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 :