Bio

Ron Abarbanel grew up in Quebec in a Jewish home. At 17 he read through the New Testament and was astounded at Jesus’ teachings and answers to the Jews. He became a Christian with the blessing of his parents who also became Christians when they read about Jesus. He has a B. Eng. in Computer Engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa. He has worked with the Navigators for 13 years in campus ministry, first at the University of Waterloo and now at Dalhousie and Saint Mary’s universities in Halifax. Ron loves the CMDS group at Dalhousie as the students are eager to find truth and meaning in their lives. The group meets weekly to study the Bible and has ad hoc seminars on health and faith topics. Ron’s desire is to invite those in the health professions to investigate Jesus first-hand be they believers or not. The group is a lively mix of people from all health professions - professors and students, believers and those seeking to know Jesus. Ron is married to Marsha and they have five children (born 1993-2002).


Dalhousie Group Update

October 2007

I’ve been working with CMDS for 5 years at Dalhousie U. This coming year, I plan to meet individually with medical and dental students and with any other students that might get involved. I run a weekly meeting, where we discuss "Integrating Faith with Practice" and we have occasional barbecues. This year, I’ve invited CMDS practitioners to volunteer a little bit of their time to mentor students. We are also signing up students who want to be mentored and pairing them together. I’m very excited about this initiative. We’ve had a very good response. Another thing that we’re planning is having CMDS students sponsor speakers to come and speak to the general student population at Dalhousie.

All these things require resources and we’re hoping that there will be many doctors willing to support the CMDS ministry at Dalhousie.

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2006

The Dal CMDS year started off with a blast! (We had an unprecedented 30 people come to the kick-off BBQ.) From there we made a much greater effort at getting practitioners to our weekly meetings to present on various topics of interest. This term we had five different opportunities to host someone, including Dr. John Patrick. We've been encouraging attendance by those who are in first and second year.

Thanks to whoever worked on the Student Leadership Conference. Every time our students go they come back refreshed and excited, enthusiastically relating what a great time they had.

We had a lot of fun in CMDS this year. It is among my favorite groups of people that I work with – very encouraging.

The backbone of our group is the Thursday night Bible study. Though we recognize that Medical students face unique situations we feel that getting anyone into the Bible is the very best thing we can do for them. Jesus’ truth speaks to their hearts and they are then able to make the applications to what they are specifically facing.

This year we had an event where an OMF missionary talked about the open doors for Medical missions in China. We had Dr. Hendrick Visser come in and present two overcoming Dis-Ease seminars. Also, Charlie Ritchie spoke to the group about a project where American doctors and medical supplies are sent to Vietnam. This project has now been extended to Cuba.

I also had the opportunity to give a lecture on Creation and Evolution and was invited to give a presentation to the entire first and second year medical class to explain Christianity and discuss topics such as abortion, euthanasia, etc. I was presenting alongside people of different faiths and it was a fantastic opportunity.

Last year we had Drs. Greg Archibald and Christine McKenna share about grief counseling in light of the tragic death of their 3 year old son Peter. I find the Christian doctors in the city always willing to help out where they can. Dr. Maurice Nanton is a regular at the group and is deeply loved by the students. Dr. Wally Schlech is in a Church Bible study that I lead and I hope in the near future to have him talk to the group about his career and his recent move to work part-time each year on the front line of the AIDS epidemic in Kampala, Uganda.

Behind the scenes I encourage Med students to volunteer with ARK, a ministry to friends that live on the street that I am a part of. Guy, one of the CMDS students, has brought other Med students and have become involved in a mini foot clinic on Sunday nights, helping our street friends with simple foot related problems.

- Ron Abarbanel
baldguy@navigators.ca

To support CMDS' student ministry and Ron Abarbanel at Dalhousie U, and encourage medical and dental students to "Integrate Faith and Christian Ethics" into their professional practice, please click here to make a Staff Donation.