Thanksgiving school events & meal in Budrio

We are so glad to the Lord for the door He has opened in the High-School in Budrio where Jenny teaches English.

Wednesday and Thursday we had Youth for Christ projects to interact with kids about the history of the Pilgrims Fathers and their faith in God.  
We really appreciated the help and passion for the Lord of Brandon & Elizabeth, Laura, Michael & Heather, David, Daniel & Ashley and Angela from the Texas team of Campus Crusade.

In the Budrio High-School we spoke to 175 students aged 14-15yo about the meaning of Thankfulness and why we are thankful to God for the gift of Jesus and His sacrifice for us on the cross for our sins.
It was hard to see many young kids saying that they don't believe in a personal God, yet we were encouraged by the fact that many more said they would like to know more about Jesus.

Please pray for Sunday night when we have arranged a Thanksgiving meal for all our friends in the Budrio area.

We expect about 40 people and this will be the first event promoted by the Acts29 Budrio church-plant

Habakkuk House Groups Bible Studies in San Lazzaro - Leaders meeting

This morning Stefano will meet with the leaders of one of the three House Groups monthly Bible Studies on Habakkuk we've started in San Lazzaro Church.
Together we'll review the previous Bible Study House Groups and we'll prepare the next one in December on Habakkuk 1:12-17

For these studies we are using the book by Jonathan Lamb: 
From Why to Worship: Habakkuk, which is available in Italian.

Would God be enough if we were to lose everything else?
Would we be able to say, with Habakkuk, that although we had nothing  we would “rejoice in the Lord”?
This is a challenging book.
Lamb brings Habbakuk’s prophecy to life, showing how we can take God with us into our darkest times.

Jonathan Lamb  is on the staff of Langham Partnership International. 
As international director of Langham Preaching he works with national leaders to build local movements committed to Bible exposition and to provide training, resources and support for a new generation of preachers.

YfC School events for Thanksgiving in Budrio 2nd day

Today we've been to the High-School in Budrio and Medicina where Jenny teaches to continue the series of events in some High-Schools of the Bologna area for the American Thanksgiving.

We had with us Michael & Heather and David from the Texas team connected with the Bologna Campus Crusade. We've been in 3 classes in Budrio and in 1 in Medicina with kids aged 14-15yo.
The team has been really good in interacting with Italian kids about the history of the Pilgrims Fathers and their faith in God.

Tomorrow we'll go again in 3 classes of the High-School in Budrio with Dan & Ashley, and Angela.
Pray that we'll be able to challenge Italian kids to think why today we should be thankful to God!

YfC School events for Thanksgiving in Budrio

Today we've been to the biggest high-school in Bologna starting the series of events in some High-Schools of the Bologna area for the American Thanksgiving.

We had with us Brandon & Elizabeth and Laura from Texas with Jesse Marcos the leader of Bologna Campus Crusade. They've been really good in interacting with students about the history of the Pilgrims Fathers and their faith in God. Italian kids responded really well and some asked about our faith in Jesus.

Tomorrow we'll be with Michael & Heather and David to the High-School in Budrio where Jenny teaches English. For the very first time since we're doing these projects with YfC, the school booked us for all their first and second year classes for two whole mornings!
Please pray that tomorrow too we'll be able to challenge Italian students to think why today we should be thankful to God!

YfC School events for Thanksgiving in Bologna

Tomorrow we'll start a series of events in some High-Schools of the Bologna area for the American Thanksgiving.
Tomorrow we'll be in a
middle-school and in the biggest high-school in Bologna.

We'll have a team from Texas coming with Campus Crusade and with them we'll interact with students about the history of the Pilgrims Fathers and their faith in God. The team will have opportunity to share their faith with Italian kids.
We'll also challenge students to think why today we should be thankful to God!

Porterbrook - Campus Bologna plenary session

Today from 3.30 to 7.00 pm
we'll have the plenary session for
students of the advanced years of
Porterbrook - Campus Bologna.

This meeting will be held in San Lazzaro Church and we expect about 15 students.

We'll start with the third and fourth modules of the 1st volume advanced course.


The third module is Missional Church and Church Planting,
led by Gianluca Derudas, co-pastor of Nuova Vita.
In this session, students will interact with these units:
1. Ecclesiology 1
2. Ecclesiology 2
3. Missional Ecclesiology 1

This course will help you reconnect the church with mission. The church is God’s mission strategy for reaching people with the gospel. Mission is at the heart of who we are and what we do as church. This course walks you through the doctrine of the church to discover its role in mission. It challenges and equips us to see church planting as a central missions strategy for churches and ordinary Christians.


The fourth module is A Commitment for the Context,
led by Stefano.
In this session, students will interact with these units:
1. Understanding Culture and its Origins
2. Understanding Culture after the Fall
3. Understanding your Context

This module will help students to understand the culture and
the context in which they live and how to engage others with the Gospel.

San Lazzaro Church Home-groups Prayer Meeting

This evening we'll have the monthly Home-groups 
Prayer Meeting of San Lazzaro Church.

During this meetings we pray for World Evangelism, 
and for the missionary work in China and in Senegal
in which we are involved.
 
We pray for Italy and our region Emilia-Romagna and
for the cooperation we have with different churches in
the Bologna Area and for the outreach activities we have.

This month we'll pray specifically for the population in the Philippines who are suffering from the damage from
Super Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines on Friday, Nov. 8, and is being reported as one of the strongest storms recorded to hit the planet.

We are supporting the work of Compassion International who, because of their church partnerships in the Philippines, are working with them to provide: emergency food provision, medicine and first aid kits, emergency shelter: tents, blankets, basic clothing, hygiene items.

When you give to this fund, you help Compassion provide the relief, recovery, and rehabilitation that is vital to restore families affected by this massive storm.

This month we'll also pray for the work of Youth for Christ Italia in supporting churches in Bologna for their work with young people.

We'll also pray for the events organized in schools for the coming American Thanksgiving.
This year we are invited for the first time in a middles school and for 2 whole days in the High School in Budrio.

The goal of our presentation of the history of the American Thanksgiving is to challenge students to think and discuss about the meaning of thankfulness for today. This year we'll have with us a team from Texas with Agape Italia (Campus Crusade), and they will have an opportunity to share the ways in which they are thankful to God.

Acts29 WE conference: Ignition: Planting Churches in Western Europe - 19-21/11/2013

From Tomorrow until Thursday, Stefano and other pastors from Italy, will attend the Acts29 WE conference Ignition: Planting Churches in Western Europe.

The goal of this conference is
to offer a two day gathering to encourage, stimulate and equip church planters in Western Europe, and a chance to hear
the vision of Acts29 in Western Europe and connect with existing Acts29 church planters.

The main speakers will be Steve Timmis, Director of Acts 29 Europe and one of the elders of The Crowded House in Sheffield 

and Richard Coekin, chairman of the London Men’s Convention and Senior Pastor of the Co-Mission network of churches in SW London. 


In the conference we'll have sessions on Bible reading: Colossians, on Covenant Renewal - Going Global, 
on Continental Shift? and on Where to from here?  

Series: "Praying with Paul" - Colossians 1:3-20 - A prayer to be fully pleasing to Christ!

Tomorrow Stefano will continue the series:
"Praying with Paul", in which we are interacting with Paul's prayers in his letters.

For this sermon: "A prayer to be
fully pleasing to Christ",
we'll engage with Colossians 1:3-20.

To introduce this sermon, we'll ask ourselves:
Why if daily we ask our Father to give us our daily bread, we do not equally ask daily to be filled with the knowledge of his will, to fully pleasing to Christ, and to bear fruit in Him?

These will be the headings of the sermon:
1. A prayer to be fully pleasing to Christ
2. A prayer to be strengthened in Christ


"And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

Colossians 1:9-14 (ESV)

To dig deeper with the themes 

we are engaging with in this series,

Stefano is encouraging the church 

to read and interact with the book of 

D. A. Carson:


A Call to Spiritual Reformation:

Priorities from Paul and His Prayers.


This book is also available in Italian. 

YfC Bologna planning meeting: Thanksgiving week & Exch@nge summer camp

Tomorrow afternoon we'll have a meeting of the YfC Italia staff in Bologna to plan some of the activities for this year.

We'll start planning the coming Thanksgiving week from Monday the 25th to Saturday the 30th. In these day we are invited in schools where we have already been for other projects, but also for the first time in a middles school and for 2 whole days in the High School in Budrio who booked us for every 1st and 2nd year classes.

The goal of our presentation of the history of the American Thanksgiving is to challenge students to think and discuss
about the meaning of thankfulness for today. This year we'll have with us a team from Texas with Agape Italia (Campus Crusade), and they will have an opportunity to share the ways in which they are thankful to God.

Later on, with Susan from
Forte Torre Church and
Mark from Nuova Vita Church,
we'll start to plan the summer camp Exch@nge, exploring the exciting idea to organise more than one camp in the Bologna Area!

Habakkuk House Groups Bible Studies

Tomorrow evening we'll start in San Lazzaro Church a new series of Bible Studies on the book Habakkuk for the monthly House Groups we run in three homes.

For these studies we are using the book by Jonathan Lamb: 
From Why to Worship: Habakkuk, which is available in Italian.

Would God be enough if we were to lose everything else?
Would we be able to say, with Habakkuk, that although we had nothing  we would “rejoice in the Lord”?
This is a challenging book.
Lamb brings Habbakuk’s prophecy to life, showing how we can take God with us into our darkest times.


Jonathan Lamb  is on the staff of Langham Partnership International. 
As international director of Langham Preaching he works with national leaders to build local movements committed to Bible exposition and to provide training, resources and support for a new generation of preachers.

International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church - IDOP 10/11/2013 Bologna Meeting

Tomorrow afternoon we'll have a joint prayer meeting in Bologna for the International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church - IDOP 2013 promoted worldwide by the World Evangelical Alliance.

This year the IDOP 2013 is organized in Bologna by
Nuova Speranza Church and Sasso Marconi Church,
and we expect that many other Christians from the area
will join us for this prayer meeting.

From the IDOP website:

Believers in countries such as Egypt, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and Vietnam face violence, imprisonment and even death because of their faith. There are other places in the world such as North Korea where acts of persecution take place, but we don’t see or hear of it. IDOP is a time set apart for us to remember thousands of our Christian brothers and sisters around the world who suffer persecution, simply because they confess Jesus Christ as Lord.

This year our focus includes the plight of Christians in India, who are suffering increasing persecution by militants who want a Hindu-only India. Please watch the Free to Follow video

 

Titus 2 Ladies Group in San Lazzaro Church

Tonight Tina, Elisabetta & Jenny will lead the Titus 2 
Ladies Group of San Lazzaro church, starting a new 
Bible studies series on women from the Old Testament.
Tonight they'll look at the life of Deborah and her faith in Jesus.

The goal of this group is to challenge women from the church to encourage one another in the fear of the Lord and to learn to be missional in their workplaces, homes and families!

We are really encouraged by Elisabetta's help since she is taking over Jenny's leading role in the Titus2 group while we are devoting more time towards the starting of Budrio church-plant.

 

 
Elisabetta Brown (Lizzie) is an Italian missionary working alongside her English husband Chris for GBU (IFES) to reach out uni students in Bologna and they are both members of San Lazzaro church

Prayer meeting for the persecuted church worldwide - San Lazzaro Church

Tonight we'll dedicate the monthly prayer meeting in
San Lazzaro church to prepare for the International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church - IDOP of this coming Sunday.

IDOP is a yearly event 
promoted worldwide by the  
World Evangelical Alliance 
and Open Doors.
Tonight, indeed, we'll have an Open Doors Italia speaker who will challenge us to pray specifically for Egypt, Syria and North Korea.

Sunday Service 03/11/2013 - Nuova Vita Church in Bologna

Tomorrow we'll be in Nuova Vita Church, one of the biggest evangelical churches in Bologna.
Nuova Vita is one of the four churches we are partnering with for the training project Porterbrook - Campus Bologna.
We are also doing together the YfC My Space club for teens and the summer Exch@nge camp.
Nuova Vita is also the church we are partnering with for the Acts29 church-plant in Budrio.

 
Tomorrow morning Stefano will preach on John 14:1-17.
To introduce this passage we'll interact with the question:
"What makes "home" a house?"
Then we'll answer to these two questions which will be our points:
1. Lord, how can we know the way? (Thomas)
2. Lord, can you show us the Father? (Philip)


Jesus said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me".
John 14:6 (ESV)

Porterbrook - Campus Bologna plenary session

Tomorrow from 3.30 to 7.00 pm
we'll have the plenary session for
students of the advanced years of
Porterbrook - Campus Bologna.

This meeting will be held in Forte Torre Church and we expect about 15 students.

We'll continue with the first and second module of the 1st volume advanced course.


The first module is Living the Cross and Resurrection,
led by Stefano.
In this session, students will interact with these units:
7. Life to die
8. Resurrection promise
9. The Kingdom of God is at Hand- Eschatology and Mission

This course shows how the cross and resurrection provide the pattern for discipleship in the everyday.
It calls us to live out the radical implications of grace and to apply the way of the cross to every area of life. We’ll discover how the cross and resurrection empower us in Christ for a life of sacrificial service and joy.
We’ll be encouraged to live a risk-taking life on mission to the world as part of a community of people empowered by the cross.

The second module is The Bible in Missional Perspective,
led by Gianpaolo Aranzulla, pastor of Forte Torre.
In this session, students will interact with these units:
7. The method established - a people
8. Failure and remedy - one man for a people
9. The story continues - a people

The bible is the story of God's plan and purpose to redeem a people for himself. This is how God wants to be known. This course will teach us to understand how the bible fits together around this theme. It will show us how Jesus fulfills God's salvation plan and how we fit into God's purposes as the Church. The course will introduce us to biblical theology in a way that will reshape your life around the gospel.