15 Hours of Prayer for the Students

Monday the 27th is the day to pray for Italian students organised by
Youth for Christ Italia,
Campus Crusade Italia
(in Italian is Agape Italia)
and IFES Italia
(in Italian is GBU).

"15 ore per gli studenti"
"15 hours for students"

From 6am to 9pm churches and individuals will meet to pray for the work in Italian High Schools and Universities.

In Bologna there will be local churches organising specific prayer meetings and possibilities for "prayer walks" around High-Schools where YfC is working and University areas where Agape and GBU are witnessing!

My Space - Sharing the Gospel with teens

Tomorrow afternoon Stefano & Jenny will run the My Space program.

This week the Rock Solid Bible Study theme will be:
"Despair in the desert" and we'll study 1 King 19:1-18.

We'll see that after everything Elijah’s been through and everything he’s seen God do, suddenly he gets scared and he does what some of us might do when we come up against something that scares us: he runs away!

 But God is still with him.

Even when Elijah’s at his lowest point, God is still there, to look after him, provide for him, and give him the strength to carry on.

So, firstly, when we’re at our lowest, all we have to do is cry out to God, like Elijah does, and we’ll find that God is with us. Secondly, we need to be willing to listen!

Porterbrook - Bologna Local Group

Tomorrow from 3 to 7 pm we'll have the first plenary session of the Porterbrook - Bologna Local Group.

The meeting will be held in Nuova Vita Church in Bologna and we expect about 35 students from 4 churches in Bologna and a few from other towns and cities.


Tomorrow we'll start the first two modules of the course:

Nuova Vita Church Website

Character - Gospel living
led by Mark Brucato from Nuova Vita church:
1. A life for God
2. A love for God
3. Looking back: to the cross
4. Looking around: at the Christian community

Forte Torre Church Website

Bible & Doctrine - Reading God's Story
led by Giampaolo Aranzulla from Forte Torre church:
1. What does it say?
2. Why does it say it?
3. So what does it mean for us?
4. What is it trying to do?

Audio sermon Series on Ecclesiastes 1:1-2

Audio (in Italian) of Stefano's sermon on Ecclesiastes 1:1-2

1 What Ecclesiastes has to say in the Story of the Bible?

2 What Ecclesiastes has to say to my life?

3 What Ecclesiastes has to say about Christ?

"Where is Christ in Ecclesiastes? The book tells us that if we leave God out of the picture, life has no meaning, but it is full of meaning if we love and worship Him. But how can we know God? Ecclesiastes stirs up this question in our minds but does not give us an answer. It leaves us hungry to know God, but does not show us the way to Him. It is in this way that it points us to Christ. It raises a question to which Christ is the only answer!"

Stuart Olyott, Preaching Pure and Simple, 2005, Bryntirion Press, Bridgend, p. 48

Listen the Audio-Sermon (Italian)

YfC - Schools Work - Stop The Traffik - Report High School Fermi

Thanks for your prayers on Saturday the 18th for our High School Assembly.

About 70 students choose to participate at our seminar on Modern Day Slavery.

We started our presentation with some clips from the movie "Amazing Grace" presenting the life of William Wilberforce and how his faith led him to fight against slavery.

Then Priscilla, a YfC volunteer, was able to share how the same faith in the same Redeemer is leading her and other Christians from her church to do a ministry amonst prostitutes in Bologna.


The students were very interested and responding and it was good to see some of the kids who came to our summer camp that are studying in that school.

Lecturers and Students Reps invited us to do more events in their school,
so please continue to pray for this door!

YfC - Schools Work - Tomorrow High School Fermi - Stop The Traffik

Tomorrow from 9 to 11 Stefano & Jenny with another couple of YfC will be at the Fermi High School in Bologna.

It is the very first time we are invited to speak at a School Assembly led by the students themselves!!!

We'll speak during the week against
racism and presenting the life of
William Wilberforce and how his faith
led him to fight against slavery.

We'll also use the material from
Stop the Traffic reflecting on how human trifficing is not something from the past,
but still happens today
on our door-step.

Men's group 2T2

Tonight we'll have the men's group 2T2

We will have some interactive feedback from the men who preached for the first time last month and we'll begin to study togheter the Porterbrook course material.

"...and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." 2 Timothy 2:2 (ESV)

Bible Study on Ecclesiastes - Ecclesiastes 1:1-2

Please pray for tomorrow when Stefano will start a new series of Bible Studies on Ecclesiates.

Tomorrow evening will read:

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!
All is vanity.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 (ESV)

"Where is Christ in Ecclesiastes? The book tells us that if we leave God out of the picture, life has no meaning, but it is full of meaning if we love and worship Him. But how can we know God? Ecclesiastes stirs up this question in our minds but does not give us an answer. It leaves us hungry to know God, but does not show us the way to Him. It is in this way that it points us to Christ. It raises a question to which Christ is the only answer!"

Stuart Olyott, Preaching Pure and Simple, 2005, Bryntirion Press, Bridgend, p. 48

Video Interview with Jonathan Gilmore - Porterbrook Italia

Video Interview with Jonathan Gilmore
(director of Porterbrook Italia
and of Acts29 Italia)
during the first residential of Porterbrook Italia!

Video Interview with Tim Chester - Porterbook Italia

Video Interview with Tim Chester
(director of The Porterbrook Institute and
church planter with The Crowded House in Sheffield, UK)
during the first residential of Porterbrook Italia!


Church-planting puts mission at the heart of church
and church at the heart of mission!

Porterbrook Italia First Residential

From the 9th to the 11th of February will have
the First Residential of Porterbrook Italia
at the Serenissima Bible Church.


We'll have seminars on:

Church-Planting DNA

Missional Church

Dealing with Pornography

and the introduction to the first 4 Porterbrook modules
that we'll teach at the Bologna Local Center.

The main speaker will be Tim Chester.
Watch his presentation of his book: "You Can Change"

Launch of Porterbrook Italia

Tomorrow evening
in San Lazzaro Church
we'll have the lauch of
Porterbrook Italia
(in Italian will be "Percorsi")

The speaker will be Tim Chester

Tim Chester is director of The Porterbrook Institute;
a church planter with The Crowded House in Sheffield, UK;
and the author of over a dozen books
including Total Church and You Can Change.