Thanksgiving outreach week - Day 4

This morning we had a great fourth day of our Thanksgiving outreach week in Budrio high-school.

Today we had the opportunity to speak in
2 classes at Budrio's High School.
Stefano, Jenny, Jonathan, Kristin and Miriam with Melissa, Kristen, Christian and Jesse from the Agape Italia Team (Campus Crusade) had a good time interacting with a group of about 50 kids aged 14-15yrs.

The team was very good in sharing how Jesus should be at the centre of our lives and how we should be thankful to God for His goodness and faithfulness.

 

Join us in praying for tomorrow when Stefano and Miriam with other American friends from the Agape Team will be for the second time this week at the Istituto Tecnico Commerciale (ITC) Efrem Nobili of Molinella (a town next to Budrio).

Mid-week Bible Study - Gospel Change

This evening we'll have our 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 we will learn how to apply the gospel to our everyday life.
It teaches Christians to connect the truth about God with our 'Monday-morning struggles'.
We 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 us.

Thanksgiving outreach week - Day 3

This morning we had a challenging third day of our Thanksgiving outreach week in Budrio high-schools.

Today we had the opportunity to speak in
2 classes at Budrio's High School and for the very first time in 3 classes of Budrio's Vocational School.

Stefano, Jenny, Miriam and Kristin with Heather, Laura, Alex, Austin, Jonathan and Taylor from the Agape Italia Team (Campus Crusade) had a good time interacting with a group of 80 kids aged 16-17yrs.

It has been challenging when we had 40 kids all together from the Vocational School.
Yet the teachers were very appreciative of the opportunity given and the Agape boys have been very good in interacting with the kids.

Austin has been very good not only for his imitation of a turkey sound, but above all for how he shared that the reason he's most thankful it's because of Jesus Christ's love for him at the cross!

Join us in praying for tomorrow when Stefano, Jennifer, Miriam and Kristin with other American friends from the Agape Team will be again in Budrio's high-school with 2 classes of 14-15yrs.

Thanksgiving outreach week - Day 2

This morning we had a great second day of our Thanksgiving outreach week in Budrio and Molinella.

Today we were invited for the very first time in Molinella High-School.
Stefano and Jonathan with Foster and Laura from the Agape Italia Team (Campus Crusade) had a good time  interacting with 2 classes of 16 kids aged 17-18yrs.

We had some good conversations both with  teachers and students. We also had, once again, a first had experience of how materialism and mysticism has a strong influence on young people. Some kids openly shared about their atheism or interest on Buddhism, but not in God.

Join us in praying for tomorrow when Stefano, Jennifer, Miriam, Jonathan and Kristin with other American friends from the Agape Team will be with 5 classes at the 2 High-Schools in Budrio.

3 of the kids who come to our My Space club attend these schools, so it will be great to go in their classes!

Thanksgiving outreach week - Day 1

 

This morning we had a very blessed start for our Thanksgiving outreach week in Budrio.

Today we were invited in Budrio's Middle school from 9am to 2pm.

Stefano and Mim with Kristen and Keri from the Agape Italia Team (Campus Crusade) had the amazing opportunity to speak to 130 kids aged 13-14yrs.

It was great to be able to explain that the story of Thanksgiving is built on the Pilgrims' faith and trust in God, and how today we can trust and be thankful to the same Mighty Father.

Join us in praying for tomorrow when Stefano and Jonathan with other American friends from the Agape Team will be at the Istituto Tecnico Commerciale (ITC) Efrem Nobili of Molinella.

This is the first time we have been invited by this High-School in this town next to Budrio!

Sunday Evening Family Time

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

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

We'll interact together with what we are learning in the Sunday morning series on Gospel, Community, Mission.



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 strong sense of the global reality of God's Kingdom.

Part of this Family Time will be to enjoy fellowship with a bring&share meal together!

Sunday Service in San Lazzaro Church

Tomorrow morning Stefano will preach
at the Sunday Service in San Lazzaro Church,
for their monthly Evangelistic Guests Service.



Taking the opportunity of the coming
American Thanksgiving Day,
Stefano will preach from 
Colossians 2:6-7; 1:13-23.

We'll engage with God's Word,
to see how the Apostle Paul,
could ask the Colossian Christians
to abound in thanksgiving.

 
"Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."

Colossians 2:6-7 (ESV)

As introduction, we'll engage with this video:

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 Gospel Change,
led by Mark, co-pastor of Nuova Vita.

In this session,
students will interact with these units:
1. The dynamics of gospel change
2. Gospel change and repentance
3. Gospel change and faith


The goal of the Christian life is to be conformed to the likeness of Christ (Romans 8:29).
In this course we'll learn how to apply the gospel to our everyday life. It teaches Christians to connect the truth about God with our 'Monday-morning struggles'. We'll 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 us.

Advanced Year 3 students will interact
with the module Understanding Leadership,
led by Gianluca, co-pastor of Nuova Vita.

In this session,
students will interact with these units:
1. Introduction
2. A biblical theology of leadership
3. Jesus shaped leadership


The gospel sets the goals and nature of leadership. We all, at some time, will exercise influence over others in our relational sphere. We may become parents, small group leaders, disciplers of new believers, or church leaders. This course helps us to understand the gospel heart and goal of leadership so that we can support those in leadership over us and model good leadership to others.

Sunday Service in Budrio - Mission

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 am we'll enjoy our family time together with a lovely breakfast.

At 10.30 am we'll continue with Stefano our series on
Gospel, Community and Mission.

Jenny will lead the time with the little ones engaging on the same topic of Mission.

Together we'll see how Jesus' Great Commission is a call for the church
as a Gospel Community.
We'll see that together we are equipped by
the Spirit to build relationships, to share the Gospel and to introduce to the Community.

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 pray for the week from Monday the 24th to Sunday the 30th November when with our American friends from Agape Italia
we'll speak about the history and significance for today of Thanksgiving to more than 200 students from 5 middle and high-schools between Budrio and Molinella.
On Saturday and Sunday we'll also have special outreach events for kids and families with a Thanksgiving Service.



We'll also pray for our friends from the Church La Rocca,
an Acts29 church-plant in Imola.
They'll organise for the town two Thanksgiving meals on
Thursday the 20th and on Friday the 21st of November.
Last  year they had more than 100 locals who came to these outreach events!

As follow-up of the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) to which we participated last Sunday alongside 10 churches from our region, we'll continue to pray for "the end of the earth". Matteo will then introduce the situation in the Islamic State ISIS and 3 prayer points both for the Christians persecuted and for the persecutors.

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.

Tomorrow we'll interact with the YfC Rock Solid material following the theme: What about Influence?

The goal of this session is to prompt young people to reflect on who influences them and on how they can, in turn, be positive influencers.

We'll do many fun games to illustrate this point and we'll see how the people we spend time with have a huge influence on us. Then we'll look at Jesus' call: "You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:13-14). Jesus describes us as being the salt of the earth. In the same way that salt changes food and makes it tastier, God wants us to have an impact on people we talk to and situations we go into.

He wants us to bring His perspective into difficult situations. We can influence the people around us and make a really positive difference.

To introduce this topic we'll interact with a video from Ligabue an Italian rocker who wrote a song called: the salt of the earth:

Thanksgiving events - planning meeting

Tomorrow we'll have a planning meeting in Bologna for all the Thanksgiving outreach events that will take place from Monday
the 24th to Sunday the 30th November .


This year we'll have a whole week of school projects done in partnership with Youth for Christ
and Agape Italia (Campus Crusade).



From Monday to Friday 7 Midlle-schools and High-schools in Bologna and Budrio, booked to have our presentation of the real meaning of Thanksgiving.


Our American friends from Agape will talk about the history of Thanksgiving and they'll challenge kids to think why they can be thankful today. This will be an opportunity to share also their faith in Jesus.
As a follow-up, in Budrio we'll have a special My Space English club on Saturday where we'll talk about the reasons for Thanksgiving.

On Sunday morning we'll have a Thanksgiving service for families and friends and in the evening we'll have a Thanksgiving Time at the Café Le Torri, where our American friends will share again the History of Thanksgiving and why today we are thankful in Christ.
We'll also offer a taste of the traditional Apple pie, Pecan Pie and Pumpkin Pie!

This is one of the videos we'll use during the week to challenge our view of Thanksgiving:

Mid-week Bible Study - Gospel Change

Tomorrow evening we'll have our 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 we will learn how to apply the gospel to our everyday life.
It teaches Christians to connect the truth about God with our 'Monday-morning struggles'.
We 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 us.

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP 2014) - Bologna Event

The second Sunday of November is set apart internationally to remember and pray for the persecuted church, through the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP).

Tomorrow morning we'll have a service in Nuova Vita Church in Bologna where 5 local churches will join together.
The focus will be to be challenged in our approach to the persecution Christ church is suffering, by His radical love.

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" 

Matthew 5:43-44 (ESV)

In the afternoon we'll meet together in Chiesa Tempo di Grazia a Bologna,
to pray specifically for those countries
where the church is most persecuted.
Every church will present a focus on a country such as: Iraq, Syria and Nigeria.

Matteo, from our church Impatto A Budrio,
will introduce the situation in the Islamic State ISIS and 3 prayer points both for the Christians persecuted and for the persecutors.

Today’s greatest untold story is that more than 100 million Christians worldwide face persecution for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Daily Christians in countries such as Eritrea, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Sudan and Sri Lanka face imprisonment, violence and even death.

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.