Transcription:

Emily: Welcome to the 4:18 Podcast. God is moving through partners, pastors, and entrepreneurs to break the chains of poverty in African countries. This podcast shares the untold stories of what God is doing in Africa and testifies to the power of Jesus as described in Luke 4:18, which says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” 

Possibilities Africa is committed to bringing about transformation through the whole gospel, impacting the whole person, and transforming the whole community. Today, we welcome you to a conversation with two key leaders of Possibilities Africa, Martin Simu and Doug Reed. Martin is the founder and CEO of Possibilities Africa. He received two master’s degrees, one from Biola University in organizational leadership and one from Moody Theological Seminary in Chicago in intercultural ministry. Despite lucrative opportunities to stay and work in the United States, Martin returned home to Kenya in 2004 and formed Possibilities Africa. Martin not only has educational and professional experience to equip him for changing the face of Africa but also has personal knowledge and understanding from growing up in a small remote village in utter poverty. 

Doug Reed is the Managing Director of Possibilities Africa USA. After college, Doug returned home to South Central Nebraska for 10 years before stepping into a call to full-time ministry. Doug has a master’s degree in divinity from Bethel Seminary and pastored a local church before joining the Possibilities Africa team. He has been building meaningful partnerships with donors and prayer partners since June 2019. This is our first episode and if you’re listening, we are so grateful you’re joining us for a conversation that we are praying will ultimately lift high the name of Jesus, give God all the glory, and lead our hearts to align more with His. Doug, would you open us up in prayer before we dive in? 

Doug: I would love to let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we just come before you and worship you for you are God, the Creator of the universe and Sustainer of the world, you are worthy of our worship. And Lord, thank you for Jesus and how you have redeemed us through the blood of Jesus, and Lord, the good news of the gospel and how that has changed so many lives and continues to change lives. Lord, we just thank you for what you’re doing in us and also through us. And we just pray for Possibilities Africa and thank you for Martin and a team and what you’re doing there. I thank you for just a chance to share a little bit about the ministry here. And I pray most of all that you’re glorified in Christ’s name. Amen. 

Emily: Thanks, Doug. Martin, thank you for joining us today. We would love to hear where you’re at this week and what you’ve been up to. 

Martin: Thank you, Emily and Doug. I’m happy to join you. I’m speaking to you from Lusaka in Zambia. This is in Sub-Saharan Africa. And I’ve been here for one week already, and I’m going to be here for another week just for maybe those who don’t know, my home is in Kenya. I live in Kenya, but we are in Lusaka, Zambia, which is one of the countries where we work, where Possibilities Africa serves. And we are here to provide training to pastors who then become people that implement our program in their churches and their communities. Just to mention, while it’s exciting to be here and be with pastors, this region, this part of Africa has been experiencing drought and a lot of pastors and just the community in general are complaining because Africa depends a lot on rain-fed agriculture and this region, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, they haven’t planted because this has been their planting season-is coming to an end and most of them have not been able to plant and those who planted the crops have ended up dying because they have not been able to get enough rain. And that tends to affect lives and livelihoods because a lot of people depend on these activities for their sustenance and just for their provisions. And so even as we are here to meet the pastors coming into our training, it’s kind of two sides of the coin where on one side they’re excited about this training that is giving them hope, but on the other side they are dealing with the challenges. And just the frustrations of this season of feeling like, you know, if the rains don’t come and we don’t plant, how are our years going to be? And just to mention the presidents of these countries, especially Malawi and Zambia, have declared drought as a disaster right now that is affecting their country. So let’s pray for these countries, a long answer to a short question, but yes, I am in Lusaka, Zambia. 

Emily: Thank you for sharing. We love to hear how to pray, and to kind of get a bigger vision of what Possibilities Africa is today for our listeners, Martin, would you share the beginning of Possibilities Africa? When and how did Possibilities Africa begin? 

Martin: Yes, that’s a great question. So I think that’s something that we always try to figure out because like most things, Possibilities Africa has been a journey that God has been creating. And so a lot of things have happened to have Possibilities Africa where it is now but I think officially speaking, Possibilities Africa was registered in the U.S. in the year 2004. And so about 20 years ago, actually, so officially speaking, we are celebrating our 20th anniversary, but before that registration, there were a lot of activities that went into place, building relationships and thinking and praying. And so way back from the year 2002, when I was a student at Moody Bible Institute, and we were able to do a mission trip to Africa, along with the students and faculty from Moody Graduate School, the idea and the conversations about this ministry started, I will say May 2002. And we have carried that vision and that dream from that time until today. And by the grace of God, in the year 2005, as Emily had shared a little bit, I returned to Africa and started doing the activities in Kenya. And so that is really the journey of starting Possibilities Africa. But if you’re looking at a specific time, I would say we got registered in the US in 2004 and got registered in Africa around 2006 when I had returned in 2005. And so yeah, that is really the beginning.

I think some of the things that just to mention about the beginning, it was the question of what do you really want to do? Is it really important to start another ministry? There are already other ministries doing a lot of work. Should we have another organization that comes to the map and says, hey, we’re going to do charitable work or we are going to do Christian ministry? There are already others doing that. But I think as we went through those moments of prayer and asking God what he will have us to do, it became clear that God was calling us to something specific and to a specific place. And therefore, our journey to begin then was a journey of learning, a journey of consulting, a journey of building relationships, but then a journey of figuring out how do we do what God is calling us to do so that we are not duplicating what others are already doing. And so we went out then to learn from the communities that we’ve been called to serve. We went out to build relationships with our friends in the U.S. and our friends in Kenya, in Africa. We went out to even begin smaller activities of trying to say, how do we bring hope to people who are living in poverty, who don’t know how they are going to feed their children. Today, let alone the next day and we began with activities of trying to help people to get support and sustenance. And then we realized over time that is already being done by other people and we also realized that is really not bringing the transformation that people need. And so we learned from that to see that when you give people things, even when you do that in a very genuine and caring way, in some cases, you might be helping, but in some cases, you might be hurting. You might not be bringing the change that can enable these people to grow into a better way of living. And so we then determined that we need to have an approach that is different from giving people handouts. That is really when and how I think that I could share immediately. 

Emily: Thank you for sharing. That’s great. How would you describe Possibilities Africa to someone who has never heard of that organization before? 

Martin: Interesting, yeah. So I’m not very good at elevator speeches, so I’ll probably just go ahead and give another long answer. Sometimes they say the best way is to give an elevator speech and you know, people don’t have much time. So I have explained a little bit that when we started the work of Possibilities Africa and also just given my background of growing up in a village and our community, where majority of the people lived in poverty and from hands to mouth and depending on handouts. When we started our ministry we were reflecting on that. We were reflecting on why do our people live in poverty many years later after our countries gained independence, after you know so many organizations are working in our communities–charitable organizations, governments, and different entities are working in our communities to help people. So those are some of the things we wrestled with. And so when we designed Possibilities Africa, we were reflecting on that. And so we say to ourselves, the difference that we need to bring as Possibilities Africa is to help people see the hope that they have in the gospel and how that hope can transform their lives, not just… for today, but for the future of their lives, of their days, but also for the future of their generation. So we are thinking about the people today and the generations that come after that. How can the gospel transform their lives? 

And we came to be convinced, biblically so speaking, that the Word of God has the power and the capacity to equip people, to empower people, and to help them build their lives in a manner that life is transformed over time. First of all, spiritually, we felt that part of the challenges that our communities are having is the absence of spiritual maturity. I think in most of our communities in sub-Saharan Africa, the gospel has been preached. People know about Jesus, they know about Christianity, they know about the Word of God. But the difficulty is that they are not growing spiritually. Discipleship is very weak. And so we sensed that one of the things that we needed to help people understand and pursue is to grow spiritually. Because when you grow in the Word of God, then the Word of God changes your life. And when it changes your life, it is changing you mentally, spiritually, and even just how you live in your daily experience. That is kind of the foundation of what we thought was important. 

Number two is that we believed that based on these biblical principles, that then people can change their lives at a family level, at an economic level, at a social level. And then that, we hope, will usher in what we call holistic transformation so that it is not just growing economically, it is not just growing in your social relationship, it is not just growing spiritually. but growing in a manner that your entire life is being changed by the word of God. And so in what ways is Possibilities Africa different? We are different, we believe, because we help people to see how the Word of God can bring that transformation in their daily living. That the Word of God makes you a steward, it makes you a disciple, it makes you a follower of Christ. And therefore, how can you live as a follower of Christ in respect to work, in respect to money, in respect to spiritual discipleship, in respect to raising your family, in respect to being a citizen in your community? And we believe that if our people in Africa embrace that culture, then their lives begin to change. But just a quick addition to that is we also believe that when people start finding their identity and their dignity in the Word of God then they start moving away from the inferiority mindset where they feel I cannot do anything to help myself. So I need to sit back and wait for handouts. I need to sit back and wait for charitable organizations to give me what I need. I need to sit back and wait for the government to fix my problems. And so we help people then build their identity in the Word of God and out of that identity belief, God has given me the strength the talents, the gifts, the mind for me to manage my life, to take care of my life, to take care of my family so that I can live the fullness of life that God has in store for us. 

We believe that a lot of people in our African communities have depended on handouts and on our culture of depending on others and being entitled because they have never been shown that in Christ, they can be somebody. In Christ, they can improve their way of living. In Christ, they can be mature Christians, serving one another, helping one another, even as they grow in their own ways. So I think that is what Possibilities Africa is seeking to do and to achieve. 

Emily: That’s great. I have a follow-up question for you, Martin. The theme of what you just shared that I hear is the Word of God being the source and this guiding light and lamp for our feet that directs how we live in every way. And I’m curious how that has been the case in your own life and where you’ve seen that in your testimony of walking with Jesus, how the Word of God has formed you into who Martin is today?

Martin: Yeah, that’s another deep question. Thank you. So my journey of life has just been God opening doors and God working in my life and giving me a sense of purpose. As I think I shared, I grew up in a poor family, in a very poor village. And so the opportunities to even rise up and grow and get to know the Lord and get to mature as Christians were very limited because the village I grew in, there were churches, but the Word of God wasn’t being taught the way it should be taught. There were no pastors or ministers who were equipped to teach the word of God, biblically. You’ll mostly hear stories and things. And so God opened a door for me then to, when I moved to the city of Nairobi, to hear the Word of God. 

And so the first thing that the word of God did for me was in a way to move me from being a religious person in church and making me a follower of Christ, a disciple of Christ. And that happened when I came to the city of Nairobi and understood that Jesus died for me because I am a sinner and I can only find salvation through the work that he has done for me on the cross, his resurrection, and that by grace through faith, I can find my forgiveness of sin and I can join the family of God, I can be a child of God, and therefore God can be my path. So for me, that realization began a change in my life. And I was able to to experience that after I had left my village and came to the city of Nairobi and had the opportunity to sit under someone who was well equipped to teach the Word of God. And so, Emily, in a way that is even why we value taking these pastors from the village and bringing them to train and equip them, because I have been there where you attended a church, but you really did not get the Word of God. And so we are helping these pastors to understand that when you pour into people and teach them the underrated Word of God, and help them to grow in the Word of God systematically, then you help change their lives for eternity, not just for today. 

But also, the second thing that happened for me is that when the word of God then opened up my heart, and I’m born again, and I’m growing spiritually, then I came to realize that the word of God has more promises for us than just being born again and going to heaven. That the word of God calls on us to be stewards of our lives, to be stewards of the resources God has given us. And so that then opened a door for me to say, how can I develop myself? Which doors can God open for me to develop myself? And some of the questions I asked along the journey of life was why is Africa poor? Why is my country poor the way it is? Why was my village so poor that this transformation, whether it is economic or social or spiritual, is not being experienced in my village. And so God’s Word then opened my eyes to say there is opportunity, there is potential out there beyond what I have known. And so my second experience really was then to sense that God was leading me to follow him in his Word, to be trained in his Word. And so I went to Bible college and trained as a pastor, as a minister of the gospel, which then opened doors for me to go to the U.S. to study and out of that growing in God, then I realized there is much more that the Word of God gives to us for life, not just for going to heaven. And as the Bible will say, God’s Word is a blessing to us for life and for godliness, you know, so you use God’s word to teach you how to live today, both in godliness and righteousness, but also just in being a human being who is experiencing life, the Word of God is a lamp unto your feet, a light unto your path. So that kind of becomes the compass that I am following. 

And then the third thing that I would say is having been born again, having gotten training through the Word of God, the Word of God has also then become the basis of our ministry that when our pastors come together, the training starts with the Word of God. And then the programs that we run are rooted in the Word of God. They are founded in the Word of God. For example, we teach the pastors who come into our program about spiritual discipleship. And so we take them into scripture to understand, unless you help the believers to grow, then your church will not really achieve what God has set up the church to do. We take them through scripture to help them understand if you don’t raise your children in the ways of God, then you’re going to have a generation that does not fear God. We train them to understand that if we are not good stewards of the resources God has given us here in Africa, then forever we are going to be dependents. We are going to be stretching our hands and saying, “help us,” but we root all that teaching in the truth of the Bible and the Word of God. And so the foundation then is helping everyone understand the word of God and how they apply it in their own lives. 

Emily: So good. Doug, we’ll switch gears to you. What is the role of partnership with the United States for Possibilities Africa and why does PA USA exist? 

Martin: I think you have to go back to, as Martin just was talking about, the Word of God. I mean, in the first century church, Acts 1:8, we have the kind of the marching orders of what we’re supposed to do and it says, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and the remotest parts of the world. And so, you know, we’re supposed to start where we live and then move it out and move it out into the remotest parts of the world. And so we have a responsibility here in the States to share the gospel and to several people, but we also have the responsibility to take it around the world. And so I think that’s what motivates me and why we have Possibilities Africa USA is to help spread the gospel around the world and just the love of God. And as an average American, we have so much, so much wealth, so many, even so many different resources when it comes to the Bible, commentaries, podcasts like these. I mean, it’s just so many things. I mean, you think about the average American. We’re the top one or 2% of the world’s wealth. And that’s just an average person, whereas opposed to somebody in Africa, many of these African villages that we live in live on less than $2 a day. And so it’s like, you know, we have this opportunity, but then there’s also a responsibility to take this gospel and this discipleship around the world and share God’s love with people that have less, not only less financially, but less spiritual opportunities to learn and to know, as Martin said, not only to be saved, which is their most important thing but then how to grow, how to live, what’s that daily look like? 

Emily: Yeah, that’s awesome. When you think about God calling you to Possibilities Africa, will you tell us what that looks like and kind of the steps that led you to where you are now? 

Doug: Yeah, well, you have to go back in history. We’re going to go way back to 1987 and I just graduated from college and was trying to decide what God was going to do with my life. And I heard about an opportunity to go to Africa with Campus Crusade. Now it’s called CRU. And so I thought, well, that would be super fun. That’d be an adventure. So I signed up and ended up in Kenya for a summer. And we lived in the foothills of Mount Kenya, in a little village with no electricity, no running water. There was a bunch of us who went over from the stage, but there were about, there was five of us in our little village from our team. And our job was to travel around to villages and show the Jesus film, which is just the life of Jesus out of the book of John. And so we had a little pickup and a driver, and then we had a generator and a reel-to-reel, which really dates me, but reel-to-reel film projector. And so once or twice a day, we would show this Jesus film, either in the schools or in the day, and then in a churchyard in the evening. And… literally thousands of people come. I mean, you show up in a village where there’s no electricity and you have a movie in Swahili, their native language, and it’s like, we look out and all we can see is faces. And so we didn’t keep track of how many people we showed it to, but we did keep track of how many people would come forward afterwards. We’d invite them to come forward and make a decision to follow Christ. And just our team of five, we had over 4,000 people that summer, which was really cool to see God work that way. I look back on that, with just fond memories. 

But the thing that bothered me back then was, okay, who disciples these people? And how many times have they raised their hands? I met the pastors and the pastors loved God, had a calling from God, but in these villages, really no education and no resources either. Some of them didn’t even have a Bible and looking back on some of my writings or something I wrote way back then, there was a gentleman that stopped me and he’d seen the film and he made this comment. He said, “You tell people how to be saved, but you don’t tell them how to live after they’re saved.” 

I thought, you know, that is so true. And I wrote that back in 1987. And so, you know, I came back and I farmed for 10 years, our family farm, enjoyed that, felt God’s calling into ministry. And so as a pastor for 21 years. And then I was in Africa in 2019 with our church on a mission trip, and I heard more about Possibilities Africa. And at that time, this ministry had been going for 15 years. And I just kind of heard about it. But they were training pastors. They were sharing the gospel but not only that, they were telling them how to live. They were discipling them. And so I just thought, wow, that is really cool. Something that I thought needed to be done way back when but I didn’t know how to do it. Back then I didn’t have a seminary degree at the time, didn’t know the language. And, but then to come across Martin and his team who are doing what just really needed to be done. And I thought, wow, that’d be really cool, and then I heard, actually from my nephew, that they were thinking about hiring somebody in the States to be what he called the champion for the ministry. And I thought, wow, that would be really cool that I could be a small part of this ministry and encourage Martin and what he does over there. And so I applied and they hired me and it’ll be five years this June. I’m more convinced now than when I started that this is something that God’s really using. And so it’s really, really been fun to be a part of. 

Emily: Yeah, that’s awesome. I just think it’s amazing that you were wrestling 10 years before you even went into ministry. And then after that, it was another number of years before you find Possibilities Africa. 

Doug: Well, It’s really interesting to look back on time because you go through life and you kind of go, you don’t really see how it all fits together. And I still don’t completely, but it’s interesting, like my undergraduate degree was in Economics and then I farmed for 10 years. And then I was a pastor and went to seminary. And now with Possibilities Africa, so much of what we do with the small businesses, the micro businesses that we start are farming-related and just economics-related but understanding that their greatest need is the gospel. But if you don’t often address their physical need, you don’t have an opportunity to share their greatest need, which is Christ, and where they’ll be for eternity. So anyway, it’s interesting just to see a little bit of how God has used my past and prepared me for what I’m doing now. It’s kind of fun. 

Emily: Yeah, yeah. That quote that you read too is incredible. 

Doug: I just found that this week. I was just looking back at some of my writings. So yeah, it’s interesting. 

Emily: That’s so crazy. Lots of breadcrumbs to follow from the Lord in your story. So I have a question for both of you. What is something that you’re proud of when you think of Possibilities Africa? 

Martin: Doug, you’re the smart one. You can go fast. 

Doug: Well, we could debate that, but I will go first. You know, I think I’m most proud of Martin and those early people who started Possibilities Africa in the early years and just stood by and supported. I mean, we’re looking at 20 years and it’s really amazing to see. I mean, we’re in seven countries right now, but those early years, there’s just a lot of challenges. I wasn’t part of it then. You know, I’ve only been for five years. But think of some of the early people, you know, Martin had a vision for this. He hired a young man named Charlie, who’s just a great guy. And those guys, some of their stories that they–early on are just amazing. Some of the people who went to Moody with Martin, Merrell McIlwain and Matt Shada, Tyson Griffin, just how they have stayed with and been on the board for this long, long time and how they supported. Doug Schada, who was the chairman, and just how they invested so much and to see where it’s at today, it wouldn’t have been if they wouldn’t have done what they–I mean, the things that I love how Martin talks about honestly, how tried things and then they didn’t work. So then we tried something, they tried something else and how it’s evolved and they didn’t quit. Not many ministries make it to 20 years. Most ministries, they just last for a year or two or a few years and then they stop. And so I’m just proud that they didn’t stop. 

Emily: Yeah, “That they didn’t stop.” That’s a mic drop sentence.

Doug: Yeah, they didn’t stop. 

Emily: Martin, what about you? Yeah, that’s kind of Doug to say. Just thankful for the people that God has brought to be part of this ministry and to make it happen over the years. People have obeyed God and have been involved. And I know you’re asking, what are we mostly proud of? Maybe let me say it this way, what am I mostly thankful for? I think I’m really thankful for the fact that this ministry has come together because of hearing the voice of God and obeying the voice of God, not just by the people who started it, but by many others who have come and been part of it. I think as you look at the story of Possibilities Africa, what you see is a trail of God working in his own amazing way as different people obey him and follow him. The work that we have seen with Possibilities Africa is really not something that you can describe any other way. It is God at work. For example, you go to communities that have… been depending on handouts for such a long time. The first thing they expect when they hear a new ministry has come around is they are expecting you to bring handouts. And you tell them, hey, no, this is not about handouts. This is about how God can use his word to transform your lives. And you just see God break the spirit of entitlement and handouts and then bring these people just to be aligned and want to learn. They want to take in the Word of God. We experienced that this past week in Zambia, just pastors and leaders coming and opening their hearts and saying, you know, how can this work in our lives? And I’m so thankful about the fact that God has been opening such doors, both in the communities here in Africa, where we go into and bring the pastors together and say, it is possible for God to change our way of life. It is possible for the Word of God to inform our way of life. It is possible for us to build a new foundation for our children and their children so that it is informed by the Word of God and the truth of God and in that process it’s possible for us to see the change. And so I’m very thankful for that. But I’m also very thankful for many other people who have come from the U.S., from here in Africa to invest in the ministry and see it grow.

Someone said to us a while back that the glory of God is more important than our selfish desires. His name is the late, is now the late, Doug Shada, who was a chairman, a chairman of our Possibilities Africa ministry in the U.S. at some point, now, he has gone to be with the Lord. He said the glory of God is more important than our selfish desires. And I think as we’ve gone through the journey of this ministry, I am more proud of and I am more thankful of God being at the center of what we do. I’m thankful that people are growing closer and nearer to God. As Doug had mentioned earlier on, most pastors in our communities don’t have Bibles. I am thankful that pastors are now finding that transformation and growth comes when they make the Word of God dear to them and they begin to study and learn the Word of God and allow it to transform not just their lives, but their churches and their community. So there is so much to be thankful to God and to be proud of, but thankful and proud that we have survived 20 years and more. 

Emily: And that’s a wrap. You can stay tuned for episode two. This is one that you will not want to miss. I was moved by our conversation today and there’s even more good stuff to come in part two.