 Rev. Paul Mahlangu is quiet and peaceful when you see and talk with him. But when lecturing, preaching or mentoring, Rev. Mahlangu changes into a passionate enthusiastic speaker driven by the Word of God.
Rev. Mahlangu is a lecturer at Mukhanyo’s KwaMhlanga campus, this year teaching Biblical Worldview. On Sundays, he preaches at an independent church which he is busy planting in KwaMhlanga, where he has lived most of his life. During the week, he also mentors about 45 students at five distance groups in and around KwaMhlanga.
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 Distance Growth Since September 2018 In four years, the number of Mukhanyo’s Distance Learning Support Centres has doubled to 101. This year, four centres started in Kenya and seven in South Africa. Even faster growth is expected with the recent appointment of five regional distance coordinators.
The Kenyan centres in Bumala, Bumamu, Busia and Kisumu were established by Rev. Eric Mutumbi, in partnership with the North American funders Word & Deed. All of them are using Mukhanyo’s Focus programme. The facilitators/tutors are pastors who have recently been trained, enabling them to manage and lead the groups.  Does sticking nuts to a tree make it a nut tree? Or does tying lemons to its branches make it a lemon tree? In the same way, practising good moral habits doesn’t make one a Christian. It has to come from within – from the heart of a person who can truly testify that he belongs to Christ and becomes a new creation.
This is how lecturer Jacques Malan of Mukhanyo started the teaching on Saturday 20 August at a seminar held at the KwaMhlanga campus. This seminar was the second entitled: Christian Character. It was based on one of the modules of Mukhanyo’s FOCUS programme. The second speaker was Rev. Paul Mahlangu, also a Mukhanyo lecturer. Farewell and Welcome Dr Gerrit Heino and Mr Japie Venter Dr Gerrit Heino who served on Mukhanyo’s team for nearly six years, has now retired and plans to return to the Netherlands. He was sent to Mukhanyo by the Dutch Gereformeerde Zendings Bond as well as his church and Driestar Christian University for Teacher Education. His term was supposed to be for four years but was extended to six, during which time he developed study guides for four Christian Teacher modules.
Over and above authoring these modules, Gerrit also lectured in theology at the diploma and degree levels, served at the Pretoria Campus, and was the programme manager of Mukhanyo’s School of Education. Back home with his wife, Gerrit hopes to remain involved with some of Mukhanyo’s education programmes, inducing the development of more education modules.  MTC’s Contribution to the September Edition of Joy! Magazine Within South Africa, there is a great majority who claim to be Christian, but very few understand what this means. Therefore, in the past few years, Mukhanyo has intensified its campaign to help more people learn what it means to be a Christian and understand more about the Bible.
Mukhanyo has spread its wings by opening several new campuses and full-time study centres, now five in total, as well as over a hundred Distance Learning Support Centres. With more than 1 000 students at present, Mukhanyo now has the capacity through its facilities and programmes to accommodate far more students in locations across Southern Africa.
 Class of 2021 Two New Directors and Two Reappointments  Mr Riaan Bartlett and Mr Neels Kloppers Mukhanyo’s Board of Directors was expanded at the Annual General Meeting of Member Churches (AGM) on 14 May 2022. Two new board members were approved – Mr Riaan Bartlett and Mr Neels Kloppers. In addition, two existing directors were reappointed – Pastor Joshua Bolaji and Prof Patrick Palmer.
Independent Church Leaders Want Training Pastors in Training at Kwaggafontein In July, after months of preparation, a new facilitated learning support centre started functioning, consisting of senior Zulu independent church leaders. This new distance group in Kwaggafontein, north-east of Pretoria in the former KwaNdebele homeland, could prove to be an important breakthrough for several reasons. As generally acknowledged, leaders of African independent or indigenous churches (AICs) often have no theological training and limited Bible knowledge, but many are faithful spiritual leaders. So it is very significant when another group of these leaders personally request training, asking Mukhanyo to provide them with Bible knowledge so that they can preach from the Bible correctly.
Mukhanyo was stated in this way more than three decades ago, and this ministry's focus continues unhindered. We thank the Lord for the opportunity to be involved in the further training and future development of local independent church leaders. Rev Tebogo Mogale, lecturer and co-marketer of Mukhanyo, says it is promising that this group’s participants indicated they want to be biblically equipped to lead their congregations better. They now will also ask their branch churches to start distance study groups. Over and above the present twelve church leaders in this study group, another six have applied to join the group. These are very senior leaders, all over 60 years old. This group is facilitated by brother Given Ngoma, a student who just completed the BTh degree at Mukhanyo KwaMhlanga. Please pray for God’s blessing on this Zulu group! Pray that this is the beginning of a growing trend with many more leaders from independent churches wanting to be trained in the Word of God.  New facilities for Durban Centre and an expanded vision for the distance group programme – are two exciting steps forward, taking place right now at Mukhanyo.
The paperwork and finances to acquire the new facility in Pinetown for Mukhanyo’s new Durban Advanced Learning Centre are almost finalised, and some minor work to prepare the centre for the staff and students has started. The other step forward is the appointment of seven regional coordinators to assist and promote decentralised facilitated learning support centres. The fast growth of Mukhanyo’s distance programme in the last few years is a clear indication that there is still enormous potential for further growth. The task of the regional coordinators will be to guide and build on this potential while also providing more assistance to existing centres so that they continue to function effectively How Bible Colleges Should Serve the Church  “O God, please help transform Your churches and Bible colleges here in Africa, making them able and devoted to equipping church leaders to understand Your Word and to preach it faithfully, so that Your people in Africa will honour You and live according to Your will.”
This prayer was on the minds of the 120 delegates, representing some 40 Bible schools, at the end of the 11th annual Bible College Consultation. This event was hosted on 14-16 June 2022 by Mukhanyo and the Theological Education Association of Southern Africa. |
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