Several months ago, five regional coordinators were appointed to further promote the expansion and development of distance learning centres. Next year, Mukhanyo plans to appoint five more coordinators in others regions.

These coordinators serve to advance the training and developing of local tutors, manage regional marketing and networking, promote quality control, and guide the establishment of additional centres. Mukhanyo is thankful for the regional coordinator team:

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.
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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.

Why study at Mukhanyo? South Africa has over fifty unaccredited Bible colleges. Add to this the colleges and seminaries linked to specific denominations, church study groups, as well as several public universities with theological faculties. There are many opportunities in South Africa to study the Bible, and we thank God for the religious freedom we enjoy.

​To establish and run a quality Distance Learning Support Centre for the Mukhanyo distance programme, you don’t have to be a pastor, theologian, teacher, secretary, or accountant, but you do have to be equipped in several areas.

On 5 to 8 July 2021, Mukhanyo held its first-ever DLSC Management Training Workshop for tutors and administrators responsible for the running of several Distance Learning Support Centres. Held online via Zoom, it was attended by 14 tutors and 2 administrators, from as far afield as Cape Town, Zambia, Namibia and Botswana. Although some may have been a little apprehensive in attending a training workshop online instead of physically at one of our campuses, all logged off after three days of instruction and interaction, inspired and motivated for the work ahead. Everybody agreed that it was a worthwhile time together.

Apart from going through the processes needed to establish a Mukhanyo DSLC and recruit students, several skills were covered to assist the attendees to run the centres well into the future. Skills included: how to tutor students, marking assessments, student administration, ordering, managing finances, marketing, discipleship, and care.
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Two sessions in particular issued personal challenges to the tutors. Firstly the session on discipleship challenged the tutors’ walks with the Lord, reminding them that to qualify to be a disciple-maker, one first has to be a disciple. But what does it mean to be a disciple? This question was answered in detail in this session.

The second challenge came in the final session that asked the question, “Why are we here?”. This session took the tutors from the surface motivations on why they’re involved in the Mukhanyo distance programme down to the heart of their ministry. Each tutor was challenged to assess their motivations, with the understanding that it’s not for fame or fortune, nor just to educate others or fulfil a calling, but to glorify God.

The three-day event was a great success and will be an annual event to be held in July. All Mukhanyo distance tutors and administrators are encouraged to attend.
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We look forward to the next key distance event, the annual Distance Forum in September (www.mukhanyo.ac.za/distanceforum.html).

The expectation that Mukhanyo’s distance centres would suffer seriously because of COVID-19 limitations in 2020, has been proven wrong. It has become clear that nearly all the centres were able to continue with support sessions in one way or another - either as normal or through modern technology such as Zoom, WhatsApp and other platforms.

According to the Distance Manager, Glyn Williams, of the approximately 80 centres, less than a handful had to completely suspend activities. The number of students who wrote exams at the end of last year was relatively normal, and in total 62 students should graduate in March.

It was expected that more Distance Learning Support Centres would be established this year, but that the so-called second wave of COVID-19 infections might delay these plans. However, this expectation is also starting to be proven wrong, with new centres already in the process of being registered and several requests received by other interested parties in other areas. There has also been a large number of enquiries and applications made in 2021 by potential students for the distance programme. 

The Mukhanyo distance programme continues to grow, and by the grace of God will continue to do so for many years to come.