“The harvest is plentiful, but…”

On November 1-3, Floyd and I attended the Italian Mennonite Church Conference held at Centro Agape in Palermo, Italy. It is always a joy to return to our Italian family, re-connecting with old friends and meeting new ones.

The past year has been particularly difficult because of the untimely deaths of three persons in the congregations in Sicily, including the pastor of the Capaci congregation where we served as missionaries.

Janet and Floyd Blosser bring greetings from Virginia to the Italian Mennonite Church Conference. Courtesy of Floyd Blosser

On Friday evening, the worship team of Centro Agape, the mother church, presented a concert. On Saturday evening, the worship team from Shalom (Brancaccio) led the worship. Speaker Jonathan Gilmore gave three presentations from Matthew 9:35-38, the passage that describes Jesus going through all the cities and towns, teaching in the synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom.

The three sessions were: 1) Jesus, the great worker (9:35), 2) Looking for workers (9:36), and 3) Get to work (9:37-38).

Jesus is our example: He went. The crowd is waiting to hear the good news. We must be full of compassion and make disciples. We’re workers, not directors.

Participants enjoy worship during a session. Courtesy of Floyd Blosser

Working with the Conference theme, “The harvest is plentiful, but…,” at different times, each congregation had ten minutes to share an overview of their past year and what was happening in their congregation. Six pastors shared (four from Sicily and two from Puglia/Molise). Special prayer was given for Sergio Crocivera, one of the elders at Centro Agape who now heads up the work at Capaci since the death of Pastor Francesco Sapienza.

The conference was a great time of re-connecting with brothers and sisters. We are blessed to see God at work in calling them to extend their borders. The harvest truly is plentiful.

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