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GBU Verona

Tempo di lettura: < 1 minuto

In GBU Verona we only started up the meetings a couple of weeks ago, but we were super charged to get going!

At the beginning of September, many students left who were part of the group last year and we were left with virtually just four of us. But we didn’t want to give up hope and tried not to lose heart, believing that God had a purpose for us in this city!

God is indeed a faithful God, and we want to thank Him for the fact that the group is growing (there are currently around ten of us)! We can’t wait to see what will happen this year!

Please support us by praying for the students here in Verona that they’d find opportunities for people to approach the GBU and get passionate about Jesus!

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GBU Florence

Tempo di lettura: 3 minuti

What a season it’s been! 🤩
We wound up last academic year with a whole lot of activities where God gave us the great joy of working with groups of young adults from other churches (as well as with a local branch of Agape Italia, which also works with university students) — what a witness of unity!! 🤝 —

we’re raring to get going for next year:

without a student leader…

…but with a great number of highly keen and creative young adults and a super fantastic God. 🎉

Florence is referred to as the city of art, isn’t she? Our small GBU group is also full of artistic students of fine arts🎨, singing 🎼, paiting, fashion👗, communication 🗯… and yes, okay, there are also those who are studying law 📚, history 📖 or IT 💻, but precisely that as well as the fact that we come from lots of different countries, cultures and schools/universities makes us a very colourful group. We’d like to use this diversity to get to know lots of new people, especially students 🥂

You can pray that this year we’d reach more non-believer young adults with the Gospel, and that friendship and the love of God would grow among group members. ♥️
Moreover, we hope to see new friendships forming within the group and we hope that not having a coordinator this year will encourage all of us to be involved! !

GBU Naples

Tempo di lettura: < 1 minuto

In GBU Naples we thank God for His continued support.

When we were at the GBU training in Rome, we barely had a group anymore because a lot of students had graduated or transferred elsewhere, but now that we’ve got our activities going again, we’ve welcomed new students and the group is re-forming.

Let’s pray things continue that way and that we’d form new friendships and stay united as a group, ready to welcome new students.

Please pray that student believers would help out with the GBU and invite their friends along, and that our activities would be able to run peacefully in the universities.

GBU Turin

Tempo di lettura: 2 minuti

As a GBU group we’d like to thank the Lord for how He is guiding us in this first part of the year and for all the activities we’ve run so far.

Praise
  • We thank God for how He blessed our mountain retreat 16-17 October. It was a wonderful weekend where we were able to learn a lot about the topic of evangelism and the character of God. We were also able to spend a lot of time together as a group, which meant we were able to return home feeling filled up, ready to face everyday life.
  • We also thank the Lord for our weekly meetings, virtual cafés, where our group subdivides into lots of smaller groups to read a Bible passage together and try to understand its meaning within the group. We’re pleased because these sessions are well attended, and we see that the young adults are very interested in getting to know God more and more and are also encouraged to face life and its various challenges.
  • Finally, we thank the Lord for our final event, a webinar (an online conference streamed live on YouTube) titled, “Get the most out of your university experience”, which took place on 11 November with Professor Phil Bishop. It was well attended, and those who took part left feeling encouraged and at peace over embarking on a university career.
Prayer
  • We would also like to ask you to pray for us as a group. Let’s pray that there could be increased unity among all young adults in the group. Let’s also pray that there would be non-believers included, so that they would come to know Christ through our activities and events.
  • Finally, we’re also asking for prayer for next month’s activities, that the Lord would show us how to achieve great things for Him.

Thank you for your prayers. Sending hugs and also praying for all of you who are reading this.

GBU Milan State University

Tempo di lettura: < 1 minuto

We thank God that we have started up our meetings in person again and this is a victory.

Moreover, we have discovered that we still have association status, meaning that we have university lecture halls available to us, which is a joy because we didn’t know where to go.

New people have been coming along too. Let’s pray for their conversion, that they come to know Jesus Christ as their saviour.

At the end of the month, we’ll be introducing the GBU to a church, so pray for us.

GBU Castelfranco Veneto

Tempo di lettura: 2 minuti
Praise

GBU Castelfranco was formed last year and has only been operating online due to the pandemic, but despite this we’ve seen God show us over the year that He’s able to do much more than we ask for or think about. Indeed, by continually involving new students, we’ve seen the group grow with active members who always want to be involved. In many situations, the Word of God has touched the hearts of student- believers and non-believers.

Let’s thank God for being able to carry out some meetings in person this year, allowing us to become a tighter knit group. Our aim is to continue holding meetings online, since some students live far away (even abroad), but to hold one monthly meeting in person.

One of the GBU group members who studies at the University of Trento is being allowed to start a new GBU group at his university, so let’s thank God for this granting this opportunity.

Prayer

This year, various students who were in the group, non-believers too, have told us they can’t come to meetings very often due to other commitments. Please pray they would feel called by God’s Word to come back and take an active part in meetings.

Pray we’d manage to involve new non-believer students from the conservatory, that we’d be able to share the Word of God with them and form new friendships.

Pray we’d manage to make all of those who take part in our meetings feel welcome and be ready to respond to their doubts and questions with wisdom and love, guiding them in revealing the Word of God. Pray that they would always find a welcoming environment, where they can express themselves without fearing anything.

Pray that God would gift us coordinators with awareness of the spiritual needs of those involved in the meetings so that we can share with them what God wants them to receive from His Word.

GBU Padua

Tempo di lettura: < 1 minuto

In the GBU of Padua there are only three of us at the moment and we meet every week for Bible study.

We still haven’t found a suitable time for all those who have expressed an interest because we all have different schedules.

Our prayer request would be to find a suitable time for everyone so we can all meet together and make our group grow.

GBU Bologna

Tempo di lettura: < 1 minuto

In GBU Bologna we’re hugely grateful to the Lord.
Since some have finished their studies or their Erasmus exchange, group members are completely new compared with last year.

Due to Covid, the group hasn’t grown, and as a coordinator, I was slightly doubtful as to how many would have turned up this year. But the Lord is faithful, and various believers have made contact with the group!
We are now a very small but multi-ethnic group (with 5 different nationalities) and our meetings generally take place in English.

Praise
  • Glory to God that a GBU Bologna exists!! And there always is relatively large number of people in the group.
  • We managed to see one another, in spite of the limitations.
  • We managed to talk to various university students, a good few of whom showed they were willing to talk about faith.

Prayer

  • For a set place to meet. So far, we’ve often had to keep changing.
    Because of Covid, we’ve not been able to make use of the same areas from years gone by. Furthermore, it’s quite hard work finding somewhere quiet in the university zones.
    Thanks to the Lord, we found a bar/pub. Let’s pray our meetings can continue there.
  • We’ve invited various non-believer students along to our meetings. Let’s pray they would come!
  • Pray for the group members, that we really would form good relations with one another and serve the Lord together.

GBU Siena

Tempo di lettura: < 1 minuto

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

Tempo di lettura: < 1 minuto

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.