Jonathan and Melodee Whitman

Even when the world is locked down, the Gospel is for children!

Posted on Saturday, March 20th, 2021 by Jonathan

I’m so happy you’re back! I’m glad we haven’t worn out our welcome yet!
We’re on week four of our seven-week adventure.
Today will be short, but especially sweet!

Even when the world is locked down, the Gospel is for everyone!
And for everyone, I am speaking particularly about children.
Today’s keyword is children.

but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 19:14

By far the greatest victim of the Covid-19 has been our children…

Imagine babies that are born in a world of faceless people.
Imagine children who can’t attend Sunday School.
Imagine children that can’t play on swings or play soccer, or run freely, or take ballet lessons or just hang out with their friends, or go to birthday parties.

That’s the world our children are living in.

Yet the Gospel is unchained…even for children.

We are saddened to not be able to offer our vacation Bible school for the second summer in a row, but we are thankful for the teachers who prepare lessons for the children every week.

On top of that, as a preacher I have enjoyed preaching to the children every week.

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11

Next week it looks like the elementary-aged children will be able to return to school…for how long we don’t know, but we know that they are in God’s hands, and they are loved, and the Gospel is alive.

Please pray for the children!

We look forward to seeing you next week!

Buffer

Facebook

Twitter

Posted in Coronavirus, Life in Italy, Missions | Leave a comment

Even when the world is locked down, the Gospel is ONLINE!

Posted on Sunday, March 14th, 2021 by Jonathan

Can you believe it’s already week three of our seven-week adventure together?
More and more I can’t wait to share with you one small nugget of what God has been doing.

So here goes: week three!

Even when the world is locked down, the Gospel is ONLINE!

Today’s keyword is Online.
Our ministry is no stranger to online.
You might say it’s in our DNA!

In 1976, when I was only a year old (I know…that dates me!!), my parents, with the help of their outstanding support team, had the vision of beginning a TV ministry: bringing the Gospel into Italian’s homes every day since then.

Then in 1982 the Radio arrived. That ministry continued until recently, when it could no longer compete in the era of on-demand programming and video.

But no worries! In the meantime we went online with our first website, followed by YouTube and Facebook channels!

We also gained Daniel, a technology genius, who then became director of the Radio, married my sister Elizabeth and now is a co-pastor and leader in the church and on our team!

Then Covid-19 arrived. God provided in the meantime our amazing pastoral intern Danilo, who also is versed in technology.

By the grace of God, with the vision of these two men, we were ready for the new challenge and the new opportunities it has brought.
Within a week of lockdown we were going live both on our YouTube channel and our Facebook page.

That brings us to this week…

Sunday afternoon I received a lovely message from my landlady, thanking me for my message. I didn’t even know she was following our service!

Monday I received another message, from the mother of one of our members, who is following from a city three hours away. She happened to be following my message online as she wrote me! She needed advice about a decision that she needed to make that affected her testimony.

Wednesday, as every week, our small groups, met all around the city through Zoom and other technology. We have a sister in faith who lives 40 minutes away, but because of lockdown she has joined our prayer group!

I’ve already mentioned how there are people in various isolated parts of Italy who attend our services virtually now, when before lockdown they had no way to attend anywhere. Some people have returned to church after years of not attending because they began following online.

I would say that makes for a pretty good week!
Praise God for technology, and why not…for this unwanted lockdown!

We look forward to seeing you next week!
Please pray for us!
As always, we love to hear from you, we love your feedback, and we love your questions!

Buffer

Facebook

Twitter

Posted in Life in Italy, Outreach | Leave a comment

Even when the world is locked down, the Gospel is preached.

Posted on Saturday, March 6th, 2021 by Jonathan

Last week I made a bold promise:
To celebrate Valentine’s month, rather than overwhelm you with so much that your heart will explode, for the next seven weeks we will attempt to only share one request a week and will keep it short and sweet.

So here goes: week two!

Even when the world is locked down, the Gospel is preached.
Today’s keyword is Preaching.
Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2
“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

As I write to you, I am thinking with joy and trepidation about the message for tomorrow. What a privilege to be able to share God’s Word to God’s hungry people!

preaching

I have been enjoying preaching verse by verse through Paul’s letter to the Romans. It certainly is a big responsibility and fairly time-consuming in study time, but it is also one of our greatest opportunities to edify Christ’s church in Perugia and around the world, as well as to preach the Gospel every week!

Our church family is blessed with a hunger to know and apply God’s truths and share it with those around them.

As you may already know, the ministry we are a part of has always had a strong preaching ministry. I thank God for the many years of faithful preaching by my father, Fred Whitman, both in the church and on television since 1978!

Many things have changed over the years, but not the commitment to preaching God’s word, verse by verse, week by week.

Even now, with the pandemic and lockdown, thanks to new and old technology, we are able to get that message out, and people all over the world continue to follow along.
With so many ministries shut down, including the children’s ministries, even our children are hearing the preaching. What a blessing to see them take notes in the front row!

Please pray that God will save souls and transform lives through His Word (Isaiah 55:11)!

We look forward to seeing you next week!

Buffer

Facebook

Twitter

Posted in Life in Italy | Tagged Preaching | Leave a comment

Even when the world is locked down, the Gospel is free.

Posted on Friday, February 26th, 2021 by Jonathan

It seems like yesterday that we were sharing the blessings of the end of 2020 (or maybe the blessing that 2020 ended!).

It was a challenging year, with one of our challenges presenting in being faithful in writing to keep you updated on the comings and goings of ministry. Then when you did receive news, it probably felt like drinking out of a fire hydrant! And here we are again…nearing the end of February and you are starting to ask yourself if we got lost or if for some reason all of our technology died at once.

We are deeply sorry for failing you in this way.So here is my prayer and my promise to you: because what God is doing in Italy is so important, by the grace of God we will provide you every month with at least one e-mail update and will continue to post requests on Facebook and Twitter as they arise.

Just as Luther would spend an extra hour in prayer on his busiest days, we must persevere in helping you pray for us in our busiest seasons!

To celebrate Valentine’s month (belatedly as well), rather than overwhelm you with so much that your heart will explode, for the next seven weeks we will only share one request a week and will keep it short and sweet (after today, of course).

So here goes…

Today’s keyword, as you can imagine from the subject, is: LOCKDOWN.

I am sure some people felt underwhelmed with activity and joined new online clubs and started new hobbies during Covid-19. That has not been our case, because the Gospel is not locked down! It is still moving at an incredible rate! Paul said: The Gospel is not chained! (2 Timothy 2:9)

The Gospel is not locked down, but Umbria is.

Umbria has now been on almost total lockdown for three weeks. The children have been doing school online for three weeks. Unlike parents who homeschool (bless you), we don’t get to decide the amount of homework. Somehow Italians think more homework is better to keep the kids out of mischief. So we oversee school… all day, every day. Extra homework on the weekend as a bonus!

So we need your prayers. The Gospel must go forth!
Lockdown or no lockdown!

Our church meetings are not locked down, but we do have limits on how many people can attend.
Right before lockdown one of the parents at school asked me about our church. I tried to explain to him where it was. I told him: “If you want, I can give you a tour sometime!” He looked puzzled…
“We would love to come to a church service with you”! His answer took me by surprise! I guess I need to expect more from God!

Pray for this family to be able to come to church with us!! Pray for sanity and for the Gospel to go out.

We look forward to seeing you next week!

Buffer

Facebook

Twitter

Posted in Coronavirus, Monthly E-letter | Leave a comment

Grateful

Posted on Thursday, December 31st, 2020 by Jonathan

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Whitmans!

We are grateful to God and for you and we pray that God will continue to use us together for His glory in 2021!

[4] Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
[5] For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
Psalm 30:4–5
(ESV)

Buffer

Facebook

Twitter