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A Walti Family &
Ministry Blog Update
July / Aug 2012
Katia: Seeking Jesus Sicilian-Style!!
What are the three most common things you would associate with Sicily? Patton invading in WWII? The mafia? Passion for life? Well, when we think of Sicily, we think of Katia. Katia is a wonderful, young lady from Sicily with whom, we've had the privilege of developing a wonderful relationship and sharing the good news of the gospel! One thing you should know about Sicilians...they like to do life with zest! And Katia is no different. She has a openness to and an interest in others which is, well, captivating! Actually, Sicilians and Americans are very much alike. And like us Americans, Katia loves to have fun and pursues life with zeal. So either it's done with gusto or it's not worth doing.
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Katia, a wonderful, young lady and teacher
is pursuing Jesus Sicilian-style! |
This is how we experienced Katia the first time we met her, with her "all-the-way" or "not at all" kind of attitude. Katia was a teacher here in Chiavari for physically and intellectually disabled kids. She received one of our flyers for our ESL classes (we distributed about 4,000) and she began attending our "avanzato" (advanced) course. At the first activity, a pizza night with students, she was sitting at the same table as I was (Lee) and asked why we were doing these classes for free and don't we do something else for a living? At this point, I shared I am an evangelical pastor and we are hoping to start an evangelical church in Chiavari.
Acting pleasantly surprised, Katia then asked, how we share with others. Incredible. So I acknowledged that our genuine desire is that every ESL student will get to hear the good news of the gospel of grace at least once. With everyone listening, she then asked, "Do you have like a bible study?" Double wow! Talk about God's grace. So I shared about our "Incontro con Gesù" on Sunday nights, going through the Gospel of Mark, and she responded, "I'd like to come!" God is so good. And since this time, our relationship with Katia has blossomed and grown wonderfully. More importantly, so has her relationship with God.
One Sunday night at our incontro, Ramat--our first convert in Italy who saw his family killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan--was sharing his testimony of how he came to Christ in Italy through meeting us. Again, showing how vibrant and interested in others she is, Katia stayed late, asking numerous questions of Ramat. Later in the week, she said, "That's it. I'm done. His story was incredible! If God can do that for him going through all that? I must believe in God." Katia, from Sicily, actually was once a strong Roman Catholic, even a leader and during one season, went door-to-door distributing bibles (some years back, the pope was trying to get Catholics to read the bible...praise God!). But she became disillusioned seeing the hypocrisy first-hand and began to feel jaded by the religiousity and emphasis on rules, feeling it just wasn't real. The result? She gave up not only on Roman Catholicism but on God altogether.
That night, Jeannette and I challenged Katia to give her life to Jesus. She responded, "I want that so much but I want it to be real." So, I gave her two books to read to encourage her (Crazy Love by Francis Chan and Justification by Martyn-Lloyd Jones) and we prayed over her, Ramat, Jeannette and I. She ate up the book on justification (a tough subject in any language let alone, in Italian) telling me later that for the first time, after reading it, she now understands the real difference between the Roman Catholic Church's false teaching on justification (being something we must work for) as opposed to the bible's teaching on it! It's a free gift! That Jesus' work on the cross is sufficient! That we don't have to work our way to heaven! Wow!
Katia now says she has really changed. "You two have forever changed my ideas about God and a relationship with Him," Katia said recently. We were curious what it was she was talking about, knowing we are far from perfect, and she responded, "You are real. And I know that you really love Jesus." And she also commented that she was drawn to our love for God's Word versus some impersonal institution. "With the bible, I can see my way forward with God." Katia began attending our incontro on Sunday nights in addition to attending another 2-3 nights a week (for the ESL classes and activities) with us! She even brought her boyfriend, Vito, a couple times to our incontro, who says he is a Protestant and who, was absolutely elated at Katia's faith in God and an evangelical view of the gospel.
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Katia, participating with us this last semester, from our Short Film Night to our Easter Banquet,
to graduation night with her class! |
The last time we saw Katia in June before she left to return to Sicily for the summer, she was helping me translate a sermon I preached for a church in Parma (thanks to Katia, Jeannette said it was the best I'd ever preached in Italian!). Sitting on a wooden bench near the sea with the breeze cooling us from the summer sun, I asked Katia, "So what's happening with God in your life now? How do you feel you've changed?" She responded, "Every single thing I think about now, every decision, I try to look through the eyes of Jesus." It is always so awesome to see what God does by His grace to our lives, even this passionate Sicilian!
Don't forget!! God can save Italians! Please be praying for Katia!! Pray she will get another teaching contract here in Chiavari this year (she says it looks good). And please pray she will continue to grow in faith in Christ and come 100% to Him, in repentance and faith. If we will faithfully pray for her, by His grace, God will accomplish it in her! Could you also please pray for:
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Our support...We went from nearly 70 people supporting us and being at 110% some times while in the states to having about 20-25 who support us faithfully and at only 75 to 80% of what we should have. It seems there is a pattern when missionaries go over seas. Maybe it's, "out of sight, out of mind." Will you prayerfuly consider either beginning or even increasing your support? Thank you.
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For an ESL student reunion we hope to do sometime in August. It would be great to re-connect all the students before September.
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For Lisa and Ben DeBusk and their family (5 kids!) who are hoping to arrive in July of 2013 and begin work with our ministry full-time. There are lots of details...pray God will keep them encouraged!
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For our three new teachers, Spencer, Jenna and Kevin, who are arriving Sept 17th to teach ESL classes through December 10th. Please pray for them, that God would protect them against the evil one.
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A marriage conference in La Spezia scheduled for September postponed by the church until October due to a wedding (they're a small church of only 30-40 people, actually normal for Italy). Please pray for Jeannette and I as we'll be teaching it.
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For our new friends, Franco Bosio, director of Agape Italia, and his wife, Luisa. Agape Italia is the Italian arm of FamilyLife and Campus Crusade. Franco and Luisa do conferences all over Italy and visited us at our home in Chiavari. They've given us permission to teach the "Weekend to Remember" marriage manual and would like us to help with other conferences!
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For our kids...Italian school is hard. Abby will continue and though good in school, pray for humility. Jacob and Elijah will be homeschooled...Jacob, to shore up American coursework and Elijah, to get a break from some demeaning teachers. Please pray Jeannette and I can still find time alone in the mornings to pray and plan, and the Italians won't be too discouraging of us or the boys!
As always we are so thankful for your involvement in our ministry through your prayers and gifts.
We literally could not do it without you. Thank you.
In Him and His love,
Lee, Jeannette and the fam.
PS. If you would like to help us by supporting our ministry either monthly or with a special needs gift, thank you very much and please click here: Italian Ministries USA
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KidsGames!!!
If you look really closely... You'll see the kids, Jacob, Elijah and Abby, all in this pic! That's because we traveled to Porto Mantovano to help with a week long church-sponsored program there called KidsGames which uses different fun-spirited, sports events to teach kids about biblical values and about a relationship God. It was a blast! And many kids were touched!
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New Teachers?
Two unexpected surprises: This is Jenna Crake and Rachael Phenicie, KidsGames volunteers. In our wildest imaginations, we didn't think we'd find two teachers for our fall semester 2012! Later, Rachael decided it'd be better to come Spring 2013 but Jenna is now bringing one of her best friends, Spencer, to join Kevin, our other teacher, to make 3 teachers this fall!
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Spencer Spagnolo
Spencer Spagnolo: 22 years old with a wonderful personality, Spencer loves the Lord, is very fun and easy to get along with, and she is very much a go-getter! We have enjoyed getting to know her and look forward to knowing her even better when she arrives to teach ESL and reach Italians for Jesus.
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Kevin O'Brien
Kevin O'Brien: Kevin is 24 years old, a sweetheart (say our girls), and has a good sense of humor. Kevin also has a heart for seeing church-planting go forward and is encouraged to be a part of what God's doing here by teaching ESL and sharing the gospel! We're glad to have you Kevin!
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Jenna Crake
Jenna Crake: We met Jenna through KidsGames and are excited to have her! She is 19-years old and has already traveled in mission to places like Egypt, Nepal and Italy. We are encouraged Jenna wants to bring her heart for missions here in Chiavari to teach ESL and touch Italians' hearts. Can't wait!
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