GBU Castelfranco Veneto

Tempo di lettura: < 1 minuto

In Castelfranco, in the small conservatory where we are meeting, a new academic year is about to begin as is a new GBU group!

It’s an uncertain year ahead, but we’re grateful that together, despite there being few of us, we’re motivated to see how to get organised as best we can without allowing the hard situation to stop us and begin this new adventure with the aim of bringing God glory even in the midst of these circumstances.

We’re asking for prayer for:

  • wisdom to understand how best to get going and get the studies and activities going
  • strengthening relations between us as group members when we still don’t know each other well
  • reaching new students despite the various restrictions.

That God would continue to use us as tools to bring His Word, even when we are confronted with many limitations, and touch the hearts of many students who do not yet know Him!

GBU Turin

Tempo di lettura: 2 minuti

Things really did start out very well this year in Turin.

We thank God for the various Christian young people who have had a heart for the GBU and are giving a valuable contribution to organising our activities.

In October we were able to go on an outing with them (see the photo); which allowed us to get to know one another better and start being a team.

We also prayed together on the World Student Day: it certainly was encouraging to see how many young people like us in the world want to speak about God at universities and it was moving being able to pray for them.

 

We organised an online games evening as our first event of the year, open to everyone. It was incredible to see the great interest drummed up, particularly among the Polytechnic students who had been sent an invitation in the post. A huge number of people joined the GBU and this meant we were able to explain what it was as well as throwing out the challenge to them of getting to know God and the Bible better.

Some of them are still continuing to join in our meetings and in general the new young people approaching our GBU group are different ones, eager to know God more. Pray for them that they’d come to embrace the Gospel message and for us, that we’d have wisdom and sensitivity to accompany them on this journey.
 
Moreover, we have started up our weekly bible discussions again, sometimes in groups with reduced number of people and sometimes in larger ones.

On 12 November we held a webinar on the subject of time management and in this case too, there were a lot of people interested, so pray that this event too will bear its fruit.

Sadly, we cannot see each other in person anymore because of the health crisis which Piedmont is experiencing, currently in the red zone, and we recognise that we are really missing being able to spend “live” time with other GBU members. Therefore, we’re asking for you to pray for us that the Lord would protect us and guide our online activities over the coming weeks.

GBU Rome

Tempo di lettura: < 1 minuto

In GBU Rome we’re thanking the Lord for His guidance and constant support, especially in the strange times in which we’re living.

We recommenced our activities with an online event in October and it was encouraging to see new faces. We have new freshers among us, but it has proved harder than usual to reach non-believer students. With this aim we are encouraging our students to invite non-believer colleagues to join in with GBU events.

To mark the occasion of World Student Day we met, socially distanced, outside, and despite there not being many of us, we had a special time of prayer and fellowship.

Our prayer points are:

  • For the group in general, particularly for students to encourage other students to join us, whether or not they are believers.
  • For organising a pre-outreach online event, aimed at arousing interest and challenging non-believers to join in the weekly meetings. We also want to challenge all group members to invite along at least one non-believer friend.

GBU Bari

Tempo di lettura: < 1 minuto

Thank God we’ve been able to start doing our weekly Bible study again. In these first weeks we’ve been reflecting on a series of passages from the Gospel which clearly show Jesus as being the one who can achieve the impossible… we can’t stay indifferent when we come up against him!

Let’s thank the Lord for the new students who have joined our GBU group, for the main part freshers, and also for greater involvement of the various group members in the various Bible study meetings, despite being limited to having to only meet online via Google Meet.

Furthermore, we managed to do an online prayer meeting last Monday together with GBU Foggia, which was very encouraging and edifying and allowed us to share various prayer points. We’re hoping to be able to repeat this meeting at least once a month.

We’re planning to organise an outreach event in December but, due to the uncertain Covid situation, we don’t yet know whether we’ll do this in person or online… Pray that the Lord would give us wisdom and ideas for this event.

We’re asking for prayer that the group would draw closer together and that we’d be able to involve newcomers and freshers in the activities, despite the distance, and invite along non-believer students.

Moreover, I imagine you know that Puglia has become a Covid “orange zone”, therefore, pray that the Lord would continue to sustain and protect us.

GBU Milan – Politechnic

Tempo di lettura: < 1 minuto

With the GBU Poli we started online studies on Romans, and at the end of each study we stay on zoom chatting or playing, this continues to create familiarity and intimacy in the group.

In the last meeting some very interesting questions came out, but also very complex to deal with. We plan to dedicate a few meetings to address them by searching the Bible for answers and then later, if necessary, ask for someone’s help.

Praise:

  • Group unity and involvement in the meetings

Prayer:

  • Wisdom to understand how to respond to the doubts and curiosity of the group.
  • Trying to involve new friends

GBU Pisa

Tempo di lettura: < 1 minuto

In Pisa this year the GBU starts more shy and uncertain than in the past years. This is due to the Covid situation, but also to the lack of a real group of believing students.

For this reason, we decided to take these first months of autumn to pray together and ask the Lord direction, wisdom and creativity in creating a group and reaching new students at this difficult time.

Our first meeting was on the occasion of World Student Day, where we prayed for the students of the world and specifically for the situation in Pisa. Our desire is to maintain these prayer meetings regularly throughout the academic year and we ask you to pray that we can be constant in this.

Among the reasons for our thanks:

  • Sara, new coordinator,
  • the cohesion that we have immediately found as coordinators
  • Alice, new staff in training.

In the coming days we would like to meet to start thinking about an online event and we ask you to pray that we can design something that will reach new students and communicate Jesus at the same time.

Another one of our goals in these months is to reach new student believers, to create a solid and cohesive group.

We ask you to pray that we can find ways to get in touch with new student believers at this difficult time from the point of view of social contact, and that the Lord can raise in their hearts the desire to participate in this mission.