Great time with our Community @ the Onion Fair

This year to we had a fantastic time with the friends from our village helping at the traditional Onion Fair.

In the beginning of September we joined two evenings a week the team making hand-made tortellini pasta for the whole fair.






We had a lot of fun at it was great to see different generations working alongside together, from the 17yo girl to the 85yo lady and even a few men!!!
Local ladies loved to teach Jenny how to make this traditional pasta.

Then during the week Stefano went to help with the men in setting up the stand.
It was great to have good manly chats and to be teased alongside another guy for being the only two with a degree....

Then from Thursday to Monday evening we helped in clearing up, dividing rubbish and serving food to more than 6.000 people.



On Sunday as church-plant we had our fellowship lunch at the Fair meeting many local friends.

This Fair has always been an incredible opportunity to meet new people and to be an active part in the community.

Every time we had good conversations and the possibility to establish friendships.

This evening we'll have the meal for all the 150 volunteers who helped in this month.

We love these people and our village!

Don't miss the Tutorial on How to make Tortellini 

by the team of the 2014 Onion Fair of Mezzolara

Sunday Service in Budrio - Acts 4

Tomorrow morning we'll have our morning service to worship God and to proclaim His Word in Budrio.





We really enjoy the Lord's provision of the use of the main room in Le Torri dell'Acqua, the theatre and modern art-gallery right at the centre of Budrio well known as a cultural meeting point.

At 10.00 am we'll have a family time with breakfast together
and at 10.30 am we'll look together with Jonathan at Acts 4.

"Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." 
And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness."  

Acts 4:29-31 (ESV)

Tomorrow we'll begin our service with a time of prayer characterized by thanksgiving and casting a vision for God's work in our community.


We'll thank the Lord for Miriam's arrival in Budrio and we'll pray for her settling in.
Miriam is a Welsh girl who will study till the end of the year at Bologna University while doing an intership experience with Youth for Christ Italy.

We'll thank the Lord for the great opportunity to held our outreach club for teens My Space Budrio in the Café of Le Torri del'Acqua!
We'll pray for the kids that the Lord will use what they've heard from His Word!


We want a global vision, so we'll continue to pray for the team of Italian youth leaders who joined the YfC General Assembly, to be challenged about boldness in evangelism!

With them there's Kristin, daughter of Jonathan & Annette,
so we are looking forward to hear from her experience!




After the service we'll have a fellowship lunch together,
joining the annual Community Onion Fair at our village!

My Space Budrio - Club for teens

This afternoon we'll have our first My Space Budrio club to reach out local teens.
At the moment we don't know how many kids will come and how regularly they'll attend,
so please pray with us, that this will be a meaningful opportunity the Lord will use to call them.

Today we'll interact with  the YfC Rock Solid material following the theme: Skool Daze.
School is an amazing privilege – an opportunity to develop knowledge, skills and thinking that will equip young people to enjoy a productive, purposeful and fulfilling life.
School, for many, is also a trial – a time of frustration, being bullied and loneliness.
The aim is to bring hope to those for whom school life is difficult and challenge to those for whom school is enjoyable.
For both groups the invitation is the same: Jesus is the Solid Rock of our life!

We'll interact with clips from the School of Rock movie challenging kids to think about what changes they would make if they were the new principal of their school.

Stefano will give two talks from
Psalm 62:1-2 and Matthew 7:24-25.
He'll share his testimony when he became a Christian teen in high-school and how in the midst of the instability of life, we can find refuge and strength in Jesus' Solid Rock.

At the end  we'll have a Camp Reunion after the Exch@nge camp of this summer with a Skype phone call with the amazing team from Bethel Church of Houston!

Sunday Evening Family Time

Yesterday evening we had our first
Sunday Evening Family Time as core group of the Impatto A Budrio church-plant.

It was great to see that everyone came,
so that we were 18 adults and 4 kids.


Jonathan read from Acts 16 and shared our desire to see our church-plant and future
church-plants, motivated by a true biblical vision of the Gospel, Community and Mission.
We were also blessed by a time of fellowship enjoying a pizza together!

Sunday Evening Family Time

Tomorrow evening we'll our first Sunday Evening Family Time as core group of the Impatto A Budrio church-plant.






Jonathan and Stefano will lead a Family Time characterised by a desire to be led together by God's Word, with a time of vision and prayer.

Our desire is to grow in our comprehension of the unity
we have in Christ and our vision for reaching out the community of Budrio with a sense of the global reality of God's Kingdom.

Part of this Family Time will be to enjoy fellowship sharing a pizza together!

Porterbrook - Campus Bologna plenary session

Tomorrow from 3.30 to 7.00 pm
in Nuova Vita Church we'll have the
plenary session for students of the
foundation and advanced years of
Porterbrook - Campus Bologna.

Foundation Year 2 students
will interact with the module
The Bible in Missional Perspective,
led by Gianpaolo, pastor of Forte Torre.

In this session, students will interact with these units:
1. How we know and what we know
2. The encapsulating vision - the end justifies the means
3. The final revelation - the man

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 you to understand how the Bible fits together around this theme. It will show you how Jesus fulfills God's salvation plan and how we fit into God's purposes as the Church. The course will introduce you to biblical theology in a way that will reshape your life around the gospel.

Advanced Year 3 students will interact with the module Evangelism and Social Action, led by Stefano co-pastor of ImpattoABudrio.

In this session, students will interact with these units:
1. A Vision For Social Action
2. Models Of Social Action
3. Principles of Social Action

Social action flows out of a transformed heart.
The gospel word produces communities who care for their neighbourhoods. Learn how social action and evangelism belong together without collapsing one into the other.

Porterbrook Campus Bologna - planning meeting

This morning Stefano from Impatto A Budrio,  Gianpaolo, pastor of Forte Torre, Gian Luca and Mark, pastors of Nuova Vita, will meet to finalize the new academic year of Percorsi Campus Bologna.

Please pray for us as tutors, for our churches partnering in this joint training programme and for the students.

Sunday Service in Budrio - Acts 3

From tomorrow morning we'll start to have two services a month to worship God and to proclaim His Word in Budrio.





We really enjoy the Lord's provision of the use of the main room in Le Torri dell'Acqua, the theatre and modern art-gallery right at the centre of Budrio well known as a cultural meeting point.

At 10.00 am we'll have a family time with coffee & cakes
and at 10.30 am we'll look together at Acts 3.

"The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus..." 
Acts 3:13 (ESV)


Tomorrow we'll begin our service with a time of prayer characterized by thanksgiving and casting a vision for God's work in our community.

We'll thank the Lord for Jonathan & Annette Gilmore's arrival in Budrio and we'll pray for their settling in.
Jonathan will split his time between his role as Acts29 country coordinator for Italy and director of Porterbrook Italy,
while working as co-leader with Stefano in the Impatto A Budrio church-plant.

We'll thank the Lord for the opening
He made with Matteo, the manager of the café in the theatre Le Torri dell'Acqua,
who agreed to host for free our outreach
club for teens My Space Budrio!

We want a global vision, so this month we'll pray for the team of Italian youth leaders who will join the YfC General Assembly, to be challenged about boldness in evangelism!

Living out as Christians in the community

This week we are living another great time of life in the community of Budrio.

On Tuesday we were helping along with men and women from our village to prepare hand-made pasta for the coming town-fair.

This afternoon Jonathan & Stefano will meet with Ester, national director of YfC Italia, 

to plan the coming activities of the outreach club for teenagers My Space Budrio.

Then on Saturday we'll go again to help our community to complete the painting of the corridors in the local Middle School.

Last week it has been an incredible opportunity to serve alongside parents of the kids studying in that school and to share our faith in Jesus, the Servant King!

Sunday Service in San Lazzaro Church

Tomorrow morning Stefano will preach
at the Sunday Service of San Lazzaro Church,
continuing the church shared series on 1 Corinthians.



This is a follow-up of the work done during the Bologna Bible School in March when, alongside other churches in Bologna,
we had a full-immersion on 1 Corinthians:
"A clash between two wisdoms!"

Stefano will preach from 
1 Corinthians 14:1-40:
"An edifying language 
for an intelligible church"

with these 2 headings:

I. A language that edifies because loves.

 

II. A church that is intelligible because loves.

Living our faith in the community

Tomorrow morning  we'll join the community of Budrio in completing the painting work of the local middle-school, which we started with the service project at the end of the Exch@nge Camp in July.

Luisa, the deputy Mayor of Budrio wrote on FaceBook:

"On Saturday morning we invite volunteers, parents and kids to paint  the walls of the middle-school to complete the fantastic work done by the American kids of the camp of Stefano & Jennifer Mariotti."







Our desire is to keep blessing this community showing also in practical ways Jesus' love!

Living our faith in the community

Yesterday evening, after the summer break, we went again
to the Budrio Neighbours Fitness Walking Group.

It was great not only to walk for about 10 km in the countryside with these new local friends we are getting to know, but also to see one of the boys that came to the Exch@nge Camp in July with his parents!

Yesterday evening has also been very special!
Jonathan & Annette Gilmore have finalized their move to Budrio.

Jonathan will split his time between his role as Acts29 country coordinator for Italy and director of Porterbrook Italy,
while working as co-leader with Stefano in the Impatto A Budrio church-plant.

This evening we'll join friends from our village in preparing the "tortellini" hand made pasta for the traditional Onion Fair!