End of year activities
Our four days away at a conference for missionaries in Italy went reasonably well. There were a lot less people present than expected, which meant less opportunities for catching up with friends. All our free time was also taken up looking after the children, which made it hard to talk with others. Although Daniele did stay with the other children for one of the talks (the first time he has ever done this), so at least Pinuccia and I were able to hear slightly more than half of the talks. As all who have had children have experienced, it has been difficult for both of us to get much decent spiritual input lately, with church services being almost impossible to follow (also because both of us teach Sunday School one third of the time), and even decent time for us together with God difficult to find. Although this Sunday was good, because there was the last Sunday School of the year so the children watched a video on Moses and had a party, so I could leave Daniele there with Pinuccia and enjoy the service like a bachelor again! In the past couple of weeks I have also started regular Bible reading and prayer times with Stefania, so there are the beginnings of a family devotion time there.
This week church activities are starting to close down for the summer break, so we will be doing a bit of hospitality in the coming weeks. The Monday night cell group has a film night at our house tomorrow night, which will probably be its last meeting of the year. On Saturday the young adults will be coming to our house for dinner, to finish their official activities of the year. And next week it will be the turn of the Wednesday cell group for dinner at our house. As well as this, Pinuccia has applied to teach English at preschool next year, so this week has a couple of tests (Wednesday written, Thursday oral) in order to see what level she is at. So pray for that as well, so would much prefer doing this than the after school care she is doing at the moment.