Having a life-long experience in library and information services (LIS) as a metadata specialist (conventionally known as ‘cataloguer’), Tienie de Klerk was recently appointed as Mukhanyo’s senior librarian. She will be co-ordinating and integrating the libraries at Mukhanyo’s five centres with a total of some 30 000+ books, with another 8 000 waiting to be recorded onto Mukhanyo’s new integrated library management system (ILMS).

Ideally, the centralised ILMS will provide access to all five Mukhanyo libraries. The recently developed system has just been implemented. Some aspects still need to be expanded to support users – students and lecturers – with an accessible, effective and user friendly information service.

Future developments might include being linked to other libraries – within the Bible school / theological college sector, South African libraries in general, and also international libraries. As citizens of the information society, digital media resources will gradually become available in Mukhanyo’s library collection.

Though Tienie is working from Mukhanyo’s Pretoria centre, part of her work will be to train the five local librarians to use the new system, as well as introducing them to new developments in this fast developing field.

Tienie has served in libraries all her working life, first as media teacher at a Pretoria primary school, then as metadata librarian at the National Library of South Africa. She has lectured information studies subjects at UNISA’s Department of Information Science, and was involved in projects such as the merging of the huge HSRC and Africa Institute library collections. Her qualifications include a Masters in Information Science (UP), a Higher Education Diploma (North West University, Potchefstroom) and some SETA qualifications.
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She is a member of her professional association, LIASA (Library and Information Association of SA), and as a UNISA e-tutor is still engaged with teaching information studies subjects. Being a librarian at heart, she has a wide field of interests, including her and husband Ben’s Scottish terriers, music, films and, of course, reading. And she is looking forward to this new challenge.

As a growing academic institution, Mukhanyo must continue developing and renewing its programmes. A project to do just that has been ongoing for the past several years and good progress is being made.

New study guides for the two higher certificates (diploma-level) and for the bachelor of theology (degree-level) are now in an advanced phase. Most of the modules – 87 of the 89 – are already in the process of being rewritten and are going through a number of steps such as formatting (twice), editing (twice) and external proofreading.

This upgrade project started in 2018. It is partly financed by international sponsors and is scheduled to run at least until the end of 2022, but most probably will take longer, inter alia because of additional modules being added to strengthen the several programmes and since the Covid-lockdown made it impossible to record lectures.
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This project to produce and/or update study material of a high quality involves not only the lecturers, but also the studio videographers, a team of editors, the printers, etc. But the products are something to be proud of and will be used for many years in southern Africa.

Former student and lecturer at Mukhanyo, Rev Thokozani Twala has recently received his doctorate at the University of Pretoria.

Dr Twala started his studies at Mukhanyo in 2001. At that stage he was an evangelist at an independent charismatic church, but during the studies his theology became Reformed. In the meantime he assisted Korean missionaries at Verena (close to Witbank) and various other places.

He completed his BTh degree at Mukhanyo in 2005, was examined by the Classis Tshwane, and was called by the Reformed Church Ogies, a congregation planted by the Korean missionaries. Classis Tshwane is part of the Soutpansberg Reformed Churches.

Dr Twala continued his studies at Mukhanyo, completing his BTh Honours in 2009. His Mukhanyo qualifications were fully recognised by the University of Pretoria where he continued his studies with a MTh degree. Recently he completed his doctorate successfully, also at the University of Pretoria, while he is still ministering the Reformed Church Ogies.

Mukhanyo is thankful to see one of their alumni making such progress. We congratulate Dr Twala and pray that he will use his qualifications to continue building Christ’s kingdom in southern Africa.

Mukhanyo wants to thank book publishers and media distributors for the large number of high quality theological books which have been received during the past few years. The five libraries, one at each campus/advanced learning centre, are now stocked with altogether over 30 000 titles.

All the books are at present catalogued on a newly installed central library computer system. Thus a book can easily be found at one centre and sent to a student or lecturer at another centre, as needed.

This huge job is the responsibility of the newly appointed librarian, Mrs Tienie de Klerk, and her team of assistant librarians at each campus/centre. A new consignment with some 15 000 books is expected to be on its way early next year.
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Additionally, increased access to a number of digital resources is being developed to bring Mukhanyo’s libraries up to date with modern media centres.

​Registration is now open for the TEASA Bible College Consultation on 8-10 June 2021. The theme this year is Standing FIRM for TRUTH in Bible Education within Africa.
A number of experienced speakers are scheduled to present this year, including Dr Siegfried Ngubane, Prof Henk Stoker, Rev Rodgers Atwebembeire, and Prof Vhumani Magezi.

The three focus areas at the consultation this year are:

• Standing firm against error
• Standing firm against God’s truth
• Standing strong together

During the afternoons will be a number of parallel sessions in line with the theme. See www.teasa.co.za for further details.

Thanks to the generosity of several donors, each consultation participant will receive several free books, and all Bible colleges/schools in attendance will receive a free stack of additional library resources. A large selection of quality books – both new and used – will be available for purchase at reasonable prices.

Each educational institution in southern Africa that has registered participants before 31 May will be given space for a display table and be invited to give a presentation about their ministry.

There are also some funds available to assist with the fees and expenses for participants from schools with financial constraints. Please contact Helen Masina <consultation@mtc.ac.za> for more information.

Click here for online registration: https://www.teasa.co.za/registration.html

This event is usually attended each year by well over a hundred representatives from many theological institutions and Bible colleges across Southern Africa. Last year it could not take place, but this year the organisers decided to continue with plans for 2021 since the fellowship and fruitful discussions are too valuable to postpone again, unless it is required by the circumstances.

Please pray with us for another wonderful time of fellowship and mutual learning. Forward this email to all your contacts who are involved in Bible education in Africa. Registration closes after 31 May.