Often people ask us why we chose the name “Nehemiah”— it is a strange name, at first sight. Nehemiah is the title of one of the Bible’s Old Testament books and can be translated from the Hebrew as "God consoles". The root of the word "consolation" ("nacham") originally means "sadness caused by having compassion to other people". This compassion is not passive or powerless. Instead, this compassion is an active expression on earth of an eternal and creative heavenly power. It revives, restores and strengthens all the weak and broken with its touch.

The Jew Nehemiah lived in the beginning of 5th century B.C. in the town of Susa. The people of Israel were in the Babylonian exile at that time. Nehemiah served as an official for King Artaxerxes. As he heard of the trouble and disgrace of the Jews and of the broken walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah sat down and wept and mourned. Nehemiah began to pray to God and plead about forgiveness of sins of the Israeli people and about blessing his native city. And God turned the heart of the king and gave Nehemiah a practical opportunity to help Jerusalem. With his own example and straight-forwardness, Nehemiah motivated people to work at rebuilding the walls of the city of Jerusalem. In spite of the harsh opposition of the enemies, the work was finished in 52 days, the enemies were ashamed and the name of God was glorified.

The life in our cities today is similar to the state of Israel at the time of Nehemiah. The broken walls of wealth of many families, churches and the whole society resemble the broken down walls in Jerusalem , among which people try to survive. We believe that restoration of the city walls is a the task that can only be fulfilled by its inhabitants, who are united with God and are one with each other. The Jews were a nation that consisted of 12 tribe and the body of Christ is a nation consisting of many confessions. That is why we long to cooperate with all the present and the future children of God.

In 1986 after 7 years of united prayers of some Christians, the comminity "Nehemiah" was founded in Nuernberg, Germany. These people called all Christians to work together for the good of the city.

There have been several different celebrations and charity actions held by this combined group in Nuernberg. Therefore, the friendship between different churches and denominations of German cities began.

In 1990 the first “Nehemiah” Bible school took place on the German-Czech border. Since then such schools have been held in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia and the USA.

It is our prayer that we may be a blessing not only for the Christian communities, but also to our neighbors, authorities and all whom we come in contact with.