Project Nehemiah
A ministry to Diaspora Africans
“Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?”
— Neh 2:2-3
Politically, socially and economically, Africa is in distress. Economists project that the economic situation will continue to deteriorate over the foreseeable future. Not surprisingly, many Africans are leaving. Most Western nations now have significant populations of economic or political refugees from Africa. Many Africans in the West have no intentions of returning to their home countries. Some who seek to return will be discouraged by their families from doing so.
Many African Christians are leaving Africa because of economic conditions, or because survival would involve compromising their Christian principles in a corrupt economic system. Most Africans in the West have the added burden of supporting family members and friends back in their home countries. Responding to the challenge they face requires compassion, wisdom and understanding.
The recognition that many will not return to their home countries invalidates the traditional “plug” for ministering to internationals as a means of ministering to their nations or people group when they return, but must also be seen as a means of influencing the large and relatively closed subcultures of Africans forming in major cities worldwide.
Project Nehemiah was started in 1995 as an outreach of Bread for Life to serve as a catalyst for reaching, mobilizing, and equipping diaspora Africans – helping them participate in shaping and changing their continent with a Christian world view.
Mission
“To serve diaspora Africans through relationships that build vision and to provide relevant resources for strategic impact within their subculture and countries.
Purpose
To reach Africans Abroad and to alert them about the needs and opportunities in rebuilding Africa.
Objectives
• To be an expression of God’s love for Africa & Africans
• Reach and mobilize Africans living abroad
• Help newly arrived Africans in the West as they adjust to a new culture.
• Connect Africans with existing churches and organizations in wherever they live
• Serve as a link between families in Africa and families in the West
• Like the Prophet Nehemiah, to point Diaspora Africans homeward
• Carrying out constructive dialogues with government officials in hopes of fostering peace and equity
• Help indigenous African ministries abroad by partnering with resources
• Educate North American About the need to reach International as a means of reaching the world
• Serve a catalyst for positive and lasting change