New Apartment…Home
We’ve been looking for a suitable apartment to share with others since last Nov. We really thank God for the pastors of the church that we’re attending Sunday service who had invited us to do house-sitting and pet-sitting (a dog and a cat) for them while they were back in the US. It has helped us to save 3 months of rental and also gave us time to search for the right apartment.
Apartment searching is time-consuming in Italy, especially in big cities. Well, the rental in Rome is one of the highest in Italy, comparable with Milan. For us, price is definitely one major consideration besides the location. Time was running out as we intended to move out in early March as the pastors would be having guests staying with them. Only 1 week before end of February did we managed to find a landlord who is willing to rent to us with a private contract. We gave him our reply 2 days after viewing the flat, met up to discuss the contract details and moved in within 1 week on 2 March! The apartment is not modern, in fact 3 generations had lived there but we had 2 big rooms, a garden view, and it’s well connected to the city centre (30mins away though it’s on the border of the city). The neighbourhood has many supermarkets, a pizzeria, a bar (coffeehouse) and a Chinese restaurant. We even have a clinic just below us. Praise God for answering our prayers again at just the right time. He’s always on time, seldom early but never late!
We have an Italian girl as housemate but she had just moved out at end March. Our landlord is very detailed and meticulous though still kind-hearted and negotiable. Praying for a new housemate who will help us in our ministry and language practice and God to grant us favour in the eyes of our landlord and his family.
New Relationship…People
We thank God that after we came back to Rome in Jan, we’re able to re-connect with some of our friends, though not all yet, through meals, movies and special occasions. During the Chinese New Year, we invited some friends over for our little ‘reunion lunch’ with some traditional Chinese food. We prepared to share something on the new year, new hope but realised that it is rather difficult in a group setting. It will definitely be more effective if the group is smaller, considering that we are only two at this moment too.
We’ve some Italian friends, who are interested in learning or improving their English and we want to meet up with them more often. Watching movies in English with Italian subtitles would be a good way to meet both these objectives. We went to watch ‘Match Point’ together with Giuseppe and his friend, Gianluca. It was interesting to share after watching the movie to understand their world-view a little more. However, we have to wait for suitable movies that will be shown in their original language.
We have also been building a good relationship with Laura and her friend, Michele. They have been joining us for at church a few times. Laura is a seeker while Michele is a Catholic. They even came for the service on one Sunday without us inviting them. We were pleasantly surprised! Lea (an American), a young believer, expressed interest to have bible study with us. So we launched our first Bible study together with our house-warming party. We hope to continue this Bible discussion and to meet more new people through our present contacts and through different ways too.
New neighbourhood…Prayer Walk
We’ve also begun our prayer walk around our new neighbourhood. We’d like to pray to expand God’s Kingdom in this area and also to get to know it better. Just from our 1st prayer walk, we’ve discovered a compound behind our apartment that comprises of a home for elderly, home for abused women, a football school (the passion of all Italian men and boys!), a gym for basketball and ice-dancing.
We’ve also discovered 2 parks near here, both surrounding Catholic churches. A sport centre was very busy, full of young adults and children. Praying that we could use these places as contact points too.
New status…Amnesty
Good news for immigrants who want to work legally in Italy! The authority is giving out legal work documents through application from the Post Office! We did not want to miss out this great opportunity, of course, and got hold of the application forms. Angelina managed to get two but they were all documents in Italian. So we had to ask around for more information and found out that we need an employer, who is willing to sign the documents for us, to certify us as being employed. Both of the schools we are teaching with are not able to help us so this opportunity slipped us by.
There are quotas for different nationalities, however the applications they gave out were more than the quotas. So you can imagine the confusion and chaos! Many people started to queue outside the Post Offices all over Italy 2 days before application hours, battling the cold so that they could have the chance to submit their applications. One of my students was absent for a day and later told me that he was actually queuing with his dad outside the post office the day before. The quotas were met within 2 hours and we also read in the papers that a couple of immigrants were injured in the arguments of queue jumping. Italian newspaper described those who were ‘lucky’ as striking the lottery!
Due to the system and bureaucracy of obtaining a legal working document in Italy, many immigrants, who managed to get a legal permit in the previous amnesty, slipped back into the illegal status once the permit expired and they are not able to renew it. So many immigrants are working without proper work documents here in Italy. Pray for us that God can open ways for us to stay in Italy legally with proper documents for a longer term.
