Nehemiah recently at a church in Nebraska. And one thing he touched on was how Nehemiah is a man of God who cares and that kind of aligns with what you talked about in light of taking action. And it’s really incredible to think about what can happen when we follow God’s prompting to take action, because had you not done what you’ve done, there probably wouldn’t be 260,000 households. And I know that Martin, you are the first to say God gets all the glory. But it is just so powerful to think about the concept of saying yes to God in that circumstance. 

Martin: Yeah. And so when you talk about missions and development work in Africa, as we have said before, you know, traditionally, the mindset has been that it is the Westerners who will come and do missionary work and who will come and do development work on the continent of Africa. By and large, that has been the perspective, the expectation. African people are very generous people. Because of the sense of community, there is a belief that “I am because you are.” And so the idea is that my existence is actually owed to your existence. “I am because you are” is kind of really the African philosophy of community. And with that philosophy, then everybody believes that whatever I have, I need to share with my community. So there is a generosity within our context where people basically take care of one another, but it is different from where there is need for community development, for improving the status of life at a larger level for missionary work to bring the gospel and to change people’s lives. At that level, people believe that, you know, this is something that someone else needs to come from elsewhere to do for our community. And partly because, you know, from the days of colonialism and the efforts of the international community to help Africa, we have nurtured that culture. 

So part of our agenda that we learned from Nehemiah is even just looking at Nehemiah being in exile, and him taking the step to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls. You look at chapter 2, verses 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, in that space of chapter 2 of Nehemiah, one of the things that you find is that he talks about different groups of people that are in Jerusalem. The priests are there, the nobles are there, the administrators are there, and then the general population is there. But with all those people and all those leaders, the walls were still broken down. The people are living in shame, as it is reported in chapter one, verses one to three. 

Things were not working even with the leaders and the nobles and the priests. And that’s kind of the context that you see in Africa, that you have people around, but a lot of things are not happening. So then for us, it is the question of how do we raise Nehemiahs who give people the vision and who helped cultivate that Godly vision for people to rise up and take responsibility and begin to restore, rebuild their own lives? As you see now in Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 17, when Nehemiah tells the people, can you see the shame that we are living in? Let us rise up and rebuild. And the people realize and they say, yes, let us rebuild. Then you move on to chapter 3, chapter 4 going forward, you start seeing now people taking the action to actually rebuild. So that is what we at Possibilities Africa are doing, to raise Nehemiahs, but also to rally people around Nehemiahs so that communities can be rebuilt. 

Doug: Martin, I just so appreciate you saying that. And, you know, as I think through this book, you know, you’d be quick to point the credit to someone else, but I just see a correlation between you and Nehemiah. If you were able to come to the United States and get an education–couple of master’s degrees and could have done many things, could have had a very comfortable life anywhere in the world. And Nehemiah had a very comfortable life with the king, but he chose to step out of that into this rebuilding. For him, the walls, but for you, you chose to step back into your home culture, Africa, to make a difference. And then you’ve surrounded yourself with a team of people that are equally talented and educated and could have done many things, but they are investing in others to rebuild lives. And so, I just think it’s just a great picture of what God has put in your heart to make a difference in the continent of Africa. And so, that’s, I think that’s pretty cool. 

Martin: Yeah. Thanks, Doug, for saying that. I think the sense of having comfort or having that place where you feel your life is comfortable… If you look at Nehemiah, I think just even when you read his story and the reaction to what was happening in Jerusalem, and you can see that reaction in his prayer from Nehemiah chapter 1 verses 5 going forward, you see him pray the promises that God had for the children of Israel. And the fact that, you know, if you return to me and you repent, you know, and God will fulfill all these promises that He has for you. I think that was Nehemiah’s comfort zone. If you move on and he approaches the king and says, “How can I be happy when my people are living in shame nd the walls of Jerusalem, the city of my God, is broken down?” Again, in chapter one, going into chapter two, you see him in exchanging with the king. When he meets the king and the king says, “I have never seen you have sadness or fear before. What’s going on?”And he says, “How can I be happy when my people are living in shame, when the city of God is broken?” 

And then when you follow Nehemiah’s life as he prays through the journey of rebuilding the walls and restoring life in Jerusalem, one of the things that you see is his constant going back to God and seeking that God’s glory be seen. When he joins up with Ezra to read the law to the people and help people to repent and return to God, you start seeing that those were his comfort zones, that although he had a privilege to serve in the palace, yet his comfort zone was where God wanted him to be, where the will of God was, where the plan of God was, and where the work of God was. And he saw that for him in the city of Jerusalem, but also in the children of God, the Israelites. And so I think, Doug, even as we talk about this for us who are believers, who are Christians. I think it’s the question of where is our comfort zone? Is it in having a professional success, corporate success, which those are blessings that God give us and we receive them and we appreciate them. But I think we look beyond those opportunities and realize that those are avenues for us to be aligned to the will of God, to serve the will of God, and to serve the people of God. And I think for me that even Nehemiah serving in the palace, it was a professional stepping stone that then gave him the leverage to be able to go back and fulfill the will of God, and serve the will of God, and serve the people of God. 

Doug: Yeah, he was a servant. You know, he could have had this savior mentality that he’s coming to save the people, but in… Chapter 1 verse 6, there’s two different times he talks about a servant. Chapter 1 verse 10 and 11, through that little series there, there’s like four times it refers to a servant. And just throughout the whole book, he just is a servant and like you said, serving where God wants him, that’s his comfort zone. And so, that’s pretty interesting to see the correlations there. 

Martin, you mentioned just a few minutes ago that throughout the whole book of Nehemiah, you find Nehemiah praying. And then you also read where he was fasting. And this is just such a key part of who he was and just following after God. And as I think about Possibilities Africa, it just seems like God’s hand is on it. But also, how can we follow God? And then just how prayer has been a big part of Possibilities Africa as well. Do you want to comment on that? 

Martin: I think Nehemiah teaches us really how to do ministry with total dependence on God. If you think about, although some will say, you know, it was a position of privilege, but if you think about the journey for him to leave the palace and to go to Jerusalem by faith to go and do what many others had not done, it really starts with prayer and he launches that prayer in chapter one. Because I think he realized that without God, he can do nothing. We say that with Possibilities Africa, with man, things are impossible, but with God, all things are possible. And so that’s, I think the same thing that Nehemiah records that without God, nothing can happen. So right in chapter one, he begins with prayer. And as you read through the text of his work, almost at the end of every significant communication from him or at the end of every chapter, you see him say, Remember me, O God, constantly calling on God to be at the center of the work that is happening. And I think it should be the realization of every minister of the Gospel, of every Christian that prayer is what brings us to God to let him know how much we need him, but also to draw from him the strength to go on. 

So Nehemiah faces a lot of opposition and he prays about the opposition. When people are discouraged that he was working with Nehemiah, prays. And so with Possibilities Africa, we realize that whatever we’re seeking to do, and like any other ministry, like any other church or Christian ministry, there will always be opposition, there will always be battles to fight. But when we realize that this is not our work, but it is God’s work doing it through us, God will say to David, the battle belongs to the LORD, it doesn’t belong to you. And that realization then means constantly going back to God and saying, God, this is your battle and we are relying on you to fight it for us and through us. Because with God, all things are possible, even the things that are beyond us. 

Emily: That is so good. 

Doug: Yeah, I love, you know, Nehemiah is just an example of long-time praying. I mean, like he prays for four months before he has a chance to talk to the king. But then he also just throws up quick prayers too, like in chapter 2, verse 4, it’s almost like this thought prayer. He’s talking to the king and then it says he prays. And just in constant communication with God, verse 11 of chapter 1 says, “And give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of man.” And so, just this idea of just communicating, talking to God. And I love that and it shows in the success that he had that God showed favor to him. 

Emily: Martin, I was curious what that has looked like for you specifically because I think it’s kind of fascinating that Nehemiah faces different types of opposition, but in these chapters, there are the same three people that come continually with opposition or mocking or whatever it is against Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the temple. So I don’t know if anything comes to mind for you if you think of having themes with the opposition you faced, just in light of what you shared and thinking about this book that came up for me. 

Martin: That’s actually a very good question. And like you say, one of the oppositions that Nehemiah faces is when Sanballat and Tobias kind of threaten his work and threaten to attack him, despise the work and everything. I think that’s one of the direct physical and probably verbal opposition that he gets and again he takes it to the Lord and takes steps to make sure he overcomes it. But I think there are additional things that he faces that could also be considered as opposition. For example, Nehemiah chapter 4 verse 10, again in the context of the opposition from Sanballat and Tobiah, the people are working so hard. There is a lot of rubble from the material that people are using for building. And we are told that the people are actually discouraged. And that kind of becomes a form of opposition where people start saying, you know, our strength is giving up. And Nehemiah stands up to encourage them and he tells them to rise up and fight–fight for their children, fight for their mothers, fight for their homes. And he fights that opposition of discouragement by encouraging people, and again by praying to God for intervention. If you come to chapter 5, again a situation where, you know, the people that were wealthy versus the people that had mortgaged their farms just to make a living, there is a strong sense there of, you know, you’re trying to restore these people to a certain status of life, but there are certain people doing things that are not in line with what’s–so, again, whether it is discouragement or things that are happening that are against what you believe the will of God is. And as you go on, you find the issues of the temple after the people who are working in the temple and were involved in unrighteous things. And again, there, Nehemiah takes reforms to restore that. 

So I think the opposition that we see is not unlike what Nehemiah saw. Basically, you know, in a work like this, whether you’re dealing with discouragement, people coming into the program, you have, for example, last year we went into Zambia. It was our first time we were doing work in Zambia and a group of pastors came into the program. and very excited about what we taught and energized about how they can change the poverty situation in their families and in their homes by working on the farm and believing God for the harvest. And a lot of them went out and planted huge tracts of land, literally everyone that was in our program because they went out determined to fight poverty. Lo and behold, there came the drought, and we’ve had the longest drought in the southern part of Africa and all these things that the people planted dried out in the farm. So that’s kind of a kind of opposition because then these people start wondering, you know, we were better off when we were not making efforts to plant these things. But now that we are planting and the drought has come, we’ve not only lost, but we’ve also lost the money that we invested that we should not have invested in the farm in the first place. And so you have to then deal with some of those discouragement and opposition from time to time. 

Right now, we are a growing staff, you know, around 20 right now, some of them part-time. But again, you work with staff and you find some that get discouraged along the way–one reason or the other. And that kind of is part of opposition. We’ve had experiences in some countries where the government has changed how churches operate. We’ve seen this especially in some of the East African countries. Several churches have been closed down in one country. The first time they closed down 7,000 churches in rural communities, and then later on, they closed down over 5,000 churches. These are people that we were targeting to work with. So when you have groups of pastors in your program that no longer have a church, and your strategy is to work through the church, that is opposition, then you start wondering what to do. So we’ve experienced different cases of direct and indirect opposition. And we borrow from Nehemiah just to trust God to take us through one day at a time. 

Emily: Thank you for being here. We appreciate your partnership in prayer and in giving. If you’re interested in partnering financially, be sure to head to usa.possibilitiesafrica.org and hit the donate button. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share with a friend so we can grow this podcast and share this good news. Thank you so much for being here. God bless you!