With great sadness in our hearts we share the news that our sister Nurse Nkosi has departed this life to be with the Lord. While it is a comfort to know that her life was a testimony of faith in our gracious God, the entire Mukhanyo still mourns this loss with heavy hearts.

Nurse Nkosi, Mukhanyo’s librarian, died on 27 February after struggling with health for a long time. A few days later the staff and students of Mukhanyo at KwaMhlanga held a memorial service in remembrance of her, also praying for her husband Themba, her daughter and family. A large number of Mukhanyo staff were also able to attend the funeral the next day. Please pray with us for her family as they dearly miss a wife and mother.

The service at Mukhanyo was led by Rev. Isaac Maleke, Mukhanyo’s Dean of Students, who preached from Luke 12:13-21 where Jesus warns that God can take away life at any time: “We must be rich in God, ready to die anytime, as we believe Nurse was”.
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Nurse served at Mukhanyo for three years during a time when the library collections expanded tremendously after Mukhanyo received two large shipments of theology books.

It's impossible to get a picture of Mukhanyo’s contact students. Some are full-time, some are part-time, and some come during the day while others only in the evening. But we tried to give you a view of most of the contact students at Mukhanyo’s five centres.
 

Mukhanyo is searching for a librarian and a few other committed Christians to fill several open positions at the college:

Theological Librarian: We are praying for a qualified and dedicated person to manage our growing library collections. This position will be based in Pretoria and work together with assistants in each centre to oversee the growing library collections in all five areas. Applicants looking for part-time work are also welcome.

Distance Learning Support Centre Tutors: Mukhanyo welcomes applications for new Distance Learning Support Centres across southern Africa. Experienced church leaders are encouraged to apply to become a volunteer tutor and lead a local centre.

Senior Lecturer: An additional full-time senior lecturer is needed by January 2022 to serve Mukhanyo’s growing student body. All applicants must confess Mukhanyo’s Statement of Faith in teaching and practice. We welcome applicants to apply if they meet the criteria outlined in the job advert. Mukhanyo also welcomes partnerships with local and international churches/agencies who can send and support a Senior Lecturer to serve at one of Mukhanyo’s locations.

Mukhanyo thanks Dr Willie Zeze for his service at Mukhanyo. He has returned to his family and ministry in Malawi, after serving at Mukhanyo’s KwaMhlanga Campus for six and a half years. In addition to mentoring and other responsibilities, Dr Zeze has served as Senior Lecturer and more recently the BTh programme manager on the Academic Committee. We will miss him and especially his contribution to the academic leadership team.
 
For more information visit our vacancies page.

As of February, Mukhanyo’s accredited Higher Certificate in Bible Teaching has been expanded with elective modules for an education track. This elective track prepares students to become Christian teachers and will also be a valuable tool in their daily life.

These extra modules have been developed by Dr Gerrit Heino, an education specialist from the Netherlands, serving at Mukhanyo. The modules are now being tested and improved in the classroom by Dr Gerrit and several others: Dr Charles van Zyl in Johannesburg, Amanda Nel in KwaMhlanga, and Dr Anneke Viljoen in Durban.

The first students have already registered for this track which consists of up to four education modules, Becoming a Christian Teacher (CE01 to CE04), introducing a student to a variety of topics in the field of Christian pedagogy and didactics with the following themes:

• On your way to teaching: becoming a good Christian teacher
• Becoming an internal authority through building a relationship
• Organising a powerful learning environment
• Identity development and characteristics of adolescence
• The teacher’s responsibility to students and vice versa (including the relationship between students and their mutual responsibility)

The study guides are supplemented by two books, The Teacher’s Handbook and The Essence of Christian Teaching, giving a student a comprehensive introduction to Christian teaching.

The total number of students at Mukhanyo for the start of the new academic year in February showed a 13% growth compared to the start of 2020 – from 1,009 to 1,143.

According to Dr Brian DeVries, Principal, this once again shows that our God in heaven is sovereign and does things differently from what people may expect: “The Covid-19 pandemic and its many effects in society, not least of which is the concern for the future economically, have created a sense of uncertainty and cautiousness. Then the second wave at the start of the new academic year added to this uncertainty and sense of unsettledness. So we are very thankful for the number of students in each area who applied and have been enrolled for contact study. These students show a desire to study God’s Word and grow spiritually, despite the ongoing pandemic and the increased challenges”.

At some of Mukhanyo’s five study centres, the growth was only moderate and limited. But overall the increase was very satisfactory as can be seen in the following numbers:

• The KwaMhlanga campus now has 48 theological students as against 45 a year ago, largely due to the growth of its BTh Honours programme. Strong growth came from the number of teacher students – from 129 to 152. The North-West University offers their teacher education programmes at Mukhanyo’s campus in KwaMhlanga.
• The Johannesburg campus has always been seen as a centre with high potential, but with slower growth. This year the increase is 32% to 41 students, still far from its capacity, but moving in the right direction.
• The slow start at the new Durban Advanced learning centre was expected and its number of students grew from 11 to 14.
• The new and unaccredited Focus programme has started to take off – from 6 to 28 students.
• The number of distance learning support centres increased to 83 and the number of students from 717 to 809, an increase of 12%. Glyn Williams, Distance Manager, expects further growth. “There are several initiatives and applications to get new groups started; our rather unique distance model with regular contact sessions has now proved to be effective and ideal, also in the present circumstances”.

In the next few months a project to widely market Mukhanyo’s programmes, including the utilisation of social media, will be launched. On this Dr Brian says: “We are convinced that there are many Christians who would want to learn more about God’s Word, but who do not know where to look for reliable and trustworthy institutions that teach God’s Word the way He wants it to be taught. We must reach out to them in South Africa and beyond”.