Hollywood screenwriters would swoon over a love story like Matteo and Althea’s. Picture the movie trailer that introduces us to them: Matteo, a hard-working and kindhearted man who has come to live and work on an unfamiliar island; Althea, a young schoolteacher, looking for adventure and a way to provide for her siblings and extended family. Matteo sees her and is smitten; Althea is shy and not so sure this older gentleman is the man for her…
The film would be a blockbuster for sure. In reality, this sweet couple lives a simple life of love, family, and dedication to the Lord’s work. Their adoration for one another is evident to all those around them, but their commitment to the Lord is even greater.
The Great Imbalance
For Matteo, the call to missions came after a difficult childhood and coming to know the Lord as Savior in his youth. Matteo grew up on an island in the Indo-Malay region and attended Bible School after becoming a Christian. It was there that he first heard the term, “The Great Imbalance,” which refers to the underrepresentation of missionaries among unreached people groups. Specifically for Matteo’s cultural context, this is manifested in that very few global workers were reaching Muslim populations. “Only a few [workers] were reaching Muslim people,” Matteo says. “The Lord touched my heart in that, and my love for the Muslim community grew.”
Matteo worked in church planting among non-Muslims for seven years, but he continued to be drawn to work cross-culturally in other areas of Indo-Malay. Finally, the Lord began to open that door. Matteo completed missionary training as well as two years of cultural and language studies.
Soon the only problem left was to figure out where God would send him among the many unreached Muslim-background communities in Indo-Malay. “Where do I go? What people group will I serve?” Matteo recalls asking the Lord. “I prayed for many weeks, asking the Lord to lead me where He will use me.”
The Lord was faithful in leading Matteo to the island where he would serve for the next 17 years. Not only would he be used greatly by the Lord to reach the people for Christ, but he would also meet and fall in love with a certain young schoolteacher.
Beauty from Ashes
Althea also grew up in the Indo-Malay region of the south Pacific. Her father was a devout Sunni Muslim, well-respected at the mosque and in the community. Her mother was a homemaker, caring for Althea, her three sisters, and one brother. When Althea was only eight years old, her father died suddenly, leaving her mother in a deep depression with no way to provide for her children.
Althea and her siblings were sent to live with an aunt who could care for them. Despite this tragic turn of events, God was about to bring beauty from ashes. “The Lord was so good,” says Althea. “My auntie put us in Sunday school, and we were introduced to Jesus Christ.” At first, Althea says she listened to the Bible stories, but really only continued going to church because she had to obey her aunt.
But then when she was in 6th grade, Althea attended a youth camp hosted by the church. She recalls a particular challenge given to the group by the speaker as they sat around a bonfire. “The pastor asked, ‘What is your burden? Write it on a piece of paper and throw it into the fire. Surrender all the burdens that you have in your heart to the Lord.’ At that time, I surrendered the loss of my father.”
That experience was a catalyst that drew Althea into a saving knowledge of Jesus as her Savior, and she was later baptized as a young teenager. She developed a heart for missions and after graduating, Althea was sent to a nearby island to be a schoolteacher.
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
Meanwhile, Matteo was thriving in ministry, but there was a void in his life that he was longing to fill. For over twenty years, he had been praying for a wife. He even enlisted help in this regard in the form of TEAM global workers and supporting churches in the U.S. – raising up an army of prayer warriors on multiple continents to pray for God to send him the perfect helpmate!
Those prayers intensified when he met Althea. From the time he saw her, he prayed that the Lord would make her his wife. But Althea needed a little more convincing. She had grown restless in her work on the island and wanted to return home, saying that she hoped to “forget” Matteo because she didn’t believe he was the man for her. But it must be true that absence makes the heart grow fonder, because when she got home, she recalls with a smile, “I could not forget.”
Despite objections from her mother and aunt, Althea knew that she loved Matteo and that she was called not only to continue ministry but also to serve alongside Matteo as his wife. They were married in 2017 and now have two beautiful boys.
A Package Deal
Today Matteo and Althea minister to Muslim communities in a variety of ways – some together as a couple, and some individually. Together, they have a dress-making outreach to provide a source of income, and more importantly a source of hope, for women in need. Althea teaches them how to take people’s measurements properly as well as how to cut and sew the dress designs. And as the women sit together and sew, Matteo tells them stories from the Bible. One of the women in attendance recently said it best, “This is a package deal. We are learning in our physical body but also in our spiritual body!’”
Matteo and Althea are a bit of a package deal themselves, always supporting and praying for each other – even when they must be apart. One of Matteo’s ministry initiatives is to deliver food packages to island communities by way of long, overnight journeys in a small boat. Althea and their two small boys are not able to travel with him for these treks, but they gather together daily to pray for Matteo, his ministry partners (including TEAM), and their ministry to Muslims.
Althea has plenty to keep her busy in ministry as well (as if raising her two boys was not enough!). She is often called upon by others in the community to lend a helping hand. One of her ministry partners says that Althea is seen as a “mother” to many, always caring for and encouraging those in need.
“Monday is our Day.”
Because Matteo travels so much for ministry, the couple recognizes the need to prioritize their time as a family. For that reason, they organize their schedule to protect one day a week together as a family. “On Mondays, we are family together,” says Althea. “We cook, we have a movie marathon, and we eat together. We talk about many plans – a dream house, the future for the kids, things like that.” Then with a silver-screen-worthy smile of reflection, she adds, “Monday is our day.”
When asked what has kept Matteo and Althea faithful after so many years of Kingdom work, Matteo sums it up this way: “Love for the Lord and love for the lost, that’s the secret for remaining.”
