I'll be Found in You, Still Standing.

Most of us as Christians can relate to the fact that when life is the toughest, this is when we feel closest to the Lord. That would certainly be true of the Walti family in this time. Our lives have never felt more in an upheaval yet there is a certain peace that surpasses understanding. If the world were to evaluate all that is going on in our lives, they would say we are literally crazy. Yet, as God's Word makes clear...the world's wisdom is foolishness to God BUT the foolishness of God confounds the wise. We are so thankful that when all of our life around us seems to feel like it is literally disappearing before our eyes, we are found in Him, still standing. As the newer Christian music artist from New Zealand, Brooke Fraser, sings:

When the world has fallen out from under me...I'll be found in you, still standing.

When the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees, when time and space are through...

I'll be found in you, still standing.

Well, it turns out that the connection with Julia M. turned out to be a divine connection afterall with one of her friends, Adam H., a missionary who has spent 2 years recently in Italy on a mission, will be leasing our house with 3 of his roommates. What a blessing. The only HUGE challenge is we have to be out of the house in a week! AND, we don't yet know where we will be staying so PLEASE PRAY! We were able to secure housing at Wycliffe's Missionary apartments from Aug 25 through Sept 7, our departure. But from the 16th until the 25th, at this point, we hav no place to stay :-) No big problem for God!!! After all that we have been through and seen God provide for, this is one of our smallest challenges. We also do not have housing yet in Udine, Italy but it may be we'll have to stay temporarily with friends over there until we find permanent housing (the place we put an offer on for lease was not accepted by the owner).

Thank you for your loving e-mails, prayers, financial support and general encouragement. We could not do it without you. We never realized how hard it is for international misisonaries to reach their assignments. We see the devil's schemes at every turn. And our flesh rails against this self-sacrificial journey. Daily, we question why we are doing something so uncomfortable. I (Lee) especially have been challenged by this last leg of our journey. When the move and the transition was further off, I was full of faith. But as I've had to say goodbye to people and things, my heartstrings have gotten the best of me and I've seen how I'm emotionally attached to things and comfort and ease more than I like to sometimes admit. And sometimes discouragement comes from well-intentioned Christians who like us at times, lack faith. This is a foreign country which for most Americans is simply that...a foreign world. And many Americans cannot simply get their minds around why anyone would want to GO. But I'll never forget what Keith Green once said... "We shouldn't be asking whether we should go. We should be asking why we would consider staying."

Well, we don't know how we are going to get it all done and we could still use quite a bit more support, especially for settling-in expenses (we need at least another $15k), but we know God will be faithful just like He has been thus far.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for your prayers. We can sense that you are praying and we know that we could not do this without you and your prayers.

Coram Deo,

Lee & Jeannette