South African School
A call for help has come from a Bible School in South Africa that is in partnership for administrative and accreditation purposes with the South African Theological Seminary.

The School is located about 1.5 hours south of Durban, the nearest international airport.

Format
The School (which is part of other training streams and strategies) comes together once-a-quarter for a training week, covering subjects over a three-year cycle.

Learners are encouraged to live-in, studying ‘in community’ with all lectures translated from English into either isiZulu or isiXhosa.

Students
Classes are currently about 25 in number.

Students are almost all are from semi-rural African environments.

They hail mostly from evangelical denominations, some charismatic / Pentecostal – even one or two AICs.

The School is interdenominational.

The students enjoy an hour or so of exuberant worship/preaching in the early mornings and afternoons.

Since students are part-time, they attend the school for 5 days at a time, four times a year.

Teaching and Subjects 2009
Have a look at the 2009 schedule and see whether dates and the subjects might work for you but note that while the dates are firm the subjects may be juggled for a visiting teacher who can teach one or two classes in a week.

The 2009 dates and subjects as they look at this stage:

23-27 Feb (Romans, Other religions, Jeremiah)
4-8 May (OT Survey III, Hermeneutics, Galatians)
13-17 July (Ephesians, Homiletics, Prayer)
28 Sep – 2 Oct (Revelation, Doctrine and History of the Church)

Typical Teaching Week
Typically, each 5-day ‘week’ will have 29 lecture hours – two major subjects and one minor.

The Principal usually teaches one course and invites guest lecturers (with training and expertise) to take the other two.

In the February week 10 hours are allocated for Romans, 14 for Other religious systems, while Jeremiah has 5.

Most of the teaching would run from 08h00 to 15h00, with refreshment breaks.

There’s also a midweek lecture open to the public on the Wednesday evening.

Some teaching material has been made available to lecturers in advance, but teachers are free to use their own notes – in which case, the School asks for student handouts to be sent in good time.

Lectures will be translated into Zulu / Xhosa – and the African context should be kept in mind.

Hospitality
The hosting school will organize travel for visiting teachers to and from the airport at Durban.

Board and lodging will be provided by the hosts.

Next Step
If you would like more information or desire to be linked to the Principal of the Bible School do write to me [geoffpound[@]gmail.com.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: A photo of some of the learning community.