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)