The Romanian Evangelical Christian Student Organization (OSCER) represents the local component of IFES, an international student movement with over 500,000 members worldwide, focused on evangelizing and discipling students from the university campuses. Following we want to share some news from the recent activity of this organization.
”Proxy station” | Loredana Gal – OSCE Bucuresti
In this semester we are starting to think of a new method of evangelizing the students in Bucharest, named ”Proxy Stations”. This concept was developed by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, the IFES student movement in US. More clearly, it deals with starting a discussion on a general topic, such as: money, relationships, being content, etc. With the help of interactive boards containing a set of questions on that particular topic we can start spiritual discussions about the Gospel. The topic we chose, of course, was Christmas – Who you are on Christmas? Starting with a poll that shows you what character you resemble the most (The Grinch, Rudolph the Reindeer, Santa or the Magi), we got to discuss the true meaning of Christmas, highlighted by some verses shown on the last board. God blessed this project beyond our expectations! The students would interact with us for 30-40 minutes, although it was very cold outside!
Following you can read a few insights from the participants:
”My experience with ”Proxy” was a very nice one – getting to know a faithful God who is at work. At a certain moment all the people in our team were talking to someone, although I used to be skeptical about this approach. We met people who were genuinely looking for God, who were asking questions and my challenge for them was to read the Bible, because it is the Word of God, it has power and it changes lives. I was surprised to see that, although it was freezing cold, we could have wonderful conversations, through which we could share the Good News to each individual we did the poll with. This encouraged me and continues to encourage me.” George – constructions student
”Proxy Station was a wonderful experience, especially because it was the first time I got involved in an evangelistic event for students. What impressed me the most was to see that the students are interested in God, even though they say they don’t believe anymore in God or religion. The Proxy Station made me understands how important it is to share the Gospel with our fellow students and be a light for them.” Natasa – medical student
”I understood how important it is to share the Gospel, even for a few minutes, with the students who need God in their lives. I received a lot of grace and I saw that, through everything we do, we have to make our Lord known.” Monica – literature student
”Proxy Station… a new project for me… a new opportunity to serve… The warmth of the Celebrated One’s love was felt on that cold weather and it was encouraging to see people challenged to see who they are in the light of the true meaning of Christmas – the birth of our Lord… some of them even desired to resemble the magi.” Andra – medical student
OSCER General Assembly – Dragos Vlasceanu, national coordinator
On each Fall we set the direction and the strategic plan for the current school year. This happens during the OSCER General Assembly. At the last such assembly we gathered with 30 leaders from all across the country.
It was a prolific time where we established the 9 strategic objectives for this year:
1- Embrace the vision and mission of the organization and rhythmically promote it in the OSCER structures.
2- Provide all the financial resources necessary to the functioning and developing of OSCER
3- Increase the sowing process – motivate the local groups to an increased presence in the university
4- Have and develop a quality evangelistic follow-up
5- Assist the local movements in the process of leaders development
6- Each local coordination team should have a stabilizing and developing process that is negotiated and implemented
7- Start new student groups
8- Promote the OSCER
9- Strategic targeting of high school students
May the Lord help each one of us who are involved in this to see all these objectives met during this year in OSCER, so that his Name would be more glorified.
We thank the Lord for:
The students who heard the Gospel in the first months of this school year
The freshmen who were integrated into local groups all across the country
All the evangelistic initiatives during Christmas
Committed leaders and students, involved in each local groups
The discipleship groups we started in OSCER Suceava
The students who started meetings in Alba Iulia and Sibiu
Prayer requests:
The evangelistic ski camps taking place in this month
Support each evangelistic initiative through quality follow-up
The coordinators meeting taking place in this Spring – March 2014
The mission week taking place in Suceava in April
Identify the new national coordinator
The finances necessary for OSCER to function and develop – we need LEI 3200/month