African Bible Colleges- Kenya

We are starting a Bible College in the Busia District of Kenya, which is on the Kenyan and Ugandan border.

The purpose of ABC (African Bible College) is to train and ground pastors, church leaders and those called to be missionaries in order to give them a firm foundation. This has been sorely lacking in most of Africa, especially in the rural areas. The evangelist has come, but the teacher has not. We want to train up nationals to do the work of the ministry. We are a jump starter.

ABC Busia will be the prototype school.

This school will serve two purposes: first, it will be our main campus/school, and students will receive the majority of teaching live, with some video classes.

Secondly, we will also use it to develop our video schools, and we will videotape with live translation the courses taught.

ABC will be very non-traditional in its method. We purposefully want it setup and run in such a way so that it is accessible to the people who need it most, and not what is most convenient for us.

We envision quarters to run for 1 week at a time (four days a week), 8 hours a day. A student would then go once a month, and not return until the following month. Each class would be based upon 8 hours of translated teaching. So, a student would receive 4 classes per month. Some classes would be two part or more classes, i.e. Old Testament Survey I, II and III, etc.

We would probably run 3 tracks per month, and then have one week off from the school per month.

Using the hotel compound, we could have up to 50 students per track (week).

As we develop our video curriculum from the classes taught, we would then be able to start the second phase, which will be the video classes. These will operate one day a week per location, and consist of 5 different remote locations. These video schools will require 1 motorcycle, a laptop (1 laptop can service 1 location per day, thus the laptop would service 5 locations or days per week), inexpensive battery computer speakers, an inverter (to hook to a car battery which would be a requirement of the host church), a backpack to transport the equipment and a trained volunteer to administer the video school location. The laptop would serve as the video player for the curriculum, and would also hold the administration software needed to administer the school.

The cost of doing 5 simultaneous video school will be approximately $350 per location (based on 5 locations at the same time). To add 5 more simultaneous will require double the above equipment needs plus except the motorcycle. The cost to do 10 simultaneous schools with 2 locations running per day (with a director at each location) will drop the cost down to approximately $250 per location.

The director would ride to his location, and spend the day there showing and testing the students. In this way, the video school would be able to reach extremely remote locations, and be highly beneficial to pastors and church leaders who would be unable to attend even the non-traditional school.

We would find strategic locations in which to hold classes. We would draw students from the surrounding area, and could feasibly have video school of around 15-25 students per location.

To add an additional 5 locations, one director would transport the other director on the back of the motorcycle and then drop him off at his location and then ride to his location for the day.

With the all of the above schools going during the month, we could have up to 400 students each month in Bible School!! Using this system, we would be able to keep everyone on track, and everyone would receive the same amount of classes each month, if they went to the live teaching or to a video school.

Tuition Costs
The cost for the live teaching school would be slightly more, as their tuition would have to cover a meal provided each day plus some of the costs of attending, i.e. for handouts, Photocopying tests, etc. We want to keep the cost as low as possible, so that we make affordable for people to attend, but there needs to be a cost so that there is value to them for the school.

The video school tuition would cover photo copying costs, motorcycle petrol costs, and a small rental fee to be paid to the host church for use of the church and their battery.

Curriculum
There will be 28 classes. Some of the classes would be: God's Love- Foundation for the New Covenant, Romans, Galatians, Righteousness, Spirit, Soul & Body, Word of God, Forming Your Ministry, OT Survey I, II, & III, NT Survey I, II & III, Grace, Meditation, Faith, Sacerdotal Duties, Prosperity, Godly Character, Discipleship, Vision-Mission-Passion, Team Building, Leadership I, II & III, New Covenant, Godly Marriage, Micro Finance.

Classes would be 50 minutes in length, with a ten-minute break between classes, and an hour lunch. They would run Tuesday through Friday for the main campus, and Monday through Friday for the Video schools.

Tentative Trimester Plan
First Trimester: January, February, March
Second Trimester: May, June
Third Trimester: August, September