News and prayer information from Richard and Pinuccia Wilson

This Wednesday night there is my first Bible study of the year. After have worked on Acts for a few months already, I am looking forward to being able to share what I have found exciting about the book so far. Pinuccia will be organising a beginning of year “party” for the Sunday School next Sunday, and then the lessons will start the following week. There are a few other ministries that we will be involved in this year, and that will be starting a bit later, but more on those later. So pray for these first meetings.

Daniele has been accelerated at pre-school, and will be able to go from the start of the school day from Monday, instead of starting at 10am for a few more days like the other new children. This is because he has fitted in so well. Instead of crying when he has to leave me or Pinuccia to go into the classroom, he pushes us away to run in as fast as he can. And cried the first day when he had to come home. Of course, it has helped that he has been to the preschool almost every day for the past two years, to pick up Stefania with me. So he knows the school and the teachers. It was also because the teacher had a bit of pity on us, having to make 4 trips a day. So this week we will only have to make three – take them both at 8.30/9am, pick up Daniele at 11.30, then Pinuccia will bring Stefania with her when she leaves school at 3.30pm. Pinuccia has really been enjoying working close to home, and it has helped her to become a part of town life here at Lavis. It helps that she is the teacher of Stefania’s best friend at school, and of the grandson of someone in our apartment block who is also the nephew of one of Stefania’s teacher. (Lavis is a small town!) So she already knew quite a few people, and will no doubt know a lot more by the end of the school year.

Well, yesterday was certainly a big day. It was the first day of preschool for Stefania and Daniele. Since it was the first ever day for Daniel, he has a gradual insertion into school life, and only goes from 10am to 11.30 for the first week. So between Pinuccia and I, we made three walks to the school and back in the morning. Daniele cried a bit at preschool – but only when I came to take him home, as he wanted to stay at school. Then after lunch, it was Pinuccia’s turn to drive to a different preschool for her first day, and then Daniele and I went back to school to pick up Stefania. A bit later my mother arrived for her visit – we had to make her take a bus and two trains from the airport at Verona, since we were not free to pick her up. Then it was Pinuccia’s turn to come home from school. A bit after she arrived, she got a phone call from another preschool with not one, but two job offers. Not just for a short time, but for the whole year (which is what she wanted). And not from any school, but from the school at Lavis where the children attend, and that she can walk to. And it was for 2.5 hours, which is just what we wanted. And it was not the after school care, which is usually the most that she can expect, but in the normal class, which is personally more rewarding (being more like teaching and less like babysitting). And one of the two jobs finishes at the end of the school day, so she can bring Stefania and Daniele home with her, saving me an trip (and an hour) in the afternoon. All in all, there is nothing that could be improved in that job. So she has resigned from the other job, and will start this one this afternoon. So it means now more than 6 hours free without the children and with the car available, of which 3 hours by myself. This will give me a lot more possibilities for work and ministry in the church. We thank God a lot for this job!

Daniele, Pinuccia and Stefania at the lake

More time this week with the family, and with friends as well. It was a bit more like holidays than the first week of the school vacations, and I also managed to get a bit of work done preparing some Bible studies on Acts. Now it is time to get ready for our trip to Sicily for a few weeks with Pinuccia’s family. It is a long trip: we leave at 2am on Tuesday morning, catch a ferry at 1pm from Naples down to Messina, and then have a few more hours in the car. We should arrive after midnight on Tuesday night. Usually the children cope better with the travelling than the drivers do… The portable DVD keeps them amused for hours, and the timing of the trip is planned so that they sleep during a lot of it. When we are in Sicily, it will be more like holidays than now. Pinuccia’s family lives close to the beach, so we will be going there often. Usually however it is too hot to go to the beach, we (and others) just go around 5pm for a few hours. And then there will be lots of going out to see extended family and friends down there.

Those with children know that vacations don’t mean holidays. In fact, ever since school finished on Wednesday for Pinuccia and Stefania, we have been even busier than usual with trips to the park, to the swimming pool, to a birthday party, and inviting friends to our house. At least I had led my last Bible study for a while on Wednesday night, and then only had to lead the service this morning, so there were not many other commitments to prepare for. However I certainly did not get as much done on my other projects as I had been hoping. But it has been fun doing these things with the family.

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.

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.

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.

Not every week there is something to blog home about it, and so this week was mostly the normal activities: Bible studies to prepare, attend and lead, family activities, meeting with friends, and a bit of programming for LaParola. Although there was a pleasant day yesterday, a public holiday, when we went 2.5 hours south of Trento, to a picnic for a church were a few of Pinuccia’s relatives go. We try to go and see them occasionally, and we had not been for a while, so that was a good opportunity to meet them again. Even if it did mean as much driving time as picnicing time.

There was one little highlight this evening however. Daniele is just starting to learn to pray, mostly incomprehensible prayers, but he prayed three times tonight, of which the last one was, “Thank you for sticky tape and the fridge” (since Pinuccia had just stuck one of his pictures to the fridge door).

A good contrast with the previous weekend… With Pinuccia and Stefania getting a week’s holiday from school, it is a more restful time for us all. I don’t get such a holiday, but it turned out that Thursday was one of the rare Thursdays without a church meeting of some sort, and there was no band practice on Friday night due to Easter, so I did get a bit of a break from my usual commitments. (I do however have the usual Bible studies on Tuesday and Wednesday night, whilst in the family we will still be in holiday mode, so it might be difficult to make the mental shift.) We have been taking the opportunity to do some things together as a family, and the weather should be better in the next few days to be able to do some more outdoor activities like picnics and bike rides. And hopefully the health will be better also – the other three have all been sick with colds and other ailments, including fevers for three nights, but they are a bit better now.

We have also been working on creating our family Easter traditions. Now that the children are old enough to understand the meaning of Easter, we have been working out which parts of Australian and Italian culture we wanted to retain and use to explain this. Some ideas we have kept until later years when they are a bit older, but we did read stories of Jesus’ death and resurrection from the Bible on Friday and Sunday, and then had some activities to reinforce them. It helped that we went to an exhibit at the local science museum on Friday, which was about chickens hatching from eggs, so we could use that to explain why we had an egg hunt and chocolate eggs on Sunday (as a symbol of new life). We pray of course that the children will not only understand these stories, but also believe and put their trust in them.

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).