Budrio Preaching Class

Tomorrow morning we'll have our Preaching Class meeting.
We're very excited about this opportunity to invest in the
lives of Nino & Giovanni 
to equip them to preach
God's Word in our church!

Together we'll engage with Exodus 5:1-21 because Giovanni will preach from it
in December!





In this sessions we'll also interact with Stuart Olyott's book Preaching pure and simple.

Tomorrow we'll continue to engage with the first chapter:
What is Preaching?

In his book, Olyott insists that a sermon should be rooted in accurate exegesis, characterized by doctrinal substance, Christ–centredness and supernatural authority, as well as being clear, direct, vivid, helpful and moving.

MySpace Club 4 Teens - So very Thankful!

Tomorrow afternoon we'll have
our My Space Club 4 Teens
for this school-year.

We organize this club for local kids,
in partnership with Budrio Town Hall
as part of their after-school programme.

In this way we have a fantastic room
with a courtyard in Budrio Library
and the social workers are sending
some of the kids they follow.
As part of our club, we also offer help
with their English home-works.
 




     


Together we'll engage with the YfC Rock Solid material,
interacting with the theme: So very Thankful!

We'll play lots of fun games like: 
The Story of Thanksgiving, Hunt for the Turkey, Thankful or not?, Scavenger Hunt, Pin the Hat on the Pilgrim, Label the Words, Thankful Pictionary, Your Future Thanksgiving which will serve as illustrations to the Talk given by Stefano from 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18!

Prayer & Envisioning Meeting

Tomorrow evening Stefano
will lead our mid-week
prayer & envisioning meeting.

Our desire is to build up our church to have a passion for our community with a global vision for the work of the Lord!









We'll pray specifically for the Thanksgiving outreach of last week and the 600 people we interacted with and the many Gospel conversations we had. We'll cast to the Lord the restart of Christianity Explored and the people we've invited to!

Outreach with under-age asylum seekers: Rugby Clinic

This morning we continued with our outreach programme for kids at the HUB 
for under-age asylum seekers in Budrio, in partnership with YfC Italy.

In a village next to Budrio, three years ago was opened the second biggest centre of the Bologna area, to host under-age migrants landed in Italy. At the moment they host
18 kids, mostly Muslim, from various African countries, Albania and Pakistan.

A door was opened to offer a series of Rugby Clinics with Coach Colin White, a former professional rugby player for Scotland, now part of the Bologna staff of YfC Italy.

We are very excited for this opportunity for our church to reach out these kids and for the partnership with the manager of the Mezzolara Sport Centre.

Today Colin, through practical examples from rugby, talked about when we want to score a try and we do our best for that goal. Colin shared how in his life he realized how the goals he set were ultimately not satisfactory and how only in Jesus he found his true identity and goal in life.

Join us in praying for Colin and us that we'll be able to share Jesus' Love to these kids,
the HUB staff and the Sport Centre staff,
in words and actions!

Thankfulness for a great week of Thanksgiving outreach!

Saturday we concluded our outreach with a  Thanksgiving meal with around 80 people.
We made some strategic invites and we are very encouraged by the presence of Budrio vice-mayor and other key figures in our community, alongside older and newer friends we're developing good relations with!
Lots of good Gospel conversations took place around the tables!

On Sunday the team from Sojourn Heights Church led our worship time and team leader Chris Spradley preached from Luke's Gospel about Jesus' invitations to his everlasting feast table and what this means for us tday in our everyday lives!

After the service, we enjoyed a lovely fellowship lunch where we could serve our American friends some Italian good food!

At the end, Caitlin Reyes, director for the Sojourn Heights Kids ministry, shared with us some good tips on our teach little ones while using The Gospel Project for kids!


This is a video summary of this great week, in reaching out every generation in Budrio!

Watch also this 10minutes interview with Chris about this mission trip!

Sunday Service, Visiting Preacher: Chris Spradley

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






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

At 10.00 we'll start our service.
The team from Sojourn Heights Church of Houston, Texas will lead our worship time singing in Italian!

Chris Spradley will preach about the real meaning of Thanksgiving, why and how should we be thankful
to God in Jesus?



Justin & the team from Sojourn Heights Church will lead our children's programme
based on The Gospel Project for kids,
in which week by week kids engage with God's Word and families will have activities to keep interacting with the Bible during the week.

Thanksgiving Outreach - Day 5 Part 2

Today we've continued our Thanksgiving outreach week with the team from Sojourn Heights Church from Houston, Texas at the Thanksgiving conference in Budrio's Bookshop!

We had a good turnout of people and many young people who came from the MySpace Club and our outreach in schools this week.

People really appreciated Tiziano Casella's reading from Tim Chester's book A Meal with Jesus, where we saw how Luke's Gospel is full of stories of Jesus at meals. And these meals represent something bigger: they enact grace, community, hope, mission, salvation and promise.

Justin gave a good talk on the history of Thanksgiving, explaining from  
Colossians 2:6-7 how only in Jesus 
we can live a life of true thankfulness!

Everyone really loved Chris Spradley
speech on how God called him in his college years and how used his experience as finalist on the 2010 first season of Master Chef USA, to open incredible doors for him to share his testimony and love for Jesus!

Thanksgiving Outreach - Day 5 Part 1

Today we've continued our Thanksgiving outreach week with the team from Sojourn Heights Church from Houston, Texas.
We've spent the whole morning at Budrio high school, interacting with more than 120 students.
The team shared about the history of Thanksgiving and how they celebrate it with their families, but above all they shared what does it mean for them to be truly thankful to God for his love and life!








We had a very good interaction with students and quite a few asked some deep questions about how to know God!

It was great to see many kids we got to know during the last five years of ministry and also teachers wanting to know more about our faith!

Keep praying with us that the Lord will bless the seeds planted in these days!

Thanksgiving Conference

This afternoon we'll host a conference about the
historical and biblical meaning of Thanksgiving in
Budrio's Bookshop.

The main speaker will be Chris Spradley
who will share about how God used his experience
as finalist on the 2010 first season of Master Chef USA, to open incredible doors for him to share his testimony and love for Jesus!

 






Justin will talk about the history of Thanksgiving and explain from  
Colossians 2:6-7 how only in Jesus 
we can live a life of true thankfulness!

 

We'll have a special guest Tiziano Casella, a very well-know story-teller from Budrio, who will read from Tim Chester's book A Meal with Jesus, where we'll see how Luke's Gospel is full of stories of Jesus at meals. And these meals represent something bigger: they enact grace, community, hope, mission, salvation and promise.

 

Stefano will chair the meeting concluding with the Gospel invitation to the wedding table of Christ and his church!

At the end the team from Sojourn Heights Church from Houston, Texas, will offer some traditional Thanksgiving pies!

Join us in praying for our Gospel living in the cultural setting of Budrio!

Thanksgiving Outreach - Day 4 Part 2

This afternoon with the team from
Sojourn Heights Church from Houston, Texas,
we were at the HUB for underage asylum seekers.
The team shared about the history of Thanksgiving
and we had a lot of fun playing at some kiddies games
and art activities!











The team offered a hand made pumpkin pie, which was well appreciated!

Chris and Drew were able to share their testimonies on how the Lord saved them
and transformed their lives.

It was great to see how their talks were translated into 4 languages: French, Urdu, Albanian and Italian!
Kids were very attentive and were commenting a lot about what they've heard!

Join us in praying for this Gospel window we have to reach out to them and the HUB staff!

Thanksgiving Outreach - Day 4 Part 1

Today we've continued our Thanksgiving outreach week with the team from Sojourn Heights Church from Houston, Texas.
We've spent the whole morning at Budrio high school, interacting with more than 80 students.
The team shared about the history of Thanksgiving and how they celebrate it with their families, but above all they shared what does it mean for them to be truly thankful to God for his love and life!








We had a very good welcome by the teachers and we were warmly greeted by many students we got to know during the years.
The Lord is blessing us with many relationship in the community, this led today to one of the most open Gospel presentations we were able to do so far in schools!

Many from the team were able to explain the free gift that Jesus gave of himself on the cross for our salvation.
In the discussion groups we were able to further these talks and to explain how we don't need to do anything to deserve God's love and we can rest on Jesus' once for all death and resurrection.

Keep praying with us that the Lord will bless the seeds planted in these days!

Thanksgiving Outreach - Day 3

Today we've continued our Thanksgiving outreach week with the team from Sojourn Heights Church from Houston, Texas.
We've spent the whole morning at Budrio middle school, interacting with more than 100 students.
The team shared about the history of Thanksgiving and how they celebrate it with their families, but above all they shared what does it mean for them to be truly thankful to God for his love and life!
 







Team leader Chris Spradley shared about how God used his experience as finalist on the 2010 first season of Master Chef USA, to open doors for him to share his testimony and love for Jesus!

Outreach with under-age asylum seekers: Rugby Clinic

This morning we continued with our outreach programme for kids at the HUB 
for under-age asylum seekers in Budrio, in partnership with YfC Italy.

In a village next to Budrio, three years ago was opened the second biggest centre of the Bologna area, to host under-age migrants landed in Italy. At the moment they host
11 kids, mostly Muslim, from various African countries, Albania and Pakistan.

A door was opened to offer a series of Rugby Clinics with Coach Colin White, a former professional rugby player for Scotland, now part of the Bologna staff of YfC Italy.

We are very excited for this opportunity for our church to reach out these kids and for the partnership with the manager of the Mezzolara Sport Centre.

Today Colin, through practical examples from rugby, talked about how we try to live up to God’s holy law but we never can do enough. Jesus is the one who fulfilled the law so we can rest and delight in that.

Join us in praying for Colin and us that we'll be able to share Jesus' Love to these kids,
the HUB staff and the Sport Centre staff,
in words and actions!

Thanksgiving Outreach - Day 2

Today, for our Thanksgiving outreach week with the team from Sojourn Church from Houston, Texas, we've been to the elderly citizens programme.

 

The team offered some lovely apple pie & pumpkin pie and prepared an art activity, while sharing about the history of Thanksgiving and how we are called to be thankful to the Lord for all his blessings, above all the gift of His Son. 

This is the first time we're able to work with this age group and we've been very excited from the welcome of these elderly, we've also had some good Gospel conversations with their relatives and the social workers.

This outreach project is a special Gospel opportunity because we'll be able to interact with every age group, from school kids, to the cultural setting, to families and today with the elderly.

Pray with us the Lord of the harvest for His work in Budrio!

Thanksgiving Outreach - Day 1

Today we've started our Thanksgiving outreach week with the team from Sojourn Church from Houston, Texas.
We've spent the whole morning at Budrio middle school, interacting with more than 100 students.
The team shared about the history of Thanksgiving and how they celebrate it with their families, but above all they shared what does it mean for them to be truly thankful to God for his love and life!









Kids were very responsive and we had some good Gospel conversations with teachers too!