News and prayer information from Richard and Pinuccia Wilson

Various happenings for this week and next:

1. Next Saturday afternoon at our house there will be a meeting for the new Youth Group. It will actually be the second meeting, but the first that I will be going to (since I was in Spain last time), and the first study. So for me it feels like it is just starting now. So please pray for this time together.

2. Yesterday I received the following e-mail:

I wanted to tell you that I have begun to study the Bible, using your Internet site. I am happy to be able to count on your help.

Just an encouraging remind for me that my site on the Bible (http://www.laparola.net/english.html) is used and helpful for Italians to get to know the Bible better. Unfortunately in this period, with a lot of Bible studies to prepare, I am not able to work on improving the site, but it is sitting out there in cyberspace doing its job anyway. And I do keep up with the e-mail correspondence that I receive as a result of the site.

3. This week turned out to be astronomy week at our house. We were reading one of Stefania’s books to her, and it started talking about stars and planets. She was really interested, so we found other material (books, DVDs, a planetarium program on the computer) on them, and she really enjoyed all of it. Unfortunately, when we went out to look at the real thing, we were just able to see one star. It is a problem with living in the city, especially with 2000 meter high walls (the mountains) blocking out most of the horizon. We will probably have to wait until we go to Sicily at the end of the year before we can get her to admire God’s handiwork in the heavens.

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 got through my big week, with 6 studies in 8 days. Some of them went quite well, and I could see understanding in people’s eyes, and I enjoyed doing the two Sunday School lessons. I also taught the children the first verse of my new song on the life of Saul. I will gradually teach the following verses (there are a total of seven) as we do further lessons on Saul in the next couple of months. In the meantime, I also managed to prepare ahead another study that I will be doing in a few months’ time. This week instead is a “minimal” week, with just the two weekly cell groups to lead (Tuesday at Rovereto and Wednesday at Trento). So I hope this week to be able to also prepare the last two studies that I will be leading before the summer break at the end of June. (Although it might be necessary to prepare a few more for the last few weeks, if we finish the planned studies early.) That will give me more time for doing my computer work, which has suffered a bit for the last few months.

Pinuccia also had a good meeting yesterday with the church elders about the Sunday School, following on from the teachers’ meeting last week, thinking about the future of the children’s ministry in the church. There will be some changes, with no less that 8 new children coming in, taking the number of children from 25 to 33 (that was a very fertile year!). But there will be some children leaving at the other end, having moved into the teenager age range. We want to re-start the Youth Group for these teenagers after the summer, although there are practical problems to overcome (eg the seven teenagers live in 4 different parts of the province, with only two at Trento). But since two of the possible group members are daughters of the two elders, we can leave it up to them to work out when is the best time to meet!

Stefania has had a bit more pleasure in going to school this week, although there were still a few tears some days. And one day, when I had to take Daniele as well when I dropped off Stefania, he started crying because I would not leave him at school with her.

Pinuccia got through her week with various commitments – ladies’ Bible study on Thursday and Sunday School teachers’ meeting on Saturday. The teachers’ meeting is always interesting: with eight females and myself, there is a different way of discussion to what I am used to in male dominated meetings!

This week it is my turn, with almost everything possible coming up for me at the same time. So I did the Sunday School lesson today, and will again next Sunday as well (I usually do two weeks out of every six). In the middle, there are the normal Bible study groups on Tuesday, Wednesday and the fortnightly Saturday meeting. On Thursday there is the small group coordination meeting that I will lead, with a bit of training to prepare for the leaders of the groups. I also have band practice on Friday, but at least that is more relaxing. The only thing that is missing for me amongst my regular commitments is the monthly service at Rovereto. On Saturday morning, Pinuccia also has a meeting with the elders to talk about the Sunday School ministry, although I will just be looking after the children and eavesdropping there.

It has been a bit of a difficult week for Stefania, who has suddenly started having a crises about going to school. In the morning she doesn’t want to go, preferring to stay at home (and especially with her mother), and crying a lot when we drop her off. What I pick her up again in the afternoon, she always says that she loved school and it was better there than staying at home, but she forgets that by the next morning. So we are praying that she will overcome quickly this crises.

The main reason for this trip to Australia was to visit family, and of course Christmas Day this week was the big opportunity to do this, with all the family together for the first time in 18 years (since I moved to Italy). So it was great to be able have a traditional Wilson Christmas again. And for Stefania and Daniele, for the first time. They also did a lot of “bonding” with cousins and other relatives, which was good both for them and for the relatives.

We are now however already towards the end of our trip. On Friday afternoon we will be taking the plane home, so pray for our farewells and the long journey with the children.

We have been in Australia for a few days now, with just the last effects of jet lag to go away yet. Although it is hard to distinguish between the effects of jet lag, and of having small children who wake up a lot earlier than you would like to. In any case, we have been able to do a fair bit with our family already, and we are already seeing improvements in Stefania’s English as she gets practice at making up sentences.

Today and yesterday were Stefania’s and Daniele’s big surprises for the trip. Last time we were here they got to know some Australian culture, and we brought some DVDs back to Italy with us. So in Italy they have been really enjoying the Wiggles and Colin Buchanan over the last 16 months. [For my non Australian readers: they are famous singers of children's songs.] And so have Pinuccia and I – since it has been 18 years since I lived in Australia, and I didn’t have children, I had vaguely heard of these two artists but I had never heard them perform or knew much about them. But they have been part of my inspiration and idea sources for the songs I have been writing for my Sunday School children. Before we left to come to Australia, I saw that both of them had Christmas concerts on at Sydney whilst we were here. So yesterday afternoon we went to the Olympic Park to a Wiggles’ concert, and today we went into the city for a walk around and some shopping, and for a concert by Colin at the cathedral. It was a joy to see the pleasure and the excitement beaming out of our children’s faces as they realised the nature of their surprises – one of the joys of being a parent, of course, is to give joy to your children. It was all fairly tiring for them, and us, and tomorrow we will have a rest day at home (although that does include a trip to the nearby park and one to a swimming pool). In fact, Daniele went to sleep half way through the noise and lights of the Wiggles’ concert, and then again just before Colin’s concert so that he got only the second half of that one.

Yesterday evening as we were coming home from the Valsugana “baby boom” group, both Stefania and Daniele fell asleep in the car (about 6.15pm). This is not too unusual. What was unusual is that we managed to get them both up three flights of stairs, and they kept sleeping. And sleeping. And didn’t wake up until this morning. Whilst one or the other has done such a long sleep occasionally, I can’t remember them both ever doing it at the same time. So Pinuccia and I had a peaceful dinner, fairly romantic as well because Stefania was sleeping on the sofa in the lounge, so most of the lights were turned off. And after that we both had a lot of time to get some work done: I on the studies in 1Chronicles that the church is doing, Pinuccia to finish off a special lesson for today for the Sunday School. Since the fund raising for the school in India we support is coming up, Pinuccia took both the class for the small and that for the middle children, to talk about why we support them and the right attitude that we should have to money and possessions.

So to pray for this week is the time together with the older and middle children on Saturday afternoon, preparing the material that will be sold the Sunday after, and also another song that I have written for them to sing that day in the church service. Then on Sunday, there will be a special bookstall at Rovereto. Special, because it is actually the day of the annual town market day, so there will be a lot more people around than for the usual days when we do the bookstall.

Once again an busy and tiring weekend, with a talk on the Christian family on Friday night, and two on Saturday afternoon. And for us especially, hosting the speaker and his family at our house as well. It does of course add a lot of work, but it is something we do joyfully, and something we benefit from also. And hopefully it will be an example that the children will learn from as well.
Since the guests were only English speaking, Stefania was forced to speak English. At least in theory: although she does understand English well, she is losing her ability to speak it, and never does, not even to me, replying to my English with Italian answers. So we kept telling her to not speak to the guests in Italian as they did not understand it, but it meant that she would not say anything rather than speak in English (because she couldn’t, not because she didn’t want to). Something to continue to work on there…
The other joy of the week was in Sunday School this morning. We usually ask for a few volunteers amongst the children to pray at the beginning, and the older children are happy to. But this morning Stefania asked to be one of those that prayed, despite being one of the youngest there and usually a bit shy. And she prayed well too.
The coming events to pray for this week are, apart from the usually meetings, the monthly ladies’ meeting on Thursday evening that Pinuccia will be looking after, and the monthly service at Rovereto on Sunday afternoon, where I will be preaching.

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.

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.