A holiday and then work
Today is a public holiday - although since it was one of my few nights off anyway there is not much gain. In fact the evening will not be free because a friend is coming from Milan tonight so we can work together on some Internet sites tomorrow morning, but I will try to do some less work during the day. After that it will be a busy week, because I have hit the jackpot: 6 studies or similiar to lead in 7 days. Apart from the two cell groups I lead every week (Tuesday and Wednesday), I will be leading the study on Monday night as well (which I do only once every two months) and for the teenagers’ group (every 3-4 weeks). There is also the cell group coordinators’ meeting on Thursday which I look after (again every two months) and to begin it all it is my turn to lead the service this Sunday (which I do about once every 6 weeks). It is not quite as bad as it looks, because as all the cell groups have the same program for their studies (Ephesians and the Christian character) the Monday and Tuesday studies will be repeats of ones I have already led recently, and since I am still about a month ahead in my preparation I just have to go over the Wednesday study to remind myself rather than prepare it. But it still leaves three meetings to prepare for.
A follow-up to the previous message: one of the church members is a free-lance cameraman, working for the various local TV channels when they need to do some filming. He recorded some of the tour around Trento with the church at Vicenza last Sunday, and one of the elders wrote a press release about the Protestants on Reformation Sunday in the city of the Council of Trento. These were then given to the various TV channels, and on Monday night the government channel broadcast a service on the event in its regional news bulletin. I have not seen it yet (my job was to watch and record another one of the channels, who did not show it), but it was good to get mentioned like that.