The first 15 years
After the anniversary of my birth on Wednesday, there was another significant milestone today: it is 15 years since I arrived in Italy as a young, eager missionary. A lot has happened since then of course, and I thank God for his support and the way he has worked in my character. I might be a bit less young (although I like to pretend that I am the same), but I am still eager to see churches that glorify God be planted and grow in and around Trento.
Yesterday was the first meeting of the year for the teenagers’ group. Three out of the possible four were there, and I think it was a helpful time for them (and for Pinuccia) as we talked about our worries. Pinuccia’s meeting on Thursday also went well, and I could see today that all of the Sunday School teachers were keen to restart as they too had their first classes after the summer break.
September 19th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Salve richard e Pinuccia
I think the 15 years is a marvellous achievement and wonderful testament to God’s blessings on you and your young family. Through you He is doing marvellous things.
Yesterday I picked up a book and used it to day dream about the Adige, Verona nd the wonderful countryside you live and move and have your ministry. Allow me to fill cyberspace with a most interesting diary as a small ‘gift’ to the cerebal you. Your job is to identify the diarist:
Trento, September 11, 1786. Early Morning
…on we drove. I reached Trinita at seven and was immediately carried off again. For a while we travelled north and at last I saw Balzano, bathed in sunshine and surrounded by steep mountains which are cultivated up to a considerable height. The valley is open to the south and sheltered on the North by the mountains of the Tirol. A balmy air pervades the whole region. Here the Adige turns south again. The foothills are covered with vineyards…From Balzano to Trento one travels for nine miles through country which grows ever more fertile. Everything which, higher up in the mountains, must struggle to grow, flourishes here in vigour and health, the sun is bright and hot, and one can believe again in God…The Adige now flows more gently and in many places forms broad islands of pebbles…walls are covered with a luxuriant growth of dwarf-elder, and thick-stemmed ivy clambers and spreads itself over rocks; lizards dart in and out of crevices,…As evening draws near, and in the still air a few clouds can be seen resting on the mountains, standing on the sky rather than drifting across it, or when, immediately after sunset, the loud shrill of crickets is heard, I feel at home in the world, neither a stranger nor an exile. I enjoy everything as if I had been born and bred here and had just returned from a whaling expedition to Greenland”
Well, Australia is a bit like Greenland with its early days whaling - so Richard, in your 16th year of Ministry, may you too be neither a stranger nor an exile in Trento!
God bless
Nick