Deputation 2014 - Laois Bible Church

I'm sorry that once again I'm missing the walks of Budrio fitness walking group. Yet, even if I'm quite busy here in Ireland, I'm managing to have nice walks in the nature!

Tomorrow evening Stefano will be with friends from Laois Bible Church in the town of Ballyroan,
sharing about the ministry we have in Italy and the church-plant work in Budrio.

Deputation 2014 - Westside Baptist Church

Good time of fellowship yesterday with the friends from Brannockstown Baptist Church.
Great to see a church with many generations interacting together and a desire to reach out their rural context.
Encouraging to see a desire to start a youth outreach club!

Tomorrow evening Stefano will be with friends from Westside Baptist Church in
the town of Bandon, popularly known as  
“The Gateway to West Cork”. 

Stefano will share about the ministry work in Italy and the church-plant in Budrio.

Looking forward to meet these new friends from a church who aims to share the good news of the grace of God in their local area and to encourage interest and involvement in world-wide missionary work.
It's great to know that they are also involved in a church-plant in the nearby town of Kinsale.

Deputation 2014 - Brannockstown Baptist Church

Tomorrow morning Stefano
will be at Brannockstown Baptist Church in the village of Brannockstown in Co. Kildare.
It will be good to share about the work in Italy and especially the church-plant in Budrio and to meet fellow Christians keen to reach out in their community.

Great start of 2014 deputation in Ireland

Great time of fellowship this morning to set up Stefano's deputation in Ireland.
This morning he joined a men's breakfast followed by a book conversation.
We were about 10 men who cooked and enjoyed a traditional full Irish breakfast including a delicious black pudding
(click the link if you don't know what a black pudding is :-)



Then we enjoyed an even greater time of fellowship reading and  discussing together a chapter from the book:
You Can Change: God's transforming power for our sinful behaviour and negative emotions, by Tim Chester.

It was very encouraging to take part of this meeting and seeing mature Christian men alongside some new Christian to openly talking about our identity in Christ and how we work through our action as interpreters and worshippers in trusting and worship Christ in the everyday life at work, with our families and in church.

This has been a very good start for this deputation!

Deputation 2014 - Republic of Ireland

This morning Stefano will leave for the Republic of Ireland to complete our 2014 Deputation with the European Missionary Fellowship.

For 10 days he'll travel preaching in five baptist churches and house meetings.

Pray with us for protection in this travelling and that this time might be a blessing for us and these churches in strengthening Gospel links.

YfC review & planning meeting

This morning Stefano will join Ester, Mark and Sue for a review meeting of the Exch@nge Camps we held this summer.

We are very thankful to the Lord for the blessings, protection and encouragements He gave us and our churches through this experience of organizing 4 camps in Bologna and Budrio.

Later on Stefano and Ester will meet to plan the school projects for this school year.

We already have some schools booking for the Thanksgiving project and we'll definitely organise the baseball clinic with the Arkansas team.

Pray with us for God's vision & wisdom and the He'll open the right doors and the students hearts.

In the afternoon Stefano, Jonathan and Ester will meet in Budrio with Mim, Kristin and Rae Lynn.

This month Mim is starting an intership with YfC in partnership with the Impatto A Budrio church-plant for 3 months while she's doing an Erasmus at Bologna University.
We'll also love to involve Kristin and Rae Lynn with the youth and sports outreach ministry we're establishing in Budrio.

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!