TRANSCRIPT

NATHAN JONES

This month's episode will take us to Angola in southern Africa to meet with Palmira dos Santos, who has a heart to see transparency and accountability increase as a method for good stewardship across her country.

I'm your host, Nathan Jones. And as always, I'm grateful you've taken the time to join us on this episode of the Inspiring Stewards podcast.

Palmira, thank you for your time today. I'm really looking forward to this time and hear more of your story and how God has been at work through your life.

So, give us a little bit of a snapshot of where you're from, your family life growing up, anything you'd like to share.

PALMIRA DOS SANTOS

Thank you for the opportunity. I'm Palmira Esperança Cheia dos Santos de Sá. Just got married a year ago. I grew up in a Christian family. My mom is from Mbundu tribe and my dad is from Bakongo tribe. So, I’m both Bakongo and Mbundu tribe.

And my family lives in Lubangu. We grew up there also. It’s a province that is in South Angola. So, we grew up in church singing. My mom was very, very active as a Christian. Her faith just impacted our life as children when we were little.

Growing up, I gave my life to Jesus when I was a teenager. I think it was when I was 13. And it was because of my mom and my grandma’s faith also. It was not that someone told me about Jesus. I just had a dream about the end of the world. When I woke up, I was sweating. My heart was beating.

And then, I just said the dream to my grandma and my grandma interpreted the dream saying that Jesus will come and I will go to heaven. Because in the dream, it was the end of the world in that my body was lifted to the heaven. 

After a year, I just got saved. I gave my life to Jesus. In a church, I was crying because I just understood that I was a sinner and I needed Jesus in my life.

So, I gave my life to Jesus because until then, I was just a kid who just go to church because my mom bring us every Sunday. But after that, I just met Jesus and it was amazing because I felt saved. I felt different. And my life turned out to be like in a different path after that.

And I had a dream also, you’re gonna hear a lot about dream because I'm a dreamer. And the many times that God speaks to me is in dream. Many times, God gives vision in a dream. So, that's why I'm always referred to a dream.

So, I had a dream that I was speaking to a billion people. It was all kind of nations, tribes, colors, and I was preacher in this little pulpit. And I knew after this dream that I had a call in my life to preach the gospel to the world and I was just 14 or 15. And then, I was speaking to my parents that I wanted to be a missionary.

But here in Angola, to be a missionary is not something that the parents receive as a good thing because pastors and missionaries in Africa just suffers a lot. They don't have salaries. They don’t have all that stuff. So, my parents rejected the idea for me to be in ministry.

So, I had to study economics. And I was crying. I was so upset but I had to obey my parents. And when I was 18, I went to Brazil because my grandpa in my father’s part, he lives in Brazil. He was a missionary. So, he kind of convinced me to go there to do the university in mission.

I went. I didn't tell the whole truth to my parents. I just say that I'm going to Brazil and I'm going to do my university. I didn't say that it was to do mission in university. After a month there, my parents just found out that I was doing mission in university, and they asked me to come back to Angola right now.

And I was very much frustrated because my heart was just burning for people, for souls. I just wanted to preach the gospel. Youth for Christ just impacted my life when I was a teenager because I used to be a volunteer in Youth for Christ and evangelize other youth, other teenagers. I was always active in Youth for Christ.

So, I was again frustrated, but I had to obey my parents and I came back to Angola. I went to Algeria after that because I had a scholarship because I was good in math. So, the government just accepted me to go to Algeria to do the university there.

So, I stayed there for four years. And there, God just spoke to me with Psalms 45:10, “My daughter, leave your house and your parents and attach yourself to me. I'm your husband.” And this verse was just going in my mind. I didn't know where it was written in the Bible like at first. And I was praying because it was all day and every day I woke up and all these words just kept going like somebody's reciting in my mind.

And after four days, I was like, “God, I'm going crazy with you repeating this! Where is this written in the Bible?” And I was searching where was the passage. And then after, I said, “Okay, Lord, when I'm going to go back to Angola, I don't want to go to my parents. I'm going to go where you want to send me.” And then, voice just stopped.

And after two days, I found that it was written in Psalm 45:10. And then I was like, “Wow, this is in the Bible actually!” And then I came back, I think it was my last year already of university, and I stayed there for three months more and I received my diploma. And I came back to Angola and they just forgot what I promised God and I went back to my parents’ house.

So, after that, it was two years I was working with the government because when I came back to my country, the government just hired me. And I was working with the governor and I had like a good position in government. And for two years, I was rejecting my calling because I didn't want anymore to do the ministry full-time. This is what God was asking me to do – to leave my job and to go to do the ministry full-time.

Now, I was afraid because I was 28 and I wanted to work. I was seeing my pastor. I was the one who was helping my pastor monthly to help his salary and other missionaries. So, I was afraid to live the way they were living, like almost starving because of being full-time in ministry.

But after two years, I couldn't bargain with God anymore because it was stronger and stronger, this voice in my heart. And I kept dreaming with thousand people in sea like dying and I was just there not doing nothing. And many times, I saw Jesus in my dream looking at me like, “What you gonna do? You gonna let them die? You are my arms!”

After resisting for two years, I just left my job in the government. And I spoke to my parents. They were so upset! My mom was so disappointed with me because they have put with so much effort in my education and all that stuff. And I came to Luanda, the capital. I started living as a missionary under my pastor’s orientation.

My pastors tried to speak with my mum, but my mum didn’t want to hear and my parent also, because they know what kind of life a pastor or a missionary have here in Angola. So, this is pretty much my story.

I started working with Youth for Christ in 2017. I had the invitation to work as National Director for Youth for Christ Angola in 2017. And in 2020, I had the invitation to be part of the World Evangelical Alliance board as a board member to represent our national alliance. They wanted a female figure that is Christian, that is missionary, so I was appointed to be part of WEA. So, this is pretty much my life story.

After I got married in 2022, I moved from Lubanga because the Youth for Christ national office is in Lubanga in the south. So, I moved to Luanda because of my husband lives here and works here so I moved to Luanda, the capital. So, I couldn't continue as national director but I'm still a board member. 

So, I started to work again with my best friend because in 2011, we started an NGO called “Prince and Princess.” Because we believe that as a child of God, woman and man, we are prince and princess of His kingdom. And we had this vision from God that we had to teach in schools, private and public schools, to children about kingdom of God principles, like goodness, stewardship, love, kindness, saying the truth.

So, we started working with children in schools, teaching principles through Bible stories. So, this is how we started. And then, God spoke to us about the women. So, we started the project “True Women” where we started to teach women why God made women, the purpose of women. As a woman of God, how to discover your purpose in God, how to discover why you are here in this world. 

So, we started work with women and then, we stumbled in gender-based violence because the majority of women that we were working with, even Christian, were very traumatized with gender violence in their homes.

So, we ended up helping these women to get out of this cycle, and also because many of them were wounded and were not trusting God anymore because they were asking God why God allowed them to pass through that. So, we were helping these women not just to get out of the cycle of violence but also that this is not God's will to live this way.

So, this is what we are doing now. As ministry, we are teaching kids in schools and also, we are doing women ministry, and also teenager ministry like get out of drugs, teenager pregnancy, and all that stuff. Just trying to rescue some young guys, young woman from streets and help them to know Jesus and develop their relationship with Jesus, be strong in faith, and be part of a church, and develop their lives. 

NATHAN

That’s great. So, Palmira, this is the Inspiring Stewards podcast. Tell us more about how stewardship is influencing your life.

PALMIR

I didn't know about stewardship like in a definition. I just had this sense that when God called me, I didn't want to ask for money for nobody. I was always praying that, “God, if I need money, I will come to you and pray and you will send money to me in any way that or any form that you want to.” But I don't want to ask people for money.

So, I kept doing that. Every time that we needed money, me and my best friend that are missionaries, we prayed as the house is burning.

From there, when I was working with Youth for Christ, I just realized that the problem that we had as organization in Angola and other African countries, the problem was not that we don't have money, we don't have donations. No!

I just realized that the problem is that we don't have stewardship. And I didn't understand that stewardship in itself, but I just understood that we lack transparency. We lack for being trustworthy people, people that God can give money, and they will do exactly what God asked us to do.

So, I started to speak with pastors and Christian friends and other people about that, like, what's going on in our country? Why all the NGOs, like Christian organization, we always fall apart?

I was speaking with pastors, Christian friends about this issue that we have in Africa and we just realized that it was stewardship problem that we were facing. And we need to be more transparent, accountable, and use the resources that God was giving to us as it should. Because the ministry of God done in God's way, it never lacks finances.

So, I started not just speaking about the issue, but bringing that in different platform as Christian. I'm now in this NGO that I work now. We decided that we're going to leave a legacy: a legacy of stewardship, a legacy of transparency. 

And also, because I understood that everything that we need for the ministry, God has already gave to us. We don't need to beg for money from outside or something, but we have the resources that we need to do ministry and to develop our communities.

And I realized that because when I was in Algeria just as a student, I used to take part of my money to send to Angola to give to some ministries. It was a friend and a missionary that was in Huambo.

And I was stunned when I came back because this missionary just told me how my money have changed the whole community. Because for a year, it was, I think, $1,200 that I sent to them because I just accumulated all the year, $100 by month, and it changed like the life of an entire community. It was just $1,200.

So, I realized that stewardship is about we give to God what we have. We help others in what we have. The money that God put in our hand is not just for us but it's to share with someone else and also to spend in the right way. It’s not just to spend like any way that we want, no! We can always bless someone's life, a ministry, God's kingdom. So, for me, stewardship is something that is very, very important.

I was a lecturer in the National Evangelical Alliance meeting last week that we had and I was talking about stewardship to the denomination leaders. I was speaking about the stewardship issue that the Angola church needs to wake up about the importance of put practical things that will restore our stewardship with God: good governance, accountability, transparency.

As I said before to the pastors, the money that a donor gave to you to build, for example, a school. You cannot buy a car. This is a bad stewardship! So, for us to be good stewards in first place, we have to have principles. We have to have values: Bible principles like how honesty, like truth. I think is very much important be a good steward. I think it makes all the difference in a Christian life, in a leadership life. 

NATHAN

So true. Palmira, this has been really good but as we wrap up, any final thoughts you would say or a final charge to those listening? 

PALMIRA

I'm so happy to be here and to share this passion that I have about leaving a legacy, living as a good steward. And I believe that God is doing something new, something different, in the African church, in Angola church especially.

Because after this forum that we have in Turkey, the WEA (World Evangelical Alliance) forum, the National Director of Evangelical Alliance in Angola just got inspired also, and he wants to be an accredited organization. 

So, I believe that the effort that we are doing here in local space to be good stewards like passing this information to pastors and the church, is God moving in the direction that we should go as good stewards.

And I saw also around the world when I was in the Turkey forum that God is doing a new thing. God is bringing a new time as Christians in stewardship, in evangelism, and discipleship. So, I'm so happy to be part of that. I'm so happy about what God is doing this time.

And as a part of WEA, I always see what is going on in different countries, in different continents, how Christians are going, the news about the Christians, so I believe that God is bringing a new time. God is doing a different and good thing in this century, in this time. So, all the glory to God. 

NATHAN 

Palmira, thank you so much for your time on this. This has been wonderful.

PALMIRA

Thank you so much for the opportunity, Nathan, and for having me in this podcast. It’s an honor for me.