Dave
Hello, Im Dave Walston, the worship leader at CCLM. Lets see, personal details are:
Born and raised here in Southern California, lived most of my life in north Orange county. I was adopted and I have 2 younger sisters in my adoptive family, and three brothers, 1 sister in my birth family. I have been married to Shelly since 1983. We have 2 adult kids: Nate, 25 at this moment, and Sam, 22. I am half Italian from my birth mother’s side. Her father came from western Sicily, close to Trapani.
I was raised in my adoptive family as a Christian, and actually took it as my own when I was 16. Got serious about following the Lord when I was 19. Got married at 20 and then moved up to Monrovia, to work with a youth group there. Did that for 5 years, then moved down to Whittier. That is where I found Calvary Chapel La Mirada. Went there for a year then, Shelly and I divorced. The Lord brought us BACK together and we have been remarried for a bunch of years now, 23+ as I write this. After getting remarried, I began to get complacent following the Lord and drifted away. We were still attending church out of a sense of guilt/duty/whatever, but without any real conviction. The Lord then hit me over the head with some family problems and I came back. Have since walked with the Lord continually. God is gracious, merciful, tender, patient, longsuffering, and more with me. I do not deserve His kindness on my life, but I am thankful for it. I almost by accident found my birth family around 15 years ago, and have a relationship with my mom and siblings. My real dad died a few years ago. It was through them that I found out I had family still in Sicily.
So in 1995, we went to Sicily to meet them. I have one uncle and 2 cousins that live in Milano as well. We went back in 2000 with my grandmother, who had not been back since grandpa died, and my mother, who had never been to Italy. We also went last year after we were in Austria to do worship for a church retreat from Herrborn, Germany. It was last year when the idea of living there began to appeal to me.
After being home for a few weeks, I had a sense that maybe we were being called there. My wife had been saying she could work in Italy since she visited Milan, 11 years ago, so I told to see if that was actually possible or just a dream. I then asked my friend Ronnie to pray about this, because I knew he had a call to go to Europe. I thought he felt called to go to Germany, so I had no idea of him going with, I just figured that since he had the same sense, maybe we could pray together. I had no idea what to do, or how to do it. I thought that if we were going to Milan, I would have to either start the church myself or join with some other work God was doing. When I told Ronnie what was up, he was excited since he had been asking God to speak to my heart about this very thing. My wanting to go was his confirmation on us going together.
So we approached our senior pastor, Bryan Parish, and he has given his blessing. Now we are in process of gathering everything we need to go to Milan. The basic needs are: Dual US/Italian citizenship for me and my wife. I am eligible for Italian citizenship by blood. My wife is eligible through me. This will allow us to work and live in Italy without restrictions.
Shellys job to be transferred to Milan. My work as a freelance artist to increase and be able to transfer as well. Ronnie and Kristi need to get some sort of visa that will allow them to stay in Italy. There is no good option right now. So this is a door that God will have to open if we are to get there.
In fact the entire process is closed to us at this moment as things stand. The ONLY way we can get there is if God actually opens all these doors: citizenship, job transfers, visas, financial support.