Italy — outreach in Mantova
In September, the Sola Grazia church organised a five-day evangelistic outreach during the National Book Fair (Festival della letteratura) in Mantova. 110,000 people came to the event from all overItalyand from other countries.
The church received much help from a Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) team, along with several Italians from elsewhere who joined our church for the outreach.
We were able to distribute about 12,000 flyers and 1,000 key rings with scripture texts. The focus of this effort was to invite people to hear John Blanchard give two addresses in the church on the Saturday — the first at 10.30am on ‘Atheism’, and the second at 5.00pm on ‘Where was God on September 11?’
The Lord was good to us. We were thrilled to see new people, both believers and unbelievers, come to the meetings. Seventy came to the morning meeting and 90 to the afternoon meeting. John Blanchard gave two outstanding messages.
The Sola Grazia church members responded well to all the work we had to do, taking on different tasks, including translating John Blanchard’s talks. We prayed and fasted in the evenings before the event.
The PCI team was made up of eight people from 20-60 years old. None of them spoke Italian and the weather was hot and tiring. However, they worked really well and we had much fellowship and fun together. They were perfect people in an imperfect place!
There was much sorrow among both Italians and Irish when they had to depart from us. Many cried at the airport!
Andrea Artioli
