Events, events, events
The leaves are turning brown and CMF student groups around the country are preparing to welcome the new students with freshers' events. Laura Risdale in the office has been sending out around 1,000 CMF freshers' packs to encourage new students to join CMF.
We are looking forward to new beginnings in some medical schools this term. Of 39 schools in the UK and Ireland, there are seven without regular CMF activity. We have been encouraged by recent developments in three of these (Cork, Durham and Lancaster) that we trust will bear fruit over the coming year. CK Chong is a Liverpool fourth year who is in Lancaster this year. He writes:
Last year I was encouraged by the revival of student CMF activity in Liverpool. I am excited by the opportunities in Lancaster this year, with a number of Christian medics here and good support from Lancaster CU. We are hoping that the Lord will bring something together in the year ahead.
In June, Peter Saunders and I ran the St Albans half marathon and raised over £3,000 for CMF projects. This autumn we're challenging our student groups to do their own sponsored events for projects such as student leadership, supporting overseas CMFs, and evangelism training – www.cmf.org.uk
Matt Stammers from Brighton is going to be doing a ten mile race on 7 October with some of his fellow students. He writes:
I am very unfit but am excited about doing this to support CMF's fantastic ministry! Please pray for me and for the other student groups – we need all the support we can get but by God's grace we can do it!
And of course we're building up to the biggest Christian medical event in the country on 8-10 February 2008 – the CMF National Students' Conference! Publicity is now available; book soon as we filled the centre last year!
The theme is 'To the Ends of the Earth – the ever-increasing circles of God's kingdom' and Peter Saunders will be taking us through Acts, showing us the incredible power of the gospel as it broke out across the known world. We will look at how this awesome gospel should shape our priorities as Christian medics, with excellent seminars and a main address from Professor Chris Lavy based on his experiences in Malawi. The brochure reads:
Each follower of Jesus is called to be a missionary, going beyond their comfort zone and risking all. As Christian medics we have unique opportunities to engage with secular culture and form meaningful relationships with non-believers, in our medical schools and with our patients, in the UK and abroad.
As we consider Acts together we will seek to discover our role in God's kingdom today. What boundaries are you called to cross?
Two of our students who recently went beyond their comfort zones were Dave Randall and Nick Riches, members of our national students' committee (NSC) who were at the BMA Annual Representatives Meeting (ARM) in June and spoke up against a motion proposing liberalisation of current abortion law. Avril Stirzaker, NSC chair, writes:
Neither had attended an ARM before and could have been described as sheep among wolves! Nick spoke against the motion and David submitted an opposing emergency motion. Both are gifted speakers and put forward their points well. They are thankful for the practical and prayer support they received.
This ARM was a challenge to all of us to improve strategy to mobilise and co-ordinate our members to speak out on ethical issues.
We are delighted to welcome a new student staff member. Joanna Johnson will be working as a Relay worker in the South East for this academic year, based in Oxford. She was a Newcastle graduate and has just finished her F2 jobs. Welcome Jo!
