Bible reading for 40.Day 2025 | Nehemiah 2:17-18 

The book of Nehemiah gives us many lessons on what it means to come together as God’s people. In Nehemiah 2:18, it is written, “Let us rise up and build.”

This reminds us of the LoveTimor movement, initiated by the late Pastor Rick Seaward in 2004 when he was the Chairman of LoveSingapore. It was a call to the churches in Singapore to love the nation of Timor – together.

Three Bs come to mind when we read through the book of Nehemiah.

1. Blueprint

Nehemiah prayed, and God gave him the strategic plan of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and reforming its people. LoveTimor was also born out of much prayer and has been dedicated to the holistic transformation of Timor, village by village, both in its physical rebuilding and spiritual renewal.

Waves of missionaries have been to Timor – and are still going – to start churches and engage in development work like healthcare, education and businesses.

Last year, we went with a team of Timorese youth to Remexio for outreach. There were missionaries there, working with the local churches. We served them by running Christmas and kids’ programme and visiting homes to pray for the sick.

In Nehemiah, we read how the different families built the wall next to each other, each doing their part. This is just like the missionaries who have come to Timor, each doing their part to build God’s Kingdom alongside the local church.

Veni: As a Timorese, I have seen how there are times when there has been opposition to the work, discouragements and spiritual warfare, yet God has truly fought for us.

Lishan: Often, the ones who “go” tend to think we are going to serve, to help. But this journey to Timor has instead helped us more fully understand that we are God’s beloved. When walking together with our Timorese family, we catch a glimpse of what Heaven would look like with the different tribes and tongues.

2. Beloved

God accomplishes His blueprint through His children who are His beloved. After more than 20 years of the LoveTimor movement, we have had the privilege today of journeying with the sons and daughters of Timor, God’s beloved.

In Nehemiah, we see long lists of names. These are the ones who have been in exile called back to their land. It is as though God is highlighting each individual name. Each one is His beloved, known by Him, just as He knows each one of us so personally.

3. Blessing

Veni: When we went to the village to do the Christmas programme, I realised that God loves Timor very much and He wants us to become a blessing to our own people and land. There is a spiritual inheritance that we have received from our leaders who were missionaries in Timor.

I met Lishan when I was 13. She came from Singapore to Timor as a teacher. Since then, she has discipled me and taught me how to serve my country. So you can see how we have experienced the blessing of God’s work of transformation in our lives. It was her mission, and it has now become our mission whenever we go.

Lishan: Actually, Veni, Timor is a blessing to Singapore. I may have been your teacher, but the Timorese have tutored our hearts. The opportunity and invitation to love Timor calls us to be sacrificial and frees us from our self-idolatry and self-entitlement.

Veni: I am also challenged by the faith of God’s people who have been serving the Lord for many years. I am moved by the lives of the missionaries, who start out as strangers but are willing to sacrifice their lives and live just like us in the rural areas.

We have been very blessed to see God’s deep love for our people. Together with the missionaries here in Timor, we have a great responsibility to pass on the stories and works of God to the next generation.

Lishan: There is still much, much more to be done in the transformation of Timor and in the nations of the world. Will you too come along with us to go All In on this journey of loving Timor and the nations together?

Let’s follow God’s blueprint – living out our identity as His Beloved – and together, being a blessing to the nations, thus fulfilling God’s plan for Singapore as the Antioch of Asia.

Let us pray.

Lord, may You unite our hearts as we serve as one Church to wherever You send us. As sons and daughters, we cry out to You for the nations as our inheritance. Teach us to go All In, to live our lives as a blessing, so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Reflect: 

1. Which nation has God put on your heart to pray for or to go to?

2. Will you open your heart and let God send you on the mission He has in mind for you?

3. What can you do today to love the nations?

Pray:

1. That we will have a heart that is open to the call to serve the nations beyond Singapore so that God can send us where He wants.

2. That as we embark on missions, the Holy Spirit will work with us and through us to bless those who need Him.

3. That God builds a hedge of protection around every missionary and brings every provision to them.

Follow Salt&Light on Telegram, Facebook or Instagram for more of LoveSingapore’s daily devotions until August 9, 2025.