Who We Are
We are Verita di Grazia Ministries started by the Walti family (Lee, Jeannette, Bethany, Hannah, Jacob, Elijah and Abby) and we are enjoying serving God by reaching Italians for Christ here in Chiavari, Italy. We are doing this primarily through relationship evangelism and discipleship though we use a variety of means to attract those who don't yet know Jesus to Himself. We are also served by an evangelical community that, by God's grace, He has allowed us to plant here in Chiavari, Italy. As well, we are accountable to a local church body in America (below).
Our story...
We arrived in Italy in September 2008. After two years of learning the language and adjusting to the culture in Udine, Italy, the original plan was for us in our third year, to go and found a church in Bologna. After much consideration and research, it was clear that Bologna was not where God was calling us...partly because of health issues (Lee has severe asthma issues which are exacerbated by cold weather) but also partly due to the enormous number of churches and ministries already in Bologna compared to thousands of cities, towns and villages with no church (out of 43,500 cities, towns and villages in Italy, 42,000 have no evangelical church or witness whatsoever). Due to this as well as desiring a future committed to the doctrines of grace, we joined the association, Italian Ministries USA, the American arm of Italian Ministries in Italy.
Shortly thereafter, Jonathan Gilmore, the director of our association here in Italy, sent out a country-wide email indicating our availability for service. Many responded positively and even believed we were the answer to their prayers. We had a wonderful time meeting many of our sweet brothers and sisters in Christ, serving the evangelical Church all over Italy. God truly blessed us through these experiences and relationships and helps us to grow in our understanding of the Italian Evangelical Church. Each one of the opportunities were positive and each indicated an interest in us coming. However, as might be imagined, each of these church or ministry situations had their own list of problems and issues and needs. As we began to evaluate these challenges, it became apparent it would be at least 3-4 years before we might have influence in these areas and effect change. We were starting to understand why Paul said he would never build upon another man's work (Romans 15:20).
Just as we were beginning to give up hope on the possibility of going with others, a good brother, Franceso Arco, in Genova, who we had begun to develop a friendship with (highly recommended by Jonathan), indicated to us that there were little to no churches in the Liguria region, south of Genova. He also was considering a change from his current ministry. So Francesco and his wife, Claudia, invited us to come visit and explore with them the possibility of even starting a church together in the Liguria area. The possibility of working with this wonderful couple and Francesco being a true Italian was a blessing. The other positive aspect of this opportunity was the proximity to the Ligurian sea, which has been famous for helping those like Lee who have problems with asthma.
After visiting many of the cities in the area with Franceso and Claudia, we began to narrow the choice down to three possibilities: Rapallo, Chiavari and Sestri Levanti. Shortly afterwards, we discovered there was at least one strong church in Rapallo and so we narrowed our choice to Chiavari and Sestri Levanti. We really liked Sestri Levanti (a beautiful city) but we realized that it was more of a tourist and beach town and in the winter, becomes almost like a ghost town. As well, we were also searching for a high school with an artistic focus/emphasis for Jacob (very talented) and in all of Liguria south of Genova, there was only one: Chiavari. Lastly, Francesco, after doing some research himself, he could find no evangelical churches in Chiavari (later, after moving, we discovered that there are two very small, 30 member churches in the city, both with problematic theology). We began to pray in earnest if this was where God might want us to go and begin a church with the Arco's. It seemed like everything we were hoping for (a small but vibrant city - 32,000 people, almost no evangelical presence, close to a university (Genova is 20 minutes away), good for Lee's health, and a school for Jacob to continue his excellent work as a young artist. Even Jonathan, the director of our association, Italian Ministries, was completely supportive.
Near about this time, we attended the Italian Ministries Mission Congresso in September 2010, to connect with other Italian Christians as well as put into place our last few steps for moving forward with the Arco's (also Italian Ministries associates) utilizing Jonathan's help. Upon arriving, to our dismay, we found out the ministry situation with the Arco's had changed. Instead of being kept on the outside (as Italians), they were being invited, as the first Italians ever, into this American-based ministry squad in Genoa as equals. This changed everything for the Arco's but it especially changed everything for us. They had decided to stay with their current ministry. Now, we were on our own and we had to make a big choice. We had already tried twice before to go, each time with another couple, to plant a church and for one reason or another, it didn't work out. We had begun to learn the hard way, that many want to help once you've started the church but very few want to help start it! We were in a hard spot. After 7 months of praying and searching, we had to make a decision...stay in Udine (a city with many churches relatively speaking) and hope for something to pop up or go for it in a new city, which would also be better for Lee's health. After more prayer and meetings and reasoning through the options with Jonathan, we were counseled to go for it... we had two weeks to find a place, move in and get the kids enrolled in school. Talk about an adventure!
Fast forward to Now...
Well, here we have now been here for nearly eight years (ten years in Italy) and we cannot believe all that God has done. And since those early days, God has done wonderful things. We have an "Incontro" on Sunday nights with about 18-27 people attending regularly. We have a youth group of about 12-14 kids called "Febbre di Venerdì Sera" (Friday Night Fever). And we have started an annual sports camp called KidzGames which was attended by 160 kids last summer (2018), our fourth year running. We also had our ESL Bible Camp for kids with 60 attending this year. We recently held our first marriage conference in partnership with Agape, the Italian arm of FamilyLife, a division of Cru, with whom we were on staff for 17 years. We also do many other evangelism events on a regular basis to reach the community, including our Thanksgiving Dinners and Easter Banquets. We have held ESL courses averaging 140 people each semester (with many of our contacts and new/potential believers coming from this pool), though lately, we have begun to hold smaller classes to focus better on developing deeper relationships. And we are still just beginning, by God's grace, to get started!! Over the years, we have seen 8 new believers be baptized, most of them be discipled, and most of them are now serving in ours or another evangelical community.
But none of this is about us. This is all about the most high God. We are only servants and He actually could use anyone He wants. God says in His Word, "He uses the foolish things to confound the wise" and we are fools, by the world's estimation. But we are passionate! Though God doesn't need us and we don't deserve anything, because of all He has done for us on the cross, our hearts' desires are to be 'recklessly abandoned' to Jesus Christ.
Tim Keller says, "The joyful effects of the gospel is that our own lives must give us an enormous energy for witness. How can we keep quiet about such a great wonder? If that energy is not there, we must repent and seek God until it flows." By relying on Jesus for our very hope in this life, glorifying God by loving others sacrificially and committing ourselves to throw aside the ways of this world that hold us back from being fully committed to Him and to His will, we can -- by His grace -- be recklessly abandoned to the Savior.
Though we fall short of this every day, our prayer is that God will, by His grace, glorify Himself through our lives. We long to be totally and recklessly abandoned to Him and to His Gospel!
This website is always "in process" so if you would like to learn more about our ministry, you may to go the Walti Blog website at www.WaltiWorld.blogspot.com or watch the video for our ministry at www.BringingTheGospelToItalians.com. You may also contact us via email at [email protected], find us on Facebook under our names (Lee Walti, Jeannette Walti and Verità di Grazia Ministries or even visit us on Twitter at Verità di Grazia.
If you would like to get an idea of the kind of ministry or gospel community, by God's grace, we are trying to build, we invite you to watch this wonderful video which we believe provides a timely answer to today's need for the Church: This is Discipleship (Il video che descrive il bisogno della Chiesa forte in Italiano: Questo è Discepolato).
We are accountable to...
The elders and church to which we have chosen to make ourselves accountable to in the states are the CrossPointe Church in Arnold, Maryland (very close to Annapolis), and Pastor Ed O'Mara and his elders. CrossPointe, Pastor Ed and elders and the church share our passion for reaching Italy with the gospel, a theological perspective which balances both the Spirit and the Truth of God's Word, and several of the elders and members are even Italian-American. If you live near CrossPointe or are in the area on a Sunday, we welcome you to visit and enjoy the love, grace, joy, kindness, humility and servant-hearted leadership which we have experienced from CrossPointe Church. You can find the church here: CrossPointemd.org/
Ways to Give...
We also so appreciate it if you are interested in being a part of our ministry through your tax-deductible gifts. If you would like to give to our ministry, there are three ways to give:
1) Website for giving online to us through IM USA, an association of missionaries, churches and ministries in Italy:
http://italianministriesusa.org/project/walti-lee-jeannette/
Please make sure to choose our names, Lee & Jeannette Walti, from the drop-down box and then also, note that there are options to make your gift monthly a bit larger as well if you’d like, so as to ensure we receive the full intended amount without being charged fees**.
2) You can give to us through snail mail with a check. These are handled and written to National Christian Foundation, c/o IM USA FUND #2718960 and then mailed to:
NCF
11625 Rainwater Dr., Suite 500,
Alpharetta, GA 30009
ALSO: The memo section on the check MUST include:
Italian Ministries single charity fund #2718960
Beneficiary: Lee & Jeannette Walti.
Thank you for your willingness to support our ministry! With any of the ways above, you will receive a receipt that you may use to indicate a non-profit charitable donation when you itemize your taxes. God bless you!
3) Finally, you can also give with a check written to Verità di Grazia, our non-profit ministry in America, which also has a 501(c)(3) non-profit status so gifts can be deducted on your itemized taxes:
Verità di Grazia Ministries
Attn: Judi for Lee & Jeannette Walti
1903 Enterprise Lane
Titusville, Florida 32796
** The online company that handles online donations for IMUSA (option #2) will take out 3% in addition to the 2% IM USA receives (so a total of 5%) but the site allows you to add in an amount to compensate for this.
Thank you for your willingness to consider helping us as we seek to reach Italians with the gospel of grace in a land where less than 1% of people are Christians. You will receive a tax-deductible receipt for your gift for those of you who have itemized deductions.
Our story...
We arrived in Italy in September 2008. After two years of learning the language and adjusting to the culture in Udine, Italy, the original plan was for us in our third year, to go and found a church in Bologna. After much consideration and research, it was clear that Bologna was not where God was calling us...partly because of health issues (Lee has severe asthma issues which are exacerbated by cold weather) but also partly due to the enormous number of churches and ministries already in Bologna compared to thousands of cities, towns and villages with no church (out of 43,500 cities, towns and villages in Italy, 42,000 have no evangelical church or witness whatsoever). Due to this as well as desiring a future committed to the doctrines of grace, we joined the association, Italian Ministries USA, the American arm of Italian Ministries in Italy.
Shortly thereafter, Jonathan Gilmore, the director of our association here in Italy, sent out a country-wide email indicating our availability for service. Many responded positively and even believed we were the answer to their prayers. We had a wonderful time meeting many of our sweet brothers and sisters in Christ, serving the evangelical Church all over Italy. God truly blessed us through these experiences and relationships and helps us to grow in our understanding of the Italian Evangelical Church. Each one of the opportunities were positive and each indicated an interest in us coming. However, as might be imagined, each of these church or ministry situations had their own list of problems and issues and needs. As we began to evaluate these challenges, it became apparent it would be at least 3-4 years before we might have influence in these areas and effect change. We were starting to understand why Paul said he would never build upon another man's work (Romans 15:20).
Just as we were beginning to give up hope on the possibility of going with others, a good brother, Franceso Arco, in Genova, who we had begun to develop a friendship with (highly recommended by Jonathan), indicated to us that there were little to no churches in the Liguria region, south of Genova. He also was considering a change from his current ministry. So Francesco and his wife, Claudia, invited us to come visit and explore with them the possibility of even starting a church together in the Liguria area. The possibility of working with this wonderful couple and Francesco being a true Italian was a blessing. The other positive aspect of this opportunity was the proximity to the Ligurian sea, which has been famous for helping those like Lee who have problems with asthma.
After visiting many of the cities in the area with Franceso and Claudia, we began to narrow the choice down to three possibilities: Rapallo, Chiavari and Sestri Levanti. Shortly afterwards, we discovered there was at least one strong church in Rapallo and so we narrowed our choice to Chiavari and Sestri Levanti. We really liked Sestri Levanti (a beautiful city) but we realized that it was more of a tourist and beach town and in the winter, becomes almost like a ghost town. As well, we were also searching for a high school with an artistic focus/emphasis for Jacob (very talented) and in all of Liguria south of Genova, there was only one: Chiavari. Lastly, Francesco, after doing some research himself, he could find no evangelical churches in Chiavari (later, after moving, we discovered that there are two very small, 30 member churches in the city, both with problematic theology). We began to pray in earnest if this was where God might want us to go and begin a church with the Arco's. It seemed like everything we were hoping for (a small but vibrant city - 32,000 people, almost no evangelical presence, close to a university (Genova is 20 minutes away), good for Lee's health, and a school for Jacob to continue his excellent work as a young artist. Even Jonathan, the director of our association, Italian Ministries, was completely supportive.
Near about this time, we attended the Italian Ministries Mission Congresso in September 2010, to connect with other Italian Christians as well as put into place our last few steps for moving forward with the Arco's (also Italian Ministries associates) utilizing Jonathan's help. Upon arriving, to our dismay, we found out the ministry situation with the Arco's had changed. Instead of being kept on the outside (as Italians), they were being invited, as the first Italians ever, into this American-based ministry squad in Genoa as equals. This changed everything for the Arco's but it especially changed everything for us. They had decided to stay with their current ministry. Now, we were on our own and we had to make a big choice. We had already tried twice before to go, each time with another couple, to plant a church and for one reason or another, it didn't work out. We had begun to learn the hard way, that many want to help once you've started the church but very few want to help start it! We were in a hard spot. After 7 months of praying and searching, we had to make a decision...stay in Udine (a city with many churches relatively speaking) and hope for something to pop up or go for it in a new city, which would also be better for Lee's health. After more prayer and meetings and reasoning through the options with Jonathan, we were counseled to go for it... we had two weeks to find a place, move in and get the kids enrolled in school. Talk about an adventure!
Fast forward to Now...
Well, here we have now been here for nearly eight years (ten years in Italy) and we cannot believe all that God has done. And since those early days, God has done wonderful things. We have an "Incontro" on Sunday nights with about 18-27 people attending regularly. We have a youth group of about 12-14 kids called "Febbre di Venerdì Sera" (Friday Night Fever). And we have started an annual sports camp called KidzGames which was attended by 160 kids last summer (2018), our fourth year running. We also had our ESL Bible Camp for kids with 60 attending this year. We recently held our first marriage conference in partnership with Agape, the Italian arm of FamilyLife, a division of Cru, with whom we were on staff for 17 years. We also do many other evangelism events on a regular basis to reach the community, including our Thanksgiving Dinners and Easter Banquets. We have held ESL courses averaging 140 people each semester (with many of our contacts and new/potential believers coming from this pool), though lately, we have begun to hold smaller classes to focus better on developing deeper relationships. And we are still just beginning, by God's grace, to get started!! Over the years, we have seen 8 new believers be baptized, most of them be discipled, and most of them are now serving in ours or another evangelical community.
But none of this is about us. This is all about the most high God. We are only servants and He actually could use anyone He wants. God says in His Word, "He uses the foolish things to confound the wise" and we are fools, by the world's estimation. But we are passionate! Though God doesn't need us and we don't deserve anything, because of all He has done for us on the cross, our hearts' desires are to be 'recklessly abandoned' to Jesus Christ.
Tim Keller says, "The joyful effects of the gospel is that our own lives must give us an enormous energy for witness. How can we keep quiet about such a great wonder? If that energy is not there, we must repent and seek God until it flows." By relying on Jesus for our very hope in this life, glorifying God by loving others sacrificially and committing ourselves to throw aside the ways of this world that hold us back from being fully committed to Him and to His will, we can -- by His grace -- be recklessly abandoned to the Savior.
Though we fall short of this every day, our prayer is that God will, by His grace, glorify Himself through our lives. We long to be totally and recklessly abandoned to Him and to His Gospel!
This website is always "in process" so if you would like to learn more about our ministry, you may to go the Walti Blog website at www.WaltiWorld.blogspot.com or watch the video for our ministry at www.BringingTheGospelToItalians.com. You may also contact us via email at [email protected], find us on Facebook under our names (Lee Walti, Jeannette Walti and Verità di Grazia Ministries or even visit us on Twitter at Verità di Grazia.
If you would like to get an idea of the kind of ministry or gospel community, by God's grace, we are trying to build, we invite you to watch this wonderful video which we believe provides a timely answer to today's need for the Church: This is Discipleship (Il video che descrive il bisogno della Chiesa forte in Italiano: Questo è Discepolato).
We are accountable to...
The elders and church to which we have chosen to make ourselves accountable to in the states are the CrossPointe Church in Arnold, Maryland (very close to Annapolis), and Pastor Ed O'Mara and his elders. CrossPointe, Pastor Ed and elders and the church share our passion for reaching Italy with the gospel, a theological perspective which balances both the Spirit and the Truth of God's Word, and several of the elders and members are even Italian-American. If you live near CrossPointe or are in the area on a Sunday, we welcome you to visit and enjoy the love, grace, joy, kindness, humility and servant-hearted leadership which we have experienced from CrossPointe Church. You can find the church here: CrossPointemd.org/
Ways to Give...
We also so appreciate it if you are interested in being a part of our ministry through your tax-deductible gifts. If you would like to give to our ministry, there are three ways to give:
1) Website for giving online to us through IM USA, an association of missionaries, churches and ministries in Italy:
http://italianministriesusa.org/project/walti-lee-jeannette/
Please make sure to choose our names, Lee & Jeannette Walti, from the drop-down box and then also, note that there are options to make your gift monthly a bit larger as well if you’d like, so as to ensure we receive the full intended amount without being charged fees**.
2) You can give to us through snail mail with a check. These are handled and written to National Christian Foundation, c/o IM USA FUND #2718960 and then mailed to:
NCF
11625 Rainwater Dr., Suite 500,
Alpharetta, GA 30009
ALSO: The memo section on the check MUST include:
Italian Ministries single charity fund #2718960
Beneficiary: Lee & Jeannette Walti.
Thank you for your willingness to support our ministry! With any of the ways above, you will receive a receipt that you may use to indicate a non-profit charitable donation when you itemize your taxes. God bless you!
3) Finally, you can also give with a check written to Verità di Grazia, our non-profit ministry in America, which also has a 501(c)(3) non-profit status so gifts can be deducted on your itemized taxes:
Verità di Grazia Ministries
Attn: Judi for Lee & Jeannette Walti
1903 Enterprise Lane
Titusville, Florida 32796
** The online company that handles online donations for IMUSA (option #2) will take out 3% in addition to the 2% IM USA receives (so a total of 5%) but the site allows you to add in an amount to compensate for this.
Thank you for your willingness to consider helping us as we seek to reach Italians with the gospel of grace in a land where less than 1% of people are Christians. You will receive a tax-deductible receipt for your gift for those of you who have itemized deductions.