In the family
Pinuccia this week completed her fifth month of pregnancy, which meant another ultrasound. The size of the baby is right on the "average" line, and we discovered that we are expecting a girl – despite Pinuccia being convinced that it would be a male, given the Wilson family history.
After about nine months of not having any pregnancies in the church – quite a rare state for us – Pinuccia has started an epidemic, with two other pregnancies lately, including Sara the wife of my ex-flatmate Samuele. Pinuccia is happy that she has someone in the congregation to share pregnancy stories with now! It is all a part of our church growth plan. We even kept to the church tradition of having females – about 70% of the children in the congregation are female, a ratio that was quite a bit higher until the last two babies born who were both boys.
In the church
The end of June means the end of the church year, with the two month summer pause, so we are starting to plan for the end of year activities. Pinuccia with the other Sunday School teachers is preparing for their recital on June 12, which means not only the performance by the children but also a presentation of the year's program and next year's plans to the parents. In the cell groups at Trento we are bringing to a close the studies on 1Peter and on systematic theology that we have been working on throughout the year, with some time to reflect back on the year in prayer as well. The group at Rovereto, on the other hand, having just begun recently, will have three more meetings on the foundations of the Christian life. The Valsugana group is continuing well, even with the halving of my involvement there. They are at the moment organising an evangelistic program for the summer. Last September they produced an evangelistic puppet show in the park next to a lake, and this summer they will be tripling this, going to three different lakes: Levico in July, Pinè in August and Caldonazzo in September.
On the computer
There is someone from Trento that now lives at Rome, where he works for the Bible school, who told me that he had to take his car in to get it fixed. He got talking with the mechanic about what he did, and the mechanic replied that he read the Bible every day on the Internet site laparola.net (there is a daily reading plan there, with which it is possible to read through the whole Bible in a year), and asked if he had heard of it. So the person from Trento was able to say yes, and explain who did it – and encourage his mechanic to keep reading the Bible as well.
Upcoming events
- 15 June: ECM-Italy field council meeting.
- 18-19 June: The fourth annual church houseparty - and the first that I will be able to attend completely (even if it means missing the first day of the next event).
- 19-24 June: Retreat in Ireland for the Australian ECM missionaries.
- 3 July: Evangelistic puppet show at Levico in the Valsugana valley.
- 5 July-3 August: In Sicily with Pinuccia's family.
Photos
| One of Pinuccia's cousins (Loide) and the cousin's fiancé had been looking for work around Italy for a few months, but after making a trip to Trento they both found a job after trying for one day. (Trento's region has after all the lowest unemployment rate in Europe.) So they are both here now, and Pinuccia is happy to finally have some family nearby - her extended family of cousins are very close, having grown up together. So recently the rest of Loide's family (except her elder brother, at whose wedding there were some photos last time) came to visit her, and they came to lunch at our house. It happened to be two days before Loide's sister's birthday, and as it was the only time most of the family would be together, she had the party then. So this is Simona with us. Pinuccia is trying to show some belly - people generally think she is about two or three months pregnant rather than five. |  |
| Not quite my 15 minutes of fame, nor even 15 seconds; more like half a second. Last week the Giro d'Italia (the second biggest bike race of the year, after the Tour de France) passed through Trento, and in fact came down my street. So when I saw on the television that the riders had almost arrived, I went outside to see them pass. When they arrived at my house, the TV showed the view from the helicopter. If you can not pick me out, I am on the left hand side, just above the middle of the photo, with a light coloured shirt. |  |