Holly Shaw reports on a new joint event.
On 25 May 2012, a group from Southampton University CMF made the trip to Brighton for the first ever Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) and Southampton CMF house party. We arrived at our host's house to be met by the BSMS CMF group and joined them for our first meal together.
After dinner we had our first talk from the weekend's speaker, Professor Richard Vincent, a consultant cardiologist involved in founding BSMS. He spoke on some of Jesus' teaching, especially on humility,which is a quality sometimes too rarely applied in medicine.
After this we spent some time in games toget to know each other. The four storey house was perfect for a game of sardines in the dark which went on for hours (Southampton absolutely dominated), before we eventually stopped for cake then headed to bed.
The next morning's talk looked at 'Jesus thehealer'. After this we split into small groups for a look at some medical case studies…from theBible! It was great to look at the stories of Jesus' healing in a slightly different way.
Later BSMS got Southampton back for the sardines win by annihilating them at volleyball –although Southampton explained this with the fact that they have far more time and opportunit yto practice!
Eventually we met back at the house for even more games (our Games Master for the weekendr eally outdid himself) until wes tarted falling asleep where we were sitting.
Sunday was our last day together. We attended the morning service at St Peter's Church Brighton, then enjoyed a picnic before Southampton sadly packed up the minibus and said goodbye.
We all felt incredibly blessed by the weekend. Southampton returned to their revision ande xams feeling refreshed from the time away and happy to have met and spent time with such a great group from Brighton.
Want to get involved?
Only a few CMF groups are big enough to make a 'solo' group weekend away realistic. We weredelighted in the office to hear about the success of Brighton and Southampton's weekend. Why notthink about which medical schools near you could join together and do something like this?
Your National Student Committee reps should be able to help you link with other medical schools– contact the CMF office if you don't know who they are.
However much fun sardines and volleyball might be, the key part of running a weekend like thisis getting the teaching right. Make the Bible teaching central; the other things will largely lookafter themselves (with a bit of organisation!). Your medical school link could help with speakers,and we also hold a list in the CMF office.
