GBU Bari
We are full of enthusiasm in GBU Bari but there are only a few of us to sustain it. Sadly, the difficulty of managing to find suitable times for most of the members persists, hence we continue the meetings with two or three people at the most. We had thought about running two GBU study groups, one in the Polytechnic and one in the Polyclinic, hoping there might be a solution, given that the lecture times are completely different from one another, but that has not yet proved effective. We are unsure whether to keep to this idea or go back to the former plan of one weekly meeting.
We are asking for prayer for this because we would like to form a big group which, at the same time is constant. In the meanwhile we will not give up because the Lord is with us and we cannot do anything else other than make ourselves available for Him.
In addition to the GBU study, we have introduced a new meeting where we can meet and pray fervently, not just for GBU Bari but also for the various initiatives of other local GBU groups and, if we are informed about them, also the international GBU groups. We will do this twice a month at the home of our local staff members, the Cowell’s. Prayer is the best weapon available to us!
An idea we have been mulling around and which we are getting ready for is to put on conversation courses in English led by a member of our staff, Simon, who is a native speaker. The idea is to promote a social activity without aiming to evangelise, through which to spread news about the GBU’s existence which would indeed promote it.
On 25 January we managed to give out over 900 Gospels in conjunction with the Gideons in the province in the various Polytechnic foyers, and we put a tract about the GBU inside them. Despite the cold and the rain that day, we noticed that many young adults from the University appreciated the public gesture and were grateful for it, as they posted stories referring to it on the University Instagram profile. They had worked out the importance of the Person who had motivated us to do this (it really was a roller-coaster day!).
Another event that took place was the Spring Training, a joint project with GBU Foggia and GBU Chieti, on 23 March. During the meeting the topic of which passages to highlight while evangelising was covered. Aside from the worship and prayers said about the projects and difficulties facing three GBU groups, the day was structured by dividing us up into pairs and simulating an imagined conversation between an atheist or agnostic and a believer, and afterwards reconvening to share the points raised from the individual conversations as a group. It really was such a pleasure to see and hear the young adults encouraged to go back in a different spirit, more prepared to evangelise and more certain of how to go about it. It was also good to catch up with old friends and make new ones ready to share the same goal: to spread the knowledge of Jesus from student to student. We hope to put on another event like this again in a few months’ time.
