Daystar University -- Transforming Africa One Graduate At a Time
by Jody Brown
February 20, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Christian religious education is now becoming required curriculum in all public schools in Tanzania -- due mainly to the influence of John Magafu, a Bible major graduate from Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya. Daystar University, with over 2,000 students, is the only liberal arts Christian university in Africa -- but its influence is being felt all across the continent. Dr. Florence Muli-Musiime, chancellor of Daystar University, believes that Daystar can make a difference on the continent of Africa by integrating education and skills with faith. "We send out our graduates to serve Africa and the world by using their training, knowledge and skills to bring transformation wherever they go," the chancellor says.
John Magafu is a case in point. After graduating from Daystar in 2000, Magafu returned to Tanzania to teach in the public schools where, after school hours, he would hold Bible studies for interested students. Parents began to notice that the students who were attending the Bible studies demonstrated better character and were doing better academically than the other students at the school. As a result, parents began to request that the same Bible study program be offered in other schools.
But there was a problem -- there were not enough trained Bible teachers. Magafu was not discouraged. He contacted Daystar's Biblical and Religious Studies Department, requesting that the school send faculty to Tanzania to train more teachers, like himself, in Bible study methods. In 2002 five Daystar professors held a week of training in Morogoro, central Tanzania, for interested teachers and members of the Ministry of Education.
In 2004 the Tanzanian Government, through the Ministry of Education, officially adopted the recommendations made by some of the participants who attended the workshop in Morogoro that Christian Religious Education (CRE) become a requirement for all public school students.
John Magafu was appointed as one of the task force committee members to help the Ministry of Education develop a process for training and recruiting teachers of CRE in Tanzania. He is also on another committee responsible for designing the CRE curriculum. The curriculum is projected for implementation at the beginning of the new school year in 2006.
Dr. Del Chinchen, chairman of the Biblical and Religious Studies Department at Daystar, sees a parallel between Magafu's story and one in the Old Testament. "Isn't it amazing how the work of one graduate of Daystar, like a Queen Esther, can save a whole country from spiritual and moral destruction!" he exclaims.
More Examples of Positive Influence
Chinchen is convinced his department is doing its part in impacting Africa. He explains that every student at Daystar -- whether they be a communications, business, computer science, or counseling major -- takes five Bible-related courses to help them integrate their faith with their academic training. More than 20 faculty members within Daystar's Bible Department are committed to this task. At the same time, he adds, Daystar has students who major specifically in Bible with another minor or major in peace studies, education, or community development.
Chinchen offers two other examples that demonstrate the impact Daystar graduates are having on the African continent -- specifically, in Sudan and Uganda.
The department head notes that the university is taking full advantage of a window of opportunity in Sudan to make an impact for Christ in a country and among a people devastated by years of war. Two years ago three faculty members of the Bible Department at Daystar traveled to southern Sudan to hold a pastors' training conference sponsored by Samaritan's Purse.
Masango Matimura -- a fourth-year double major in Bible and Community Development at Daystar -- did his internship in the same area where the pastors' conference was held. Matimura participated in another pastor's training seminar working with some of the same Christian leaders as did the Bible Department faculty. Matimura also gained experience teaching English in the public schools, held Bible classes for interested students after school, distributed Bibles, showed the JESUS Film, dug rainwater harvesting holes, and even demonstrated the use of a sesame seed oil pressing machine.
According to Chinchen, Matimura reported that the same artillery shells -- now empty casings -- supplied to the Islamic government of northern Sudan by the Muslim nations in the Middle East and used to bomb churches and pastors' homes in southern Sudan are now being used to call people to worship.
"Only the transforming work of God in His upside-down Kingdom ways can take weapons of war and turn them into instruments of peace -- to be used for His purposes and His glory," says Chinchen. "That is our prayer for all of Sudan -- that God's peace will rule and reign throughout the country."
The Daystar educator's other example involves Nyawira Wambui and that Daystar graduate's work in Uganda. Part of the Bible Department at the university is the Peace Studies program, a critical need on a continent filled with tribal conflict and civil wars. Nyawira, who earned a Peace Studies minor while at Daystar, went to Lira, Uganda, to work among those displaced within their own country by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). This rebel force is known for capturing children, using them as child soldiers and as sex slaves, as they carry out their hit-and-run tactics from village to village.
For her practicum, Nyawira worked in an internally displaced people (IDP) camp, training women how to grow mushrooms as both a source of income and to provide alternative sources of nutrients. The Daystar graduate also taught them how to make soap jelly, distributed food within the camp, and led a Bible study.
"Africa needs more Nyawiras, people at the grass roots, identifying with the needs of people on the ground and [being] part of the solution for existing problems," Chinchen concludes.
AgapePress gratefully acknowledges the contributions of Dr. Del Chinchen to this article.
