News and Views from the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology
October 2009
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 Dear friends,
I recently addressed the NEGST campus regarding the current state of our finances, and I wanted to speak to all of you as well. I am committed to speaking frankly and openly with all of the people who matter to us, and our financial matters are no exception.
The economic valley
You may be aware that NEGST has gone through a period of severe cash flow constraints, with income not meeting expenditures for the past six months. This was difficult for me personally, and I suffered through some of the difficult decisions, such as delaying the payment of salaries, less than desirable service delivery to students, and the inability to put into place some things we have been planning, as we implemented an austerity budget. I want to thank our staff, faculty and students for their grace, understanding and patience throughout this time.
One of the main reasons for our difficulties is that we needed to make hefty back payments of some bank debts. For example, we were found to owe Kenyan back taxes dating from the 1990s. The principal was 12 million shillings, with penalties and arrears amounting to 27 million shillings. The amount was so great that 40-50% of our budget was going into paying back loans. At the same time, we were unable to collect debts that were owed to us. With God’s help, we were able to Read more »
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 Our own Dr Samuel Ngewa, academic dean and NT lecturer at NEGST, has written the first volume in the Africa Bible Commentary Series, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, which has now been published.
Dr Ngewa highlights the relevance of biblical concepts on the life of the church by presenting the book in sermon preparation units. I Timothy is broken down into 19 units, 2 Timothy into 15 units and Titus into 7 units. The commentary on each book also includes case studies.
The church today struggles with weak leadership, and Dr Ngewa’s work walks pastors through Paul’s advice on becoming rooted and flourishing.
Christopher Wright, of John Stott Ministries, notes in a blog post about the book, “Sam Ngewa is also one of the editors of the Africa Bible Commentary – which has sold over 80,000 in English in Afria, and is available also in French, Portuguese, and Swahili, with translations in Hausa, Amharic and Malagasi on the way. This too is entirely written by African evangelical scholars, some of whom got their doctorates through Langham – JSM. Check out Read more »
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 Mr Geoffrey Ongondo Otieno, a second year student at NEGST, is pursuing a master’s in divinity in theological studies.
Geoffrey, please tell us about the ministry that you are involved in.
I am serving as pastor of administration at Nairobi MiracleLand Worship Church, located in Maringo off Jogoo Road in Eastlands. I serve under the senior Pastor Tobias Konyango. I am in charge of various ministries in the church, including Sunday school, worship team, missions and outreach and home cell groups.
I am involved in spearheading colleges and schools ministry with a major focus on the university campuses and secondary schools around Eastlands. God has used our ministry to touch the lives of young people in colleges. We acccess them through the Christian union and Read more »
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 The ladies’ fellowship held a jumble sale on Wednesday 28th 2009 in the Home science room of the classroom building. The ladies’ fellowship brings together married and unmarried, faculty, students, staff, spouses–any lady in the community. The funds raised at the sale will allow the ladies to bring gifts to the families of the numerous new babies on campus, invite speakers to monthly events, and organize special events and outings throughout the year.
The whole community–men, women and children–came together in great numbers to donate and purchase items for sale, including shoes, books, blenders, coffee makers, clothes, toys and more.
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 Silas Kakui graduated in 2008, with an MDiv in Missions. Silas, can you tell us what you are doing now?
Currently I work with Kids Alive Kenya, a project of Kids Alive International. I am based at the Karundas Center in Nyeri North where I am the General Manager of the project. Kids Alive is a Christian organization that was founded in 1916 and works in fifteen countries in Latin America, Africa, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Pacific Rim and Asia. We reflect the love of Christ by rescuing suffering children-in-crisis, nurturing them with quality holistic care and introducing them to the transforming power of Jesus Christ so they are enabled to instill hope in others.
Apart from my day to day management work (managing the home, clinic and school), I also coordinate the spiritual programs for the 33 members of staff working under me, the 74 children in our residential care and the over 120 in Read more »
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 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 more »
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 Dr Henry Mutua, a lecturer in NEGST missions department, says that faith is what impacts him to be what he is. That as a child of the living God, he is honored and privileged to participate in what God is doing to accomplish his Immanuel agenda.
“Participatory” best describes Dr Mutua’s teaching philosophy, which has been influenced by the writing of Latin-American scholar Paul Freire. Each student has a part to play in the learning process and, for that reason, students are key participants.
Dr Mutua has written several articles, including Complexity of migrant African Urbanites Read more »
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