GBU Urbino

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Praise

At GBU Urbino, we’re immensely grateful to God for how He’s been working in the University.

Every week we have a least one new person coming along. We truly acknowledge this in our hearts.

Two Sundays ago we were able to do a presentation on the GBU’s mission in a local church in Pesaro, and asking for support and drawing people’s awareness to join in with the mission was very encouraging.

Last week we started a new series of studies on the book of Jonah.

Before the Christmas holidays we intend to hold two events, a Pizza Evening and board games with a Bible reflection and Christmas party. We’ve had a lot of volunteers also with booking the rooms at the University.

I am immensely grateful for and encouraged by the people who He’s put around me to serve Him together in the GBU. We’ve been praying about this for years and God is wonderful.

Prayer

We’re asking for prayer since, just when everything is going well, the disgruntled enemy puts his efforts into ruining things. Therefore, pray we would stay united as a group and grow both together as well as personally in our relationship with God.

Moreover, we’d like prayer for the contacts we make each week at the University in the canteen or in the student accommodation. We’ve recently met a lot of lonely people who need friends, and we’ve been able to talk to them boldly about Jesus. The Lord doesn’t forget anyone, not even in Urbino, and we’re confident that in the future a church will also be planted in this wonderful city.

GBU Urbino

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This year the group at Urbino has been formed out of new people. We’re pleased that after the GBU formed, we’ve had continual meetings every week, with more and more people attending. We’re going through the series, The seven “I am”s of Jesus.
Two Catholic boys have been attending since last year and we’re pleased they’re continuing to come along regularly. We state the Gospel message at every meeting, so pray they’d receive it in their hearts one day.

Let’s pray that believer group members would have a heart for the work of the GBU and would always attend regularly.

Moreover, due American missionaries would like to come to Urbino to set up a Church. They’re still praying about it, but let’s place this in God’s hands, because something beautiful is happening in Urbino.

We’re planning to hold an event before the end of the year, a Christmas dinner, with an outreach aim of inviting lots of students. It will be held at the start of December.

Moreover, we’re going to start organising the Winter Camp next week. It will be held with GBU Siena and GBU Pisa in the first weekend of March and we can’t wait!

GBU Urbino

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As GBU Urbino we can say that the group has formed and over time is getting larger and stronger, for this we can only be grateful to God. At the beginning of March we spent a beautiful weekend together with GBU Siena and the Uniperugino people for a Winter Camp in Gubbio, it was two days full of fellowship.

Then the students from Perugia came to visit us the following week with a group of Americans and with them we evangelized many students in Fortezza, it was encouraging to know that so many care about the city of Urbino which, though small, is so much in need of knowing God; we pray that in the future we can open a church and that the witness can grow.

Our meetings have continued and lately we have been dealing with the theme of friendship: we read together the bond of deep affection between Ruth and Naomi, her mother-in-law; in 1 Samuel, the friendship between David and Jonathan. It was good to see how we can reflect and take inspiration for everyday life even from Old Testament stories; sometimes we think that only in the New Testament there are teachings more relevant to us, instead it was good to learn, from more “distant” stories, how love and affection can be demonstrated. In addition to this we shared our experiences and how we would like to improve our friendship relationships, giving each other advice.

We plan in May to have an event, indeed, the first event with the new GBU group with the help of GBU Siena and the guys from Perugia, we pray that with this special meeting we can reach the students and make ourselves known more!

GBU Urbino

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The GBU in Urbino this year is a real group of ‘power girls’, as we call ourselves, because for now we are only girls, but we hope that the group can expand soon.

In these first two months we started with our meetings by studying together the second letter to Timothy, the girls began to familiarise themselves with the inductive method, enthusiastic about reading and sharing the Word of God together. I thank God for the perseverance we are having in meeting each week despite everyone’s commitments and various difficulties.

Last week a non-believing girl also came, in fact a subject of prayer is to grow and that by working together we can evangelise to this university city which is in such need since there is not even a church. It would be nice if new people could come, classmates of each of us, and that we can present the message of the Gospel.

In addition, together with the GBU of Siena we are organising the Winter Camp which God willing we will have on 4-5 March 2023.

I am certain that the Lord has great things planned for us!

GBU Urbino

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As GBU Urbino we have started doing Bible studies in Nicola’s house (the coordinator) with his housemates. It is a close-knit GBU group but informal at the same time.

Let’s pray for M., G. and V., that they would discover (and, for some of them, rediscover) a true personal relationship with Jesus. In fact, all three of them have a strong Catholic background, but as they grew up they moved away from that religious, unsatisfactory formalism. Indeed G. admitted in a conversation with me a few months ago that he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of regaining his faith but would do so with different assumptions and in a different way to how he once had.

Let’s also pray for N. and D. who would be interested in coming to the meetings.

GBU Urbino

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Praise
  • We’re really thankful to God that there have been big improvements and changes within our group this year! We have a new, free room (despite needing to pressure the office a bit) in the centre of the colleges where we can make ourselves known much more through events because it’s in a strategic position, given that students only need to come out of their bedrooms to reach us! We’re really grateful for this! There really are a lot of people coming to listen to the Word in comparison with last year when we were a bit isolated!
  • Another reason to praise God is also for how He’s grown us as a group! We’re much more united, both in terms of friendship and as a team, because the people God has brought into the group have all been capable, each in a specific thing, making us an excellent team. We’ve also starting having prayer meetings every week, which also unites us more because, we’ve been praying not only for the GBU, but also for personal matters. Moreover, we’ve learnt a lot from our previous mistakes and have improved greatly.
  • We’re also hugely thankful for how God always provides for us, giving us great help from churches and brothers and sisters in Christ, despite the obstacles, in addition to making it so that people from outside the group always come along to listen.
Prayer
  • We’re asking you to pray that we’d be able to establish genuine, deeper friendships, with those who’ve been coming more regularly, so that we can disciple them from nearby, and not be afraid, but be brave enough to speak in front of a few people.
  • Pray also for upcoming events, that people will continue to come and be impacted by the message given.
  • But what we especially ask for prayer for is that we wouldn’t be demoralised. We come from a small group where very few people used to come to the events, and now we’ve become a much stronger group with a much greater “audience”, but if an event didn’t happen to go well, our fear is of becoming too disheartened since we’re now used to having more people.

GBU Urbino

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Praise:

  • For the training of GBU co-ordinators in Rome which I (Alice) and Rachele found very useful.
  • For the new entries, Claudia and Chiara.
  • For the new task God has entrusted us with.

Prayer

  • Let us pray for the non-believing young people who attended the GBU regularly last year and can do so this year too. Let us pray that other new young people will join and the group will become more and more numerous.
  • Let us pray that the group is united despite some differences of thought and that everyone will participate.
  • Let us pray for planning an event at the end of November, let us pray we will manage to think of something good and worth-while, which we can all work together on harmoniously.
  • Pray for the situation caused by the earthquake. Last week we postponed a meeting because the venue is in the centre where buildings have collapsed.

GBU Urbino

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Praise:

  • immensely grateful for the new group of Christian students (and what a group!!!!) that God has given us this year. Here are the reasons why two of our students want to thank God:
  • “We thank God for the work of the GBU and that this year there has been a good number of freshers who have helped with activities from the very beginning. I believe it was God’s will to place me here, and I praise him for that.” Eunice
  • “At the beginning of the academic year, I asked God that I could be more active and useful for him. I prayed this prayer not yet knowing what the GBU was, so the way in which God answered has been significant because, at the same time, I’ve also discovered one of my gifts and how to use it to serve God. I know that nothing happens by chance, God’s plan is perfect.” Rachele
  • praise to God for the active participation of non-Christians in our activities.

Prayer:

  • Giacoma is about to graduate. Please pray that God would give us open hearts and ears to know which students are best suited to continue the work of the GBU as coordinators. More importantly, pray that we’d understand who it is that God wants to fill this (at times, quite challenging) role.
  • For our friends who continue to come along, not missing a single event; that God could break down any doubt or obstacle in their hearts and that he could enter their lives in a permanent way.
  • For the meetings planned for the months ahead, including a mini-training session for local students which we’ll be doing with Giovanni Donato at the end of April. A student from Ancona will also be joining us as he hopes to start a group there.

GBU Urbino

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Praise:

  • excitement of the new group God gave us this year, a real desire to be involved and to speak to their friends about GBU. All this is very encouraging for the “old” GBU members.
  • the several studies and events that took place in the first months, including a conference on “Evolution: science or myth?” which gave us more visibility amongst the Urbino student population.
  • the students seeking Jesus who continue to attend the bible studies and activities, and also a couple of new entries.
Prayer:
  • we will have a mini-training with staff Giovanni Donato, also new students from nearby Fano and Cattolica will attend. Possibly a few more will come from Ancora, where it looks like there could be a new GBU group soon! Pray for Ancora!
  • wisdom for the choice of new student leaders for the following year(s).
  • for future meetings and for the students we are following, some already attend GBU, others don’t.
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Giovanni Donato

Giovanni is from Messina and Hannah is from Nottingham (UK) but they both now live in the province of Siena. They have been serving the Lord in GBU since 2006, working actively among students. They also serve in their local church in Siena. They both enjoy travelling, good cuisine, watching movies together (but not always agreeing on the same film!). They have three children: Isabella (2012), Luca (2013) and Giorgia (2015).