Every year Villa Aurora receives many young adults from America and from all over the world. Each of them has many projects and dreams and a great desire to learn more about the different culture they encounter in Italy. It is not easy to be away from the comforts of home, away from the warmth and the protection of their families, or away from friends. These young people venture into a completely new world where the tastes, the language, and the way of thinking are all different from what they are used to. And yet, they manage to have life experiences that stay with them forever.
We should all be proud of this little gem we have: this charming place that challenges and encourages us. A place that is sometimes loved, sometimes despised. A place that seeks with all its resources to serve God and his people: this is Villa Aurora.
This year, during the closing ceremony of the academic year, held on May 11-13, 2018, we wish to share with you a testimony of the experience God has allowed to happen at this institution.
Alexis, a very cheerful ACA student, surprised us when she requested to be baptized at our church here in Italy (ACA students come from the United States of America to spend a year at Villa Aurora to learn the Italian language, art, and culture). She is always smiling and enthusiastic, but above all, she has a heart full of the desire to know the Lord more deeply.
Alexis, grew up in Washington DC and studied at Pacific Union College (PUC – an Adventist university in California). Alexis came to Villa Aurora to continue her studies. She had the opportunity to enrich her personal knowledge of God by regularly attending the school’s worships: morning devotions, Friday night vespers, and the Florence church activities. Little by little – through a sermon, a conversation, a kind gesture, and a prayer – she allowed the Holy Spirit to speak to her in a clearer and more powerful way. Through all this, the desire to follow Jesus’ example grew more and more. She decided to surrender her life to God through the public confession of baptism.
Villa Aurora celebrates Alexis’ decision and the fact that we have also become part of her family. This is the purpose of our mission as an educational institution: to serve, to love, to protect, and to teach how to get to know Jesus better.