I am a Stanger in a Strange Land
I am a stranger in a strange land. We moved to Italy by choice for my husband’s job 3 ½ years ago, but I arrived with no language, no “know-how” of an antiquated system, and no friends. When Americans hear I live in Italy, they “ooo” and “ahhh” thinking I live in a Tuscan-filled dream with vineyards, amazing food, and welcoming hospitality. My first response is typically, “Tourist Italy is not everyday Italy.” I am a stranger in a strange land.
Last week, I read this post by a World Relief immigration lawyer who was furloughed due to mass funding cuts, “So many people [refugees] we serve…[have] no one to reach out to tell them how to ride a bus, how to control the heat in their home, how to get food to make doctors’ appointments…” The list went on and on.
We moved out of choice and with means, and still, as a stranger in a strange land without language and “know-how,” this is our experience. Daily, after 3 ½ years and a handful of language classes, I still struggle to fully comprehend a conversation, to fill out paperwork, to understand all that is happening in my daughter’s frequent hospital visits, to speak up when I am taken advantage of as a straniera (foreigner…oh do I have stories), and, and…” Some days, the tears flow out of frustration, anger, confusion, helplessness, and loneliness.
The majority of days, I do not live the Tuscan dream…and we moved out of choice with privilege.
This morning, I read a short excerpt from Henri Nouwen’s Reaching Out that stopped me in my tracks.
“But still- that is our vocation: to convert the hostis into a hospes, the enemy into a guest, and to create a free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced.”
As strangers in a strange land, there have been people along the way who have made us feel like guests, but one in particular comes to mind: our handyman, Signore Pietro. Our landlord introduced him to us as a person to call in case something was wrong with our apartment. Neither of us spoke each other’s language, but he was all smiles and taught me to use google translate, brought us lasagna, helped us build an apartment full of Ikea furniture, and still he fixes everything and anything that goes wrong. He now feels more like family, and I call him my supereroe (superhero.) He has created a “space for the stranger…a free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be fully formed and fully experienced,” as Nouwen calls it.
All through Scripture, we are told not to mistreat but to love the foreigner (Leviticus 19:33-34) because we, once, were foreigners. We are told to show hospitality to strangers (Hebrews 13:1-2) because we may be entertaining angels. The entire book of 1 Peter is written for exiles. Picture yourself reading this book as a stranger in a strange land and reading, “As you come to him, the living Stone -rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him- you also are like living stones…a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession…” (1 Peter 2:1-10). We serve El Roi, the God who sees me, the foreigner (Genesis 16:13-14).
This experience as a stranger in a strange land has given me a profound empathy for other immigrants and refugees, who are many times fleeing conflict, war, crisis, and disaster. They arrive without means, with trauma, and in need of many of the same things I struggle with daily. Our role, as followers of Jesus, is to treat strangers with hospitality and love. Our role is to be a “Signore Pietro” to the strangers in a strange land.
Central Presbyterian Church, my home church in Towson, is doing this very same thing with refugees. As a Church of Welcome through World Relief, they have shown such hospitality by furnishing apartments, creating a home, providing food, and walking alongside newly arrived refugees to the Baltimore Region, working with them as they also struggle to fill out paperwork, learn language, and live as strangers in a strange land. They serve as an army of Signore Pietros – superheroes loving well and making it feel a bit more like home. They have sacrificed finances, time, and conveniences to show the love of Christ in a tangible way.
Regardless of your politics, refugees deserve “a free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced.”
Thank you, Signore Pietro, and thank you, Central Presbyterian, for welcoming the stranger in a strange land and serving as a superhero to someone today.
Erin
PS. I currently have the privilege of serving as the Board Chair of World Relief. If you want to donate your time or finances or learn about how to become a Church of Welcome, click on any of the links.