Conference "New Beginning"
After the good summer God blessed us with, it was time to start the new academic year. What better way to "start" than with a student conference?
The student conference "New Beginning" was held in our beloved Tryavna on the 24-26th of September. Despite the limited number of students, we had a really good, quality and blessed time together!
The first evening of the conference, after dinner, we had our introductory session and reflected on Philippians 1:1-2 and what it means to live as servants and saints for God.
In the next session, on Saturday morning, we looked at Philippians chapter 3 and discussed what Paul leaves behind because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ. On Paul's scale, Christ "outweighed" everything else that was important to him. We then had a seminar on "Seeking God's Will Together", the purpose of which was to help us understanding that God's will is clear and attainable, not mystical and mysterious. He wants us to love Him and love others - that is the greatest commandment. We also talked about how God's specific will for us is always in sync with His general will. As students, God wants us to be examples, to put Him first and to draw near to Him. Later that day, we had a practical seminar on "How to Study the Bible" and talked about the richness of God's word. Saturday’s evening session was on Philippians chapter 2 and how we need to be together, like-minded, caring for one another so that wherever we are we can shine.
The next morning, we studied Philippians 4:1-9 and talked about why it is important to rejoice and how to do it, because God is glorified when His people rejoice in Him!
To wrap up the conference, we had a session called "Forward with BCSU" which presented resources and ideas to inspire student initiative in our groups.
During these 3 days, we practiced various spiritual disciplines such as Lectio Divina and writing a prayer based on a passage of Scripture. We listened to the word of God under the open night sky, had fun together, and everyone participated in the organized evening games.
It was a great joy to return to Tryavna after this long period. We believe this truly is a "New Beginning" for the students of BCSU and we can't wait to see what God has in store for the coming year.
