GBU Siena

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This year GBU Siena has seen God’s goodness. The group has experienced an unexpected growth, which has allowed us to have a great re-inauguration of meeting in person after a long period of online activities. We used October to consolidate our new group of Christians, to then begin an outreach event at the start of November. We’re now continuing our series of Bible studies on the “I am” of Jesus.

Praise
  • We thank the Lord for the new Christian students He has sent to Siena, and for the unity we’re building among us. This is an answer to one of the prayer points we shared in the spring.
  • We thank God that our “AperInternational” event (in the photo) was successful and well attended. It was also encouraging to see non-Christian students come along, thanks to the posters put up in the University. We’re grateful to God for the opportunity to share the Gospel with them.
  • We also give thanks for the attendance at our Bible studies, where we’ve seen many students come back after the event, as well as new ones.
Prayer
  • for the new students, that they’d come to know Jesus personally, that we’d see their lives transformed by Him;
  • that the GBU would be better known at the University in order that more students are reached with the Gospel.
  • having mostly international students, we’re asking for prayer for wisdom in how to manage a bilingual group so that everyone can feel included.
  • for the Christian students, that we’d keep growing in unity and in our knowledge of Christ. That this would spur us on to be more passionate about sharing the Gospel with other students. Also pray for wisdom in planning the next term.

GBU Rome

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In GBU Rome we thank God for getting off to a good start again this semester.

The series we’ve been running in the Bible studies has been working well, even though students have not been attending that regularly.

Students have been taking it in turns to come along, i.e., there are different students at every meeting, and one of the reasons for this is that it’s hard to find a time that works well for everyone, but we won’t be discouraged. Rather, we’re thanking God that there are new students in the group, including internationals.

Pray about the new series of studies on the topic of science and faith, which we’ll be conducting throughout November. We’re excited about having Nicola Berretta, Doctor of Biological Science with us as a guest one evening. Pray that a lot of students would come along that evening.

We’re also asking for prayer for a practical matter; to find an available hall or church hall venue close to the centre for our meetings, for at least until the GBU hall becomes available again.

As we’re already starting to plan the December studies, keep us in your prayers.

GBU Parma

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We’re located in a small town at the bottom of the Paduan plain, hidden under pillowy fog.

The GBU was officially founded in Parma this year, even though a small group had already formed last year to reflect together once a month.

Praise

We recognise God’s work in having united us, in having sown and watered the desire in our hearts to be a light in our university.

As of today, the GBU is meeting twice a month with a dozen young adults to study the book of Ecclesiastes, and once a month we’re working on sharing the Gospel with students.

Prayer

Let’s pray for Friday 26 November, the day when we’re going to go into the faculty to talk to the students about Jesus;

let’s pray for our first event in December, that it would be fruitful;

let’s pray for the group, that we would be united and collaborative

GBU Bari

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GBU Bari would like to praise the Lord for how He’s led us and blessed us at this time.
In line with university lectures, GBU Bari started weekly meetings again on 20 October.

Praise
  • We thank God that after a year of meeting online, we’ve been able to meet in person again to spend some time studying and sharing the Word;
  • We thank the Lord for the new comers in the group, and for the new friendship connections being formed;
  • Moreover, we want to thank the Lord for having made the GBU tract distribution possible in some of the Bari Polytechnic halls, thereby making new contacts.
Prayer
  • that the group would become more united and want more and more to spread the Gospel “from student to student”;
  • for the distribution of tracts, which we’re planning to do in the university as well as in the Polytechnic, so that an increasing number of people will be able to get to know the Gospel.

GBU Messina

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We’re really grateful to God for how He’s leading this group! We were raring to go at the start of the year, wanting to do so much and with a great desire in our hearts! Bit by bit the group has been growing and becoming increasingly stronger. Our prayers have been answered!

We’ve decided to do an event with aperitifs and a different theme every month! Last month we did one with typical dishes from America! This month we did a Spanish theme, and so forth… We thought it would be a good way and good approach to get our colleagues to know about the GBU.

In addition to this, we continue our Bible study meetings every week, and thank God because they always refine us a lot.

What we want to do is talk to others about Jesus, get our friends and colleagues to know Him. That’s why we’re asking for prayer that our faith and courage to talk about Jesus would be greater and stronger than any more of fear or shyness! God can use all of us, all we need is a willing and longing heart to serve and follow Him!

God bless us

GBU Milan Bicocca University

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How the Bicocca group started was rather unusual and rash, from the moment when all three of us were new at being GBU coordinators and none of us studied at the University of Bicocca.

Nonetheless, we were very keen from the start to get help, learn, get involved and although what we really wanted was to form new GBU groups at the Catholic University of Milan and the University of Bergamo, we cared about working from inside a pre-existing GBU group and not letting the living testimony in Bicocca burn out. We saw the Lord’s hand in this calling through the staff workers and the work with other GBU Milan groups.

We decided to alternate our weekly Bible studies between online meetings and meetings in person until the end of this first term.

As follows, we’re asking you to pray for:

  • students to be more involved in the meetings in person. In fact, we often find ourselves clutching onto our virtual meeting devices.
  • coordinators and group members themselves to be strongly united in purpose.
  • getting to know new students with whom we can form deep connections and have time to talk to about Jesus in the right way, in a way which would arouse their curiosity and their interest in being involved in the GBU.

GBU Modena

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At GBU Modena we’ve decided to start meeting in person, carrying on from the Gospel of John again, thus looking at the Acts of the Apostles this year.

We started a few weeks ago. Nonetheless we immediately came up against a problem of rather sparse numbers of people. Sadly, some who came regularly last year have finished their courses while others aren’t able to be there regularly. Aside from this last hassle, we’ve still managed to hold the first meetings normally and we thank God for that.

Another thing to be grateful for is in reference to the invitation given to us by GBU Bologna, where on 3 November, we went to the University of Bologna territory to repeat the “survey” experience we’d already carried out at the Rome training. It was definitely an opportunity for us to question ourselves but also for the students there who were able to lesser or greater extent to hear about the GBU and the person of Jesus Christ. We want to repeat the experience of 24 November, and at GBU Modena we’re asking for prayer that it would yet again be a positive time and the Gospel would be spread.

We’re also asking for prayer that God would not only allow us to carry on meeting in person, but also enable new people to be added to the group and join us regularly.

Finally, we’re planning an outreach-style evening which will likely take place on 13 December, where we want to show the short film, “Altro Mare”, [“Other Sea”] which was shown in the training session, perhaps inviting along a member of the film production team to share their experience. With this in mind, we’re asking for prayer for good organisation of the evening and also that we would be able to use it to talk about Jesus to those who do not yet know Him fully.

GBU Turin

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Praise

We, as GBU Turin, wish to praise the Lord for how He has blessed us thus far and thank all those who prayed for us.

Recent months have been truly fruitful from many points of view. Indeed, in December we managed to gain recognition as a Student Association for the GBU, both in the Polytechnic and at the University of Turin. We see this as a great response from the Lord, because we will definitely have new opportunities and it will make our ministry within the university easier.

Then, during the winter period we eased things up a bit, but did not stop. It was great to support one another in prayer as the exams approached, study together in the virtual lecture theatres, meet up online some evenings to chat and still read the Bible together between exams.

Springtime is now bringing many new things for GBU Turin.

Since March, we have started up our activities properly again, arranging all kinds of events: games evenings, prayer meetings, biblical discussions and webinars.

In particular, we have been trialling the opportunity to study the Bible in small groups. We have got our Virtual Cafes and weekly meetings going, which are currently taking place online, where we meet in small groups with a cup of coffee to read a Bible passage together. Virtual Cafes are a great way to get to know the individual group members as well as being a format for involving everyone more and it makes it easier for new friends to join in who are not yet believers.

Prayer

In April we will organise a webinar on the topic of anxiety, open to all students in the Polytechnic and the University of Turin.

  • Please can you pray for us that a lot of young people would join in and be intrigued by what they hear.
  • We are also asking for prayer for the group of young people who are starting to get to know God, that the Lord would continue to speak to them and lead them to Him.

GBU Bologna

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Here at GBU Bologna everything is well.

Sadly, the group is suffering from the fact that meetings are only online and from not being able to fellowship in person, but I think this is a problem we all face.  Let us hope God soon lets us go back to meeting up face to face.

In terms of the other things, the studies are going well. There are always five or six of us and we trust we can also be of help to some others who might be seeking the Lord during their time at university.

Now we are just finishing a study on the perilous faith of Daniel and his friends, which has been very engaging, while in April/May time we will begin studying Jesus’ parables.

Let us pray these meetings would reach as many people as possible, especially through the technological tools we have available

GBU Verona

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Those of us in GBU Verona are thanking God that we have managed to meet in person for the first time!

In fact, since we started in October, every meeting has been online.  Sure, the meeting was on the last day of the “yellow zone” (tier 1) before we went into the “orange zone” (tier 2), but nonetheless it was a breath of fresh air that felt like normality!

Praise

We started meeting up again at the beginning of March after weeks of not meeting due to the exams, and now we are more ready than ever to get going again! Since October, the group has grown and there are now 15 of us, which we could not be more grateful for!

Prayer

That God would give us strategies for reaching non-believers among the young people, as they are currently in short supply in our group!