News and prayer information from Richard and Pinuccia Wilson

School, Sunday School and bookstall

Richard Wilson — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:48:07 +0000

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

Richard Wilson — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:24:42 +0000

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’s work

Richard Wilson — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:32:59 +0000

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.

On (kind of) holidays

Richard Wilson — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:36:27 +0000

Maybe it is not quite holidays, since there are a lot of things to do around the house, and small projects (like my tax return and making a family video of our time in Australia) that I want to wrap up before the church and school commitments start up, but it is a nice break to have. We have managed to get to the lake once, and will have another trip in the next couple of days. Although with both the dishwasher and the washing machine breaking down during our absence, we are having to organise such trips around visits to get them repaired. We also took Daniele for his one year check up, and whilst two of his problems at birth fixed themselves, the third (an undescended testicle) has not, so surgery will probably be necessary in a few weeks’ time. But first he will have an ultrasound to see the exact extent of the problem, so more on that later.

Although my church commitments have not restarted yet, the band practices began last night, so I got to see my friends there for the first time in a while. We went of course to church on Sunday as well. There are still a lot of people missing there, whom we will see again in the next couple of weeks as they return from holidays, although there were also a few new people to meet.

Back in Italy

Richard Wilson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:04:05 +0000

After 36 hours from door to door, we arrived back home yesterday afternoon. The trip went fairly well, apart from Daniele vomiting a bit just after taking off from Singapore (due to a virus he already had) and the video on demand non working for a long time on the Singapore-Europe leg (which made it harder to keep Stefania - as well as her parents - amused). Stefania went wild over all her toys which she was reacquainted with when we returned - she would get excited about one, play with it for 5 minutes, then see another and get excited about that, and so on. I might take a while to adjust to being back: when I went shopping to get some provisions, I managed to drive on the wrong side of the road, speak to someone in English, and forget my card’s PIN number when I tried to pay.

Now we can have a bit of a rest, after being very busy the last few months, although there are quite a few bureaucratic and other things we have to do as well. Then at the beginning of September it is back to work for Pinuccia and me, and school for Stefania.

On our way

Richard Wilson — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:45:24 +0000

Today we had our last deputation meeting of this trip, so now we are hard at work with the packing. Our goods have multiplied somewhat since we were here, so it is looking a bit difficult to fit everything into our bags. Anyway, we will be leaving a bit after noon tomorrow to catch the plane at 4pm, and if everything goes well (like no mechanical problems for Qantas) we should be home about midnight on Tuesday Australian time. So pray for the trip again, that it goes as well as the trip to Australia a few months ago.

Towards the end

Richard Wilson — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:35:16 +0000

We have moved, celebrated and had a few more meetings now. There is only one more meeting in which we have to speak now, although I do have a trip to Canberra on Wednesday to return my borrowed car and a trip to Katoomba for the Reachout missionary convention on Saturday. But it is a more relaxed week generally speaking, which is good for us all after all the activities that we have had lately. Although I am sure that things will start to get hectic again towards the end of the week as we start thinking about packing.

A nice break in Queensland

Richard Wilson — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:19:00 +0000

We have come back now from our trip to Queensland. It was a relaxing time, and a nice change from all the deputation meetings that we have been doing lately (although we did do one on the journey back). There was some good time with my relatives there, and the warm Queensland winter was great for going to the beach, which always pleases Pinuccia (who would usually spend a lot of this time of year at the beach near her house in Sicily) and the children. The only negative point was Daniele catching a virus (which he then spread to Stefania, me and my aunt) with cold like symptoms. At least since he was worse at night, but reasonably OK during the day, we didn’t have to miss out doing anything, except that only I went to church with my aunt. On the other hand, I realised that “holidays” in the sense of just doing nothing aren’t possible any more, at least not for a while. There is always a lot of work involved in organising a family of two children to do anything. I know those of you who are parents know this already, but I am learning these things late in life. But when it is a joy to do things for the children, and find things that they will like to do, then it is still an enjoyable holiday, even if in a different way.

Now it is but to being busy again, with a couple of people to meet in town today (Thursday), then moving house from the mission centre to my parents’ house tomorrow. This is also Daniele’s first birthday, so in the evening there is a family party for him (and for my brother’s birthday a few days later). Then we go to Newcastle for the weekend to meet up with a few friends there, followed by two deputation meetings back in Sydney on Monday.

Rest at last

Richard Wilson — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:03:29 +0000

We have got through another busy week, including three sermons, three interviews and a presentation yesterday. It was good to spend some time at the Bible colleges during the week, and I was able to create a bit of interest amongst people to go to Trento to do church planting. They are still students, and then would have to prepare and raise support, so it will be a long time before anything comes of it, if it does, but the interest is there.

Now we will finally get a bit of a rest, with 4 days in Queensland from Friday to Monday, visiting some of my relatives and just (weather permitting) sitting on the beach. The rest will be very appreciate, because it has been hard going in the last few weeks with meetings and preparing for meetings around Sydney. Not quite so restful will be the two day trip in the car there and another two days back, especially with the two children, so pray for the journey as well as some good time to relax.

An encouraging recommissioning, and Bible college week

Richard Wilson — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:09:51 +0000

Yesterday was another heavy day (as Sundays often are on deputation), with more than three hours at two church services in the morning, and then another almost three hours in the afternoon at a recommissioning service at our main supporting church in Sydney (Carlingford Anglican). But the afternoon was very encouraging for us, reminding us of the support and care that others give us. Pinuccia especially was starting to feel a bit of deputation weariness, due to the constant movements and repetitiveness, and the fact that she does not understand a lot of what is said in meetings, but the meeting helped to cheer her up and remind her why we are doing all this. It had an effect on the rest of us as well: I lost my voice at the end of the meeting, and Stefania was so tired out that she went to sleep in the car at 5.30pm and didn’t wake up until the following morning - she never sleeps so long.

This coming week is Bible college week for me. On Wednesday I will be representing ECM at a mission exposition at Moore College, and on Thursday I will be speaking at both of the campuses of the Sydney Missionary and Bible College. These are important meetings for “recruitment” - the most likely places that we will find people during our deputation time who are interested in serving at Trento in the future. We are also visiting friends for dinner one night, going to a prayer breakfast on Saturday, being interviewed and preaching (a sermon I still need to prepare) three times on Sunday, plus some time with my family, doing some tourism, and some work with the mission.