JennyBlogs

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mosaico Church, my church family in Italy. Celebrating the 3rd Anniversary!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, good time with family, and lots of delicious food to eat. Christmas music has now been unleashed full force, and I hope we are all able to head into this season with joy in our hearts, thankfulness, and eager expectation to again remember the birth of our King, Christ Jesus.

Gallery 4 Italy Ceasing Operations

Russian Academy of Art Bible study we host in our home!

In early November we received the news that the founder of Gallery 4 has chosen to suspend operations in Italy. With the extreme difficulty in finding a space for the gallery we knew something needed to be done, but the news still came as a shock. Although it is easy to look at the situation with disappointment and sadness, we trust that the Lord will have used our time here for the good of His kingdom and advancement of the Gospel, and will continue to use it in ways we may never fully realize. Even though the original vision was not fully accomplished, we were still able to minister to people, host Bible studies, give out Bibles, and talk about Jesus with many.

I will forever see art in a new way thanks to art classes and all my cool artist friends.

Coming Home

In light of these recent events, I will be coming home from the mission field on December 5. It truly grieves me to leave Florence, it is a magical city and I will greatly miss the friends and people I met here. However, I am overjoyed to be able to be home for Christmas with family, friends, and church family, as I was not originally expecting to be able to do so.

Firenze is extra magical around Christmas time

Coming Weeks

The next few weeks will be spent getting my affairs in order, spending time with friends, and getting ready to come home. I am so thankful for the time I was here and I would like to thank each of you from the bottom of my heart for supporting, praying, and encouraging me in this venture. To God be the glory!

Prayer Requests:

Praise! For all the friends here that makes it so hard to leave. Although it is sad, I consider it a very great thing indeed to have such friends that makes saying goodbye so hard.
Praise! Being able to be home with family, friends, and church family for Christmas.
Prayer: For my remaining time here to be meaningful and for the glory of God.
Prayer: For the people here, whether friends or strangers, to continue to be exposed to the Gospel.
Prayer: For a smooth transition, closure, and safe trip home.

Grazie a tutti!!!

Buongiorno family & friends!

September was a good and difficult month. The first half of the month was mostly apartment searching, calling, visiting, and the second half I came home to Michigan. In Florence we finally felt the heat of summer start to break; the air turned from stifling, summer hot, to earthy, autumn hot. But really, it was so refreshing to feel the onset of autumn after a long, hot Florentine summer.

September 1-14 Apartment Hunting in Italian and All That Ensues. Once the immobiliari (real estate) opened again in September after the long vacation of August, I talked to every immobiliare I could to find an apartment. I had already been going into and calling every one I could, but without little to no success. I got to see a few apartments, but they weren't what we needed. It was crucial I found an apartment before I flew home because I needed a contract in my name in order to apply for a visa. And so, I started going to so many immobiliari, visiting every apartment website I could think of, and calling 12-15 immobiliari every day until I could secure some appointments to see apartments. Even friends were helping and asking around for me. So many of the apartments had already been rented out, didn't rent to students, only wanted a family, were out of our price range, or too far out of the city center. (You recall I like to walk? Yes.)

Sometimes I would call an agency, spew out my little prepared-before-hand-Italian spiel, only to barely follow what the agent spewed out, and then they would hang up apparently assuming I had understood them. Ummmm, I shall assume that apartment was not available. And had bed bugs. Probably had a Medici skeleton in the closet and the wifi didn't work. And the floor will cave in if you jump on it. We didn't want that one anyway. Then there were the agencies that never answered my phone calls or emails. Yep didn't want those ones either.

Finally, I called an agent and got an appointment that evening! I made a few more calls and accidentally called the same agent again. Oops! He must've recognized my spiel. Drats. I saw the apartment and it was beautiful. A little on the small side at 70 square meters, but extremely modern and brand new. The apartment was being shown to several other people that day, and so the typical pressure was put on me by Giuseppe the realtor, I had to let him know if I wanted it by tomorrow. Ahhhhh I don't like pressure or decisions!

The next morning I got a call from a realtor who had been trying to help me all along but never had anything that worked. This time, she sent me photos of an apartment with beautiful painted ceilings right in the city center! I got to see it that night and suddenly had this big dilemma. This apartment was bigger and so much more romantic than the other one. Yes, the oven is older, but hey. I talked to my roommates and we decided to go for the 13th century building in the city center vs. a new but un-Florentine building.

The amount of paperwork needed for the apartment became a joke. My poor roommates who were out of the country had to scan and email me document after document. Would you also like a photocopy of my Kroger rewards card from when I lived in Mississippi? Mamma Mia. Then I went to sign the contract, and the proprietor at the last didn't want to sign it because he doesn't rent to people without either a visa or permesso di soggiorno (permission to stay), I had neither yet. Things got a little tense between him and the realtor and my knuckles turned very white, but by the Lord's grace he changed his mind and signed. So...he didn't want to give an apartment contract to someone without a visa, and you can't get a visa without an apartment contract. Oh, Italy. Porca Miseria. All this to say, everyone who prayed for our apartment, we needed your prayers and the Lord heard and was gracious to us! My roommates Vanessa and Silvia just moved in this week and saw it for the first time; they love it, too. Grazie, grazie, grazie tante!

Arrived at the Consolato 45 minutes early. How very un-Italian of me. (But hey, I got in early!)

September 6 I received my codice fiscale, or tax code. I had to go to the Italian equivalent of the Secretary of State, and wait in line. It was very easy to get and is similar to the SSN in the U.S.

September 17 I flew home! After countless planes, shuttles, trains, walks, security checkpoints and a delayed and almost cancelled flight I arrived in Grand Rapids around 2:00 am. I even got to translate for an Italian gentleman trying to get through US customs in Chicago. My mom, dad, and JohnPaul were all there to greet me, and then we drove 2 1/2 hours home. There is no place like home to restore the mind and body. Unfortunately I ended up getting sick for the first part of being home with an unknown ailment and some infection, and made the discovery I am allergic to amoxicillin.

September 21 Appointment at the Consolato d'Italia in Detroit. My mom and I drove to Detroit so I could apply for my student visa. Nerve racking, but it went very quick. After the appointment I waited around because I remembered there were papers I never signed. When the officer came back to the waiting room he said "brava" because he had forgotten to have me sign and that would've been "grave." He said if I wanted to wait half hour he would have the visa ready. It is "supposed" to take so many weeks to get to you, but I walked out of the consulate that day with my visa in hand!

One of my favorite fall-time activities. Apple Picking.

I am continually humbled and grateful to the Lord for allowing me to be in Italy, even with the hardships. It's easy to see past the romantic history and rolling hills of Tuscany once you've been living here, but it is a privilege and a blessing that I do not want to take lightly. Thank you to everyone who has been and is praying and supporting this ministry, I appreciate you so much!

Prayer Requests:

Praise! I finally found and have an apartment. A beautiful 13th century apartment at that!
Praise! I made it safely home without any major problems.
Praise! I got my visa to return for the rest of the year!
Praise! Some new supporters joined the team and I am now at 80% support! It's exciting to be so close to full support as I prepare to head back for 9+ months. Please pray the Lord would provide the remainder and finances would not be a stress.
Pray: We made an offer on Gallery Space #5, but there are still many hold ups and new rules and regulations being thrown at us. We never expected it to be this difficult and sometimes it's hard to see what the Lord's purpose is in this, but we have to keep trusting.
Pray: For the relationships we are building and the new people we are meeting, also the realtors, contractors, and architects we are working closely with.
Pray: For continued advancement in learning Italian. It seems for every victory there is a plateau of discouragement to follow.
Pray: For Christ's Kingdom to be advanced in Italy!