TCZ in a nutshell

In an attempt to share a bit about the school, here are some words from Dan the way he sees it:

Theological College of Zimbabwe is held in an old hotel. TCZ has 40 students in all (not counting the spouses involved in the women's ministry classes). Most of the students are from the southern region of Zimbabwe, Ndebele land (roughly pronounced In-Da Belly). There are two main tribes represented in Zim, Shona (the now dominant tribe) and the Ndebele (who arrived in Zim in the mid 1800's fleeing from South Africa). Most of the student body is Ndebele, though there are a fair number of Shona as well.

The majority of students live off campus. I would guess that half are married, and another good handful are involved in local ministry. Almost none of them work another job (yes, yes, I am very envious). They take about 6 or 7 classes a semester. From what faculty members have said, most students go on to do pastoral work in a wide range of settings.

(campus housing)

(sports day with the students)

Many of the professors here have a masters in theology, NT or some other related field (Church History). As well, most of them are from Zimbabwe. The others are from all over but married to Zimbabweans. The only other faculty members who are not from Zim are Matt and Kayle Pelletier who are a lovely couple from Gordon-Conwell. They have been here through the worst of it when the currency was exploding, and bear the same polite chipper-ness that resembles the other Zimbabweans.

Classes run year round with a few lovely month long breaks in between the tri-mesters. The B.A. in Theology curriculum lasts three years. They also run a Theological Studies Diploma program which is concurrent with the B.A. Program. The college is inter-denominational with a range of denominations represented on the faculty (only two Presbyterians).

Largely since arriving, I have been attending classes. The first few days I tried to attend as many as possible, but after the first week, I trimmed down my schedule to those that I was signed up to share lecturing responsibilities in. I am now helping in first year Greek, and a second year Greek reading course, an NT Epistles class and an Ecclesiology class. All of these have been great fun for me to attend, and now prepare lectures for. I will also be teaching a night class on the book of Amos next Tuesday.

Things are much busier this week and next as we wrap up the internship. I will be preaching at City Presbyterian this Sunday and have a paper to write for Craig Jones about our experience here. Hopefully I will be able to write more but it might come after we've returned