News and prayer information from Richard and Pinuccia Wilson

This was a week for thinking through the direction of the church for the next year. One important change that was decided was the continued push in the church planting efforts at Rovereto. After the summer break we will move from monthly services to fortnightly services. And then the following year, weekly services, which will mean a group (of the people from Rovereto, as well as some of those from Trento) detaching itself from the church at Trento, to be sent as missionaries to form the church at Rovereto. At the same time there will be further strengthening of the small group that meets at Rovereto, and further evangelistic activities. It is exciting to see this project go ahead. But I will no longer be a direct part of it. With Suzanne Bikker (the missionary who moved to Rovereto last summer) ready to take over the Bible studies, and others in the church committed to serving there, I am no longer needed. I do feel a bit of a loss, after investing about five years of ministry at Rovereto starting and leading the small group there. But it also gives me a great joy to me able to leave it. Leaving the group is what I have been working towards for these last five years. In fact, of the seven cell groups in the church, I will now have started and left four of them, and I am looking to leaving another next year.

This of course means I will have more time next year. Which has quickly been filled up. There has been a slight change in the direction of both the church and of me personally. The church is looking at setting up a series of courses, that cater for people in particular stages of the Christian life (examining Christianity, new Christians, starting to serve, mature Christians), as well as continuing the cell groups that are mixed. So I will be starting to run some of these courses, naturally along with somebody else each time that I will be training to do it next time. The other change is my desire to be not only doing ministry with groups, but also discipling individuals. There are a few people that I have thought of that would be good to meet regularly with, although since the biggest need of the church is to have more leaders for the multiplying groups I will probably concentrate on some possible future leaders. Of course, ending one ministry and starting two others does not work out mathematically, when I already have all my evenings busy. So I will have to actually see how it all works out in practice when these things start happening in September.

Today there was the end of year presentation by the Sunday School after the church service. That kept Pinuccia and I busy, and slightly stressed, for the last week (and more). But it went well, to show the rest of the church what happens when all these children leave the service each week. My class showed a video about the life of Saul (which we had studied this year) that we shot a couple of weeks ago, as they acted out the words to a song that I had written and they sang. It came out fairly well, too. There was also over €500 raised for a Christian school in India, mostly through the children donating some of their own toys, which were then sold. This is a great way of getting them to understand sacrificial giving, since they had to give up something of their own, rather than only raising money or relying on their parents to give them something to give.

After not having been able to listen to five church services in a row in the last four weeks (due to giving Sunday School lessons, preparing the video and another song for the presentation, leading the service or preaching), I am looking forward to having a holiday next Sunday and just sitting and listening. There is in fact the last day of Sunday School for the academic year, at which 8 new children have been invited, and who will start Sunday School next September. That was a very fertile period of 7 months! But I declared myself unavailable for that meeting. Since Daniele is one of the eight, I will even get to listen to the sermon without been distracted by having to try to keep Daniele amused the whole time.

On Sunday afternoon there are also a couple of other important events to pray for. The Young Adults have organised an evangelistic evening at Rovereto, and went to all the schools yesterday morning to hand out invitations. About the same time, the Saturday group for young families in the Valsugana valley is trying to organise an outing together with their friends – although it still has to be confirmed that people can come, it is hard for families with toddlers to be sure about what they will be able to do.

This is the time of year when, between the better Spring weather that encourages outdoor activities and socialisation, and the approaching end of school and church year that encourages end of year activities, there are a lot of extra things to do. Last week Pinuccia was out twice for an end of year pizza, once with the other teachers in her class at the pre-school and once with the women in the church.

This week there is on Sunday the end of year presentation of the Sunday School, including raising funds for a school in India. This is creating quite a bit of work (and a bit of stress) for Pinuccia to organise it. On Saturday, there is a distribution at all the high schools of Rovereto of a magazine and invitation to an evangelistic event on the 6th. I will not be involved in that – not only was I not invited, I was told not to go as I am too old! But it has been great to see the group of young adults very much involved in the organisation and doing of this distribution and evangelistic evening. It is the first time that they as a group have done something like this for others and have served the church (in its vision for Rovereto). There is also this week for me a meeting tomorrow night with the elders to talk about the program for the cell groups after the summer break, and what will be my commitments and responsibilities, and then another meeting on Thursday for all the cell groups leaders to talk about these plans. So looking at next year as we start closing this year.

Today there was the monthly service in the afternoon at Rovereto, which meant that I was at two services. They did go well, there were for example a lot of people at Rovereto, but personally I did not get much benefit out of them. In the morning at Trento, I was with my Sunday School class the whole time. Usually the Sunday School starts half an hour after the service begins, so there is at least a bit of time to listen and sing with everybody. But today I needed to work with the children the whole time, to prepare for the end of year presentation in two weeks’ time. I would say what we were doing, but it is a secret and people in the church are reading this, so I will have to wait before I reveal what we did! Anyway, we finished just in time to catch a couple of announcements at the end of the service. Then at Rovereto it was my turn to preach, which means not receiving much during the sermon (although I been encouraged and challenged whilst I was preparing it), and even during the service, before I preached, I was distracted by thinking about what I would say. Although at least the service after the sermon was more useful for me, and I could listen and sing a bit better.

This week, as with most weeks around this period, apart from the usual activities, will be busy for both Pinuccia and me getting things ready for the Sunday School presentation and for the children’s camp next month. There is quite a bit of preparation for both of them still, so pray for that.

Today there was one of my favourite regular activities: the monthly lunch after church. Although due to the fact that the church has grown too large to eat in our usual hall, it has not been very monthly lately. But now that the better weather has arrived, the church was able to go to its favourite park again to eat and talk together. The reality however for us has been that for the past three years, these lunches with the church have not been as enjoyable, since we have always had to look after Stefania and Daniele, keeping them amused and out of trouble. But now that they are older we can give them their food and they eat it by themselves, and then we can let them run wild in the park. Well, almost wild: they play with the older children who take good care of them. So Pinuccia and I were free to talk normally with the adults. Although we did lose a bit of time, since we had to have a planning meeting for the children’s camp next month whilst at the park.

With the Spring weather, we were thinking of being able to go out more often with the family, especially on Saturdays when in theory we are all free from church and school. But with the Spring weather, everyone else wants to organise things together as well. So it turns out that we have no free Saturdays for the rest of the academic year, ie all May and June. (And then in July we go to Sicily for a few weeks.) Although most of these events are things we can do with the family. So for example this Saturday there is a picnic and afternoon together for the group at Rovereto, which we also hope will be beneficial for the group there as they get to know each other better in a more relaxed atmosphere. So pray for that event as well.

I spent most of the week thinking it was the wrong day. Firstly because on Monday the whole family went to the ECM-Italy meeting a couple of hours to the south of Trento, which seemed like a weekend activity. So Tuesday seemed like Monday. As well as that Stefania had a slight cold, and so spent most of the week at home, so the days never quite seemed as they should me. But on Friday she went back to school, and should be right for this week. (Although there is still some resistance every morning to the idea of going to school.) By the end of the week, I had managed to get myself syncronised with the calendar again.

One of the highlights of the week was a Sicilian dinner at our place, for five couples/families that had at least one person from Pinuccia’s home town. (Although one couple could not make it due to the flu.) Since they are all good friends as well, it was a fun evening, and Stefania and Daniele enjoyed playing the whole time with my ex flat mate’s children, who are the same age. The non Sicilian components, like myself, just sat back and enjoyed the food which the others produced, especially when the talk kept dropping into incomprehensible Sicilian dialect.

On Tuesday, instead of the usual Bible study at Rovereto, there will be a meeting at Trento for the wider group of people interested in and committed to helping the whole church planting project at Rovereto. So you could pray for that meeting, that we would have good ideas, and the desire and dependence on God, to move forward with that project.

I’m getting ready to go out for the monthly service at Rovereto (where it will be my turn to preach), but apart from that the week is over for me, and so I can write a bit. In any case, when I return from the service, it will be straight to dinner, then getting the children to bed, and then a bit of rest, so it might be harder to write later. The service will also be a welcome back for Suzanne Bikker, the new missionary at Rovereto, who just got back this afternoon from a few months of deputation. Now that she will be here long term (and with a car), she will be able to put all her energy into her ministries. And I will be putting more time into guiding and helping her in this.

This week most of my commitments restarted – Bible studies on Wednesday and Saturday, band practice on Friday. The only one that was missing was the Rovereto group on Tuesday, which meets this week. It was good being able to teach the Bible to people again! The other two highlights of the week were:
- getting my driver’s licence renewed, and discovering that my eyesight has actually got better not worse since the last renewal 10 years ago, and even since 28 years ago when I first discovered I was slightly short sighted;
- the continuation of our church growth program, with not one but two births on Wednesday. With another baby born just before Christmas, and who we met for the first time at the Saturday group, there are only three pregnancies left (two of which are in the Saturday group).

This week it is Pinuccia’s turn to do some teaching. She is leading a study for the monthly ladies’ meeting on Thursday, and then leading a Sunday School teachers’ meeting on Saturday. It does send her into a bit of a panic, especially as she has less time available to prepare such meetings than I do, so you could pray for God’s help in these things.

Usually I write my weekly message on Sunday afternoon, when I have finished my activities for the week. But this time, although I am writing at the usual time, I have not quite finished. Tonight there is a dinner for all the group at Rovereto. Partly as a social time, partly for a birthday on Tuesday, and partly to farewell Suzanne Bikker, who will leave on Tuesday for three months in Holland. This will be to speak to the churches about her ministry (which she could not do between finishing Bible school and coming here, because it was summer), and to raise some more support, as she is still a bit short.

As well as the usual Tuesday Bible study, the Rovereto group also had a meeting last Thursday, to talk about the Rovereto church planting project. It was in fact an extended group: as well as six people who live there, plus the two of us who travel there each week from Trento for the Bible studies, there were five others from Trento and the province who want to help out with the project in various ways. This is a lot different from the first such meeting two years ago, when there were just three of us, of whom none were from Rovereto. This time, we looked at how we could improve our current activities (weekly Bible studies, monthly services, monthly bookstall and literature distributions), and considered some ideas for the future.

Today there was a double commitment for me, with my second lesson for the year at the Sunday School and then leading the monthly service at Rovereto. Like most ministries in the church, the Sunday School has experienced growth since last year. Then there were a maximum of 5 children, and usually 3-4 present. It was fairly manageable. With two new children coming to church, and two others coming up from the class of the smaller children, there is now a theoretical maximum of 9, although only 8 have come so far. And in fact this morning there were eight children plus me around the table for six people (because there is no room in the corridor where we meet for a larger table), which instead of being “fairly manageable” is more like “total chaos”. In situations like this, it is good to know that it is God who teaches, and not my ability to keep the children in line. Since we were doing Joshua today, at the end of the lesson we joined up with the smaller children and marched around the walls of Jericho that I had constructed from cardboard boxes, before I knocked down the wall and took the treasure of Jericho (lollies) away for God. That wasn’t only like total chaos, it was total chaos!

The other news in church today was another announcement of a pregnancy. We now are up to six pregnant ladies, although we are still short of our record of 8 pregnancies at the same time. The new pregnancy is one of the members of the new Saturday afternoon group in the Valsugana that our family goes to, so although now there are 8 children from Stefania’s age down in that group, by the end of the church year in June there will be 11. It does make the Bible studies interesting – we are all learning to shout a lot more as we discuss.

This week, apart from the usual activities, the main thing to pray for is a meeting on Thursday evening in which we will be talking about the Rovereto church planting project, and about where we want to go in the future and what we want to do to get there. There will be quite a few (maybe a dozen) people there who are interested in and are committed to helping the project, which makes a bit difference from the three people that there were at the first such meeting we had two years ago.

There was a lot happening in the family this week, which meant me doing less in the church. Although of course the church does not depend on me, and there was more happening in the church than normal, with the first Bible study at the university for the academic year, a meeting for some of the mothers to plan a prayer morning next month, a bookstall at Rovereto, some people going away for a five day conference, and no doubt other things that I am not even aware of! But the highlight of the family happenings during the week was Stefania’s fourth birthday today. It was the first time that she really appreciated what a birthday meant, and chose the friends she wanted at her party today from school and from church. Since the party and its preparation were in the afternoon today, and church in the morning, as a family we celebrated yesterday. She also had a party in the park for one of the other children in her class on Saturday afternoon. So she (like us) was fairly tired at the end of the weekend. Although with all these activities, she said as she was going to bed that her “head did not want to go to sleep”.

Tomorrow is one of our regular get togethers for all the ECM missionaries in Italy. This time we will be concentrating on some training, as the ECM training coordinator will be coming as well to give us some input. So you could pray for this day together, and that despite having to look after Stefania and Daniele that both Pinuccia and I will be able to some spend good time with the others. On Thursday there will be the first Ladies’ meeting after the summer break, which Pinuccia will lead, and next Sunday the monthly service at Rovereto, where I will be leading the service. So this week it will be back to lots of outside activities for us both.

It was a full week this week with church activities, out six evenings in a row. First on Tuesday and Wednesday there were the usually cell group Bible studies at Rovereto and Trento. Then there was a co-ordination meeting with the cell group and church leaders, so that everyone knows what everyone else is doing. Since it was the first such meeting after the summer break, we worked on a summary of where we are at the moment and looked at our plans for the year. It was encouraging to see more than 80% of the (more or less) regular attenders of the church in one of the seven cell groups, which becomes almost 90% if we include the few in the young adults’ group that do not attend one of the cell groups. However, it also causes problems with the groups, because they are more popular than we can cope with. For example, the three groups at Trento each have 16 members, whereas a dozen is usually the recommended maximum size. But we do not have enough leaders to start another group.

After my “recreation night” at band practice on Friday, on Saturday there was the first meeting of the new group in the Valsugana, which caters also for the “baby boomers” in the valley: six couples are in the group, along with 8 children under 4 years old plus two more on the way. It will be interesting to see how such a group, which is very different from the other groups in the church, develops. Then this evening, there was the monthly service at Rovereto, which it was my turn to preach up. By the way, this morning there was also a record attendance at the service at Trento, with 76 adults (not counting guests).

In the meantime, we had Pinuccia’s cousin and her husband staying with us from last Sunday until Saturday, when they moved to the apartment that they had found. It is at the centre of Lavis, only about 500 meters from our house, which no doubt will be convenient at times. For example, I leave tomorrow for four days at Madrid for meetings with ECM, and this creates some problems for Pinuccia in managing the house and the children (even though she will take a few days off work). But she will be able to get her cousin to help to do some shopping, or to have a meal, or to have a lift somewhere if necessary, since I will be taking the car to the airport. I in the meantime will get a bit of a break, although two and a half days shut up inside in constant meetings is tiring in another way.