Jonathan, son of Fred and Rachel Whitman, grew up as a missionary kid with Baptist Mid-Missions in Perugia, Italy. Melodee grew up as a pastor’s kid throughout the Midwest and Pennsylvania.
In 2006, Jonathan and Melodee arrived in Italy for their first term. Their burning desire is to see young Christians blossom in their Christian life and unbelievers come to faith in a region where there is one church for more than 60,000 people! For centuries the Church of Rome repressed any religious freedom, forbidding the Italian people to propagate, own, or read the Bible or to oppose the Church’s erroneous teachings.
Sadly, Italy is still known today as the graveyard of missionaries. In fact, 90 percent of missionaries leave Italy before the end of their first term of service. Because of this disturbing pattern, Jonathan and Melodee are focusing their attention on the people who will carry the greatest responsibility in reaching Italy until the return of Christ—the Italians themselves!
Their vision is to creatively help Italians reach their own people by training them and serving alongside them in evangelism, discipleship, worship, biblical counseling, and radio ministry. They are particularly burdened to help Italians in the formative high school, college, and young adult stages to capture the vision for local and global ministry.
In recent years the church has seen exponential growth in this area. Jonathan and Melodee look forward to the future as they see these young people become leaders in the church of tomorrow!