CSC Winter Newsletter

CSC Moldova Winter Season News 2013

January and February plans

In Moldova the month of January is a holiday month from lectures at the university, although some students still have exams. As a result CSC has their annual months holiday in this month. Also, in Moldova many people celebrate the Russian Orthodox Christmas, which is on the 7th January. Officially then , we won't be having any activities in Balti in January, although we may have some casual social meetings for the students. In February, we will do a course with the students entitled 'The Images of Leadership', in which different Biblical ideas are presented of what it means to be a Christian leader. For example, the first study is about David and some of his qualities as he led the Jewish people. Alongside some of our other more regular activities, such as English Club and games night, we also have some Bible studies, called 'uncover' in English which have been freshly translated into Romanian. The idea here is that each study, based on Luke's gospel, already contains all the information needed to understand and carry out the study, so Christian students can easily do the study with friends and colleagues.

Recent Activity

Here are some photos from the last few weeks (representing, not necessarily in order, the recent CSC student Christmas evening, Carol singing at the student dorms in Chisinau, Fritz's visit from Australia and arriving back in England to rain and a children's Christmas party):

The Australian Connection

Over the course of the last week we have been visited by Mervin Dunkin from Australia. Over the course of the last 10 years, he has been coming regularly to Moldova together with other individuals and teams, to be involved in different ministries here. Together with him, we have had a number of activities, such as Australian culture night, Australian presentation at a local college and some training in leadership for the student leaders here. Next week he will be going onto the student group in Chisinau and then to the student movement in Romania. He is however hoping to bring a team back to Moldova next summer and also has plans to help raise money to buy a permanent office for the student work here. Also, in two weeks time a colleague of his from Australia will also be visiting for a week and we are planning some more student activities for that time. Below a selection of photos (welcome evening Moldovan style, visiting a local college, pasta Moldovan style, around Balti, leaders' meeting, making fruit salad, Australian presentation, final product, down the hatch!)

Bible and Life Conference

On the weekend of 18th to 20th October we had a conference at a campsite beside the Moldovan city of Calarasi called 'Bible and Life'. This was a training event for Moldovan students involved in CSC. The conference had two levels. A beginners levels for fort time participants where topics such as evangelism and the authority of Christ in our lives were discussed. The second level was for students who had already participated last year in the first conference level. I had the responsibility of organising this level. Here we discussed about how to study the Bible and how to lead Bible studies for our friends, in particularly using what is known as the manuscript method. There were around twenty participants at the conference. Only two in the second level, but that was ok as it gave us a closer group atmosphere. The challenge now is for us all to put into practice what we learnt at the conference! Here are some photos in order (worship time, level two discussion, all participants, level one, level two and helpers):

English Club

Our first activity here for new students after the opening evening is the English Club. Almost all the students who came to the opening evening said they were interested in coming to the English club. In the end, only a couple of them actually came to the first meeting, although one of them brought along 4 friends from her university course!

Opening Evening

We began our student activity for the 2013-14 academic with a special evening on the 25th September. After a long search, we eventually found (the day before the event!) a room at another Christian organisation, which we were able to use. By word of mouth we invited as many new students as possible and organised a programme for them, which included games, songs, a presentation of IFES and a short message. At the end of the evening we also gave them the chance to sign up for our different activities. In total, 18 students came, about half of whom were new or people that aren't very involved in our group. All of them left contact details and since most of them have come to at least one activity. Below some pictures (more on facebook: aidan benbow):