Italy
About Youth for Christ Italy
Youth for Christ Italy started in 2007 out of a vision of a small committee to see unchurched Italian young people reached with the Good News of the Gospel. The work started in Bologna and after a few years spread to other parts of Italy through some gifted, visionary and passionate youth workers who were in Bologna for an internship with Youth for Christ and then moved back to their cities of origin to start similar ministries there.
Italia Cage Castelbuono
Youth for Christ centers are now in Bologna, Tuscany, the Naples area and in Sicily. School work, camps, Rock Solid clubs, sports outreach and service projects are some of the ministry models we utilize to reach out and disciple young people. The ministry is essentially relationally based, as we believe that it’s through the connection between our stories and the young people’s stories that we can point them to God’s bigger story.
The “COVID season” has moved our ministry to a lot of one-on-one conversations and a few online meetings. We have gone deeper with some relationships, but we have really missed the fun and interaction of being together in person with the young people. We have also experienced how much the lock-downs and restrictions have had an impact on their mental and emotional health and we want to be there to help them process all this. Our vision is to go back to camps, retreats, conferences and all that makes youthwork truly relational and personal.
Young people in Italy are being reached using the following ministries:
- Rock solid clubs
- Sports outreach through the Urban sport ministry (the football cage and Volleysquare)
- Drop in center in Palermo for university students
- Schoolwork
- Summer camps
- Training for youth workers
- Production of resources for youth workers to help churches develop youth evangelism
- Mission trips for young people to other nations in Europe
- Gap year to serve Youth for Christ in another part of the world
Contact us if you are interested in exploring possibilities to join our staff.
Prayer Needs
- There is a pioneering YFC work in central Italy, on the Adriatic coast. We started 2 years ago with a day camp and now we have an intern who is organizing regular events to gather the kids. The events are called Like&Follow and are about presenting Jesus as the greatest influencer of all times. Pray for the development of this work and for the people involved.
- Please pray for Regional leaders: Ester Montefalcone; Andrea and Sheila Crocivera; Paolo and Liz Borroni; Nunzio Sabatasso.
- Pray that we may be led by the Spirit in reaching out to lost young people in Italy.
- Pray that we communicate the Gospel in a relevant way and that we may be vehicles of renewal in the darkness of our land.
- Pray for our desire to start a ministry in the city of Milan.
