Jonathan and Melodee Whitman

At the risk of overwhelming your inbox, I just wanted to let you know that Melodee got back her background check from Pennsylvania, so today she is headed to Harrisburg to get it legalized (Apostille).

That means that we are a quarter of the way there, and hopefully soon we will be at half!

Please pray for:

1. Success and protection on her trip to Pennsylvania.
2. That her Michigan background check would arrive soon.
3. That she can get that one legalized too and be able to depart American on the 19th as scheduled!

Thank you for praying!

In other news…

My translation of The Valley of Vision is ready to print!

At the moment, they are raising the funds to be able to print it.

As you can imagine, Christian publishing in Italy is very much a mission!

If you would like to donate to the cause, you can do it by donating to Coram Deo Ministries (Fund #4600) here, and letting them know that you would like to donate for the Valley of Vision in Italian project.

Do you have a countdown app on your phone?  I have at least two!

One specifically for Christmas, and another one for everything else (and Christmas!).

I have two countdowns that are particularly on my heart right now, and prayers.

Most urgently, I need to finish tomorrow’s sermon.

This is my weekly countdown. Tomorrow, Lord willing, I will be preaching from  Matthew 4:12-17.  I admire you pastors that get your sermons prepared weeks in advance!  I’m still tweaking until Sunday morning at 8, when I am doing well.

More importantly, we are counting down to Melodee’s return.

Her return ticket is for December 19th, which is only 12 days away.

Unfortunately, all we can do is wait and pray that her background checks from Michigan and Pennsylvania arrive in the mail so that she can then turn around and get the apostilles done.

Please pray!

1. Pray that the documents arrive.
2. Pray that she can get them legalized (“apostilled”) in time.
3. Pray for discernment if we need to extend her stay.
4. Pray that she can be home for Christmas.

We are doing ok.  We have our moments.

My parents have been a great blessing, feeding us lunch almost every day.

We have friends who have also brought us meals too.

I am trying to not neglect my ministry and my parental duties.

The kids have tried to keep busy with their school work.

But it’s hard.  Maybe you are one of those who have been there.

We tried to listen to the song “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” yesterday, but it did not go well.

Thank you for supporting us in this challenging Christmas season through your prayers.

Thank you for praying for Melodee’s Italian citizenship process.

We feel very loved and prayed for at this moment. ❤️

The good news is that Melodee does not have to go to Minnesota. (She hasn’t lived there since she was a baby)!

But she does have to go to Michigan and Pennsylvania to get background checks (plus apostilles). And it has to happen fast, before her FBI background check and birth certificate apostilles expire in January.

The other good and bad news is that she leaves tomorrow.

I’m excited that she will be with her family over Thanksgiving, but we are praying that she can get everything done in time to return home for Christmas! Eva in particular is struggling with the idea of missing her mommy.

We realize that we are asking for a small miracle, considering the holiday season upon us. That’s where you enter in!

There are so many things I could add to the prayer request list, but I am sure you can imagine the domino effect of being gone from us for a whole month (if she gets the paperwork done in time.)

What more can I say? Thank you for caring! And especially, thank you for praying! God is good.

PS.

Special thanks to Daniel Ransom and my neice Sara, who are also heading out for Thanksgiving with family tomorrow morning, so Melodee can get a ride with them to the airport!

And for my BFF Shawn Gurk who suggested that “Background Check” sounded much better than “Criminal Record”!

A couple weeks ago a little bird flew into our window.  We didn’t know what to do.

Was it alive? Dead? Did it need first aid? Mouth to mouth?

Gradually it came back to its senses and  flew off as if nothing had happened.

Today we feel a bit like that little bird. Although we are still in the “stun” phase.

And more than a window it feels like a big wall!

Since this summer we have been working (and you have been praying) as we gathered all the documentation that we needed to request Italian citizenship for Melodee.  It’s kind of like life insurance for missionaries: if something were to happen to me, she would have to leave the country without it.

Melodee is the only one in our family that does not have Italian citizenship!

We even hired a lawyer to get it right.

Yesterday, after getting everything in order, we sent in the request, at the lawyer’s office.

And today we  received news that Melodee’s Italian citizenship request was flatly denied on the grounds that we did not have state criminal records to go along with her federal criminal records.   Unless something drastic happens, all the money and time will have been for nothing, especially considering all the expirations dates on many documents

The lawyer said she would go speak with the office where the decision was made to see if something can be done..

Now what? Only God knows!  It’s not quite like in 2006, when Melodee got kicked out of the country…but the feelings are similar.

Would you pray?

• Pray for deliverance.
• Pray for wisdom.
• Pray for peace.

Proverbs 21:1 says: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.”

May God’s will be done in our lives and His name be glorified through it all!!