The Biblical Hebrew Intensive course at PAC University in Nairobi
The Online Professor’s mission and vision for training Bible translation asisstants and consultants as well as teachers in Biblical Hebrew has now reached an important milestone. The intensive Biblical Hebrew course is up and running in East Africa in a supportive and visionary context where both PAC University‘s Department for Theology and the Wycliffe organization for Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan, the Bible Translation and Literacy (BTL) in Nairobi is involved.
As expected, the project is now in good hands at PAC where it can make an IMPACT. My right hand and local coordinator, Hebrew teacher and professional trainer, Dr Victor Lonu, is standing next to me on the left. He wants engage in mutual collaboration with The Online Professor and shares the vision for introducing innovative learning. Standing next to him on the left is the Dean of Theology, Professor Joseph Koesch. Local management and drive are vital and the key to success.
The first intensive week in January was successfully completed. During the first intensive week all learners were trained in reading Biblical Hebrew. This first week gave all participants the tools they needed to learn and practice reading Biblical Hebrew. They have had access to my online instruction and they can now take their next step into Biblical Hebrew if and when they would want to continue. They can also be admitted into local Hebrew classes.
After in-depth evaluation of the first course I decided for the second course in March to focus on training-the-trainers in order to train them for reading Hebrew better through exercises in BibleOL. The only sustainable solution is to support the local facilitators to master reading of Biblical Hebrew in a learning environment they can own and develop for themselves and then help others in groups or classes.
Five TheWell boxes are now in use by trainees both in Nairobi and on different locations in Kenya. Two Bible translation consultants have access to only one box to share – unfortunately they live 100 kilometers apart. Time will tell to what extent TheWell will becone the key solution in a hybrid offline-online solution for Kenya as solution both for local seminaries and in translation projects. The internet at PAC usually works well and in case of power cuts, the generator will work soon enough.
At any rate, we are now pursuing a promissing track towards sustainable IMACT!
The trainees in position for change!
In June we will go to the second phase and offer Beginners’ Grammar and Vocabulary. The focus will still be on faciliation of potential trainers. There are so far three tranees from BTL in remote areas and at least four learnersin Nairobi. Hopefully, PAC and BTL in collaboration with Dr Lonu and The Online Professor will expand this project to other universities and to Bible translation partners.