I wish I knew why I started reading Nehemiah during the summer of 2012. I don’t. What I do know is that Tony Covely sat in my office and said that he’d love for the guys in our church to “do something.” And I said, “I could teach the book of Nehemiah in Sunday school.”

As a result of that conversation, I taught the first passes through this material in a Wednesday evening Bible study and in a Sunday morning study. And a college-age class went through this with me. Thanks to my Grabill Missionary church family for their patience and questions and to our small group for keeping us busy every Saturday night.

I wanted to write more reflectively and so started a weekly email. In the first of those emails, I found myself talking with Nehemiah. I am grateful that he decided to sit in my office, and that a group of people read those emails every week. Some of those readers, particularly Becky McCray and Rob Hatch, have been more helpful on this project than they know.

Hope Swanson and I have had many conversations in the car while I drove her places. One of those led to the decision to turn my writings into a book. And led Hope to talking a prof into letting her edit an early version of this manuscript for an independent study. Then, when I wasn’t sure whether to keep working, she wrote the email that turned into the Foreword.

Nancy Swanson, with whom I have been married since 1983, read the weekly emails, endured conversations, encouraged me to write, kept the television turned down, and prayed. She’s read A Great Work twice, looking for mistakes and finding value. And she’s the one who said, “What’s the project this will fund?” Together we’ll be using the profits to encourage Nehemiah-shaped projects that rebuild walls and people.

This book is dedicated to Arnold C. Swanson who loved Nehemiah. Dad often said, “the only thing you can make a man out of is a boy” and so he devoted his working life to that purpose. It was a Nehemiah-shaped project, and he was faithful to the end.

And I don’t know why God let me have these conversations with Nehemiah, but I am grateful beyond words. I miss them already.