Florence, Italy [L.Faedda; CD EUDNews]. On January 31st and February 1st 2014, the Italian Adventist Church inaugurated the Life Hope Center of Florence and the New Building Structure of the Adventist Institute of Biblical Studies “Villa Aurora”.
“We serve God with hospitality” was the motto that accompanied our two days of celebration. The main purpose of the Life Hope Center of Florence is to share peace, proximity, and the hope Jesus gave us. We want to do this giving hospitality to the families of the recovering ill in the florentinian hospital inside a Christian environment. In general, we will coordinate projects that convey the Christian message with welcoming actions. To mention a few examples of our projects, besides the guest house “Aurora”, I want to remark the vegetarian cafeteria that will serve meals to the Institution’s students and to outside visitors. It will also be open to the public for Vegetarian cooking classes. The Library, where everybody can find theology students, help from the librarian Raffaele Battista, and consult thousands of Christian books. Also, besides the Chaplain service, we will have a Counseling Center in collaboration with the Onlus association Lega Vita e Salute where, whoever needs it, may find moral support in difficult times.
Considering that in the Life Hope Center of Florence we will mainly provide hospitality, we also thought that the best way to inaugurate our activities would be to host inside the New building, in the guest house “Aurora”, 60 members of the Italian Adventist church. On Saturday about 600 people followed with a lot of interest our inaugurational program centered on the theme of evangelization and hospitality that Pastor Karl Johnson, a french theology professor from “Collonges sous-Saléve”, has transmitted in 3 parts titled: “Share the Gospel: Florence 2014”. Most of the Italian radio channels broadcasted live the whole day’s events and for the zones without radio access, there was online streaming available.
The things that will remain forever in my heart about this inauguration is the great participation of all the Italian church members with a project that will involve everybody. Because of this, I will like to conclude this report about the Life Hope Center of Florence with a Novara’s church member’s report.
As soon as we got here I got my room in the “Aurora” Guest house. We were cordially greeted with the attention of the members who work in the Center. The New Structure is very simple and beautiful. The rooms are furnished in modern ways. They have internal services such as a fridge, double frame windows to keep in the heat, etc. The building has the latest technology and everything is organized and in order. I only need a phrase to describe it: “More comfortable than a home.” Personally, I am very glad the the Italian Adventist Church has come up and completed this project. I hope that whoever gets to the Life Hope Center with a pained heart, leaves with the satisfaction of finding hospitality, friendliness, support and comfort.
I am sure that the church members that run the Center will be capable of sharing hope to people’s hearts, the hope that Jesus offers to whoever finds him. The certainty that he has already taken our burdens consoles us. My wish is that Christ blesses the Life Hope Center and all the people who will work to make it better. I also pray that us, Adventist church members, scattered all over Italy, may be capable to host and convey Christ’s proximity to those people who will go back to their home after being taken care of at the Life Hope Center of Florence. It will be amazin gfor us to work altogether for this!
