Christmas Student Celebration

On the 17th December we had a student Christmas celebration at the now old CSC office in Balti. This was the last big event at the apartment which we have been using as our office for the last year and a half, before moving in the new year to our new office space. In total there were 15 people at the evening and alongside carols, games and food, we also looked at the Christmas story in Luke 2, focusing on the shepherd's response to the good news of Jesus' birth.

Prayer Groups

One of the aims we had for this semester was to start up prayer groups at the university and colleges here. In the past we had such groups, but in recent times there hadn't been much activity on this front. As things worked out, we managed to initiate two prayer groups, one at the university and one at the medical college, this mainly due to the fact that at both these institutions we had a student who was very active in helping with organisation. The university prayer group was something I'd wanted to do since being here, but up until now there weren't willing volunteers to help. It started slowly with much debate about when it should be, but eventually we settled on the idea of a Thursday morning group, before lessons start, as this theoretically is a time when all students are free. We started with a couple of meetings of 3 or 4 students, which after some publicity via internet and Church announcements reached a maximum attendance of 10 students. As the exam period approaches attendance has waned a little, but nevertheless a stable group of a few students has formed. The group at the medical college also had some teething problems, likewise lost of debate about the best time for meetings. Different options were tried, but eventually they also settled on a morning slot, on Tuesdays. There is a Christian professor at the college, who has been keen to open her office as a venue for the meetings, which is a great help. More challenging here as been to get a stable group of participants. There are only a handful of Christian students at the medical college (as opposed to the university where there are many christian students) and of these, only the aforementioned student who helped start the group has been a regular. Nevertheless a small group of just me, a student and a professor is still a group and we plan to keep on going! A photo of the medical group on a good day and then below the university group in its early stages:

English anyone!

One of the activities that I have been involved in since being in Balti, has been to organise a weekly English club for students. This semester the English club idea became very popular so much so that I ended up having three groups with students (one weekly at the medical college and at the church in Balti and one twice weekly at the Church in Rautel, a village just outside of Balti) and also a group with Children, also at the Emanuel church in Balti. Above and beyond the simple idea of doing English activities, games and exercises, I tried adding a spiritual dimension to these groups, for example reading a Bible text, doing an activity with Biblical vocabulary or listening to a song in English with a more profound meaning. This worked better in some of the groups than others, depending on the English ability and openness of the participants. The most successful example to date, is a girl from the group at the church in Balti, who has started to come to the Church's youth meetings and to read passages in Luke's gospel in English. As far as I can see, this is the first time in her life that she has ever read in the Bible or attended a church!

New office CSC Balti!

After a long search, from what I know its been at least a few years, last week CSC finally purchased a property in Balti to be used as the organisation's base here. The respective property is in a two floor building, where the upstairs floor contains two apartments and the ground floor contains an apartment and an open space, which was used as a magazin, but now belongs to CSC. It's in good condition and is in a very good location for student ministry, being just across the road from the university. All that's needed is a bit of work on the outside and furniture for the inside (it's currently empty) and then it can begin being used for student activities. Below is a photo and the are more on facebook :

Latest Prayer Update for CSC Moldova

Prayer Update

Beginning of a new Semester

In CSC Balti, we had our first meeting of the academic year on Monday, 1st September, together with some of the Christian students who had been involved the previous year plus a new student who said she wanted to be involved this year. We discussed some possible ideas for the coming semester and made a tentative plan. The first event was the following the Wednesday, 3rd September, where we invited all the students from Balti who had participated in the summer English camp. Out of a possible 19 students, 11 students came, which for our small office was already a good number! We had some games, time to share about the camp, photos and food and we also presented to them some of the activities they can get involved in this semester. The next event will be on the 17th September, a special evening for new students, to make them feel welcome and to present to them CSC! First planning meeting Game preparations Elastic Band challenge Reunion students

CSC Prayer News

Here is the latest prayer update from CSC concerning the summer Formacion conference: Payer News

CSC Summer Camp 2014

From the 1st to the 8th of July the annual CSC summer English and Bible camp took place at Vadul lui Voda, a tourist resort just 20 KM from Chisinau on the banks of the Nistru river. A team of 9 staff and students from UCCF Northwest came to help at the camp by leading Bible studies which presented an overview of the Bible, by doing English lessons for the Moldovan students and just generally getting involved in the rest of the camp activities. There were around 30 Moldovan students at the camp, just over half of whom are students in Balti. The response to the camp and in particularly the Bible messages was positive from a number of the Moldovan students, a number of whom said it was the first time they have studied the Bible and asked at the end of the camp for a Bible so that they can continue to study at home. We aim to keep in touch with these students and invite them to our activities in September once the new university term here gets started. Many photos from the camp can be seen here: Summer camp

CSC News May 2014

Newsletter May 2014 by Aidan Patrick Benbow

CSC News April 2014

News April 2014 by Aidan Patrick Benbow

The Translator

Over the Easter weekend two pastors from England visited Moldova being based in the village of Ciuciuieni, which is about half an hours drive from Balti. The pastor of the Church in Ciuciuieni invited me to come as well in order to translate. During each day we spent time with him and his family and also exploring the village and surrounding countryside. Then each evening and twice on Sunday we visited different churches in the county (Sangerei). In total we visited 5 different churches and I transalted 9 sermons from English into Romanian (there would have been 10, but at one of the churches they had their own translator, so I got to rest for a sermon!). Here are a few pictures: The first church we visited, in Ghiliceni. Ciuciuieni from a distance. With the pastor of the Church in Marinesti. Easter Morning service in Ciuciuieni. Pastor from Ciuciuieni, his family, the two pastors from England and me!

CSC March News

News Leter CSC Moldova -March 2014 by Aidan Patrick Benbow

Church Activities

Since the beginning of the year there have been quite a few Church activities to be involved in. First of all there was carol singing in January (slightly odd feeling, but due to the fact that many people here celebrate Orthodox Christmas on 7th January!). Secondly, I have been helping this year with the Church's Children's club on Saturday mornings. For a week at the end of January and a week in the middle of February there was a Bible school for pastors and preachers from Romanian speaking churches in the villages around Balti. Finally, from February 19th to 23rd, the Church celebrated it's 20th anniversary with five days of special services. There were guest speakers and choirs plus photos and testimonies from people involved in the Church over the 20 year period. Some photos in chronological order:

Images of Leadership Conference

Our main activity with the students at the start of this new semester has been to go through the images of leadership material by Richard Lamb. This is a course which presents different aspects of being a Christian leader using Biblical images for example the first lesson we covered was entitled 'Leader as Visionary' and was based on how David led the Israelite people, having a clear vision of what needed to be done. We meet each Monday evening at 17.00 with a group of 7 or 8 students to go through the studies and hopefully gain ideas and inspiration for how to serve other students here in Balti.

CSC February News

Newsletter CSC