News and prayer information from Richard and Pinuccia Wilson

After the usual activities in the past few days (Thursday a rare free night, Friday band practice, Saturday afternoon with the teenagers), today (Sunday) was different and busy. We had Compassion, an organisation that runs adoption at a distance and through which the church members have adopted 23 child (we have one in Rwanda), come to show a video and talk. Then we had to leave straight away, so I could do a quick change into my uniform because I had to be at the band headquarters at 12.15, to make a trip to Arco (one of my favourite towns in the province, almost an hour from here) for a parade and concert. Then it was 7pm by the time that I got home again. It was the last concert for our conductor, who has had to resign from the band. We will have a temporary one to prepare us for the Christmas concert. However, since they are changing the practices to Tuesdays, the only day he can come and when I am at Rovereto, and in any case we will be in Sicily when the Christmas concert is on, I have told the band that I can’t come to the practices until after the new year. So there is one more Friday practice and Sunday concert for me this week, after which I will be having a break from the band for a few months.

On Tuesday, my mother and brother will be arriving for a visit for a couple of weeks, so you can pray that all six of us will have a good time together. More on the visit naturally next time I write.

Since the school year finishes a few weeks earlier than the church year, the Youth Group is the first of my regular commitments that has gone into summer hibernation. On Saturday we took the members of the group to the ice cream parlour that is under our previous apartment – the best ice creams in the area. Then on Sunday morning the group’s video which summed up its activities for the year was shown. There was also the recital by the Sunday School children – a play that Pinuccia had written and a couple of songs. Then this afternoon, along with most of the church, we went up the Valsugana valley, where one of the church members made about 40 pizzas for everybody. (He is an ex pizza cook, and a very good one too, and has built a pizza oven in his garage.) With the better weather and longer days now, it was good to be able to stay outside and chat together. With three weeks away due to our trip to Sicily, there is a number of people in the church that I don’t know now, since there are often new people attending, so it was good to meet a few of them as well. There was also the announcement of another pregnancy – there are now seven pregnant ladies in the congregation, quite a high number considering there are less than 70 regular (or almost regular) adults in the church.

Just to keep me busy, there was also a concert with the band on Saturday night, which meant a quick change into my uniform after the Youth Group before going to play in a small town in the mountains just about Lavis. It was my last concert before the summer break (although the band will be going to Germany next weekend, I will not be going), although I am not sure how many weeks we will have of rehearsals still.

As I mentioned last time, there was also a public conference on depression in the town library on Friday. It went well, with a good attendance between invited friends and people who came from the advertising, and an encouragement for the listeners to have a personal relationship with Jesus.

I should also give an update on the possible meeting place we might be renting that I mentioned a few weeks ago. The negotiations with the town council go ahead, and we have got over the problems of the low roof and a few parking places that were required. There should not be any further problems, although it will still take some time for the bureaucracy to come through. But keep praying for a solution to our hall problem. Today was quite a squeeze in the hall we currently use, and with another seven babies coming along now…

Speaking of a bit of time needed for the bureaucracy, doing the week I finally got my application for Italian citizenship accepted. It took about six months for me to get all the documents and the appropriate translations and legalisations from different offices in Australia and Italy. However, the estimated time for my application to be approved, when I will become a dual citizen, is two years, so I’m not going to be holding my breath waiting.

The good weather has definitely arrived now – it is about 30 degrees today, so the band had to find protection under a tree in order to play at a concert this afternoon at the market day of a small town attached to Lavis. I find that usually when the weather improves, the attendance at church improves as well. In fact today there was the largest number of adult non guests we have ever had at a service, 65, which is a big increase on what was our previous record (59). And an even bigger increase on the average attendance when I arrived at Trento 14 years ago (13, one fifth as much). Apart from the good weather, it was also due to a few new couples who have started coming regularly to church in the last few weeks. Pray that they will quickly feel a part of the congregation.

With a church singing practice and praise night on Wednesday instead of the cell group, and some else running a prayer meeting in the group next Monday, I do have a bit less to prepare at the moment. I thought I would be busier, because since there is the first of the Spring season of concerts on Sunday, there have been some extra practices to get ready, so I lost my usual night off (Tuesday) to go to that. But on Thursday, after losing some people due to sickness and others studying for an exam, there was only one person and no house for the Rovereto group, so I get my night off back in that way. I have thus been able to catch up on some computer work, especially with the Operation World site, getting to grips with how the site works and entering some data. (There was a change of server at the same time as when I joined the group, which meant that there is a backlog of a month of work to do.) I will be kept busy on Sunday however: I will be leading to service, then there is the annual church meeting immediately afterwards. Since Lavis has it’s annual town fair that day, there will be a lot of traffic around so it will be slow to get back home – in fact we might not even be able to get the car out of our street, so we may be taking the local train to church. Then at 2pm the band has a concert in town, and after that I will be helping out at the band’s stall at the fair until closing time, helping then to dismantle it.

It was a slightly different week for me, with only two studies to prepare on lead on Monday and Wednesday; Thursday was the extra night we both have at home every two months due to the way the various programs of the church work out. But I was kept busy doing other things. On Tuesday a missionary at Milan came to visit to work on computer matters together – amongst other things, the two of us have taken over the running of the site of the Italian version of Operation World at http://www.owitalia.org/. At the same time a friend from church came to visit Pinuccia to get some sewing work done, whilst another friend was staying a few nights whilst visiting Trento looking for work. Then on Friday I went with the band to Verona for the Carnevale parade there, where there were 93 groups between floats, bands, dancers, etc. It was about 5 kilometres through the streets of Verona, getting glances at the famous monuments whilst concentrating on trying to play, march and avoid children throwing confetti at the same time, and it took almost three hours (after having started out two hours after the first group) because we had to wait for all the other groups in front of us. We ended up going through our whole repertoire more than three times!

Pinuccia on the other hand had all her commitments come up at the same time, having to prepare and lead the study for the women on Friday and the youth on Saturday. The idea was that I would come back from Verona by train (instead of with the band on the bus) so she could go to the women’s meeting without Stefania, but with the long march at Verona I couldn’t get back in time. So Pinuccia took Stefania with her, which wasn’t a problem for Stefania, but she was a distraction in the meeting. We realised later that gone are the times when she will sit calmly with someone; now that she is walking everywhere, she is too curious to stay in one place and wants to check everything out. The last time she will take her, Pinuccia promised! At least for another 15 or so years… But I am enjoying this new phase in Stefania’s life, maybe even more than before, with more independence and even the beginnings of a two way relationship.

For my Australian readers Christmas is past by now, but here it is still going, although we are into the rest and winding down stage now. My activities started on Christmas Eve afternoon, when the band played at the local retirement home, then did a march through town with a hundred people following and the fire brigade giving light, ending up with a few carols in one of the town squares. Two and a half hours outside in the cold was hard going, but it was appreciated by the populace. My parents took some good photos, but they are still on their camera, so you’ll have to wait until my next newsletter to see them.

Then there were a couple of hours at home to get changed and have dinner, before going to the church Christmas Eve service. There were about half the people that usually come to a service, as many were away visiting family and a few were sick, but it was a good time, especially as the children read some of the prayers that they had written for the occasional.

For Christmas Day lunch, as well as my parents we kept the family tradition going (which means it was the third time), and invited the family-less people we knew as well. It was a good time together, but the highlight was Stefania starting to walk whilst we ate, taking quite a few steps by herself to get around. Although now that she has had a nap and woken up again, it seems that she has forgotten how to walk again!

…at least from Saturday afternoon, when the Youth Group met at our house. Gloria spoke on her mission trip to Senegal in October. In fact, there was a bit of a mission emphasis for the weekend, as she also spoke at the Sunday School during church, and there was a visit from Open Doors at the service as well. After the Youth Group we quickly fed Stefania and then went out to a pizza and film night with the Monday cell group – partly as an end of year activity, partly so that those who hadn’t seen the film Luther could see it, before we invite our friends to see it with us on January 20th. Then on Sunday morning there was of course the church service, then soon after lunch I went back to Trento to do a shift at the book stall that the church was holding in the city centre, where many passed doing their Christmas shopping or visiting the Christmas markets. I had a few interested people in my two hours there, including an English Christian student studying at the university for a year. Then it was back home for an hour and a half for dinner and to get changed, before leaving for the band’s Christmas concert. Being a small town, it is a smaller concert than that of Trento (maybe 200 people, out of a population of less than 8000 for the town and its surrounding villages), but it has a more informal, friendly and joking atmosphere (including the band falling asleep during one of the pieces).

First of all of course there was church, after which there was the usual lunch together for the first Sunday of the month. We left there a bit early for a 45 minute drive down to Arco, a town near Lake Garda, where the band marched around the Christmas markets playing a few songs and being present at a few ceremonies. Having Stefania with me certainly helped to get to know the rest of the band; a few people spoke to me for the first time, having a baby is always such a good ice breaker. Then it was 6pm by the time we got back. It is time to rest now, especially for Pinuccia, who didn’t feel too well in the two car trips (maybe I went around the corners and up and down the mountains a bit fast). I think however that I will be working tonight, finishing the preparation of the study for tomorrow night. In fact it will be a busy as week: as well as the usual commitments, tomorrow afternoon one of the ECM leaders comes to visit, then on Tuesday we will travel together to Milan for a meeting of the Italian ECM missionaries, and then on Friday the whole family will go (with 15 other people in the church) to Pescara, 600 km to the south, for a conference where Don Carson will be speaking.

Sometimes it is clear when it is just the “right time” to do something; that is how it is feeling with the work at Rovereto at the moment. This morning in church there was yet another new couple from Rovereto (she is from Peru, and arrived there this week; he has always lived there but is not a Christian). Pray that they will in fact come to the next meeting of the group (the 15th), which they were invited to, and that this group will continue to grow and one day become a new church.

Yesterday evening, not only did all three of the (mostly) regular people come to the group, but two of them also brought a friend (both of whom had come a couple of times last year before the summer break, but not at the same time). So we suddenly found ourselves which five youth, as well as the return of the third leader after her mission trip to Senegal. After a quick table extension and raid to the kitchen for more chairs, we were ready for the study.

The other activity yesterday was standing out in the cold again for over an hour, as the bank based in Lavis had its rennovated headquarters inaugurated. The band was there to play a few songs before and after the ceremony, but also
because this town bank is a major sposnor of the band and other local associations.

This afternoon there was the Reformation Day service in church, to remember the principles on which the church is founded. So we looked back at what some of these principles were, and our guest speaker reminded us that the real reformation starts from a personal encounter with God, which then can change external forms, even though when it is questioned it is usually on the basis of the forms that are reformed, and not on what changed inside the people. There were also about 10 people who visited from three Italian churches in the mostly German speaking half of the region, churches with which we have a good fellowship but not had much time together with recently, so it was good to be reminded of our fellowship through this concrete experience of it.

Yesterday was also Remembrance Day, remembering those who died in the wars. Here at Lavis there was a ceremony this morning at the war memorial, where the band played the national anthem and a few other patriotic songs. It worked out well, since it is the only Sunday in the year when there is no church service in the morning, so I was able to play at the ceremony. We were fortunate that we are having an unusual warm spell at the moment (it would have been about 10 degrees), so although the feet froze when we stopped marching and had to stand still during the ceremony, and the cold hands made playing instruments rather difficult, it could have been a lot worse!

Yesterday I also managed to finish another beta version of the next version of my Italian Bible computer program. I have recently found some pieces of time that I can use for the computer work (in the afternoon when I look after Stefania, I can let her play or watch TV in the lounge whilst I work on my laptop there), so hopefully I can be more productive
with the computer ministry now.