News and prayer information from Richard and Pinuccia Wilson

Well, yesterday was certainly a big day. It was the first day of preschool for Stefania and Daniele. Since it was the first ever day for Daniel, he has a gradual insertion into school life, and only goes from 10am to 11.30 for the first week. So between Pinuccia and I, we made three walks to the school and back in the morning. Daniele cried a bit at preschool – but only when I came to take him home, as he wanted to stay at school. Then after lunch, it was Pinuccia’s turn to drive to a different preschool for her first day, and then Daniele and I went back to school to pick up Stefania. A bit later my mother arrived for her visit – we had to make her take a bus and two trains from the airport at Verona, since we were not free to pick her up. Then it was Pinuccia’s turn to come home from school. A bit after she arrived, she got a phone call from another preschool with not one, but two job offers. Not just for a short time, but for the whole year (which is what she wanted). And not from any school, but from the school at Lavis where the children attend, and that she can walk to. And it was for 2.5 hours, which is just what we wanted. And it was not the after school care, which is usually the most that she can expect, but in the normal class, which is personally more rewarding (being more like teaching and less like babysitting). And one of the two jobs finishes at the end of the school day, so she can bring Stefania and Daniele home with her, saving me an trip (and an hour) in the afternoon. All in all, there is nothing that could be improved in that job. So she has resigned from the other job, and will start this one this afternoon. So it means now more than 6 hours free without the children and with the car available, of which 3 hours by myself. This will give me a lot more possibilities for work and ministry in the church. We thank God a lot for this job!

After the long summer break, preschool starts for the rest of the family on Wednesday. Stefania starts her third and final year, whilst Daniele goes for the first time. Pinuccia has accepted a job at a school in the centre of Trento from 2.30pm to 5.30pm; that is, the after school care. It means she will be at home almost an hour later than she was last year, which means an hour per day less with the children. She is not happy about this (and neither will Stefania and Daniele be once school starts), but there was nothing better available. On the other hand, with both children at school, Pinuccia and I will both get a lot more time to do other things. After a few years in which I have been able to do a lot less than what I had wanted to do, it will be a big change. I wonder though if we will suffer from the “empty nest” syndrome, having such an empty house during the day.

Although the school restarts on the 1st, it will be a couple of weeks before we actually arrive at the normal rhythm. Firstly because Daniele has a gradual insertion at the preschool, first doing 1.5 hours per day, then a few more hours, before starting full time attendance in the second half of the month. At the same time, my mother arrives on the 1st for a visit for a couple of weeks, which will help to fill the hole left by all my family going out every day!

The first couple of weeks of September are also filled with the preparations for the new church year, and getting the groups restarted. Pinuccia will be leading a meeting for the Sunday School teachers on Thursday, with the classes starting probably on the 12th. She will also have to work out a program for the monthly ladies’ meetings. I will be getting two cell groups started, as well as helping the other groups start looking after the enrolments. So I will have a gradual insertion into my normal pattern of church ministry as well.

We arrived at Trento on Thursday evening, after a pleasantly uneventful trip, apart from occasional heavy holiday traffic. I am so glad that our children are so good at travelling! Since then we have been sorting out things at home, and now are preparing the house for our first visitors of the new year, with one of Pinuccia’s cousins (plus family) coming to stay tomorrow. He is a missionary in Romania, so it will be interesting to talk with him about that.

We still have nine more days of school vacation, so we will be doing some things as a family this week. Pinuccia will be going to a meeting on Friday, where she should find out if, where, and what hours, she will be working this year. We are praying that she will be offered a good job, suitable for our needs as a family.

I did get a surprise at church this morning, as all the musicians were away and on two minutes notice I was asked to play the piano. I haven’t done that for a long time, what happy memories! Especially as the lady leading the singing I had played with a lot over the years. I was certainly a bit rusty, and without my music books I was rather limited in what I could play, but it was good fun, and the congregation certainly sang better with my playing than if I had not played.

Today is packing day, getting ourselves and the car ready for the trip back tomorrow. This time we will be doing the whole trip on the road (apart from a short ride across the straight from Sicily to the mainland). 1500 km in 18 hours, which we will be doing in two days, spending tomorrow night in a hotel near Naples. Pray for a good trip, especially for the children.

In our time in Sicily, we have done what we wanted to do, including getting some rest. We have had some good time with family and friends as well. Earlier this week Daniele’s third birthday party was a success. I even managed to get a good day at the beach, at our last time there yesterday. Being on the Mediterranean Sea, usually the water is flat, and personally I find swimming there as exciting as having a bath. But sometimes the wind creates a bit of movement, and yesterday there were 30-50 cm waves. This usually frightens the Italians, who don’t like the water like that and don’t go swimming, but it was just enough for me to go body surfing and catch a couple of waves.

When we get back to Trento, it will of course be back to work for me. Apart from catching up on a few things that I have left undone whilst I am away, the next couple of weeks will be mostly dedicated to preparing Bible studies in Acts to do in the next few months, and getting a new version of my Bible computer program out.

We have been here in Sicily for a while now, and have a couple more weeks to go. It was constantly 40 degrees for the first part, although for the past few days there has been a cold snap, with a bit of wind and temperatures only reaching 30 degrees. With this heat, like most Sicilians we remain indoors most of the day, and around 4.30pm think about going out. We go to the beach two or three times a week (which of course the children enjoy), and often have late nights (as here people usually have dinner no earlier than 9pm) with family and friends. So Stefania and Daniele have been going to bed often in their clothes, going to sleep whilst we are out or in the car going home. At least it means that they sleep in late in the morning, so we are getting some good sleep as well. No more 6am wake up calls, like at home! We have already had family get togethers for the birthdays of two of Pinuccia’s siblings and her parents’ anniversary. Now we are planning for Daniele’s birthday party next week, in which we will recruit a “rent-a-crowd” of some children of Pinuccia’s cousins, so that Daniele can have some “friends” at his party. I’m also looking forward to my niece’s baptism next week. These holidays though are a bit hard on Stefania and Daniele. They enjoy playing with their cousins (even though they are all older), and going to the beach or the park. But the rest of the time they are a bit bored, especially being stuck inside with the heat. Stefania quite regularly tells us that she wants to go home.

I have also been able to get a bit of work done, at least keeping up with my e-mail. But I have also been able to make some progress on some projects I brought with me, updating my personal web site, creating some resources for my Bible study computer program, and doing some preparation for the Bible studies I will be leading in Acts when I return.

Daniele, Pinuccia and Stefania at the lake

More time this week with the family, and with friends as well. It was a bit more like holidays than the first week of the school vacations, and I also managed to get a bit of work done preparing some Bible studies on Acts. Now it is time to get ready for our trip to Sicily for a few weeks with Pinuccia’s family. It is a long trip: we leave at 2am on Tuesday morning, catch a ferry at 1pm from Naples down to Messina, and then have a few more hours in the car. We should arrive after midnight on Tuesday night. Usually the children cope better with the travelling than the drivers do… The portable DVD keeps them amused for hours, and the timing of the trip is planned so that they sleep during a lot of it. When we are in Sicily, it will be more like holidays than now. Pinuccia’s family lives close to the beach, so we will be going there often. Usually however it is too hot to go to the beach, we (and others) just go around 5pm for a few hours. And then there will be lots of going out to see extended family and friends down there.

Those with children know that vacations don’t mean holidays. In fact, ever since school finished on Wednesday for Pinuccia and Stefania, we have been even busier than usual with trips to the park, to the swimming pool, to a birthday party, and inviting friends to our house. At least I had led my last Bible study for a while on Wednesday night, and then only had to lead the service this morning, so there were not many other commitments to prepare for. However I certainly did not get as much done on my other projects as I had been hoping. But it has been fun doing these things with the family.

Celebrating my Italian citizenship in church

There has been a big change since last I wrote: I have become an Italian! More than three years after applying (plus another six months beforehand collecting documents), I went to the Lord Mayor on Friday and swore to uphold the constitution and to observe the laws. It does not make a lot of difference, since Australia allows double citizenship now, but I will be able to vote, and travelling around Europe will be slightly easier. In one way, the timing was not great, as it was the day after Italy was eliminated from the World Cup. Perhaps if during the game I had been waving the flag that I was given at the ceremony the following day, Italy would have played better. But at least it means that I get to be the world football champion for a few weeks!

This week (on Wednesday) also marks the end of the year for the pre-school, so both Stefania and Pinuccia will be at home the whole day. So we will have a lot more time to do things together as a family.

If I was exhausted in my last message, I am destroyed this time. (In Italian they say “destroyed” for very tired, but I have a doubt that you can’t say it in English.) From Wednesday to Saturday this week there was the church children’s camp. With a lot of last minute preparation at the beginning of the week, I was not able to work on the sermon that I had to prepare, as I had been hoping. So despite being tired from the camp, I had to do a late night on Saturday to prepare that. As I result, I have been feeling off all day today (Sunday) from lack of sleep, but somehow managed to get to Rovereto in the afternoon and give the sermon at the monthly service there. Early to bed tonight however!

The children’s camp, with 17 children from 7 to 16 years old, went well. It was a bit frustrating for me, because even though I was only officially half a teacher there (Pinuccia being a half as well, and we took turns looking after our children when we weren’t “on duty” at the camp), there was always the desire to do more and spend more time with the participants at the camp. There were the usual problems (of discipline and relationships) that you would expect from any such camp, but nothing bad, and we thank God for that.

This week maybe I will be able to rest a bit. With the run up to summer, my activities have diminished. For example, the group at Rovereto has started its summer break, as a large number of the group has already left on holidays or other trips. So I will actually be at home more evenings than I will be out, which is quite rare for me.

For a variety of reasons, both Pinuccia and I are quite tired out now. The main reason is that Daniele has for a couple of weeks consistently woken up early, around 6am. Except on the public holiday last Wednesday, and today (Sunday), when we could have slept in a bit, and he woke up at 5.40! You would think that it would mean that he would go to sleep earlier at night, or have a nap during the day, but no, he just keeps going. So the lack of sleep is starting to tell on us. As well as that, he picked the worst period of the year to do this, as Pinuccia especially has had a lot of extra work preparing two meetings for the end of the Sunday School year (although they are finished now) and the children’s camp that starts in 10 days’ time. Then there are end of year dinners and events for the various groups we are involved with in the church, for Stefania’s school and for Pinuccia’s school. I also have had some extra ECM work to do, with a 2 hour trip each way on Saturday for a meeting, and people from the mission visiting the next two days.

Anyway, there were some events I asked prayer for. One was the end of year trip to the lake for the Saturday cell group, which was a pleasant time with others in a similar situation to us (ie all with small children). And the friends from outside of the church that came kept our focus outward looking as well. On the other hand, I have heard on the grapevine that no-one from outside of the church came to the evangelistic afternoon at Rovereto. It will be interesting to hear in the next few days from those that organised it how they will respond.

Two major events to pray for this week:

• On Saturday evening there is a singing worship meeting for the church (although open to everybody), also to learn to sing better and to learn a few new songs.
• On Sunday there is a baptismal service, with seven people being baptised. I think that is the most we have ever had in one year, although they were not all converted in the last 12 months.