The Adventist institute Villa Aurora (IACB) celebrated 80 years of presence in the Florence area with an exhibition tracing its history. This exhibition has now become virtual. One can access the rooms of the historic building online, as well as consult the panels of the exhibition and find information, videos, and documents concerning the history of the Adventist institution, from its beginnings to the present day.
"By visiting this exhibition, you will find us," says Davide Romano, director of the institute. "We who were not there yet, but [could be found] in our predecessors, women and men of the last century who encountered Christ in their lives and decided to follow Him, dedicating time to study and training, made their entrance at Villa Aurora, thus inspiring our present-day journey."
Founded in 1940 in a small villa in Via Trieste 23, Florence, the institute moved to the Medici villa in Via del Pergolino 12 seven years later, where it is still located today. Over the years, it has grown, with new buildings, including the Faculty of Theology, whose degrees are recognised by the Italian state, and other educational offerings. “Eightieth” is the title of the exhibition—a name that highlights the fine milestone achieved, but without wrinkles or white hair, maintaining the young face of the students who attend the campus.
Romano continues, "Visiting this exhibition you will find … something of your history, of your nostalgia for a certain community way of living and understanding, of your confessional, sometimes generational and, in some cases, familiar vocabulary. But, in visiting this exhibition, you will also find them. They of whom you knew nothing; they whose existence you ignored; they who you only remembered by name, but they were there. They were reliable traveling companions, in some cases adventurers of the spirit, indomitable preachers, affable counselors, industrious and respectful workers, volunteers of many worlds, preceptors and farmers, teachers and secretaries, students and pupils, maintenance workers, radio speakers, cooks and gardeners; a colorful and hopeful people, determined to walk the path God had set before them without delay."
Romano concludes, "As far as we are concerned, despite the changing circumstances, certainly in a different world, we will remain faithful to this story, insofar as we will still find in it your faces, your [journey] together with ours, and the irrevocable vocation of God."
You can access the exhibition here.
The original article was published on the Hope Media website.