Showing our Love with our Blood!

A group of students and teachers from the Department of Religious Studies visited the National Blood Transfusion service in Martin recently. The goal of the trip was to give that rarest of commodities—blood!

We have known about blood types for a long time. Karl Landsteiner discovered that people can be divided into three blood type groups – A, B, and 0. Sometime later, a fourth type was discovered – AB. The Bible teaches that “Life…is in the blood” (Lev. 17:14) and we now know much about the biological significance of blood and its various types. Students from the study program “Mission Work with Children and Youth” recognized the importance of blood and decided to help the sick and needy by donating their own blood. It wasn’t just the students, either teachers came along, as well. “It was a common decision by both students and teachers and we are pleased that we could help,” said teacher Tomas Gulan.

The students and teachers were happy to discover that they didn’t need to come hungry before giving blood. The whole group was able to eat a light breakfast, which consisted of bread with honey or jam. Coffee fans even got to have their favorite drink! “It was a great experience and we all felt good about being able to donate” said student Jan. One of the nurses at the National Transfusion Service in Martin said “we get this form of help fairly often in Slovakia, but blood is always necessary! Blood donors are always welcome at the Transfusion Service,” added the smiling nurse.