Online Arabic Studies Program?

[online4him]

I am looking for an online degree program but there doesn't seem to be anything out there.  
I'd like to learn the following through an accredited Christian college (it'd be nice to end up with a degree)

-the Arabic language (specifically the Egyptian dialect)
-how to witness & minister to Muslims
-bible coursework
-culture & history of the Arabic-speaking world

I haven't found anything like this from a brick and mortar school, let alone an online degree option, and I've really been looking. When I started my search I assumed it would be relatively easy to find such a program, but I was sadly mistaken.  How does a Christian with a heart for the Arabic-speaking world get the training he/she needs, especially if distance learning is the only option?  Ultimately the Lord has called me to witness & minister to Egyptian women through online forums and such (my primary calling is to my husband and children so, for now at least, I am certain the Lord does not want me to actually go to Egypt).   Thank you for your thoughts!

[Johnny]

Hi,


I currently do know know of any such programs. If we had more personal with AFC, that would be something that we could invest time and effort in.

There is quite shortage of people going to the middle east to do missions, so as a result there are few programs that deal with training missionaries for here.

[ihthus]

There is no such a program but you can get very nice book at amazon Kullu tamam (it has cd, so you will be able to hear how to pronounce). I would say it's one of the best books on Egyptian dialect. I've been using it with my Egyptian friends and they never laughed at any phrase from this book. I mean that the words you will learn from it are actually are used in Egypt

[online4him]

Thank you very much for your help.  I looked into the book you suggested and I am considering it; there are some others out there that I thought might work as well so I need time to compare them. 

I think it's really sad there isn't more training available, but I have no doubt that the Lord will equip me.  The best program I could find while researching was actually a combination of two schools, the University of South Africa, and Liberty University.  UNISA (U of South Africa) has a distance learning program for Arabic and Liberty has a distance program in Multidisciplinary studies.  I plan to take my Arabic coursework at UNISA, and then my bible coursework from Liberty to end up with a BS in Multidisciplinary studies from Liberty.  This is actually a pretty reasonably priced plan as well because UNISA is extremely affordable and then I just need 30 credits to graduate from Liberty (out of 120 total credits).  I plan to finish off my general education credits by testing out of them through the CLEP tests, which Liberty accepts, making it even more affordable.  I'm typing all this out because others might want to investigate for themselves...