Trusting in the Providence of God

Happy Resurrection Day! It is so exciting to think that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ not only lived a perfect life, died on the cross for us, but also rose from the dead! The Apostle Paul told us that if Jesus didn't raise from the dead then none of us have hope! He said, "If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead!" (1 Cor 15:19-20).

Life has been fast and furious lately. But God is faithful. He is continuing to give wisdom and direction regarding our future as a family in ministry. We continue to try to be a witness to our neighbors (see 2nd pic) and to those God brings in our path (Lee and Jacob went witnessing at the park in Winter Park, a very ritzy area in Orlando). The kids are nearing the end of the school semester (praise God!). A big event in our family recently is that Abby just had her 5th b-day! (with a big party that was a hit because a friend of the family, Alyssa Romanacce, dressed up like Hannah Montana). Lee dressed up like her father (Billy Ray Cyrus?). It was hilarious!! The kids had a blast and it seemed the parents had fun too.

Abby wants everyone to know, including Abbie Wells, that she is so happy that she is five years old. Abby Walti wanted to talk with her today but she fell on her bike and wasn't feeling good. And then she even had a bad stomach ache. But one story she wanted to share was after her b-day was over, Abby came up to her mom, in a sweet, gentile way and said, “Mom, it’s not about presents, or having fun, or about doing stuff...it is all about God.” Jeannette was caught totally off guard because she said she felt like she'd been all about the doing of stuff and not a lot about God the last couple months. Isn’t it amazing that He uses the youngest to encourage the “oldest” to look to Himself. So, Jeannette immediately said...”Go tell daddy what you just told me...we all need to hear this. :)” And both Jeannette and I shed a tear together. From the mouth of babes...

On a completely different note, we are praising God that Lee has been able to get an appointment with Mayo Clinic (on the cutting edge of medicine) to get a full check-up (it's unique at Mayo because you have all the specialists in one place instead of the allergy guy saying its asthma and vice versa). So please pray for this as we are hopeful we'll get to the bottom of everything.

THE SPATOLAS

We are finishing a prayer letter to introduce everyone on our support team and prayer letter list to the ministry of S.E.E. Last Wednesday morning, we (Jeannette and Lee) picked up Sam Spatola and his wife, Chris, at the Tampa airport. They are a great couple and it gave us special time with them over lunch and then coffee. We have been in much prayer, seeking godly counsel, looking to God's Word, and just generally watching the providential circumstances God brings our way. Please pray for the Spatolas, for Sam and his direction of the ministry and protection against the attacks of the evil one. And for Chris, who has been having a challenge as far as her balance and walking. Pray that God would help them get to the bottom of it and ultimately, that it would be God's will to heal her.


PEOPLE MATTER

As we've been seeking God's direction for the future, some of asked us, "Wouldn't you want to stay with Campus Crusade?"

We’ve been open to that and so over the last 3-6 months, we have been exploring opportunities to stay with our ministry of some 16 years.

Yet one thing that’s become apparent is there are some alignment issues for us in staying with CCC and JFP. Like CCC, we want our ministry to be about Jesus and the gospel. Yet, we also are highly committed to the use of God’s Word in the day-to-day work of ministry, good for “all of life and godliness” (2 Pet 1:3-4). And this has increasingly become less emphasized in some CCC ministries, especially office-type or more business-like ministries, in pursuit of other admirable goals. Just as importantly, we believe it’s really all about people. Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” It’s hard to explain but as ministries get bigger, sometimes valuing people gets lost in the growth. And it’s vital to us that people are valued and loved well. If people are not valued and loved well, we believe the gospel is hindered.

EUROPE NEEDS JESUS

The good news is that the Presidents Office of Crusade has been more than gracious to us as we've been looking at a transition. As we've been looking at overseas ministries, especially in Europe (with special interest in Italy -- Lee believes that his family is from Italy after finding a draft card for his great, great grandfather - see pic), they have actually been very encouraging of us because Crusade does not have a significant presence in some European countries. What has made CCC successful in countries where they do not have a presence is by partnering with other ministries, secunding or offering staff who actually join other ministries, or giving direct financial support and other resources to help other ministries begin an outreach effort in that country.

We are humbled that God might want to use us overseas in such a great ministry. The director of S.E.E. said recently, “If you want to be lonely, reach out to cold hearts and not see much fruit, join us here in Italy.” After visiting north Italy, we understand. The fruit is present...just very slow. The missionaries in Udine, Italy are true pioneers. You would not think that in Italy (where the R.C. Church started), but it is ground-breaking work for church planters. The evangelical church is almost non-existent. But, praise God He is in the business of changing hardened hearts! Please pray for Italy. To our surprise, most of Europe is so closed to the Gospel...but like all of us, desperately need it. Will you pray for us, including the children, as we consider being ambassadors for him in a foreign land? We dearly thank you.

The most important thing to us is that we glorify God in whatever we do! We want our lives to be about worship. There is nothing and no one more worthy of our worship. We thank God for salvation! We thank God for Christ's death! And we thank God for His resurrection from the dead!! HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!

Italy's Need

We are learning new stuff everyday about the ministry of Saints Equipped to Evangelize and the ministry in Italy. We got the following info from our friends' web page (Tom and Maureen Little) who are with S.E.E. Tom serves as an administrator to the director, Sam Spatola, and Maureen oversees the ESL courses where Italians are provided English lessons for free as a platform for relationship evangelism in independent events or opportunities.

We had heard that less than 1/2 of 1% of the people in Italy are considered evangelical Christians. However, we did not know how prevalent the occult and satanism is in the country. Consider these statistics and Italy's need:

Italy's Challenge

The following statistics are from ‘Operation World’, 21^st Century Edition, P. Johnstone & J. Mandryk, 2001.

• 80% of Italians claim to be Catholic, but only 10% practice their religion. The church has lost 10 million to new age thinking, the occult and materialistic secularism.

• Occultism is widespread. There are over 100,000 full-time consulting magicians. Satanism is strong in the north, Turin being one of the global centers of its activities, which includes praying for the removal of all evangelical missionaries from Italy.

• Only 1,500 of Italy’s 33,500 communities have an established evangelical witness. The northeastern Veneto Region has 4 million + people, but only 38 churches and 2,000 evangelical Christians.

• The Friulians are an unreached minority with their own distinctive culture and language.

• There is very little outreach in this region with the good news of Jesus Christ.

A Solution

Saints Equipped to Evangelize (S.E.E.) has been serving in Italy since 1995. S.E.E. is committed to apostolic church planting and is aiding in this by equipping and sending short term teams who work alongside the nationals and local churches (this includes the teams that the Saints Bible Institute in San Lorenzo sends). S.E.E. has a three pronged ministry:

• Church Planting

• Evangelism

• Education

Saints Equipped to Evangelize is one solution to the spiritual crisis in Italy. The solution is planting churches through a variety of resources.

• Career Missionaries planting churches in northern Italy.
• S.E.E. operates two schools - Saints Bible Institute and the ABC Language School
• Saints Bible Institute offers American Bible college students a semester abroad for the purpose of immersion into missions in Italy.
• ABC Language School offers English as a Second Language to Italians for the purpose of evangelism.
• Short Term Mission Trips - Every summer they invite churches and individuals to come to Italy for a Short Term Mission Trip experience to help them in their evangelism efforts. Many short-termers come back for extended internships.
• Outreach Events - One of their largest evangelism outreach events occurs each year at Thanksgiving. They invite all of their Italian language students for a traditional American Thanksgiving Dinner and present the gospel.
• Philippino Ministry - There are many Philippino refugees in Italy and S.E.E. has been involved in planting seven Philippino churches. The ministry is now assisting them in sending missionaries back to their homeland in the Philippines. S.E.E. is currently building a new bible institute in the Philippines which is almost completed, that will serve the local church planting efforts as well as new and growing pastors, layleaders, etc.
  

S.E.E. is located in the far northeastern region of Italy, Friuli-Venezia-Giuli (click here to see where it is according to a Google map). The center is about a two hour drive from Venice or from Trieste. It is only 1 1/2 hours from the border of Slovenia.

This is a kids class of ESL

This is a kids class of ESL (English as a second language). Maureen has some 70 kids coming to a number of classes, ages 6-11.

This is an advanced class of ESL. Jeannette and I actually got to attend this class. It's exciting to see how much these Italians not only want to learn English but are so ready and willing to share every aspect of their lives (boyfriend problems, future career issues, etc). Maureen and the other ESL teachers then seek to have times outside the class time to connect and hopefully share the Gospel, with the Spirit leading.

Please keep praying for us. Right now, our biggest prayer requests are:

1) Lee's health. Pray that we can get a good maintenance program for his Asthma

2) Clarity. We don't want to do anything but God's will. We are hopeful for the future but continue to desire God's wisdom and discernment in every step we take.

3) Financial support. There are two issues related to this. First, is that if and when we do transfer to our new ministry, our supporters will desire to keep supporting us. Second, is that we probably need to raise another $750 in monthly support or more. If God does desire us to go to Italy with S.E.E., it may be more not to mention that we will most likely have some serious settling in expenses.

Thank you for your prayers and love in the form of e-mails, phone calls, etc. We so appreciate that you are our friends and are for us, whatever the future may hold for us as a family.

Coram Deo (Literally, "Before the face of God"),
The Walti's


The Walti's and the Faught's, who will be leaving the field in Udine, Italy in December of this year to go to seminary at Southern in Kentucky and to give their family some time to grow up. They will be representing S.E.E. in the states. They are a sweet family (two little boys) and we know that they will be sorely missed by the rest of the team back in Italy.

Back in Orlando

What a blessing today to worship back in Orlando at our wonderful church, Metro Life! God is so good to give us such a great place of worship, with incredible times of praising Him, godly pastors, good biblical teaching and a culture of gracious people who love the Lord. Today, after our service, we had a cool thing happen. We went to a parents meeting for the younger youth (junior high or Jacob's age) and sat at a table for pizza and a time of hearing from our pastor (just to let you know, there were about 8 tables in the room). We found out that seated at our table was a couple who have been at our church for 2 years but we had never met before. One of the other couples at the table who knew us also knew we had just returned from Italy to check out a ministry and so they asked how our trip was. We started to answer the question including the fact that we had visited the city of Udine and the wife quickly piped up and asked, "Ken and Ruthann Wells?" We answered yes but asked how in the world did they know the Wells? Well, their names are Alan & Laurie Niblack. Laurie and Alan answered that they support the Wells ministry in Udine! What a blessing it was to talk to the Niblacks. They shared with us a number of neat things they knew about the Wells ministry and family and we were able to update them on some recent things that have been going on with the Wells, including that Ken Wells, while in Rome recently, was by God's grace able to lead a lady to the Lord with her fiancé probably soon to follow in her footsteps. God is so good. The Niblacks were so encouraging of us in our future decision about pursuing this opportunity, told us they would faithfully be in prayer for us and wanted us to keep their family updated. Amazing that in all the time we've been at the church (about the same amount of time as the Niblacks), we had never met and then the first Lord's Day after our return from Italy with the Wells, we meet a sweet couple that not only know the Wells but support their ministry! Pretty cool.

Please pray for the Wells family who have been serving the Lord in Udine for about 3 years. They are thankful to be there in Italy doing the work of the Lord, by God's grace. However, they do have needs. Though they didn't really say it and definitely did not ask us to tell others, they have need for additional monthly support for their family of eight. Please pray and consider supporting them. Their names are Ken (who I just found out turned 50 yesterday! Happy B-day Ken!), Ruthann, Hannah (21), Adam (19), Peter (16), Olivia (13), Jared (12) and Abigail (9). They have a very sweet family who are a great testimony to the goodness of God and to faithful parents who are raising their kids in the love and admonition of the Lord.

Also please pray for the people of Udine. Udine, Italy, in the northeast part of Italy, is virtually an unreached area. Unlike the south of Italy, it is untouched by much of the evangelical effort that has taken place there over the last several decades. In Sicily and other parts of southern Italy, it is much warmer and the people are much more open and relationship oriented. As a result, many evangelical missions have based their efforts in the south. As well, some of the more successful religious efforts in Italy have been the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons in that order. Thankfully, the Pentecostal church has had some inroads in the south of Italy but northern Italy is virtually unreached. Because it is colder both weather-wise as well as people-wise, Christian evangelicals tend to stay away. Of course, in the case of Italy, we've learned that missionaries have to fight the battle of convincing potential supporters that Italy is in fact an unreached people group that desperately needs the Gospel and not just a vacation destination. Regardless of what people in the USA may think, Italy does need the Lord! Here is some other interesting trivia we were able to find:

Municipal coat of arms
Country	Italy
Region	Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Province	Udine (UD)
Mayor	Sergio Cecotti
Elevation	113 m (371 ft)
Area	56 km² (22 sq mi)
Population (as of December 31, 2007)
- Total	97,880
- Density	1,748/km² (4,527/sq mi)
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	46°04′N, 13°14′E
Gentilic	Udinesi
Dialing code	0432
Postal code	33100
Frazioni	see list
Patron	Sts. Ermacoras and Fortunatus
- Day	July 12

Did you know that on July 24, 1930, a tornado cut an 80km long swath of damage through the Treviso-Udine area of northeastern Italy killing 22 or 23 people?

Did you know that Joe Napolitano who is apparently a successful TV director (JAG, X-Files) and assistant director in movies (Parenthood, The Fisher King, Throw Momma from the Train) lists Udine , Italy as his birthplace?

Please continue to keep us (the Walti Family) in your prayers. We appreciate it tons!

Trip to Udine and San Lorenzo, Italy

Well, we just returned from our trip to Udine (pronounced "Eew-di-nay") and San Lorenzo, Italy. It was an incredible time (more later). We have been looking at a few local ministries which are great ministries but it was clear to us that we were supposed to go to check out Saints Equipped to Evangelize's church plant in Udine (www.seeteams.com) and the bible institute located an hour away in San Lorenzo, IT (www.saintsbibleinstitute.org). For a cool YouTube video on the bible institute, see www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuEa55tkrxk

Jeannette and I decided that we probably need a blog to keep our friends up on what is happening with our family because things are happening so quickly. We've never had a blog before but here it goes. This January (2008), it became clear to us that we needed to move on from our ministry of 16 years with Campus Crusade for Christ because of a lack of alignment with the ministry. Ultimately, we were offered the opportunity to seek out other roles within CCC but after much prayer, we have decided to leave and seek God's will for our family's lives. CCC has been a great blessing and most wonderfully, our 13 1/2 years with FamilyLife were simply life-changing.

So, we think we are crazy. We are leaving a cush situation with pay, benefits, a month of vacation every year, travel all over the world, etc. to discover God's next step for our lives. Our greatest desire being to find a direct ministry situation where we can evangelize, disciple, train and equip Christians for ministry. Many believe they are called to secular ministry -- that is, ministry in a secular job setting, and we praise God for that calling. Some of us (we sometimes think we are crazy) believe we are called to a ministry job setting, where, by God's grace, the majority of time is spent evangelizing, discipling and enlarging the kingdom for God's glory. We know that it would be impossible to even attempt to reach a lost world with the Gospel if it were not for those who in a secular job setting partner with us, supporting our ministry not to mention missionaries all over the world.

How was the trip? Life-changing. We know that whether we go to Italy to minister as a family or not, we and our Christianity will never be the same. Our eyes were opened anew to a world of lost people who desperately need Jesus. It's been years since we were so moved to evangelize the lost. We know many are not like this but in our own lives, we see so much laziness, comfort and ease, complacency, materialism, and the Christianity we have been embracing is one that has forgotten those dying and going to hell. It was so eye-opening and renewing to experience a ministry like S.E.E that is absolutely committed to reaching the lost.

Just recently, contrary to most people's understanding, western Europe has been being added to the category of "unreached people groups" in evangelistic and missions ministries. They are now realizing that after decades of trying to reach the 10/40 window (Praise God but this is mostly India, East Asia, etc), Europe has been languishing. The church is mostly non-existent. In Italy, 32,000 towns and villages have no evangelical witness. 32,000 towns and villages. There are only 34,000 towns and villages. That's over 94% of the country that has no evangelical witness whatsoever...no church, no bible study, no Christian tracts, no Christian books, etc. The estimation is that less than 1/2 of 1% of Italy are evangelical Christians. Many think Italy is religious...but the Roman Catholic Church is just a ghost of its once powerful presence. Many churches are used for museums or for secular humanistic purposes (while in town, one church in Udine was holding an evolution presentation called "The Naked Monkey" -- see pic beginning this para).

The people of Udine and northern Italy are especially cold and hard to the Gospel. So it is a lonely and difficult place for the work to go forward. But that doesn't stop the church in Udine or the students from the bible center. The team there is committed and excited about the Lord and the power of His Word to change lives. There are about 30-35 in the Udine church with about half of these being Italians. The process is slow, requiring a relationship process of building a friendship before the Gospel can be shared...with about 3-4 people having come to the Lord in the last two years. The school gets about 20 or so students every semester with a goal of about 40 in the next few years. They learn missions, evangelism, church history, art, etc. with special emphasis on Italy, the early Church here. All the students we met were simply top notch. We were so impressed as well with the quality of the team in Udine...loving, self-sacrificial, devoted to the Lord and the Gospel and so welcoming of us.

What is the Walti family going to do? We have no idea. We are so totally dependent upon God. There are two other ministries in addition to S.E.E. that we've been looking at, one of which would be very comfortable for us (would mean us staying in Orlando). The other would involve going overseas and though they are a great ministry, we are not totally in agreement with their theology and the ministry is not established in places like Italy or western Europe (though they now have added it to their "unreached people groups" as well) and so going with them overseas could mean not having a team initially.

The work in Italy is not easy and would require a Christianity and a level of sacrifice that we know would absolutely require the grace of God to happen (Pic to the left is one of Ken Wells, pastor of the church in Udine. The Wells family has been in Udine serving faithfully now for 3 years...his heart reminds me of the Lord's when He said that the Shepherd left the many to reach the one...). We clearly do not have it within ourselves to go do a work like this. Everything in our flesh tells us to run and hide. It would require a self-sacrifice and denial that we greatly admire but are just not sure we are up to. So please pray for us. We greatly covet your prayers for our family in this time. We don't know what the future holds for us. However, we do know the God that holds the future in His hands!

Let us be unlike God's people who would not listen to the Lord...

"They refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. 'As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,' says the LORD of hosts, “and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations..." (Zech 7:9-14)