Author Archive

Johnny Gravino (M.Div.’08) is the new Executive Director of Aurora Mission. Aurora is the umbrella organization that leads the training ministry in Italy (the Italian Theological Academy – ITA – part of The Master’s Academy International – TMAI), responsible for the national pastor’s conferences in the country called FOCUS (which have had John MacArthur as a keynote speaker), the publishing of the MacArthur Study Bible and NT Commentary Series in Italian (NT commentaries in process), and the first ever youth conference called TRANSFORMATION taking place this summer in Sicily featuring Carey Hardy (M.Div.’96) as lead speaker.

Johnny says he is, “both very humbled and extremely grateful to the Lord for this new opportunity on the field”.

Keep praying for Johnny and the team at the Academy as they finalize the 2012 course curriculum. We still need a lot of prayer and wisdom, so that the Lord may continue to bless the work of the Academy in Italy. There has been much progress this year and the impact of this work in the lives of the people that participated both at the training and the conference has been a joy to see. We trust the Lord will continue working a ‘reformation’ in the hearts of many. We are really seeing the Italian church being strengthened by the influence of these men and women! We cannot press on without your prayers and support!

After a very blessed Focus Conference in Perugia in October, we just completed the last class for this academic year, Expository Preaching 2. Johnny Gravino did not miss a beat, after very strong preaching sessions at Focus, he completed the year teaching Bibliology and Hermeneutics to a group of 8 students.  Again, the Lord really blessed the training. Read up on facebook any recent updates…

This was a fantastic class! Pastor Shane Koheler, from Faith Community Church in Woodstock, GA was our teacher for this Leadership Training class on peacemaking. “How to bring peace in our churches when conflicts happen… and they will”. When faced with conflicts how do we react? do we ‘run’, or do we ‘attack’ or better…do we know how to “reconcile biblically’? This was a first of this type of training, which we hope to continue to offer in the future to many more students and churches. We would like to thank Faith Community Church for ‘lending’ us their wonderful pastor and teacher for the entire week!

Phil Johnson from Grace Community Church, Los Angeles CA, continued the series of classes in June by going through the first year of Systematic Theology training. Many of the students remained from the previous expository teaching class, in total we had ten students participating and many of them were also new to the Academy training. The Attributes of God was the central theme of this training. Special times of question and answer and many hours of talks after the classes made this class another great blessing!

Many …many! new students attended this basic expository teaching class with Pastor Steve Kreloff, from Lakeside Community Chapel in Clearwater FL! The attendance actually surprised us since we had one of the biggest classes ever! Many scholarships were also given to the students, thanks to our friends and supporters!

The class centered on the basic fundamentals for studying the Bible, including the general principles of hermeneutics.

Two special sessions were also organized for the women. The lessons, centered on biblical womanhood and raising children, were taught by Michele Kreloff,  Pastor Steve’s wife. Michele has a women’s teaching ministry at Lakeside Community Chapel called Insight for Women.

How does the Gospel impact your marriage? What is the perfect example for husbands to follow in marriage and what is the example for wives? Is the Gospel applicable to marriage and married life? We understand the Gospel’s importance for our salvation, but do we really think it applies to life and marriage after salvation? These were some of the profound questions and topics that ITA students covered the last week of August in the Biblical Marriage course offered at the Academy. Never before did the ITA approach the very critical and practical  subject matter of marriage. We are so thankful for your prayers throughout that last week of August, closing our summer schedule of classes. Many couples were strengthened in their married roles throughout and even one couple reconciled their marriage while going through the class. ITA continues to impact Italian lives and we praise God for this.

Our first marriage course has begun this week at ITA. This is a first for the Academy and we’re very excited. We have author and pastor Larry McCall teaching God’s perspective concerning marriage. Alongside him is his godly wife Gladine instructing the women. We have several couples from various regions in Italy that have come for an in-depth look at God’s Word on the subject. May the Lord bless His Word and our class.

Thank you for praying. Our week in the Old Testament survey went exceptionally well, by God’s grace. Our class of students ranging from northern (Milan/Verona), central (Perugia/Rome), and southern (Sicily) was a relatively younger aged group. We rejoice in the young Timothy s of Italy that the Lord is bringing our way for training. Together we were all struck by seeing the majesty of God in the Old Testament. May the Lord strengthen the Italian church through the “High View” of His Character and works as studied at ITA.

How does an understanding of the Old Testament help my Christian life and ministry? How do we understand books like Job where so much suffering is present? What is the theme of Isaiah? How do we interpret Proverbs? What is the purpose of the minor prophets? How do we preach and teach the OT? Students at the Italian Theological Academy will be examining these issues and many more as they delve into the Old Testament world this week: August 9^th to the 13^th. We welcome your prayers.

Thank you for your prayers! Introduction to Biblical Counseling was a true blessing from the Lord. The professor not only shared profound insights from the Word of God that dealt with helping people be more like Christ, but he also shared many wonderful testimonies. One particularly moving and impactful story was about a young man who died of a severe respiratory disease. He had learned to see suffering from God’s perspective. May God’s church in Italy grow more because of such study.

Throughout the week of August 2^nd to the 6^th there will be 23 students from different parts of Italy gathered at ITA to study the importance of counseling from a Biblical perspective.  The focus will be on the principles and practice of applying the Word of God to the lives of individual believers and married couples in the church. It is a highly practical course and very needed in Italian Evangelical churches. We are thankful to have Carey Hardy as the visiting professor. Please join us in prayer for the week.