Patrice Penney, with her mother Mrs. Wilma Franz, donated her father’s extensive library to NEGST in February. Patrice is a lecturer in psychology at AIU, a professional counselor and the wife of Don Penney who is the executive assistant to the vice chancellor at NEGST.

Patrice’s father, Dr Harold Judson Franz, died in January 2009. He had developed a large theological library, and though he loved to give his books away, much of it was still intact at his death. He had visited NEGST in 2005 and was enthusiastic about this school that has Africa “on its heart”. His family decided to pack up his library and send it to NEGST, to further the cause of theological education on this continent. Harold would have been delighted Read the full story »

This January, a team created from the members of two partner churches in Indianapolis, Grace Community Church and Faith Missionary Church, provided a week of intensive training in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, blogging and PC maintenance. The training was open to all members of the NEGST community and took place in the computer labs. The group also donated 20 laptops to NEGST.

In addition, Grace Community Church donated Ksh.100,000 in January for the acquisition of a new IT server and is in the process of providing 10 new thin clients (approximately Ksh. 160,000 more). These donations will allow NEGST to extend the computer laboratory and help us make the student “ASPEN” system more reliable and flexible.

Grace Community Church began as a new congregation launched from Read the full story »

College Park Church (CPC) began in 1985 when a group of people wanted to develop a Bible-preaching and teaching church amidst the rapidly growing north side of Indianapolis in the United States. Ten families began meeting in a hotel, initiating Bible studies, and the church was born. The small gathering began to grow significantly and moved to a nearby warehouse for a few years, relocating to the current church property in 1992.

A rapidly growing ministry with a global reach
College Park Church is now blessed with several building expansions, allowing them to house more than 2,200 attendees in three Sunday morning services. The church has reached out into several additional assemblies and a sister church.  The ministry spreads also through their radio ministry called “Verse by Verse.” CPC is committed to spreading the gospel both in local outreach and globally, focusing on “unreached people” needing Read the full story »

Overseas Council (OC) is all about advancing Christian leaders—training the trainers, mentoring the mentors, teaching the teachers and influencing the influencers who carry Christian faith into every avenue of life. Overseas Council has been a supporting partner to NEGST since we were “born” 25 years ago.

They have several ways of supporting us—through student scholarships, through our faculty development program, and through campus development. OC’s policy is to support institutions, not individuals, which has been a wonderful way to support NEGST.

OC works with Bible institutes, seminaries and other strategic leadership trainers in more than sixty Read the full story »

Jan and Jeremy Peckham have been friends of NEGST since 2005. In 1998, the couple from the UK had set up a private foundation called the Fraser Peckham Trust (FPT), intended to “Train the Trainers”. The trust originally funded the doctoral studies of students in the UK, the US, Australia and New Zealand.

At a business meeting in the UK, when Jeremy Peckham met Ken Wathome, a businessman serving on the NEGST board of directors, Mr. Wathome extended an invitation for the Peckhams to stay at their Kenyan home. The Peckhams agreed, and were able to get to know Kenya, from business meetings at the Muthaiga Club, to Beacon of Hope, where Ken’s wife Jane Wathome works, to NEGST, to the Nairobi slums.

At that point, the Peckhams realized that training people in the West was Read the full story »

SIL International supports translation studies students at NEGST, paying for tuition fees and living expenses on the green campus of NEGST. Students receive sponsorship on a termly basis based upon application and approval.

Academic training in SIL focuses on preparing people to do quality linguistic fieldwork, literacy and translation. SIL offers a number of training programs to their staff worldwide, including two francophone schools and two English-based schools in Africa.

On their website, they describe the NEGST translation program as follows:  “The programme is designed to prepare African and expatriate students for leadership in language work to undertake Read the full story »

Dr Richard Rettew and his wife Anna Rettew served at NEGST from 1990 to 2002. Dr Rettew served as a faculty member in the pastoral studies programme; Anna served in the Christian ministries programme. Upon retiring, they started Help for Africa Church Leadership (HALC), an evangelical mission support agency that helps to develop leadership for church mission in Africa.

The couple started HALC as a way to support NEGST students. The foundation solicits funds from friends towards students scholarships. Dr Rettew is the director of the mission and a representative of NEGST in the United States.

HALC sends regular quarterly donations, into the tens of thousands of US dollars each year. These donations benefit quite a number of NEGST students, who apply through the NEGST financial aid office for the scholarships, not directly to HALC.

NEGST is on the last laps of a race to win a university charter from the Kenyan government. To win the charter, we must accomplish certain tasks to fulfill the government’s inspection requirements and to make Africa International University (AIU) a reality—tasks costing Ksh 22 million ($250,000 US). To raise the necessary funds, every part of the NEGST community has risen to the challenge—the Ushindi Challenge.

Students: The students developed a specific Ushindi Challenge committee and set up several events showing their strong support of Read the full story »

Anna Mosby, a student of biblical studies at NEGST and a former part-time teacher in the women’s programme has volunteered her time in the extension studies office, having seen the need for administrative assistance in the department.

Anna, we really appreciate all the time you have given us. What made you want to volunteer at NEGST?

NEGST is at the forefront of leadership development with a large number of our students, both past and present, and faculty playing leadership roles in churches and Para church organizations. Many of our students are also professionals wanting Read the full story »

As part of the effort to expand to become Africa International University, NEGST has been planning to purchase and install software to automate functions such as the registrar’s office, class scheduling and teacher/student interactions. But the expense of the software programs has been prohibitive.

Steve, as part of his church mission team, recently visited NEGST with his wife Cindy. They were accompanying his pastor, Seth Rogers and his wife. Steve wasn’t sure what, if anything, he had to add to the trip. But he was going to listen and learn.

At dinner with our own Mark and Lois Shaw, long-time workers at NEGST, the conversation went something like this: Read the full story »