News and prayer information from Richard and Pinuccia Wilson

Like everybody else, this week coming up to Christmas is different from normal. I only have the one Bible study to go to, which will be a more informal affair with a video and eating to finish up the year, before starting a new series on Isaiah in January. On the other hand, there is the band’s biggest concert of the year on Friday night (a co-production with a local dancing school in the town’s indoor sports centre, with more than a hundred performers), so there are some extra rehearsals for that. School for the other three family members ends on Thursday, and there will be a bit of a rest on Friday. But not too much, because it will also be packing day, as we head to Sicily on Saturday, to see that half of our family for the first time for a year. We will be back on January 6th. I will have limited Internet time whilst there, which means little blogging and Facebooking, so I will take this opportunity to wish all my friends reading this a meaningful Christmas and God filled New Year.

Tomorrow there will also be the launch of the first beta of a new version of my computer program to read and study the Bible in Italian. It is a multiplatform version, for Mac, Linux and Android. It is fairly simple at the moment, but I hope to develop it a lot more during 2012. Hopefully it will satisfy the users of those operating systems who have been asking me for years for such a program. And hopefully it will been that the program is tool for making the Word of God known even more, as it reaches still more Italian computers.

When I wrote last week, Pinuccia had a job, but for after-school care, which she wanted to avoid in order to be with our children. On Tuesday night so got an offer from another school for a job during the day, so she gave up the first and took that one. Then on Wednesday night came an offer from our local school at Lavis, so she gave up the second job to take up that one. The job is not perfect, in that it is full-time and we prefer part-time. But that means that its other imperfection – only for a month and not a year – is actually an advantage. At the beginning of October she should be offered another job at Lavis, which we hope will be part-time. So on Thursday Daniele and Pinuccia went to pre-school together for their first day, and I had an almost empty nest at home. “Almost”, because infants’ school does not start until the 12th, so I look after Stefania (and try to do a bit of work) whilst the others are at school for another week.

Today there was the first morning service of the church at Rovereto. Having 15 out of about 70 adults leave the church should have left quite a few holes in the hall at Trento for our service, and maybe a feeling of emptiness. But quite a few new people have started coming in the meantime, so although the numbers were a bit down on the average, they were not much lower. So there was not much of an empty nest feeling at all.

Another highlight of the week was participating this afternoon in the anniversary celebrations of the federation of the bands in the province of Trento. Not all the bands could come, but in any case being a part of a parade of 60 bands dressed in various colourful uniforms was fun. And then the final concert all together of well over 1000 people in the main square of Trento was spectacular. It made me dream of a future event, when all the 60 churches that will have been planted in all the small towns spread out in the province, will come together at Trento one Sunday for a celebration together and to worship as one.

This week about half of the church groups will be restarting, including for us the Wednesday night group and the Sunday School. Pinuccia is also running a Sunday School teachers’ meeting tomorrow night, and I will have a meeting for the Youth Group leaders later on. So pray for this restart of activities as well.

With the two public holidays this week falling on Easter Monday and the following Sunday, we did not get much benefit from them. But with school on holiday for Pinuccia and the children for eight days over Easter, we did get the holiday feeling. Especially with the eight relatives visiting at the beginning of the week. So we went to the lake one day, and Verona the next – holidays and enjoyable, although not terribly relaxing, as we looked after all these people.

Today there was more running around for me trying to juggle commitments. In the morning there was church, which included doing some things to organise the youth group meeting at our house next Saturday and the end of year Sunday School spectacular on the 15th. Then it was to the park for the monthly church picnic – always one of the highlights of my month. However this time I had to get Pinuccia to give me a lift at 1.45 to the town next to Lavis, where there was a festival and I played in a concert with the band. Just after I finished and had started walking home, Pinuccia rang to say the family was coming to visit the festival, so back I went to wait for them. And then we had a pleasant time together.

Now that there is less than a month to go until our flight to Australia, the other activity to start this week is the preparation for our time there. I already have thought a bit about what I want to say about our last three years in Italy and our future here, but I have to put it in a bit of order and prepare the necessary support material.

What a day! Today there was the commissioning service for the 11 adults and 9 children who will be forming the church at Rovereto. There were quite a few tears shed, a mixture of the joy of a historic moment in the life of both of the churches, and the sadness of sending people to a new ministry. It was a time of remembering God’s faithfulness over the 48 years of ECM work at Trento (for which it was good to have the ECM International Director with us for the weekend), and of putting ourselves in God’s hands for the future knowing that we are not able to plant churches with our abilities. After the service, the festive nature of the day continued with a picnic at the park, the first of the new season. In fact it was 26 degrees today, a great change after the cold of the last 6 months and which changes everybody’s mood. The next step is the inaugural general meeting of the Rovereto church next Sunday, at which it will be legally formed as an association.

The commissioning service was the climax of a weekend dedicated to church planting, with training from the International Director on Friday night and Saturday evening. That kept the church busy, especially Pinuccia and I as we had to look after the logistics and hospitality as well. And a train strike on Friday did not help – I had to make an unexpected trip to pick him up.

Apart from the meeting at Rovereto, the other events of the week in the church (apart from the usual weekly activities) are the third public conference in the town library, on euthanasia, and the monthly meeting of the youth group. But there are other big events as well – next Sunday is our seventh wedding anniversary. To celebrate, Lavis is having a town festival, so that will be lots to do and see about the town in the afternoon, including me playing a concert with the band.

This weekend there was a lot to do, even though we could not do everything we should have. It actually started on Friday, since the usual weekend house cleaning and shopping had to be brought forward. Then on Saturday morning Pinuccia led an almost 4 hour training and planning meeting at our house for the Sunday School teachers (including myself). Then we were supposed to go to the cell group in the afternoon, but there were too many people absent (ie all but 3, of whom one would have had to look after the children), so that got cancelled. Which allowed us to take Stefania and Daniele to the fairground attractions which were at Lavis this weekend, for the annual town fair. Then on Sunday morning it was church (after an hour’s less sleep due to daylight savings starting), after which there was a church lunch. We managed to go to that for half an hour, so at least we got a bit of food. I was a bit disappointed on having to leave early, as it is one of my favourite church activities due to the fellowship there. But I had to do a quick change into my band outfit, and go back to Lavis for a concert at the town fair. At the same time, the annual church meeting was held after the lunch, which I should have been at and would have liked to have been at as well. Then after the concert I went home, then went out again with the family to walk around a bit of the fair.

The weather was the best it has been all year – sunny and in the low twenties. Which is not that high, but after the winter when we were not used to such temperatures, and having to sit in the sun blowing hard on the clarinet for more than an hour, it was tiring also. Pinuccia has not been feeling too well the last few days either, which got worse over the weekend, although she is better now. So that added to her tiredness. But it is over now, and maybe we will get a nice long restful break over Easter (when Pinuccia and Stefania get a week off school).

A few little bits of news this week:

• I finally managed to get version 7.14 of my Bible computer program, and the corresponding update to my web site, out on Tuesday.
• During the week there was another birth in the church (who is also in the new Saturday cell group, so there are 6 couples and 10 children less than 5 years old now). This meant there was only one pregnancy left (in the church and Saturday group), which is due next month. So I was a bit worried that our church growth program was coming to a stand still, but today another couple came to the rescue and announced a pregnancy. It was especially pleasing to see them announcing it, as they are the same age as me and Pinuccia, and have been waiting for a while. At least they are not in the Saturday cell group!
• Yesterday was one of our few completely free Saturdays, and with the warmer weather we took advantage of it. In the morning there was the first family leisure bike ride – although only Stefania rode, Daniele and I walked (but Daniele did have his first try on the bike for a few metres). In the afternoon there was a trip for the whole family to the largest castle of the province, to go exploring there. Now that the children are old enough to enjoy so days (and do all the walking that is required), we are looking forward to being able to do more such days together. However, it does mean setting apart the time to do them, which is not also easy with my ministry. So it means for me making a conscious decision to do less work and more family time, which is not easy for me to do, although I am learning.

This weekend there are a few events to pray for:

• Sunday School teacher training and planning on Saturday morning, which Pinuccia will be leading. Then there is the cell group in the afternoon, so there will be no family time that day
• Lunch together after church on Sunday, and then the annual general meeting of the church. Although I will miss most of it, because I also have…
• a concert with the band on Sunday afternoon, for the big annual market day of Lavis

I went to Spain and back again this week. Two and a half days of meetings, but it was a good time. In particular, there was a day dedicated to thinking about what it means to be a part of ECM in each country, which is what the ECM missionaries in Italy have been thinking about for a while. It will be helpful for tomorrow, as we will all (that is, the whole family) be going to one of the regular meetings together of the Italian ECM missionaries. And we will be discussing some of these matters that we talked about in Spain. In the meantime, the rest of the family coped without me, with a few visitors and a parade in our town for the Carnival celebrations to keep them busy. We then had a good reunion day together on Friday, going to play in the snow and do other things together.

Yesterday I played at a concert with the Lavis band, together with three other bands. Before the concert, a member of one of the other bands searched me out. It turned out that he is a happy user of my computer program to study the Bible, had seen that I played in the band at Lavis, and had been waiting for such an opportunity to meet me. As I often say, my program gets used a lot more than I know about.

We have just said goodbye to the most recent guests, two people from the band from a town in Germany that spent the weekend with our band, playing a few concerts. So the weekend was busy with events with them, although I did not go this morning so as I could go to church instead. Now we have a couple of free nights, until the new International Director of ECM arrives on Tuesday for two nights, to get to know us and what the mission is doing in Italy. Then on Wednesday Suzanne Bikker, the new missionary that will be moving to Rovereto in July, will be coming for four nights, partly to meet and talk with the director, partly to sign her rental contract and do some cleaning in her apartment.

Apart from that, there is a public holiday on Tuesday which will be a good opportunity to go out on a picnic with the family, and on Friday Daniele has another post-operation check up, although there do not seem to be any problems.

Despite what I said last time, I did end up having one Bible study to prepare this week. One of the other Sunday School teachers asked me to swap, as she could come to church today. But it did mean that I had almost a week to work out how to make a Passover door that would transform into a cross with Christ, our Passover lamb. The extra time this week also gave me the opportunity to finish and release a new version (7.10) of my computer program (http://www.laparola.net/program/).

This week will see a bit of a return of normality, with some Bible studies to do, and on Thursday my in-laws return to Sicily, so we will be less spoilt and I will have to do more work around the house. This time we will get just a bit more than a day without guests, because on Friday afternoon the German “twin” band of the town band that I play in will be arriving for a few concerts over the weekend, and a couple of them will be staying at our house.

This weekend seemed like it would knock me out again, but it turned out to be a bit easier than expected.

Firstly on Saturday there was the day of prayer and fasting for the projects of the church. With the family and its needs to look after (like the shopping in the morning), we had decided to pray in the evening when the children were asleep. So I was fasting and busy as well. In the afternoon, there was a planning meeting for a church children’s camp in June – one of the people who will be helping lives in the mountains, so we had put the meeting on the day of prayer so that she could also go to prayer meeting without having to make the long trip twice. After the planning meeting we all went to the meeting for the whole church to present our projects to God and to praise him for what he has done in the past. There was a good atmosphere there, especially since the church does not pray much together.

Then it was to bed early in anticipation of today, and because, to make matters worse, it was the beginning of daylight savings, so there was an hour less to sleep. But we got off to church in the morning, then quickly back for lunch. At this point I discovered that the concert I was due to play in at 2.30pm had been cancelled due to the bad weather (although I suspected that it would be the case). So I stayed at home, and then left at 4.30 to go to the first of new series of monthly services at Rovereto, where I preached. The rain certainly saved me there; I could have a bit of a rest and help Pinuccia tidying up the house a bit, rather than twice having only a few minutes to come home, get changed and go out again. Although on the other hand, it was a shame that Pinuccia’s walk with the children through the annual market day at Lavis (which is where I would have played) had to be cancelled as well. Pinuccia likes visiting the stalls, and Stefania was looking forward to playing on the fairground rides for the first time.

For your prayers this week: my parents will be arriving for a visit on Wednesday, on Saturday afternoon there will be a bookstall at Rovereto and on Sunday afternoon the annual church meeting. There will be an announcement at the meeting of something that I am excited about, as it is the answer to about 14 years’ prayer. So make sure you visit the blog in a week’s time to find out about some big changes in the church here.