Big Welcome from Us

BIG WELCOME FROM US HERE IN STUNNING TUSCANY!

″So what did you do right... to end up there?″ I hear you ask! Well... yes of course we all feel called to the ″south″ I know! But joking aside - our call to be here in Italy started almost 18 years ago on our honeymoon, of all things! Jen and I were tracing our steps here in Florence and God spoke to our hearts. We began conducting meetings immediately and to our surprise and delight many things started to happen. A mini revival occurred, with nuns and priests getting in on it. They too received God′s Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues! Healings and other miracles happened and we fell in love with this place.

As life has progressed we have found ourselves back here, after almost a decade in Germany where foundations were laid for what was then known as ″L.I.T.A - LifeStyle International Teaching Academy″ - which was the catalyst for what is now known as ″L.I.C.U - LifeStyle International Christian University.″

So naturally Tuscany is a place very close to our hearts but not just in a romantic or personal kind of way, but many years ago - before the university began - God spoke to us about having international conferences here in Florence and starting an International School/Education Centre - right here in the very heart of Tuscany.

Many will know Tuscany as the birthing place for the ″Renaissance″ which does actually mean, ″re-birth!″ It was a rebirth of knowledge; leaving the middle ages behind, a long period of cultural decline and stagnation where education was almost completely lost, (accept for such classics as Aristotle and Plato) and ushered in a world-wide ″revival-of-learning;″ a feverish lust for knowledge that swept the city and eventually the rest of the world!

Yes ″X-marks-the-spot!″ It was in essence a re-birth of ″all-things-education″ (including the arts, science, literature etc.) but outside of the Churches confines. And while the Renaissance ethically stood for all-things-humanism (human-ability-outside-of-God and a turning from God to man!) we believe that there is room still today for a rebirth of education - but of a different nature!

In any case here we are, living in a place that has a wealth of history. But we want you to join us here, from around the world, (our invitation goes out far and wide) to gather believers to Tuscany and to bring to her shores a wealth of a different kind. Not of historical artifacts, but of truth by the Spirit of God.

If you have ever read ″The Agony & The Ecstasy″ by Irvine Stone - then perhaps you too have shared a glimpse of insight into the nature of this place? Let′s just say that her past was certainly ″bitter-sweet!″ and the very best-of-the-best were raised in her midst; famous names such as Michelangelo (The Divine!) and Leonardo Da Vinci - (the master of all trades!)

Steeped so much in her own History, we believe that God wants to take her forwards to enjoy a better kind of legacy. Many have enjoyed the beauty of the Tuscan hills and her Mediterranean lifestyle... as she sits a peninsular - almost an Island and enjoys such a vast coastline and freshness of cuisine that is second to none! But there is much more for her than this... All of this just appeals to the appetites! Yet God has more for Tuscany than this... His goodness for her extends larger than this.

He wants to take her from all that she has known - to an even better future. All that she once was - from the violence and glory of the Medici family (aka the Godfathers of the Renaissance); including the zealous hierarchy of corrupt and despotic popes - to a new foundation of a different kind!

As a university we are primarily focused upon ″Extension Campuses″ (in different locations around the world) and ″Correspondence Courses″ (specifically designed for our distance-learners who must pursue employment and education simultaneously).

However it is our heart to invite you. To come and see Tuscany for yourself; to take part in a new era of learning - that will help change this world! Where her latter days will be greater than her former, known for truth instead of seduction and for her knowledge of God rather than her deep dependence on artistic and scientific humanism.

Come and be changed. Come and do the changing!

Welcome aboard L.I.C.U!

Dr Alan & Rev Jenny Pateman
President & Vice President

E-mail: licu@alanpateman.com