News and prayer information from Richard and Pinuccia Wilson

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.