One line in today’s lectionary echoes loudly to me: “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” (Mark 10:27b) — The reason being that I have just witness (again!) how God made things possible in my own life.
The story goes… my contract for the apartment I was staying in is ending on the 15th of October. On the 1st, I e-mailed the person responsible to ask if an extension might be possible. I never heard back from her. On the 8th, I got an appointment set-up for the compulsory checking of the apartment on the 15th. So I panicked and e-mailed again. The reply was “we’ll have to see…” now mind you this is Geneva and it is SUPER hard to find nice affordable accommodation. I started browsing ads that afternoon, just checking out my options, so to say.
Tuesday morning as I woke up, I felt like I had to go on glocals (the website I was checking out), so I did. There was a fairly new ad on the classifieds about a room in a villa in the area where my apartment was. I decided there’s no harm in sending out a message and did so. A few hours later, I got a reply from the girl who put up the ad and got an appointment to see the place on Thursday.
Now mind you, the way these things go if you don’t really know is that even if you had an appointment and you really love the place and are willing to pay, the owner/landlord/landlady/regie/whatever still has the last say of whether you get the place or not. After all, there might be a dozen people lining up for the place. So, usually, you have to have several options and several appointments and hopefully then be lucky/charming enough to get it. Which is why my friends thought I was insane in only having ONE appointment especially given the urgency of my situation.
Thursday afternoon, I finally got a reply that I could actually keep the apartment until the end of the month, so I was in a bit of a dilemma. However, I finally decided to go ahead and visit the place I was going to visit anyway because who knows what might happen and in any case I need to be sure I have a place for the four months extension (more on that later, I hope).
Arriving at the place, the first thing I noticed was a name on the mailbox. A person I know. Talk about coincidences! I went in and met with the lady of the house and she showed me around. I did like the room to begin with based on the photos and while the other conditions are not as cool as having you own apartment I thought it was doable. So, now I just need to convince her to take me.
She asked me to sit down and asked where I work. When I told her, she immediately lightened up. Her husband apparently used to work for the WCC! Now that’s another “coincidence”! As the conversation continues, she basically informed me that the room is mine should I decide to take it and that it’s up to me when I want to move in, etc. and so just like that, I got a new place to stay.
I started moving yesterday with the help of a good friend and spent my first night. Today, I was cleaning my apartment to make it presentable for the checking on Monday, and as I was doing that and got super tired I thought “I want to go home!” — and that should tell you how much I like my new place already.
I am still amazed when I look at the timeline how quickly all this happened, and of course having heard stories of so many problems in trying to find a place to stay in Geneva, I can only say that it is indeed God who makes all things possible.