Kyiv National Linguistic University is aimed at studying foreign languages and law. There are 7000 students. It was one of the first universities in Ukraine where CCX ministry started in those distant 90’s. Today the Christian student group there is made of 30 people. University students are interested in any events that improve their level of English and self-development and eagerly welcome Christian students and our foreign volunteers.
The group’s leader is Gelena, an orphan in the past but a Christian today because of the Christian family that had adopted her. She found out about CCX in the university and gladly plunged into the ministry. Gelena actively shares the Gospel with her group mates, encourages other believing students to have prayer and discussion groups and evangelism events. Marina Gnatyshyna, CCX member who is responsible for this university, mentors her and helps this center grow through team meetings where they study the Word and plan CCX events in the university. The goals of the CCX center in Linguistic University are simple: first, to help students grow spiritually and in their organization; second, to spread the Gospel among students of the university.
What is happening in CCX in Linguistic University?
All CCX events here are held within main goals – strengthening Christian student center and evangelism. Among ongoing events there are:
- Weekly prayer meetings.
- Discussion group “Time out” where students read the Gospel of Luke (“Uncover”), or sometimes choose a certain topic. Usually there are about 20 students. Once an atheist student started to come. Every meeting he tried to contradict the Gospel and Christian views. But he was amazed by the openness of our Christian students and came every meeting. Then he had to travel to Turkey for some time. And here is what he wrote from there: “I’m somewhat missing our group. I didn’t expect I would. Are you tired of me, guys? Because soon I’ll be back”.
- Weekly English Speaking Clubs held by the CCX English Department (30 people attending).
- Creative evangelism projects. The last two months were marked by such outstanding evangelism events: “Freshman Week” and a lecture by a Christian speaker from Macedonia on proofs of Jesus’ resurrection.
Apart from ongoing events Linguistic University center holds a project every month, either “Freshman Week”, “Bible and Life” conference, open lectures within “Month of Faith and Science”, “Living Library” etc. You can learn more about them below.
Freshmen Week (September 1-6, 2015)
“Freshman Week” has become a September tradition among CCX chapters in various universities. This project has got a couple of goals. First is to make CCX chapters more public and draw students’ attention to them. Second is to find new Christian students. And third is evangelism.
During the first week of September students spread about 350-400 invitations at the class break times. They managed to speak personally with 50 freshmen, tell them of CCX, our values and goals. We arranged a tour around Kyiv for the freshmen with Vitaliy Stepanets as a guide; Vitaliy was a professional guide in the past. We closed the tour with a major discussion meeting on “How to live to the utmost while being a student”. We touched upon looking for the truth, and what can really make us happy and free in this life. The discussion was in a restaurant where students came to relax and have lunch after the trip. At the end of the project 35 students gave us their contacts and expressed a desire to attend other CCX events. Today many of them come to our projects.
Month of Faith and Science (October 2015, Linguistic University)
Within the framework of CCX’s month of “Faith and Science” we managed to arrange a speech delivered by Kosta Milkou on “Is God dead? The Proofs and Importance of Christ’s Resurrection”. His public lecture bore a great impact on Christian students in terms of evangelism because they had to invite their group mates to the lecture and then speak about God with them. The biggest fear was that the head of the university would not allow a room for a “religious purposes”. But with God’s grace students got permission for the classroom the day before the lecture and also were allowed to distribute announcement flyers with a survey about Christ’s resurrection, and invitations to Milkou’s lecture.
The lecture was attended by twenty people. The majority of them were unbelievers. Some of the students spoke openly about being atheists; some were from Muslim families and wanted to know more facts about the resurrection of Christ because the Koran tells about Him only as a prophet. At the end, students asked some very deep questions on Christianity and discussed the speech in small groups.
Afterwards Yulia, a student, shared her experience: “I was happy to be able to talk about God with the students. I am often afraid of not knowing all the answers. But this was an exceptional experience! I want more things like that!”
Another student, Alina, noted that her group mate had previously claimed to be an unbeliever but with time, having attended discussion groups and Kosta’s speech, she said: “I told you that I didn’t believe in God. But then I hesitated. Kosta showed very strong proofs and facts which gave answers to my questions. I believe now that Jesus was resurrected and that he is God. I have no doubts in this. The proofs are more convincing that the arguments of those people who speak against Jesus”.
Our goal in Linguistic University is to grow the CCX group up to 60 Christian students with its active core of 15 students. We will be grateful if you can support this center with prayer and finances.