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.

We are in the middle of packing for our departure for Australia tomorrow afternoon. Although I must say that we have found it a lot easier packing for a visit in summer, there are a lot less clothes to take. So in fact we have almost finished, and tomorrow morning we will pack the things that we will be needing in the next few hours. In the meantime, this morning will did all our goodbyes of our jealous friends in church.

The main events this week where the talks by Carl Trueman. The three talks on Tuesday were well attended by people from the church, and from nearby churches (ie up to 200km away) who came to hear him. The people I talked to found helpful the depth and clearness of his theological and practical thinking. Then on Wednesday afternoon there was a talk for the city on Calvin at a Catholic study centre. There were only about 10 who were not from the church, but they seemed interested in what was said. In any case, it was good to proclaim what we believe in public in the city of the Council of Trent.

With my Bible studies for this week cancelled due to these conferences, I had enough time to finish off and release the new version (7.13) of my Bible study computer program. So now I can take a break from that for three weeks as well – apart from replying to the e-mail questions I will receive, at least those that I will be able to reply to without my computer and my books.

I should however be able to keep up my blogging on borrowed computers, so I should be writing about the trip within the next week.

We were supposed to be, at the moment, in the middle of four heavy days. But Stefania got a fever on Thursday night, which meant that we dropped out of a lot of our commitments, and life became a bit easier. On Saturday afternoon, I went to the Bible study in the Valsugana by myself, and on Saturday night we did not go to the annual dinner for the band. This morning there was an important event for the Sunday School, with a market to raise money for a school in India. So Pinuccia, after having down a lot of the preparation, had to miss it to stay home with Stefania, and got others to do what she had to do. But it went well, with the children singing a new song I had written and then saying what they were thankful for that they had receiving from God (instead of complaining about what they don’t have, when many have a lot less), with about €1100 being raised.

Today there was also a Christmas market at Lavis. We did go out for it, to get a bit of fresh air, but did not last very long before Stefania got tired and her temperature started going up, so we returned home early. Tuesday is a public holiday, and so many people – including the schools – take Monday off as well to get a long weekend. So Stefania and Pinuccia will both be at home. We were intending to make a trip to visit some of Pinuccia’s relatives, but that got put off as well due to Stefania’s illness. So we get a day at home (and maybe some shopping) instead. Then on Tuesday, there is an important event to pray for: an all day conference on the Evangelical Faith and the Reformation. It will be good to have such a conference on the holiday dedicated to the immaculate conception (of Mary, not Jesus), in a hall just a few meters from where the Council of Trent was held. Pray that we of the church would learn more about our doctrine, and that there will be many people not from the church that come as well. Then on Wednesday, there will be another talk on Calvin (for his 500th anniversary) in a Catholic study centre.

With these conferences being held, the cell groups on those days will not be held. This means that last Wednesday I gave my last Bible study for the year, with our departure for Australia being next Monday. I still however have one Sunday School lesson to prepare for next Sunday. I have also finished preparing all the Bible studies on 1Chronicles that I will be giving until summer (but there are still 6 studies on the Apostles’ Creed to prepare). This means that I will be able to dedicate all my work time this week to finishing the next version of my computer program, which I hope to release before we leave for Australia.

The main non regular event this week was on Saturday afternoon, where the two older classes of the Sunday School worked on preparing for next Sunday’s market day in the church. They created wrappings for home made goods (that some people in the church had made), plus signs and other things for the sale, and practised the new Christmas song I wrote. The goods will then be sold at the “market” after church next Sunday, with the proceeds going to the school in India that the Sunday School supports. The good thing is that the children understand that this is the point of the market, with some lessons on giving that have accompanied these preparations, and they pray that a lot of money will be raised for the children in India. So you too can pray for next Sunday.

The other news that I have not mentioned here yet is that we will be in Australia on an “unofficial” visit for Christmas. Thanks to my parents’ frequent flyer points, we will be leaving on December 16 and returning on January 2, to spend some time with my family. So there will be no talks or meetings to go to. But there will be lots of things to do, and lots of Australian things to show to Pinuccia and the children (especially those that are harder to do in winter). So we are all looking forward to this trip, and are starting to prepare for it. I am looking forward to my first summer Christmas in 18 years, like the good ol’ days.

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.

The last couple of weeks have been fairly quiet – in fact I didn’t even write a message last week because there was nothing out of the ordinary to say. The usual Bible studies and other meetings for me, school for Pinuccia and Stefania.

Next weekend however there is a special event to pray for. Louis Priolo will be coming from America to speak in the church on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning on relationships with spouses and the family (as a part of a speaking tour of Italy). On Saturday morning, the ladies will be having a prayer meeting for their children and their schools. This is part of a world wide prayer day promoted by Moms in Touch, and in fact a few ladies from other nearby churches will be coming to pray with them. I personally am looking forward to listening to the talks and learning something. It will me an interesting weekend for us, because the speaker – along with his wife and two daughters – will be staying with us for the two days. So we will be kept busy not only going to the talks, but also looking after the guests. It does create a bit of paranoia having guests who are experts on the family and who gives talks on it – we might end up as examples for his future talks, positive or negative!

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.