Starting an International Students SCC at the Catholic University Parish in Bochum, Germany

We started as a small community of seven international students (3 – Germans, 2 – Latin American), 1 Ukrainian, 1 – Kenyan) who congregate at the Catholic University Parish in Bochum, Germany  (Katholische  Hochschulgemeinde, http://www.khg-bochum.de).  We began as four women and three men. We chose St. Thomas Aquinas SCC RUB as our name. We have been meeting regularly as a Small Church Community on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. since February, 2012. Now we have grown to 13 members who come from 10 different countries.

We share our thoughts and reflect on the Gospel reading of the following Sunday in both German and English languages to keep the sharing open for German as well as to international students. Usually we are done about after an hour, sometimes continuing our gathering to talk about unrelated or advanced topics. Our small group was started when each of us individually tried to make her or his faith more relevant in their daily lives, but figured it was really challenging to do on our own. As we are created for relationship, we came together, shared about our desires and longings and decided to build up a small community to support one another and deepen our faith. Together we are trying to figure out what God is challenging us to do in a personal way as well as in a group. 

We will see what is coming up next. We are considering a seminar on faith-related topics in our student community, but have not established our agenda yet. In April, 2013 we plan for a celebration of one year. We have a Facebook Page at: https://www.facebook.com/ groups/617204198295987/?fref= ts

We are always searching for more members and are willing to welcome anyone who would like to join in, so don’t hesitate to contact us!  Feel free to send your email to:

Daniel Maslowski
An der Holtbrügge 45
D-44795 Bochum
Germany
phone:  +49 (0)234  60 60 697
mobile: +49 (0)1577 75 93 609
Email: info@orangecms.org
Web:http://orangecms.org

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