Nigerian University Official Learns Reformed Worldview

Joseph Antyo, a university official from Nigeria, says he has already learned a great deal from the Kuiper Seminar he is attending this January at Calvin College.

Titled “Integrating Faith and Learning,” the seminar is especially helping him to see different ways in which an overall, Christian worldview could be integrated into the various courses offered at University of Mkar, the school where he serves as Director of Development and Linkages.

"I believe that this seminar will help us as we move forward in our desire for the University of Mkar to be an outreach arm of the church, to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Antyo.

"We have the goal of teaching our students to be agents of change, the light in society. As Christians, we are to make a difference."’

The Kuiper Seminar focuses on how Calvin has developed and utilized its Reformed approach to teaching and learning that helps to shape students to use their faith in all aspects of their lives.

Already, the University of Mkar is working to instill Christian values into its students through its mandatory Christian Leadership course, said Antyo. But the Kuiper Seminar is giving him a broader sense of how important it is for lecturers to weave Christianity into the entire curriculum of the university.

“When I return back to the University of Mkar, I will seek permission to sit down with my colleagues and share with them about how we may be able to develop a framework that helps us to make sure that Christianity is being taught as part of all of our course work," he said.

Antyo was invited to participate in the course through the relationship the University of Mkar has with Friends of West African Christian Higher Education, a group of Christian Reformed-affiliated educators and former missionaries who are committed to support such efforts as the University of Mkar. The opportunity came when Antyo and Emmanuel Agba, the Vice Chancellor and a professor at the University of Mkar, visited Calvin College in the summer of 2013.

"We have found different ways to help their programs, by providing such materials as books, computers, and scholarships and we’re now looking at how we can help them to build a new chapel," said Abe Vreeke, a former CRWM missionary who served in Nigeria.

"We also want to connect the University of Mkar with Christian colleges in this country. Joseph came here in a cooperative effort between Calvin College, Friends of West African Christian Higher Education, and University of Mkar. We helped fund his trip over here," Vreeke further explained.

University of Mkar has been built on the site of the one-time CRWM mission station.

The university is established by the Universal Reformed Christian Church, also known as the NKST, a large denomination that sprang out of missionary work done over several decades by CRWM.

Currently, the university has about 1400 students and eight of its 12 programs have received full accreditation by the National Universities Commission. The school also offers diploma courses in such areas a computer science, micro-credit and mortgage finance, and religious education.

Opened in 2005, the university has now graduated four classes of students.

"Our students come from all over Nigeria. Our goal is for our students to return home different than when they came, that they can provide a Christian witness and to bring Christian values and ideas to wherever they will find themselves," said Antyo.