"It is easy to use 'God's will for my life' as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience. It's much less demanding to think about God's will for your future than it is to ask Him what He wants you to do in the next 10 minutes"
Wow! Talk about convicting. With all the changes in our lives and with our ministry recently, I so want God to give me His 5-year plan for our lives (actually, even His one year plan will do!). Meanwhile, I have a list of things I cannot do until He gives me more direction! Youngs Translation says in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that we are a "sanctuary of the Holy Spirit." Think of that: a sanctuary. Twila Paris sings a song (off my favorite album by her of the same name) called "In This Sanctuary" and it goes:There is no-one else,
No-one who is worthy,
Worthy to sit upon the throne,
In this sanctuary,
We worship You alone.
I'm challenged by the idea of whether I can allow Christ to reign on this throne, my life, for the next 1o minutes. I so want to know everything Lord. All of it now. Please let me see. But if I did, would I need to trust? I want the 1 year, 3 year or 5 year plan. But the Lord asks, "Can you trust me for the next 10 minutes?"
If, as 2 Cor 2:12-14 indicates, the things of the Spirit are only discerned by the spiritual person ("words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit"), and the natural person can't discern these things, that is the one who doesn't live in the Spirit ("the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned")...then how can we expect to do God's will?
I know it may sound fairly simple-minded but I've decided it's a worthwhile goal to strive to live by the Spirit for the next 10 minutes. And if I put enough 10 minutes together (back to back), I can live like the Spirit-controlled, spiritually-discerning person God intends me to be. And when He does have something He wants me to know for the long haul, I will be ready, spiritually-ready to hear and obey. Will you pray for me? Please? We will also pray for you in this same way. May we be ready, as God's army, to do His will at His call. The Lord is returning. Maranatha...may He come quickly.
Update: We plan on providing another update in a week or two (via this blog) but hopefully, you received our recent snail mail letter in the states (if you are not on our prayer letter list and you'd like to be, please let us know) detailing our recent change to Italian Ministries.
We are excited about what God is doing and still right in the thick of it all trying to figure out all we will be doing but will probably be flying to the United Kingdom to meet in early May with our director, Jon Gilmore, to discover all the opportunities that exist for us as a family in Italy. Two opportunities (out of a dozen) include the possibility of joining an existing church in Tuscany area that has been asking for a missionary family for a year and another where we would be involved in planting a new church in the same general area.
Today, we are praising God that all went well after a month long process to get all our many documents in order and photos filed, fingerprints taken, signatures, etc., for our Permesso di Soggiornos (permission to live here) for the next year (must be done yearly for the first 5 years) so all our cards should be ready to pick up in a month (yes, everything takes longer in Italy). We celebrated by going out to lunch as a family and having Kabobs! (really good sandwiches)
Really, so much is happening in our lives that it is very hard to really capture it all (new ministry, new church, new goals and strategies for reaching Italy, new permessos, new friends, new contacts to share the gospel with, lots of exciting stuff). Hopefully, these pictures will help to communicate some of what is happening in our lives and ministry. In order:
- Ramat (new believer) at our Resurrection Celebration in the bouncy castle (he is doing great, growing in the Lord, with a new apt and a weekly stipend to help him find a job)
- Hannah with a new friend from Africa
- Jeannette w/ a sweet little girl, also from Africa (little sister to Hannah's friend)
- Elijah, Abby & the pastor's son hitting a pinata, in order
- Abby walking on stilts
- Pastor Rob of Serenisimo Church, our new church fellowship; Rob has been in Italy with his wife, Sandy for 13 years now and are desirous of planting new churches and want to meet with us to share their vision sometime in April
- Other pics of our Resurrection Celebration outreach day (Italians, Africans & Americans! ... the next day, our church had a Pasquetta celebration for Italians only with 20 Italians!)
- Gelatto and time at the beach as a family (59 degrees but hey it's relatively warm for us!)
- Hannah's b-day celebration (Mar 31)
- Abby's b-day celebration (Mar 17)
- Hannah with a sweet American friend (31 years in Italy) who owns a bed & breakfast here; please pray for her marriage (Mary Ann and Eddy)
Please know we so love and appreciate you and always, always, always love to hear from you. For us, your cards, notes, e-mails, phone calls are like a drink of crystal clear, wonderful water in what sometimes feels like a barren land! God bless you so much for your partnership with us in bringing the gospel to reach Italians for Christ!!!!
Love, the Walti family
If you would like to donate to our family, which we greatly appreciate, we would ask you to do so via our new ministry, Italian Ministries USA. You can give online...just go to:
https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=5267 and select the drop down box for "Walti, Lee and Jeannette"
Or if you would like instead to send your gift via regular mail, feel free to send it to:
Italian Ministries USA
Attn: Pam Sarjent
PO Box 2174
Fairview, OR 97024
Just designate on your check, For: Lee & Jeannette Walti
NOTE: All our supporters' donations must be moved over to our new ministry, Italian Ministries, by April 30th or they will be returned to the donor/supporter and will not be received by us.
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