Sunday Evening Family Time - Focus on Nepal

Great evening of fellowship yesterday at our Sunday Evening Family Time as core group of the Impatto A Budrio church-plant.

Yesterday has been our first missionary service.

Marco, from Turin, shared
with us his exciting summer experience on a mission trip
to Nepal with an Italian team organized by WEC Italy.


  

It is encouraging to learn that the young church in Nepal continues to flourish amid pressure as a remarkable indigenous movement.  

 




It is exciting to see what the Lord is doing in reconciling the different groups in this country and how the church it's an example of peace-makers.

We'll pray for these churches and missionaries who faithfully work in hospitals, orphanages  and training 
centres to help the marginalized, 
reach out for Christ and built up Christians.

 

My Space Budrio - Club for teens

Today we had a great day @ the My Space club for teens in Budrio.


We learned that online, it’s all too easy to pretend to be someone completely different from who we really are. We can also find ourselves gaining our sense of identity in how people respond to us online.

When we’re online, it’s really easy to say something harsh or outrageous. It can feel as if it’s all unreal somehow and like there are no consequences to what we say and do. We can find ourselves saying things we’d never dream of saying in real life. The trouble is, when we say something, there’s no way of taking it back. It’s like trying to get the toothpaste back in the tube. And that’s just as true online as it is in real life. Our words on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram can hurt people or encourage them just as much as anything we say to their face.

In this Rock Solid session we pointed young people towards God as the only truly reliable source of our identity in Christ.

Sunday Evening Family Time - Focus on Nepal

Tomorrow from 5 to 8pm we'll our Sunday Evening Family Time as core group of the Impatto A Budrio church-plant.

This will also be our first missionary service.

We'll have with us Marco,
from Turin, who has been
this summer on a mission trip to Nepal with an Italian team organized by WEC Italy.

It is encouraging to know that the church in Nepal continues to flourish amid pressure as a remarkable indigenous movement.  

Persecution comes from the religious majority but also socially from within families and communities.

More infos and prayer points for Nepal are available at the Operation World website.

My Space Budrio - Club for teens

Tomorrow afternoon we'll have our My Space Budrio club to reach out local teens.
Please pray with us, that this will be a meaningful opportunity the Lord will use to call them.

We'll interact with  the YfC Rock Solid material following the theme: Who am I? Identity.

To introduce this topic we'll watch the trailer of the MTv program Catfish about fake online identities


Social networking can be a wonderful thing. It enables us to connect with people quickly and easily, regardless of where they are in the world. But there are some pitfalls, too.
Online, it’s all too easy to pretend to be someone completely different from who we really are and to make comments about other people we would never dream of making to their faces.
We can also find ourselves gaining our sense of identity in how people respond to us online.
This Rock Solid session addresses all three of these destructive patterns of behaviour and points young people towards God as the only truly reliable source of identity.

To conclude the session Stefano will give a talk from Ephesians 2:8,
connecting with the song Who am I by Casting Crowns

Youth for Christ Italy, Board Meeting

Tomorrow morning Stefano will be at the National Board meeting for YfC Italy.

Please pray for all the board members to be led by God's wisdom and vision in dealing with the review of last year activities and especially for YfC Italy vision, goals and strategies for next year and the longer terms!

Mid-week Bible Study - Gospel Change

This evening we'll have our first home-group
mid-week Bible Study in Budrio.
We'll interact together with the module Gospel Change from the Porterbrook course.

The goal of the Christian life is to be conformed to the likeness of Christ (Romans 8:29). In this course you will learn how to apply the gospel to your everyday life. It teaches Christians to connect the truth about God with our 'Monday-morning struggles'.
You will find out how change takes place as God’s truth is applied to the heart, and also how to effectively minster the gospel to those around you.

Deputation 2014 - Republic of Ireland

Writing at Cork's Airport at the end of Stefano's 2014 Deputation with the European Missionary Fellowship.

I spent 10 days meeting Christians from 6 baptist churches and new friends across the land.

I've really enjoyed the time I've spent with Michael and Rosemary Grant.

It has been really encouraging to see a context similar to our in Italy and a group of churches working together to train a new generation in the leadership, and also working together to establish new church-plants in unreached areas.

We'll pray for these people I've met,
see you soon Republic of Ireland!

Great day of Community today in Budrio's Town Hall

This morning Jonathan and Jenny have been invited in Budrio's town hall alongside all the many volunteers that helped in painting the walls of the Middle-School Filopanti to be thanked by Giulio and Luisa, mayor and vice-mayor of Budrio, for the work done for the community.

The authorities expressed their special thanks to our church-plant for our active presence in the community.

What came as an unexpected
surprise is that Giulio and Luisa
gave an honorary certificate to us
as Impatto A Budrio (see picture)
on behalf of all the many volunteers that help in this service project.

We are always so amazed by the doors the Lord is opening for us in Budrio!

This it's also an article from the town hall's magazine about the completion of the painting work

Sunday Service in Budrio - Gospel

Tomorrow morning we'll have our morning service to worship God 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 am we'll enjoy our family time together with a lovely breakfast.

At 10.30 am we'll start with Jonathan a new series.
Tomorrow we'll look at the Gospel.

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 Mim's arrival in Budrio and we'll pray for her settling in.
Miriam is a Welsh girl who will do an intership experience with YfC Italy.
We are also very thankful for the team of Christians who are committing for the next months to the church-plant work in Budrio.

We'll thank the Lord for the meeting Jonathan and Jenny had yesterday morning in Budrio's Town Hall with  Giulio, mayor of Budrio, and Luisa, vice-mayor, to be thanked alongside all the many volunteers that helped in painting the walls of the Middle-School Filopanti.

This has been a great opportunity to serve our community and to meet many new local friends!

We want a global vision, so in preparation to the WEC missionary meeting we'll have next week, this month we'll focus our prayers for the country of Nepal. 
The Church in Nepal continues to flourish amid pressure as a remarkable indigenous movement. Persecution comes from the religious majority but also socially from within families and communities.

More infos and prayer points for Nepal are available at the Operation World website.

Deputation 2014 Ireland - Tralee Baptist Church

Tomorrow morning Stefano
will be at Tralee Baptist Church in the village of Tralee in Kerry.
During the morning service Stefano will share about the work in Italy and especially the church-plant in Budrio.

The Purpose of Tralee Baptist Church is:

1.   Attracting people to the Gospel.      

2.  Bringing people to Jesus Christ.

3.  Incorporating believers in His local body.

4.  Developing believers to Maturity.

5.  Equipping them for ministry and mission.

This purpose makes the word ABIDE.

In the evening Stefano will speak at the Mahon Fellowship in Mahon, Cork.

It will be an opportunity to present the wider work we are doing in Italy and the outreach focus for Budrio.

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:
4. The story begins - creation
5. The plot thickens - fall and fall out
6. The characters revealed - one man and 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 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 Jonathan co-pastor of ImpattoABudrio.

In this session, students will interact with these units:
4. Including the Excluded
5. Evangelism and Social Action
6. The Culture Of Deprived Areas

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.

Meeting with Budrio's Mayor

Tomorrow morning Jonathan and Jenny
will meet Giulio, mayor of Budrio, and
Luisa, vice-mayor, alongside all the many volunteers that helped in painting the walls of the Middle-School Filopanti.

This is an official ceremony to thank all the people were involved in helping Budrio's community to follow up and complete the painting job we did as service project at the end of our summer camp Exch@nge with the team from the Bethel of Houston church.

These are the articles written about our service project,
click the links to read an English translation:
http://mariottiaction.blogspot.ie/2014/07/article-from-national-italian-newspaper.html
http://mariottiaction.blogspot.ie/2014/08/article-about-english-sport-camp.html

Deputation 2014 Ireland - Meal with friends @ Killeagh

Great evening yesterday @ the house group with new friends from Laois Bible Church. Really enjoyed their interaction and interest for the work in Italy and Budrio. Encouraging to see a church with a missional mindset and a desire to reach out their own community!

Tomorrow evening Stefano will have a meal with friends of my hosts. Their daughter Aoife is an IFES missionary in Bologna. It'll be great to spend time with them and to strengthen the connections in the Bologna ministry!

Deputation 2014 Ireland - Waterford Baptist Church

Tomorrow evening Stefano will be with friends from  

Waterford Baptist Church in the town of Waterford,
sharing about the ministry we have in Italy and 
the church-plant work in Budrio.

Waterford is an Irish church,
yet it's culturally diverse,
with an age spread from very young families to older folks, whose aim is that Jesus Christ would be supreme in the minds and affections of all the people of Waterford and beyond.