Cell groups and looking after Stefania
I have finished my responsibilities for the week now - a bit earlier in the week than usual, but it is how the programming worked out this time. The Monday night cell group was mostly dedicated to a time thinking about how we wanted to witness together to our friends, and it was decided to have a film plus pizza night (showing the film Luther) on the 20th of January. More about that in future posts. The Wednesday night group had the second study on prayer, with some good practical advice given by the group members to each other. Thursday night was the cell group leaders’ coordination meeting, which is the part of the church training program that I lead. There was actually so much coordination done, that we didn’t get to the training that I had planned. But that doesn’t matter; we can do it next time, and it was helpful for everyone to hear what was going on in the other groups, and for the cell groups to learn about some of the church plans and the part the groups will have in them. My sore throat must have got better by then, because I almost lost my voice from talking in the other two groups, whilst I had no problem on Thursday.
Thursday was also the first time that Pinuccia and I have really had to juggle commitments and do “shifts” to look after Stefania. Pinuccia had a training meeting for all the teachers in the schools in her area at 6pm, which she went to straight from work which finished at 5.30. The meeting went until 8pm, but she got permission to leave half an hour early, which meant she arrived home just before 8pm. That gave me 15 minutes to say hello and finish getting ready before I had to go out. It also meant that I had to look after Stefania for six hours instead of the usual four, and juggling making and eating dinner for both of us at the same time. She did at least sleep for one hour of those six, not having had a nap in the morning as she sometimes does. Whilst reading a book on being a father, I did find a good piece of advice which has helped me cope better with these hours looking after Stefania, instead of being able to do my own thing: I pray for patience to play with her and for the desire to spend time with her. As I have said often in the past year, Stefania has taught me a lot about thinking about others before myself.