Generations: George – (Fred not present) – Jonathan – Noah

Today many of our family will be getting together in Latham, New York to celebrate the life of Rev. George P. Whitman, my grandfather.

As the Psalmist said best: “¹⁷ the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; [Ps. 103:17]

I am blessed today because of the life of obedience of my Grandpa.  He was in the pastorate for over fifty years, married and faithful for over sixty years, in ministry for many more.  He is a shining example of the kind of man I desire to be for the future generations.  I want my children and grandchildren to be blessed, just as I am blessed because of him.

Grandpa, you will be greatly missed…but we know that you are with your Lord and Savior! Thank you for teaching and modeling for us His ways. As you once wrote in my Bible:

“There’s only one life, ’twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” You exemplified that to the end.

Christ is Risen!

[46] and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, [47] and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. [48] You are witnesses of these things.    (Luke 24:46-48 ESV)

Praise God!  Christ is Risen!  Our hope is not in vain, for Christ is alive and he intercedes daily on behalf of all those who belong to Him.

At the Centro Evangelico Battista we will celebrate by proclaiming this truth through music and preaching and the reading of God’s word, just as most of you do.

The only difference is that we get to do it in the most beautiful language on earth!

May God bless each one of you with an Easter Celebration that honors our Savior and King!

Cristo è Risorto!  E’ risorto davver!

Christ is Risen, He is risen indeed!

As Christians, we don’t need to be convinced that dying makes a difference.
If it weren’t for Jesus’ death on the cross, we would still be wallowing in our unforgiven, condemning sins, awaiting judgment, having no reason to live and and no hope for the future.
Yet, does dying make a difference today?

Tiziano's Death Notice

Thursday night/Friday morning, I got a call at 12:35 AM. My brother Jeremy was calling me to let me know that Tiziano, a brother in our church had passed away, after a year-long battle with cancer.
At first I was a bit dazed, having been woken up by deep sleep, and I didn’t understand why he was calling me at that hour. The family had requested that a pastor come comfort them. Grief knows no time barriers.

By the time I got there Tiziano had  been dead almost an hour.  The family was still under shock.  The tears came later…for all of us.  At that point though he just didn’t truly remind me of Tiziano.  Tiziano has always been a lively, passionate man.  What I saw still lying in that bed was simply a shadow of the friend I had lost. It was a little like seeing an amputated limb…it no longer seemed to belong to Tiziano.

Tiziano was the first member of our church to ever pass away.  Though we had been preparing for the funeral for days before, nothing could prepare us for what happened on Saturday, at his funeral.

Tiziano working at church (he loved taking a break for a picture)

Tiziano was well loved in the church.  He was one of the believers who had been around the longest.  He had  been heavily involved in remodeling our old warehouse into a place where worship and teaching and praying happen regularly.  He always sat in the second row with his wife Ester.  I never saw so many tears, even on the faces of people I was not accustomed to seeing them on.

However, the most remarkable thing was that Tiziano had a lot of unsaved friends.  Our church can comfortably hold 150 people.  With standing room only we can fit 200.  However Saturday, at Tiziano’s funeral, there were still another 100 people standing outside! All 300 people, of which 250 were unbelievers, heard the gospel three times during the course of the funeral.  Tiziano himself shared his testimony through a video.

In the days preceding his death, Tiziano was continually witnessing to people as he sat in his bed, awaiting the inevitable.

We don’t know what fruit we will reap because of Tiziano’s death, but we certainly can say that his dying has been a clear witness to many people. People were still asking for copies of his video testimony as we watched his body be interred.  Accustomed to the hopelessness and grief present in the funerals of unbelievers, they saw what it was like for a Christ follower to pass into a certain, joyful eternity with God.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. (Psalm 116:15 ESV)

sNoah

Greetings from snowy central Italy!  It’s not every day that Perugia is in the news for snow.  In fact, they say that it has not snowed this much since 1985.

Malta Conference

Tomorrow we leave for a week for a week of ministering and being ministered to in Malta, where we will be with many other Baptist Mid-Missions missionaries from around Europe.

Furlough 2012

We are looking forward to this summer when we will see many of you who support us so faithfully, as we will return for a brief furlough to celebrate what God is doing here in Italy.  We thank so many of you who have promised to open your churches and homes to us during this time.

Our schedule is filling up quickly.  You can click here for the most up to date information about our furlough.

We thank God for providing a vehicle (Melodee’s parents) and housing from mid-August through November.

Please pray for:

1. Housing for the beginning of our stay.

2. Preparation of our presentation (video and PowerPoint), prayer cards.

3. Affordable airline tickets.

4. Filling up of the rest of the dates available.

We also have several things that need to be accomplished before we leave: renewing Melodee’s residence permit, delegating ministry responsibilities, setting up bills for our absence, preparation of my request for Italian citizenship.

Though it all sounds overwhelming, we thank God because we know He is in control of our lives.

We covet your prayers and thank you for your time and prayers.

In Other News…

Italian Christian History Tour – October 1-12 2012

Last, but not least, we want to let you in on what might be a once in a lifetime chance.  My Dad, veteran missionary Fred Whitman, is hosting a  tour that will give you a chance to see and fall in love with Italy and the Italian people like never before.

For the non-refundable price of $2,999/person you will see Rome, Perugia (with a worship time with the brothers and sisters of the Centro Evangelico Battista), Assisi, Florence, Pisa, Pinerolo (Waldensians), Trent and Venice.

 The price includes guides, museum fees, our own tour bus, breakfast and evening meal in our hotels, including your non-stop flight for Monday evening, Oct. 1 with US Airways from Philadelphia to Rome and back. There are only 40 places available, so if you are interested I recommend that you contact Mrs. Donna Gaetano, U.S. liaison for the tour at your earliest convenience.  Her e-mail is: donnamarie.gaetano@gmail.com.

Our last vacation was in September of last year, when I had to take a month of rest to recuperate from my surgeries to remove cancer from my mouth. As we look back since then
many things have happened:
-I continue to get good reports back for my health.
- God has blessed us with a beautiful baby boy Noah, who will turn one only a couple days after Christmas.
- The ministry continues to grow and expand, with Lucio (our new Italian pastor) and family finally settled in.
- We have finally started planning our furlough.
- God continues to reach people in Italy with the Gospel.
- Despite the world economic crises God continues to provide our needs and develop in us a sense of urgency to reach Italians with the Good News.
- We are blessed with incredible supporters who give sacrificially, allowing us to continue to minister.

Thank you to all of your for making it happen!
And thank you most of all to our only God, to whom alone goes the glory forever. Amen.
Gratefully,
Jonathan, Melodee and Noah Whitman

Shipping to a location near you!

Dear Praying Friends,

Happy Thanksgiving!

We trust that you will be able to celebrate this holiday with family and friends.
Thanksgiving is the most American holiday in many ways.  Isn’t it sad that so many people in America will not even mention God as they celebrate it?

Our Thanksgiving will be celebrated with family right here in Perugia, Italy.  Unfortunately, we will have to celebrate it in the evening, because it is still a work day!

Thanksgiving 2011 also inaugurates the official beginning of a year of many travels, ending with Thanksgiving 2012 in the United States!  We call it the Thanksgiving Tour, because we see it as an opportunity to thank God for all He is doing in the ministry here, and to thank you for being a part of it!

Our tentative Furlough 2012 schedule is now online.  Thank you to all who have already contributed to filling our calendar.  We look forward to seeing as many of you, our faithful supporters, as possible while we are in America.  Click here to see our schedule.

In February we will be in Malta for Baptist Mid-Missions Europe’s Enrichment conference.

In December we will be in Florida to spend Christmas with Melodee’s parents, (thanks to their incredible generosity).  We will also be speaking at Grace Baptist Church, in LaBelle (FL).  If you are in the area and would like to hear us let us know and we can give you further details.

This Friday, the 25th of November we will be heading to Salamanca, Spain to minister in their missions conference!  This church is led by Pastor Kent Albright, fellow Baptist Mid-Missions missionary.  We even have the privilege of bringing one of our teens with us!

As you can imagine, we need your prayers.  Noah will have traveled more in his first two years of life than many people travel in a lifetime!  The thought of taking planes, trains, automobiles and even buses (sounds like a movie…) with a small child is enough to get us on our knees!

Please pray!

Thank you for all your love and support,
Jonathan, Melodee and Noah Whitman

Prayer Requests

1. Our trip to Spain this weekend. (11/25-11/29)
2. Preparations for the trip to Spain and for furlough presentations.
3. Housing and a vehicle for furlough.
4. Scheduling of meetings with supporting churches, individuals, potential supporters, other friends and family.
5. Handing off of ministry responsibilities during our absence.

Click on the image below to download the pdf (very legible and very printable version).

Whitmans Fall 2011 Prayer Letter

For a quick glimpse of Perugia, you will enjoy this article.  It will help you appreciate more the place where we serve.  Thanks to Diane Lytle, for pointing it out!

I’m not recommending that you do everything on the list (for one thing it would be extremely expensive), but I am excited to see that Perugia is getting some press apart from the Amanda Knox trial.

Three of the places are on our regular itinerary of culinary pleasure.  If you visited us you probably went there:

The Perugina chocolate factory, which is less than a block form our church,  eating Maria’s TORTA AL TESTO (also known as Faliero’s)  and the Cioccolateria, home made chocolate store.  They also have great gelato and hot chocolate.

One final note about how small the world is.  They talk about the castle of Monterone.  A few years ago for a friend of my Dad’s I  agreed to do the English voice on their video.

Luca

Tomorrow we will be having our first wedding in our new church.
The groom, Luca, grew up in our church and is one of my first “Timothys”.
Pray for the many unbelievers who will be attending their first evangelical wedding, will hear the gospel, will be strategically seated near Christians from our church who are committed to sharing Christ with them.

Second First

The last weekend in September we will be doing our first youth retreat, to prepare our youth to re-enter the daily routines of the school year.

Ken and Jinner

Pray for our guest speaker, Ken Rudolph and his wife Jinner, who will be communicating to the young people.

Pray for the development of the student ministry in our church.  We are starting to develop leaders from within the group.  As with all changes, there are a lot of growing pains with thus process.  Pray for wisdom and courage to do the right things regardless of how popular the decisions are.

Third First (It’s starting to sound like the name of a bank!)

The third first is from October 10th through the 14th. We will be serving in a national conference for church leaders, right here, in Perugia.

Lucio

Lucio will be one of the preachers, as well as Johnny Gravino, director of the Italian Theological Academy, along with main speakers Dr. John MacArthur and Jeff Williams, the Christian astronaut.  The theme is: Soli Deo Gloria.
We will also be in charge of the worship time and helping out in different areas, such as translation.

Please pray for the preparation and planning, as well as that the messages will touch many lives.

Pray that Christians can be united around the truth of God’s word and worship from their hearts.

Thank you for your prayers!  Jon and Melodee and Noah