AVANTI ITALIA
http://www.avantiitalia.org/
HISTORY
“Avanti Italia” (A.I.) is Italian for Onward Italy. It is also the name of the forward-moving mission team composed of college graduates or people of college-graduate age who devote two years of their life to spreading the Gospel in Italy. In 1986, a new program was initiated by Howard and Doris Bybee. Howard, who had spent 25 years himself as a missionary in Italy, and his wife continue to work with the program as state-side recruiters today.
The mission team is sponsored and carefully guided by the College church of Christ in Searcy, Arkansas, through a subcommittee appointed by the elders. Current members include Dr. Evan Ulrey, Dr. Carl Mitchell, Dr. Cliff Ganus, Dr. Fred Jewell, Bob Corbin, Scott Finley, Howard Bybee, Paul Love and Jim Woodroof. The decision was made to require students to graduate from college before participating in Avanti Italia in order to allow them to gain added maturity and to avoid the possibility of permanently interrupting their college education. The committee screens all applications, in an effort to select workers who are spiritually and emotionally suited for this challenge.
THE PRIMARY GOALS OF A. I. :
1) To use our individual talents in sharing the Good News of Jesus the Christ with those who are seeking to have a more perfect relationship with Him.
2) To learn to share Christ with others more effectively.
3) To participate in mutual encouragement and edification with the Italian churches of Christ.
BEGINNING THE PROCESS . . .
Before leaving for A. I., the workers are given two weeks of intensive training in Searcy, AR, with classes in evangelism, doctrine, atheism, Christian evidences, cults, group dynamics, and cross-cultural communication. Immediately after training, we leave the states to begin our work in Scandicci and throughout the community Florence.
WHAT will we be doing?
The main method of outreach is teaching private Bible lessons in the English language. In advertising, we are completely up-front about our purpose. Our team members teach an average of 15 Bible lessons a week, and we often have to place names of interested persons on a waiting list. We have developed our own curriculum, which includes basic grammar lessons, a set of "bridge" lessons that span the gap from grammar review to English conversation about the Bible, our own editions of the Shawn Daggett "English Using the Bible" books, and advanced studies in the core Gospel message.
Besides our private lessons, we organize an evangelistic study in Italian at the Bible School on Tuesday nights. We also have a weekly women’s Bible Study. On Thursday nights, we attend another Bible study at the church building for discussions among Christians. In addition, we strive to serve the members of the churches of Christ throughout the entire country by hosting seminars with guest speakers and sending invitations out to all of the Italian congregations. In August, we help with a yearly retreat sponsored by the Florence congregation. At this lectureship we meet Christians from all over the country who often invite us to help with their projects.
Much of our work could be described as friendship evangelism. We make friends with people and share God's saving message with them. To get to know our students better and to help them get to know each other and the members of the Florence congregation, we often organize evenings of games, music, food, or a video. Sometimes we help with summer camps for young people from the Italian churches. Whether we are having friends over, going to eat at someone's house, or taking an excursion together, we're never lacking opportunities to share the love of Christ with our friends.
Each team member is committed to finding ways of using his or her individual talents to contact more and more people for God's glory. For example, some have become members of the Scandicci band. As a result, several of our students have come from the band, and have been baptized. Other A.I. members have coached boys' basketball, taught music in the public school system, helped with a local ambulance service, and volunteered at the local hospital. Each member tries to find his or her niche.
WHERE WE WORK:
Most of our work is centered at the Florence Bible School in Scandicci, which has a living/dining room, kitchen, large classroom, library, offices, and living quarters. We also teach some Bible lessons at the Florence church building located in Florence proper, and occasionally we travel to other cities to help out with special projects or seminars. After sufficient orientation and language study, A.I. members may be assigned to work full-time with congregations outside of Florence. In such cases, the workers are closely supervised by the local church leaders and by the Woodroofs on a regular basis.
ORIENTATION
Their stay in Florence begins with an orientation to help the new members adjust to Italy, take care of official business and paperwork, set group goals, learn how to teach the curriculum, and learn more about their teammates. Since speaking Italian is a priority, all members attend language school for about three months. This serves as a springboard into the language and culture.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Since its beginning in 1986, scores of people have been taught the Gospel and have been baptized. Since Florence is a cosmopolitan city, we have been able to evangelize people from other countries, having taught and baptized students from Kenya, Taiwan, Nigeria, Argentina, Albania, and Korea. Although evangelism is about as challenging in Italy as it is in the U.S., we are convinced that there are many who are seeking to know God's will for their lives. Our neighbors have thanked us for "reviving" the school, and many people who have called about lessons have mentioned that they are just as interested in knowing more about the Bible as they are in improving their English. This is the work of God in the hearts of our friends and the result of much prayer.
