In the summer of 1967, Jack and Betty Davis went to Vicenza, Italy, to visit the missionaries sponsored by their church. Jack was an elder of the Austin Street Church of Christ (formally 8th and Austin) in Garland, Texas. The church had supported Howard and Doris Bybee in Italy for many years, and the family was making plans to return to the U.S. within the following year.
During the visit, Howard proposed an idea to Jack. For several years he had watched young Mormon missionaries evangelizing for their faith in Italy. He met and studied with a couple of them in Vicenza and was impressed by their dedication and their church’s expectation that they would give two years of their life to missions. “What if we challenge young people in a similar way?” Howard asked. Jack loved the idea and promised to take it back to the elders at Austin Street for their consideration. The elders in Garland loved the idea; consequently, Avanti Italia was launched.
Howard and Doris and family moved to Garland, where Howard began recruiting young people in congregations all over the Dallas/Fort Worth area and in several other states. He targeted youth groups and invited interested 11th and 12th-graders to retreats and on mission trips to prepare them for the mission field. They knocked on doors, held Bible studies, and started learning Italian.
The first group of five young people and a chaperone left to serve the congregation in Verona, Italy, in 1970 after spending three months training in Vicenza. Five groups followed and worked in Genoa, Milan, Rome, Rieti, Mestre, and Vicenza. In 1975 the Bybees accepted another position with a church in Oklahoma, and Avanti Italia lay dormant for several years.
A few years later, in 1983, the Southwest Church of Christ in Jonesboro, Arkansas, contacted Howard and Doris with a proposal that they return to Italy to reopen a property for which the church held the title in Scandicci, Italy, a suburb of Florence. The building had been used as the Scuola Biblica di Firenze (Florence Bible School) for many years for Italians. Young Italians would either attend the University of Florence or work during their residency at the school and would study Bible at night and on weekends. A generation of Christians was trained at the Bible School from 1960-1980, including many of the leaders in Italian churches today.
The building in Scandicci had been empty for five years when the Bybees returned to Italy to reopen it. They immediately contacted Italian congregations and a few young people came to live and study at the Bible School. To utilize the building even more to capacity, the Scuola Biblica also hosted several semesters of study-abroad students from Harding University and Pepperdine University while their administrators were looking for properties to buy in the area. Meanwhile, Howard began talking to these college students about reviving the Avanti Italia program. He challenged them to come back to Italy after they graduated for a two-year internship in which they would learn about missiological principles and dedicate themselves to sharing the good news of Jesus. Four young people were the first to accept the challenge and Avanti Italia restarted in 1986.
Howard and Doris returned to the States in 1989, and not long afterward the College Church of Christ in Searcy, Arkansas, accepted the role as stewards of the property and the oversight of Avanti Italia. Howard again became a stateside recruiter for the program and worked for the College Church until his retirement. Avanti Italia is still under the guidance of this congregation in Searcy, and they have helped to sustain the local directors of the program and to keep the evangelistic outreach alive even through times of economic hardship.
Throughout the history of Avanti Italia, over two hundred people have given two years of their lives, and sometimes more, to learn about missions and to help evangelize many cities all over Italy. Some of these interns have gone on to work as missionaries in Italy and in other countries after completing the program, while even more have gone on to work as entrepreneurs, teachers, administrators, doctors, counselors, ministers, lawyers, etc. Together they have been instrumental in leading many people to a right relationship with Christ, they have strengthened multiple congregations, and they have inspired many other young people to get involved in advancing the good news of Jesus in Italy and throughout the world.