News and prayer information from Richard and Pinuccia Wilson

A bit of Spring weather has arrived now, with temperatures getting up to 20 degrees during the day. If past years are anything to go by, it will get a bit colder again for a while, and then the Spring weather will arrive permanently. After 3 winters in a row, we am looking forward to it! For Stefania, it meant that we brought her bicycle out of hiberation yesterday, and she went up and down our cul-de-sac, with Daniele excitedly following behind her trying out his walking and running skills. It has also meant the beginning of the concert season, with today being the first town festival of the year, in a town 5 kilometers north of us. The band was invited to play, so I dashed there after a quick lunch after church. In a couple of weeks it will be Lavis’ turn to have their annual festival.

In some ways it has been an easier week this week, with almost half the Rovereto group having to work on Tuesday evening so the meeting was cancelled, one of the rare Thursday nights without a meeting for the church, and the band practice on Friday cancelled due to snow. So we have had four out of five nights free together during the week. I don’t think that has ever happened outside of the summer months before. Even on Wednesday, we watched a film (Amazing Grace, on Wilberforce’s life) instead of doing a study. On the other hand, the first two snow falls of the season that have occurred during the week have complicated matters a bit, with car travel becoming difficult and at times impossible. And when I picked up Stefania from school today I discovered that pushing two children on a stroller through a few centimetres of snow, with more snow falling as well, is quite tiring. Even when Stefania decided that she was more interested in running around and playing in the snow rather than staying on the stroller. Tomorrow however she will have a great time, when I will take her outside to play in the snow. Maybe I will even make my first ever snowman!
The rest of the time, we have been busy preparing for the Sunday School event at church on Sunday. However, with more school forecast on Sunday morning, we might find that our numbers are greatly reduced, which would create some problems for what we would want to do.

The big news today is that finally Daniele has started walking, taking three steps three times in the afternoon (of which I managed to videotape two times). It is two days before he turns 15 months, which is two weeks later than when Stefania started walking. Their growth has in fact followed fairly similar patterns. They also seem to be equal opportunity grandchildren: Stefania started walking whilst my parents were visiting, and Daniele whilst Pinuccia’s mother is visiting. All his steps were in fact towards her (or at least towards the toy she was holding). Pinuccia was at work and missed the excitement, and ever since she has arrived home he has refused to walk. So Pinuccia has to rely on the video tape for the moment.

Meanwhile, Stefania has had a couple of afternoons of fever and has been missing school. She has infected Daniele a bit, although as is usual his stronger constitution keeps him a bit healthier. Although after his big walking effort in the afternoon he fell asleep, and woke up a couple of hours later with a slightly higher temperature, still tired, and generally complaining about everything.

There were no less than three birthday parties in the church this weekend. The first was for Stefania, who turned three on Saturday, and so some of the children (and parents) in the church came to our house in the afternoon. Then on Sunday there were two separate lunches to celebrate birthdays, one for one of the teenagers who turned 16 that the people in the young adults’ group went to, and one for another person in the church that the older people went to.

This made me reflect on how the church and I have changed since I have been here. First of all, since the teenager was born a month after I arrived in Italy, I feel a special identification with her when I think about my time in Italy and the growth that I have seen. Secondly, it used to be pretty rare that we would celebrate three birthdays on the same weekend, as the church wasn’t large enough. And we would never have had two events at the same time. The church used to be small enough that everyone would be invited to everything. That is no longer possible, and now we have the disadvantage of a medium sized church that you can’t know everybody well. Of course, the advantages in our case outweigh the disadvantages, and because of the small groups (including the young adults) there is the same close fellowship in different sections of the congregation, even if not in all at the same time. So we can organise two birthday parties at the same time, and there is no problem. This is certainly a lot different to the situation 16 years ago! The third reflection was due to the fact that I was invited to the old peoples’ party, not to the young adults’ party. I’ll let you decide what it made me think… But I managed to get back towards the “young” side again, because the teenagers are missing a bit our meetings now that they are just the three youngest people in the young adults’ group. So Pinuccia and I have organised a meeting for them at our house next Saturday (or possibly, if that doesn’t work, the following Saturday), for “old times’ sake”, to find out how they are going spiritually and to pray together (and eat pizzas and watch a video, naturally).

During the week, there was a Bible reading marathon, in which the whole Bible was read on the state TV’s satellite channel over 7 days, with 1200 celebrities and “normal” people reading. What I personally found interesting and encouraging was that when I mentioned it on my Italian language blog about things to do with the Bible (at http://www.laparola.net/blog/?postid=235), there was a flood of comments – 25 so far, and they are still arriving. Usually there are no comments on my messages, and at most there are two. I was starting to think that there weren’t even 25 readers of my blog! So I was encouraged to keep going. It was also a indication that the public diffusion of the Bible in Italy does create interest, even though it is not always apparent or visible. Which is the reason why I keep my Italian Bible site and free computer program going, even if I don’t get a lot of feedback from it. The desire is there to hear and read the Bible in Italy.

It has been a slightly quieter week for me, because on Tuesday there was a meeting about the couple with a visiting speaker. So the Rovereto group did not meet, and Pinuccia went out to that whilst I put the children to sleep. So I only had the one study to do this week, plus the church committee meeting last night.

Next week will be without studies as well, because on Tuesday I will be going to Madrid for three days of ECM meetings, which will leave me only Pinuccia’s night to go out to the Bible study on Monday and my band practice night on Friday. At least that is the theory. I am booked to fly with Alitalia, and there is a good chance that it will go bankrupt by next week! So I am still not sure if I will be going.

In the meantime, on Sunday is the first meeting of the Sunday School for this school year. There will be a time with all the classes together to present the year, and it will be another month before my turn for teaching comes up.

Stefania still enjoys school, although she did not eat anything at lunch there the first day. She has eaten a bit however in the last few days, even though not a lot and certainly not everything. On Monday she will start full-time hours, ie from 9am to 3.15pm. After lunch, they make the smaller children have a nap at the school. This will be even more interesting than trying to make her eat, as she has not had an afternoon nap for over a year, and certainly when I pick her up after lunch now the school has not tired her out enough, and neither does another hour playing in the park in the afternoon. Her teachers will certainly have fun with her!

I’ve completed my first week of normal activities now, with two Bible studies and a small group coordination meeting. I should be out tonight for band practice as well, but we will instead go out together as a family to celebrate – there is a birthday today! Next Monday the small group that Pinuccia attends restarts, so then we will have our normal full weeks. In the meantime this Sunday afternoon there will be our second church service at Rovereto, which will also try to bring together some of the people that live in the area but who do not come to the Bible studies during the week.

Stefania is coping well with the extra hours at school. She even doesn’t mind being woken up as she knows it is to go to school. I don’t know if this enthusiasm will last another 15 years; we shall see. Next week she will have another couple of hours each day, so it will be from before 9am to after 1pm. This means that she will be eating at school with the other children. It will be interesting to see how much she actually eats in such an environment. We instead will have our first taste of the “empty nest” syndrome. It will seem so quiet at lunch time for us without her.

Stefania has successfully overcome her first week of pre-school. She quite enjoyed it, and looked forward to going each day. She didn’t actually speak to the other children or the teachers (in either language), but she did at least play with some others instead of playing by herself with other children around, which is what she has usually done in the pat. Next week it is a step up to 2.5 hours per day. The hardest part for her will be getting up earlier in order to be at school by 9am. She is definitely a night person! However, she gets Monday off, as it is Lavis’ patron saint’s day. Whereas Pinuccia, who works at Trento, will have to go to work.

The meetings at our house during the week to prepare for the Sunday School and welcoming ministries went well. I have ended up with the 7-10 year old class, which has five children in it. I share it with Pinuccia and another lady, so we each miss only one out of every three sermons. It will be an interesting time for me! The classes will start on September 21, although it will be sometime in October when I have to give my first lesson.

In the meantime, tomorrow (Saturday) there is another bookstall at Rovereto, the first of the monthly bookstalls after the summer break. There is also a fair on in the town, so there should be quite a few people around. I was supposed to be or wanted to be at two other places as well. The organisation for missionaries in Italy is having its biennial mission conference at the moment – I heard that there are more than 250 people present, which is far more than any expectation. And the theological institute at Padua (2.5 hours away) is having their annual training weekend. Since the church does a lot together with the institute (including a few members doing courses there, and one of the elders teaching there), quite a few church members have gone there. It has left us a bit short handed for the bookstall, but there will be enough people present and it is good to see some of the newer people in the church helping out at Rovereto.

Today was also release day for a new version (7.05) of my program, with some of the changes that I had managed to do whilst we were in Australia. It is a bit of work getting all the files ready for distribution, backing up the new files, changing the site and writing messages in the various places were I announce new versions, so it takes most of a day to do it.

First day of school today for Stefania and Pinuccia. Stefania seemed to cope with her hour and a half, although she is so calm that she doesn’t usually let anything upset her. Daniele seemed more upset, because he wasn’t allowed to stay with all the toys. Pinuccia had a longer day than usual, since there were extra meetings to plan out the year a bit – and because the education department made a mistake and did not send the second relief teacher as it should have.

We seem to have got enough toilet training done just in time as well. Stefania still needs a nappy to go out (except to school), and there are quite a few false alarms, but there haven’t been any accidents for a while.

Most of the church activities that we are involved with will be starting next week. So we have taken the opportunity to hold a couple of other special meetings. On Wednesday night at our house Pinuccia will be leading the Sunday School teachers’ meeting (where I will be for the first time), and on Thursday night at our house I will be leading a meeting for the welcomers. Then on Friday there is the usual band practice, and all day Saturday one of the monthly bookstalls at Rovereto.

Pinuccia went this morning to the meeting that assigned the various available jobs to the relief teachers, and got the second last one going. So this year she will be working two and half hours a day in the afternoon in a small town on the other side of Trento, starting on Monday. It could have been a bit longer, but it is pretty close to what she was hoping to receive. We are still working out exactly what it will mean for my usual day (especially as Stefania will have a gradual start to pre-school, with only 1.5 hours a day next week, gradually building up to a full time 8.5 hours a day from the 22nd), but probably like last year I will be looking after the children in the afternoon (including picking up Stefania and doing the shopping, although without a car), and in the morning doing Bible study preparation and other work (with less interruptions than in the mornings last year, now that Pinuccia will have to look after only one child instead of two).

In the meantime, we are working hard on getting Stefania ready to start school on Monday, especially getting her toilet trained and speaking some Italian (she understands it, but prefers to speak in English). I doubt either task will be completed by next week, so she should make life interesting for her teachers.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we go to Canberra for 8 days, our first trip of our deputation time in Australia, with three services to speak at in one church on Sunday, two services in another church the following Sunday, and seven other meetings of the two churches in the week in between. So we will be kept quite busy. Pray for energy for us, and that the children will not get too upset by all the changes and moving around. Pray also for these meetings, and for all those in the next couple of months, that we will be able to help to produce “world Christians” and especially support for Trento.
But so far they have enjoyed the time in Australia. Stefania loved our visit today to the centre of Sydney and especially to the aquarium; she kept looking around at everything new. And in the aquarium, at every tank it was “More fish! More fish!”. Daniele on the other hand arrived in Australia and immediately started to crawl – or at least half crawl and slide, but in any case a lot more than he was doing in Italy. The trip has also encouraged his teeth: now the fourth tooth is ready to come up in the next few days.