Mission in Moldova: Summer Teams
For the last few years, Sarah Oliver (Staff Worker in Liverpool and Chester) has co-led the UCCF summer team in Moldova, where the team help the local IFES movement, CSC Moldova, to run an English and Bible camp.
‘In just the last three years we’ve seen the summer camp grow and become more effective as an evangelistic tool for the work of CSC. Many of the students who come to the camps have had no previous contact with the work of CSC; often they simply see an advert for the English camp and come along. Last year, the majority of the students who came to the camp had continued contact with CSC throughout the year, coming to other events and some even getting involved in the mission week – the first ever university mission week in Moldova.
‘Evaluation and feedback from the camps have led to continued changes and improvement. We have seen the addition of a gospel presentation time, giving the students an opportunity to respond to what they’ve heard throughout the week, and for the first time we tried using a more apologetics-style approach in topical seminars. We were really encouraged to see the response of the students to the seminars; the topics were of real interest and many of them attended both sessions, asking great questions and really engaging with the topics.
‘My favourite part of a summer team’s work is debriefing with our students. Learning how God has been at work in their lives during their time in Moldova is always such a joy – often the highlights for them are seeing local students responding to the Bible studies, and the opportunities they have through the relationships they’ve made to speak of Christ. God is often at work in their own lives, highlighting their sin and challenging them, stretching them and pushing them out of their comfort zones, and teaching them more about His love.
‘The way the team work together and how they love and look after each other are wonderful examples to the Moldovan students and speak powerfully about the impact of the gospel. I see the difference a summer team makes in the lives of the students we bring from Britain – in a growing joy in the gospel and a greater desire to share Jesus with their friends and to see the CUs being more effective in evangelism. As a Staff Worker I often go to a summer team tired after a busy year, but come back refreshed and rejoicing in the Lord!’
Two snapshots from English camp this year:
One Moldovan student wasn’t able to attend one of the seminars but had lots of questions. He chatted with the seminar speaker for a couple of hours and afterwards gave his life to Jesus! He spoke of immediately feeling a sense of forgiveness and peace and continued to tell others that he was now following Jesus.
On the last morning, one student at the camp shared how when she had come to the camp she had thought everyone was good. She cried as she explained how she now understood that this was not the case, and that we all need forgiveness.
It costs approximately £70 a day for each staff member to be involved in leading a team. This includes travel, accommodation and insurance. Could you give to enable our staff to run these summer teams next year?
