NEGST held a conference on “Politics, Poverty and Prayer: Global African Spiritualities and Social Transformation”, bringing together scholars, researchers, practitioners of  diverse religious traditions and spiritualities, and policy makers for intellectual exchange and dialogue.

During the conference, the academics and representatives of religious/spiritual communities and organizations drawn from  Africa, the Caribbean, North & South America, Europe and the Middle East explored interrelated issues on religion, spirituality, socio-capital, public roles, definitions of and measures toward combating poverty.

The keynote speakers were Bishop David Niringiye from Kampala, Uganda and Dr. Afe Adogame from the University of Edinburgh.

First, the conference provided a platform in which researchers on African and African-derived religions and spiritualities encounter practitioners of religious traditions and communities firsthand. The conference served as a laboratory in which researchers can test their hypotheses or present research findings on respective groups, with corresponding feedback from the practitioners themselves.

Second, the conference stimulated a common dialogue, by gathering people with diverse research expertise on the one hand, and practitioners with varied spiritual backgrounds on the other, to highlight and explore how and to what extent African and diaspora religious traditions and spiritualities may cohere on the critical issues which confront the African continent, their faiths in relation to the wider, global community.

John Dean first came to Africa  in 1955 as part of the British army in Nigeria. Later, he taught agriculture in a mission secondary school in Nigeria for one and a half years before working for Scripture Union.

In 1958, Mr. John Dean was appointed the First Traveling  Secretary for Nigeria. He later became the Regional Secretary for Africa and Malagasy and retired as an International Training Consultant. John spent 10 years as a school traveling secretary, 15 years as Africa Regional Secretary, and 14 years as scripture union training coordinator worldwide.

During his travels, Mr. Dean attended the 2nd African Evangelical Association conference  in Limuru, Kenya. It was at this conference that John Dean caught the dream of NEGST founder Byang Kato to start a theological school in Kenya.

John Dean lived in Kenya Read the full story »

On the 13th of May 2010, Dr. Ian J. Shaw and Prof. Brian Stanley, who led several speaking engagements with AIU/NEGST throughout the week, donated books they had authored.

Dr. Ian Shaw is associate international director of the scholars programme at Langham Partnership. His book, entitled The Greatest Is Charity, is about Andrew Reed, one of the greatest preachers of the Victorian age, who built up a church of under a hundred to one regularly numbering around two thousand during his half century as a pastor. The book is the definitive biography of a man whose life and work was dedicated to the needs of others. It is both a compelling and humbling account as it draws us deep inside the true purpose and meaning of Christian Read the full story »

Dr. Larry Casazza, director of African Communities Against Malaria (ACAM), donated a generous gift of books, training materials, CDs and reports about malaria to our Tony Wilmot Library.

This collection reflects the life- long passion of Dr. Casazza, MD, MPH. For 25 years, Dr. Casazza has dedicated himself to implementing community-based activities to improve the health and welfare of women and children. He has also worked for the World Bank and World Vision, and is a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University in the US. Larry has often resided on campus at the Hoenecker Centre and has built lasting friendships with members of the NEGST family.

A large portion of the resources donated are specific to eradicating malaria, the number one killer of Africa’s children. The materials Read the full story »

The mission of Theological Book Networks (TBN) is to provide quality academic books and journals to the libraries of seminaries, colleges and universities in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East that provide theological training.

The TBN collects academic books and journals from Western theological libraries, publishers and scholars. All donations are brought to the TBN warehouse, where they are sorted and packed for shipment. The Network works with regional networks of institutions for efficiency and breadth of distribution. Recipient institutions share some financial, logistical and administrative responsibilities for the shipment.

On 8th March, NEGST received a container of books and library shelves. Vice Chancellor Douglas Carew received Read the full story »

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 »