Jesus and us: Spring 2010

Dear beloved supporters and friends,

We hope this update finds you happy, healthy and passionately in love with Jesus. In fact, if you are not the first two, we hope, at a minimum, the last thing can be said of you. Happiness is truly fleeting, health mostly stays with you in the early part of your life but Jesus? He is with us always and so desires all of our hearts that He might work in and through us for His glory.

As I write this, we are bringing our 2^nd eldest, Hannah, to the airport in Venice to return to the United States for a visit for the first time since leaving two years ago (we’re excited that when she returns, she will bring Bethany back with her to Italy so that we will be altogether as a family for the first time in a year). Hannah is a good example of what our time has been like in Italy. She left at 15, a very critical time for a high school kid. Just before, she cancelled her own baptism we’d scheduled for her at church, not believing she was ready yet. Arriving and immediately starting Italian public school, she knew but a few words of Italian. Many nights until 1am or 2am in the morning, we’d all struggle to translate the Italian into English, let alone to understand what was being taught (that’s with four of five in public school). With 13 subjects and no interpreter, Hannah tried her best, even trying to have a good attitude, but it was horribly difficult. Having a bully in her class program who showed his interest in her through mean and immature ways, it felt at times as if it were just a bit more than she could handle. Hannah eventually would get mono and be out for over 23 days. Later, her doctor would tell her not to return to school for another month…this was her experience in only the first 6 months. But the story doesn’t end there…

Hannah began to search for God. Where before she would not even pick up a Christian book, she was now waking up every morning, reading the Bible and any Christian-growth book she could get her hands on (yes, in English). As the year progressed, Hannah began to respond to her trials and difficulties and extreme difference of the Italian culture with an unusual peace, joy, and confidence in God’s plan for her life. She went from saying she was ready to go back to the U.S. to being excited for ministry opportunities that God had for her here. It wasn’t much later and Hannah asked to be baptized and proclaimed before the entire congregation that if it were not for having come to Italy, she believed she would not have been saved. Now she has many ongoing relationships with Italian girls where she is building into their lives, sharing the gospel, and seeing fruit. One young lady, Chiara, 22 years old (5 years older than Hannah) loves Hannah, loves to hear about God and Jesus and has now attended church with us twice. Chiara looks to Hannah like she is her hero…she sees Hannah’s faith and is moved. Another lady, Mary Ann, thinks the world of Hannah and sees in her an incredible example of Jesus, the way Hannah has served her and her business without expecting anything in return.

So it is with our family! Trials, tribulations and challenges that would fill a book but oh, the blessings of growth in Christ! And with God’s sovereign providence in our lives, we are able to look backward (isn’t it always this way) and see all He has been doing. Would we have chosen this path knowing all we would experience ahead of time? Heck no! But thank God, the Lord knows us, knows our frailties and gives us truly only what we can handle. And then turns the ashes of our pain and suffering into beauty…beauty that displays His glory.

We are looking at our recent transition and new opportunities with Italian Ministries with thankfulness and faith even with all we’ve been through. We would have never known or seen the blessings of the future with a ministry like this, to seek God’s will for our lives, unhindered, simply seeking the lead of the Lord, His Word, His Spirit and His people. And we wonder, why us? Why do we get the privilege of doing this work, meeting with Italians as a full-time job, getting to tell them about the best news in life? We bemoan the fact that some days, we can’t get through a day without complaining about the difficulties of living in Italy (our one car broken down again for the 8^th time, computer drive crashed again for the 4^th time, waiting for 2 hours for our permesso di soggiornos in a hot, humid, stinky police headquarters with people lined up 4-wide but no one knowing who is before or after who, and still no furniture, no clothes dryer, health problems, etc, etc, etc). But such small things when considering all that God has given us and praise God, the Lord is at work!

A QUICK UPDATE:

We had a wonderful time with Loredana just this Friday night, going to an American burger and fries place. She comes over nearly every week to ask us to do something. Loredana, a single mom who is an English teacher working on her masters, struggles with great feelings of guilt. She is 48 years old and she still feels so impacted by the fact that at 3 years-old, the nuns would have her do penance for her sins. Her parents riddled her with guilt, teaching her she could never be good enough – true, but without the grace of God, she is full of shame and guilt. And then a husband who made her pay for their relationship each step of the way, trying to get her to sign a contract that she would not have a child until she got a job, as if it were all her choice. But now she is hearing the gospel. A very lovely gal, on the inside and out, she is hearing of God’s grace and the other night in tears, she was telling us that she knew we were right. That she needs to accept God’s love for her. Please pray for Loredana.

And this weekend we took Ramat and Akim, Ramat’s new friend to church with us. This is our 3^rd time with Akim. He’s been over for dinner twice, gone to church with us twice and stayed the night once with Ramat. Ramat, a new believer himself, has been sharing about Jesus to Akim (also from Afghanistan). Akim has gone from not wanting to have anything to do with Christianity to telling us that he has never seen or heard of anything more beautiful (the church experience, hearing of Christ’s love for him, etc). Just Saturday night we started watching the JESUS Film in Dari, his language and we hope to finish it together later this week. God used this film to save Ramat and we are hopeful for the same for Akim.

Also, please pray for Sandro. Lee has been developing a relationship with him for some time now and he vocalizes complete agreement with the idea that a relationship with God is based on grace and seems to really love Lee and wants to spend time together but he is very busy and often working or helping his family. But on more than one occasion, he has expressed his desire to be more like us, knowing God, the Bible and how to live life in a way that is pleasing to God. Please pray for Sandro, that Lee and him would have more time together, and for Sandro’s wife, Tekla, and Jeannette’s relationship with her.

We now have two churches interested in partnering with and encouraging us, one that is in Sacile and another in Trieste, Italy. Both are very supportive of our family, are committed to the same values, and would love to work with us to help us determine where and how God would like us to move forward in reaching a community. Please pray that God would lead and direct us as we seek His will for a new church and community in which to serve.

Finally, we have just returned from a successful trip to Great Britain to meet with our director, Jonathan Gilmore, and his wife, Annette, and kids, Rosanna (19), Alex (16) and Kristen (14). We had never been to England before and so it was nice to see the countryside, meet our director, strategize about where we would visit this summer (out of a dozen and a half opportunities to serve; we already have 5 to 6 inviting us to come and stay with them and explore ministry) and generally talk about ways we could serve. So the plan is that this summer, as a family, we will visit many of these and explore where God would have us minister and try to reach a community for Jesus. While there, we got to spend a day in London for Jeannette’s b-day (highlight for me was getting to visit Charles Spurgeon’s church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, where Spurgeon would sometimes preach to over 10,000 people) and then later, we got to attend a Sovereign Grace evangelical church in Newport, Wales, staying with a very kind couple, Bob and Anne Marie Mc Cann (he is a pastor there) who were both very encouraging and insightful.

Well, that’s it for now. We are so grateful for your love and encouragement. Please drop us a note and let us know how we can be praying for you. We will be sending out a snail-mail letter here shortly (we are a little limited on how often we can send this being that we live here in Italy) sharing about all our summer plans and some ways you can pray and support our time exploring God’s will for ministry.

Thank you and we want you to know, that God sees your faithfulness and generosity and is and will bless you for your commitment to further the gospel in Italy.

Love, the Walti Family

Living in the Spirit for the Next 10 Minutes

Recently, I finished reading the book, "Forgotten God: Reversing our tragic neglect of the Holy Spirit" by author, Francis Chan (highly recommend!), and I was very moved by this statement:

"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.

Be Merciful to Me, the Sinner

Be Merciful to Me, the Sinner

There is something about overseas ministry that is very humbling. As missionaries in a different world culture with more changes than a new baby fresh out of the womb, the sin nature can find a way to rear it’s ugly head quick. Add that you are surrounded by other sinners whose sin always looks worse than yours, it is tempting to judge others more harshly than yourself. Instead of being like the tax collector, who humbled himself, unwilling to even lift his head because of his own sin, we can sometimes be more like the Pharisee, thanking God that we are not as bad as all the other sinners are!

Recently, I have been reading the book, The Prodigal God, by Tim Keller. Keller points out that in our reading of the prodigal son parable, we often miss the story of the elder brother… Christ was telling his story to the Pharisees… He heart was for them to hear the elder brother’s self-righteousness and be convicted by their own pride.

The elder brother was consumed with his brother’s sin and was unable to see his own. The elder brother could not fathom the grace of his father in light of his brother’s licentious and ungodly choices. He was so ready to judge others sin, he was unable to see the enormity of his pride. The result is he could not join his father in rejoicing over a sinner who’d turned from his sinful ways…his own brother.

Keller says, “Elder brother self-righteousness creates an unforgiving, judgmental spirit… If people wrong them, elder brothers feel their spotless record gives them the right to be highly offended and to perpetually remind the wrongdoer of his or her failure.” What can we learn from the elder brother’s poor example?

The gospel may be more grievously hindered by our own self-righteousness than it is by other’s blatant sin. As well, “It is the lovingkindness of God that leads us to repentance.” Mercy is equally sweet for all of us… and grace, well it’s good. Really good… amazingly good.

Where God leans, we lean… the famous town of Pisa

Recently, we got to travel to the Toscana region to pray and seek God about the possibility of a new church in this area. We looked at 6 or 7 cities both south and north of Pisa, the famous city where the leaning tower resides. Thousands of tourists travel to Pisa every year to see the funny looking tower and to position themselves in such a way that it seems they are literally holding it up!

In the last few months, God has offered us the possibility of going and being a part of starting a new church in this region. There are several towns of 60,000 and more in this area that have no evangelical church whatsoever! Imagine. Two of the cities we looked at were Grosetto (pop. 67,000), to the very south, about 2 1/2 hours north of Rome and to the far north end of Toscana, Massa, a town of about 69,000, about 2 1/2 hours south of Genova, Italy.

The important thing to note is that almost anywhere in this northern region, the number of evangelicals or evangelical churches is extremely small. There are only about .06% Christians...so in Massa, that means about 414 Christians (in a town of 69,000). Also, there is on average about 1 church for every 60,000 people. So in Massa, again, we found there is just one church (Brethren) and that's it...nothing else for the entire town.

Last week, we traveled to the area for a vision trip of sorts to see how God might lead. We, of course, were not sure how God would lead and we just want so much to be in the center of God's will, seeking His pleasure and at His disposal to reach Italians for Christ. There is a young couple, Andrea and McKenzie, with another ministry, Pioneers (who we already love) who went with us to research this opportunity. Andrea and McKenzie are the first couple with Pioneers in all of Italy.

Like S.E.E., Pioneers is committed to reaching Italians through evangelism and church planting. But unlike S.E.E., Pioneers has no established church or ongoing ministry in Italy. The positive aspect of this opportunity is that the possibilities are wide-open, the first team would be developing a country-wide strategy for the entire country and there are no “bad” ideas. The negative side is the challenge of a transition and the lack of experience of all of us involved! :-)

If we were to take advantage of this opportunity, it could be as quick as the end of February when we make a transition. From the beginning with S.E.E., the plan was not for us to stay in Udine but by summer of 2010, to move to Bologna and lead a church-planting effort there. But recent developments including the other couple who will be delayed in arriving in Italy until summer of 2011 has us considering other possibilities. This vision trip for 4 days in early February will be a huge factor. Please pray for God’s wisdom!!!

Teaching English as a Second Language

If you weren’t able to speak English, what would you do? Well, in Europe, the default language is quickly becoming English and Italy is being left behind. Because Italians get their movies dubbed, watch TV only in Italian and rarely read or hear any English, they are wanting to catch up with their European countrymen.

Jeannette and I had the privilege of teaching English as a second language this last semester, finishing in December. We started with about 57 students and finished with about 32 graduates (others attended less frequently).

What is really amazing is how, though slow at first, after learning English, the Italians want to share all about their lives, problems, relationship issues, etc. Though we are not to present the gospel during the classes, we had regular opportunities to share about a relationship with Jesus at various activities.

We started with an official “American Breakfast,” which went over well with our Italian friends. Afterwards, we went around and shared one thing that most everyone would know about them and one thing that hardly anyone knows about them. What a conversation starter! And when of our new converts began sharing the one thing that virtually no one knew yet, it turned into an opportunity for the Italians to ask about the difference between Catholicism and Protestantism, why grace is different with Evangelicals and how it figures in to salvation.

We also had a great craft night for the ladies, a bowling night, a Christmas caroling night, and a wonderful Thanksgiving meal dinner (most Italians have never experienced this). Many conversations later about Jesus with our students, we ask you to pray along with us that God would harvest these many seeds.

A rare day trip as a family: a Film in English in Slovenia!

For most, watching a film in English is an everyday occurrence. Yet for our family, it’s impossible. You must go to a nearby country to be able to view a real film in a real theatre and all in English! (of course, there are Slovenian subtitles!)

So it was quite the treat for our family recently when we got to go to Slovenia (only an hour away) to see the Disney 3D movie, “The Christmas Carol.” We laughed, goofed off (esp. with those 3d glasses) and even got to let the kids ride some bumper cars afterwards (only 2 Euros each!). With Italian school for the kids six days a week, we thank God for times like this for our family to get away...and we’re thankful to you.