PRAISES & ANSWERED PRAYER REQUESTS:
· We received our permits to stay in Italy. (These are follow-up documents to our visas that are given by the Italian government that allow us to live here) We waited in line, filled out documents, and were given the permits all in one day. We’ve been told this is close to a miracle and has only happened one other time with personnel in Italy! We also received our public transportation pass (good for one year) and our fiscal code, which allows us to own certain things such as a home phone line and an internet connection.
· THANK YOU, Southern Baptists, for giving to the Lottie Moon Offering! Just getting here and knowing what all is involved cost-wise to get our apartment set up and to get our required documents, we are seeing first-hand how well we are taken care of because of you.
NEW PRAYER REQUESTS:
· There are still 2 important documents that we need in addition to the permit: the residence card and identification card. We can only attempt to get these one at a time, and they each require different things and are at different places. (And, we thought just getting the visas were an ordeal!)
· We begin language school on Monday. Pray for minds that will be clear and be like sponges, and that we can help each other even though we’re not on the same beginning levels.
· Jake and his babysitter, Nete: she’s a Brazilian who we found to watch him 4 hours each day while we’re in class Monday through Friday. Only Jason can communicate with her – pray for the two of us to have peace of mind in this unusual but necessary situation. Just in the two days we’ve been with her, we’ve found out that she is a believer but is having several unfortunate circumstances occurring – pray for her personally.
· Our finances: we’re happy to know that culture shock will eventually wear off, but one thing that will remain after the culture shock is how expensive everything is here. It’s already been very pricey just getting set up in these two weeks, and the bills only come every two months. It doesn’t help that the dollar is worse than the euro, so we’re actually spending more than we’re seeing each time we buy something. We want to be good stewards with what we have, so please pray for wisdom in knowing what to buy and how to develop a budget here.
· Our adjustment: it’s been difficult at times getting used to everything that is so different and dealing with homesickness. We’re beginning to understand why missionaries say at times it will only be your call keeping you where you are. Pray that we will be encouraged knowing the promise that God’s mercies are new every morning – no matter how hard the day was before, each day is a new start to receive His strength and to see where He is at work here.
ONGOING PRAYER REQUESTS:
· Pray for the work of Team Milano: Tom and Bonnie Hearon, Dave and Adriana Lopez, and the three of us.
· Most importantly…pray for the Italian people among whom we have been called to minister. Pray that the Holy Spirit would prepare the hearts of those with whom we will come in contact, and that God would continue to grow His love for them in our hearts.
Dear Family, Friends, and Faithful Supporters,
Buon giorno!
It’s hard to believe, but we are finally writing you from our apartment in Milan, Italy. We flew from Little Rock a week ago Monday to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Frankfurt, and then the Frankfurt flight placed us in Milan on Tuesday morning, April 20th. We’re VERY happy to report that Jake did very well without getting sick! It’s amazing how much easier flying is when we have the carseat instead of having to keep Jake in our laps the whole time J, but we sure built some muscles walking through all the airports as we pushed Jake in his stroller while at the same time somehow managing to carry his carseat, three carry-ons, and three “purses”. (We took as much as we could since packing always gets so crazy towards the end!)
Amazingly enough our bags were never checked at customs, and the only time we had to wait in line was to get our passports stamped in Germany. We were also quite happy to see that all nine pieces of luggage and Jason’s guitar arrived with us in Milan, and what a wonderful sight to see our team members, Tom & Bonnie and Dave & Adriana, waiting to greet us at the Linate airport in Milan!
We’ve stayed busy these first two weeks getting our new home set up and trying to learn the ropes for so many basic things that we took for granted back home in the States. Public transportation and all of the routes around our part of the city are going to become a standard part of our vocabulary now. The hardest part of the public transportation is transporting Jake and his stuff around with us! We’re also trying to get to know the people around us in the shops on the first floor of our building: our apartment manager, the workers at the pizza stand, ice cream stand, bar and tobacco shops, hair salon, and sports shop. These are the first people with whom we’ll try to build ongoing relationships. Of course we have no problem getting to know the workers at the pizza and ice cream stands on a regular basis. J
Even though we’ve always been associated with DFW and Little Rock, we’ve never really lived in an actual city instead of just the suburbs. City life is quite interesting. There is a lot of smoking, noise, pollution, graffiti, cars, and crazy drivers and streets (I repeat, CRAZY drivers and streets!). Milan is a unique city in that almost ¾ of it was destroyed during WWII. At that time, hundreds of apartment buildings were built to house people, and when you look around it almost seems like all you see are apartment buildings!
So many things here are DIFFERENT, we don’t even know where to start! Just to give you a small idea…our apartment building is #87, and everyone who lives in the building has the same address as we do. However, the number to get into our gate is #106, our mailbox number in the building is #9, and the number located above our actual door is #5. Don’t worry, we don’t understand either! Coming to Europe we thought we’d actually hear more English, but Italians don’t seem to speak it and Jason has actually been able to function a little better in conversations because of his Portuguese. I just stand in the background with Jake and try to listen…I’m so confused now with all I hear that I can’t even tell the difference between Italian and Portuguese. J
Our apartment is in a unique location. There is actually some green grass, trees, and flowers around us, and we realize with what we’ve seen of the city that it’s a blessing to see that instead of just concrete. The Milan soccer stadium is located just across the street from us. It is larger than Texas Stadium, and a way to explain how close we are to it (besides that you can see it right out our windows) is that it’s the same as if our apartment were in the parking lot of Texas Stadium. There was a game here last Sunday, and we could hear the ROAR of the crowds. Tomorrow there is going to be a huge game between Rome and AC Milan – it’s like the Superbowl of soccer, so we’re sure Jake won’t be getting his afternoon nap tomorrow! It will be quite a scene.
There are so many other things to talk about, but we know we need to be limited with space. The other thing we want to impress upon you is what we see in the people. Being in a huge city, they are just constantly going from one place to the next, not really regarding anyone around them. There seems to be an overall sense of emptiness and lack of purpose. Even though practically everyone lives in apartments, we’ve heard that some people will go for years before they even know who their neighbors are. It is not natural for people to open up, and we’re hoping to break through some of those shells. Jake seems to be a big hit with that – we just put on his sunglasses, and people come talk to us (or at least try).
It will still be a while before we can have phone and internet service. We can check email at our team members’ homes, but that will only happen when the opportunity arises. Please send us emails if you can, because we can read them – just know that it may be difficult to write back since we’re so limited with internet access. Our email will not change, it is still greenwich@mail.com. We can’t say THANK YOU enough to both our family and friends who have sent us emails. THANK YOU!!!
Remember…we are counting on your prayer support! Prayer is the most powerful tool in giving us the mental and physical strength to function on a daily basis and to more importantly allow the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of the people here. Let us know if you have any questions or if we can pray for you in any way. We would love to hear from you.
Ciao, and God bless!
Allyson (for the three of us)
P.S. If you would like to read and see more, you can visit our website at www.TheGreenwichFamily.com. While you are there, make sure to sign our guestbook…the entries have been a GREAT source of encouragement to us. We will commit to keeping the website updated, so please bookmark it and come back often! For the time being, though, it will obviously be hard to keep the website as up-to-date since we still don’t have internet service.
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