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

Jon and Noah

Dear Prayer Warriors,
Sometimes the busier you are, the more prayer you need.
This month I have had to preach, teach Sunday School, teach and lead the youth, lead the worship, lead wednesday night prayer, meet for discipleship with several men of the church. I have been to one funeral, spoken to people individually and collectively about their need for salvation, led a music songbook project, begun planning three choir events, helped a couple plan their wedding and had several great friends as guests.

I also have tried to make time for my lovely wife and son.

We are grateful for all that God has been doing in the ministry, though we certainly could use a break!

Other than the things mentioned above, here are a few things we desperately need prayer for:

1. This weekend I will be preaching and leading worship.  I have not written my outline yet, but felt the need to ask for your prayers first!
2. Tonight we are leading our youth in the initial phases of preparation for our annual youth conference.
3. In October I will be leading worship for a national conference of church leaders for the first time.
4. After that we will begin preparations for our Christmas choir outreach.
5. Pray for Melodee as she tries to juggle taking care of Noah and being involved in the many ministries she is in.  She has not been able to play in our worship team for a few months now and we desperately miss her!
6. Pray for wisdom in juggling everything and prioritizing.
7. Pray for our furlough preparation.  We will need to visit many supporting churches next late spring and early summer.  With all that has been going on we have not been able to work on that at all.

Thank you for taking time to pray for these needs.  We are not trying to boast about all we are doing.  We know that busyness is not the same as effectiveness.  But we are very privileged to serve here and be able to invest in so many people’s lives.

The Whitmans in Umbria

Perugia

Yesterday I went with Lucio to the public silent auction decreed by the city of Perugia where several plots of land were being sold to the highest bidder, including plot number 14, which happens to be across the street from our church building.

Of course neither of us felt particularly comfortable, since we had never done anything like that before, and we realized what a critical step it was for the life of  the church.

It reminded a bit of high school exams in Italy…the commission on one side of the able, chatting away, not particularly concerned by the passing of time, while the people on the other side (us) were quite nervous about the outcome.

In the meantime, back at the church, the team from Summit Baptist Bible Church was praying.

At first they told us that we were the only ones bidding on the land, even though we had been told differently.  As a church Sunday we decided to offer as high a bid as we could afford, which was a significant amount, though quite lower than the value of the land.  The agreement on the amount was unanimous, for which we were praising God.  But we wondered why God would allow us to bid so much money if we were the only ones bidding for the land.

When they brought up our lot instead there were was one other bidder.  When the first bid was read, we sat back in amazement, as we had outbid them only by a 1,400 euro!  Only God could have orchestrated this outcome, and we realize how critical the prayers of God’s people in Perugia and around the world were to the result.  When we announced the good news in church last night people roared with applause and praise to God!

Now there is only one step left that would assure us this property.  The Archeology department will have to make sure that there are no buried Etruscans beneath the land. Pray that we can soon own the land and that there are no ruins of historical value under the surface.  More likely, they will find buried cars, since there are several mechanics in the area.

Once again we are humbled by God’s grace and mercy.  Once again we are reminded that the Centro Evangelico Battista is God’s vision, not ours.  We are reminded of what Jesus said: “apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5).

Thank you for being a part of this vision through your prayers and giving.  Pray that we can utilize this gift in ways that will further God’s vision and honor Him.

Logos goes Catholic for a day | The Cripplegate.

Is it that hard for Evangelicals in America to understand the difference?