A time for everything

You may have noticed that it's been a long time since a new post appeared.  A lot has been happening.  Over the past year Fraser and I were feeling more and more strongly that, after being very clearly led by God to Nigeria in 2012, our time there was drawing to a close. We left the country in March 2017.

It was becoming increasingly clear to Fraser that he'd be able to help more people by becoming a library consultant rather than being based in a single African theological college. This leading was confirmed after he spoke to people in NetAct (www.netact.christians.co.za), an organisation which helps theological colleges in developing Africa.  They had recently decided it was time to develop their library side and are extremely keen for Fraser to run the programme, thanks to his unique blend of expertise in electronic resources and experience in an African theological library.  A huge number of students would be helped by access to better resources, which in turn would strengthen the church and help protect it from false teaching.  This is extremely exciting. Instead of assisting one college in one country, Fraser is being offered the opportunity to make a huge difference to the quality of theological education and training throughout Africa for many years to come.  Not just theological education either.  It's entirely possible that once other university faculties see the difference the library portal makes to students and staff, they will want to have it adapted for their own subjects.  The potential is huge.

The internet portal that NetAct wants to develop will provide, among other things, access to ebooks and journals, links to theological websites, audio-visual material, the library catalogues of all partner organisations, reading lists for partners to compare practice, lists of African theological publishers and downloadable resources.  There will also be a section for learning and teaching resources with guides for students to improve their studyskills and thesis writing.  Staff will find help in curriculum development and syllabus creation, how to supervise a thesis and how to spot plagiarism.  There will also be a course in information literacy to enable users to get the most out of the portal.  The intention is also to have as much of the content as possible downloadable, able to be used offline when internet connection is unreliable.

Many students in African colleges have had their education disrupted by poverty, violence, unrest and lack of qualified teachers.  NetAct's library and training portal will help fill some of the gaps and enable to students to achieve more of their potential.

It's as if God has designed this position especially for Fraser.  Many of his experiences in the past can be seen as foundations upon which this potentially amazing gift to education in Africa will be built upon.

That's the exciting news.  

The tricky bit is that Mission Africa, whilst being supportive of the value of this new work, do not have people in South Africa where we'd have to be based.  They do not feel it's right to expand their remit from the countries they currently work in (Nigeria, Chad, Burkina Faso and Kenya).

We feel strongly that South Africa is where God wants us to be.  If that is where he wants us to be, that's where we'll end up; it's just that at the moment we don't know how he's going to arrange it.  As we have an invitation, a wonderful opening to use, not only Fraser's library and IT skills but also the peace-building and community development experiences Dawn's had in BRiCC and InReach, the main sticking point is financial support and all the admin that comes with it.

Pray with us that God will make the practicalities clear.  That anyone who wants to support us will be able to, but that most of all, this incredible opportunity to make such a difference in the provision of education in Africa will not be lost.