Dateline: April 2017, The Office (since when do these need to be in order)

Each day, Monday - Friday (and some Saturdays) we walk (30-35 minutes) or drive to the office (10-15 minutes).  Since we may need the car on any given day, at least one of us drives.  The office is on a dead-end street next to a park.  It is one of the few spots we frequent in Rome where there is almost always a parking spot available.  I pay bills – almost all electronically either through a church system or directly via the bank website.  I even make journal entries.  It is an accountant’s dream mission.

Shauna is the mission secretary.  She handles certain correspondence with missionary parents and the missionaries’ home church leaders.  Much of her time is spent tracking the legal permission (Permesso di Soggiorno) to stay in the country that each missionary outside the EU must apply for and maintain.  This permesso is in addition to and in many ways more significant than the visa that each missionary obtains prior to coming into Italy.  

There is another missionary couple in the office.  They handle missionary travel - the young missionaries are transferred from one city to another after 3-6 months in one spot.  About 20% - 35% are transferred on specified dates every six weeks.  They also order and distribute missionary literature supplies, missionary mail and the data for people who have requested information about the church or who church members have asked the missionaries to contact.

The view from the office balcony.