We have appreciated so much Dean's ministry among us. He has helped open our eyes to spiritual warfare which is a "given" among Italian believers.

Dear Clair,

We just received word of your father's home-going and would like to share a few of our memories of him with you and your family. We were missionaries in Italy for 15 years with VMBM ('82-'97). We encountered much occult activity there and on one of our furloughs came to a week-end seminar in Indiana that included teaching and a deliverance session. The hospitality of your parents was wonderful, and the input we received was helpful.

We invited Dean to come to Sicily to help us and provide teaching for the believers there. We had an excellent time of ministry and teaching with our little congregation. There are two experiences I will never forget. After one of our sessions, one of the ladies came to Dean, she said she had experienced disturbances during the meeting, and asked for help.

We as a pastor couple, along with some family members met with Dean after the meeting, forming a circle of prayer around her, and we translated between Italian and English. At one point Dean began to command the spirits to leave in German. The lady began to fire back in an unknown language. For several minutes, this fiery conversation went back and forth between the two of them, him in German and her in another tongue. We sat there looking from one to the other, not understanding either one of them, but praying for both. And then Ina (lady) fell to the floor, prostrate, weeping uncontrollably. Something had been broken and she was free.

After she regained her strength and calmed down, we asked her what in the world she was saying. She said "I didn't know what the exact words meant, but I knew I was pleading for mercy." She became a new and changed person who had a ministry in the new congregation. Then months later Ina's deaf ear opened on the very day that Virginia Mennonite Conference had her name on their prayer calendar.

Another funny situation happened when a young adult girl came for counseling. She was upset because her mother, a very controlling person, wanted all of her paycheck and asked what she should do. Through translation, Dean said "Why don't you move out and get your own apartment." Floyd translated this, and the girl almost flipped out. She could never do that! Culturally, that would've been like saying, "Go get an apartment on the moon!" We have laughed about that, because we missionaries know what it means to have cross cultural experiences of this kind.

We have appreciated so much Dean's ministry among us. He has helped open our eyes to spiritual warfare which is a "given" among Italian believers. I have also had to deal with bondage in my own family as well. Dean's confidence and trust in an Almighty and Powerful God has been an inspiration to us.

Floyd and Janet Blosser
Harrisonburg, VA
FJBlosser@adelphia.net