Jonathan and Melodee Whitman

A glimpse at missions in Italy in a peculiar time of the year

August in Italy is different…

Historically, many cities in the industrial north have shut down completely, as the factories are often shut down.  It is nearly impossible to get work done on your car (I’ve been waiting since July to get a simple oil change on my car), construction sites, including road work come to a screeching halt, leaving huge trenches and unfinished roads, and even churches empty out!

It’s pointless to do Sunday School in August because there are barely any kids and barely any teachers!

You can see why it was the perfect moment for our family to go on vacation for a few days (unless you go to the beach because that is where everyone else has gone!).

We decided to take a few days off as a family and went to the famous region of Piemonte (Piedmont) and its capital, Torino (Turin).

Historically known as the car industry capital of Italy, we found out that it pretty much empties out in August!

• When we communicated to friends that we would be visiting their church they asked me to preach because they and the other elders were out of town!
• When we arrived in Turin, all the friends we contacted were also planning on being out of town!  But it had its benefits…

We enjoyed driving through town with little or no traffic, visiting museums, attending a cheap soccer friendy and even finding free parking!

I had to pinch myself!  Where were we??

But alas, vacations are over, at least for us, and it’s back to work!

This morning at an ungodly hour I took Melodee to the Rome Airport.  Melodee will be helping her mom for the next couple weeks as she recovers from back surgery.

We are sure that she will be a great blessing to her parents, and her sister and family.

In the meantime, back at the ranch…
Here are a few important prayer requests:

1. Pray for Melodee as she travels and as she helps her mom and Dad out.  It will make for a couple interesting weeks for our family!
2. Sunday I get back into preaching aftwer two weeks…the parable of the sower in Matthew 13.
3. Noah and Eva will be getting prepared for school, that will start back up in mid September.
4. In mid September I will also begin playing in a few band concerts, my greatest outreach opportunity.
5. Daniel and Elizabeth will also be returning to the field next week.  That’s always a big transition.
6. Pray that we can be always more effective in equipping leaders and shepherding the people under our care.
7. Pray that people will not go on vacation spiritually and that we can make good plans for the fall.
8. Pray for good health, both physically and spiritually for all of us.
9. Pray that God will always be first in our lives.
10. I almost forgot…pray for preparations for our next modules of seminary lessons in September. My friend Tom and I will be teaching Survey of Paul’s Prison and Pastoral epistles, as well as History of the Catholic Church.

I know…that’s a lot of prayer requests…but you can handle it!

Thank you for being God’s instrument!

One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from a Missions book, and incidentally it has everything to do with worship.

In his book “Let the nations be glad”, John Piper famously said: “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”

What an amazing statement!

If you’ve known me for more than five seconds, you are aware of my particular passion for seeing people worship God wholeheartedly… ”because His love endures forever!!” (Ps,. 118)

My college major was Music and Worship, one of my favorite teachers in seminary made me worship in every lesson through theology, and I still very much enjoy leading and teaching in the area of worship.

As John Piper pointed out, even the ultimate goal of evangelism and missions is to bring people to see, know, and worship God!

So let me get right to my point, and the reason I need your prayers right now:

I sense that we are in a spiritual war right now, and I need your prayers today, and possibly for the next month:

1. In 21 days, Lord willing, I will teach a group of 15 students at the Seminario Biblico Umbro (Umbrian Biblical Seminary) on worship.  Last month I taught them on Philosophy of Corporate Worship, and this time it will be on how to plan a corporate worship.  God has already blessed us richly.
2. In 24 days, Lord willing, we will be heading to Cyprus, where we will have the privilege of leading corporate worship times at Baptist Mid-Missions’ Pause Conference, where many missionaries will gather from Europe and even parts of Africa.
3. In 8 days, Lord willing, I will be back in the pulpit to continue my preaching from Matthew 10.

I will give you more specific prayer requests below, but I just sense the spiritual battle around us and even in us as we strive to serve and equip God’s servants and Christ’s church here and around the world.

Will you pray with us?

May God give you a most worship day, because “His love endures forever!”