Invisible Hands

I have been quite busy the past months including holiday back in Indonesia. Let me continue, however, from the point where I left off.

A holiday break felt great after submitting my thesis. I spent almost three weeks back in Indonesia and Singapore, catching up with friends, visiting relatives and spending time with family. However, towards the end of the trip, something unexpected happened. I got a call from the course coordinator informing that one of the documents required for graduation was missing. In fact, I never submitted that declaration of value, which apparently is required by Italian law to graduate.

At that time the thing that's left for me to do is thesis defense which was in 2 weeks time, and I have to get the document by then. Declaration of value is issued by the Italian embassy of the country where I got my first degree, in this case Singapore, so I have to go there to get it. To make matters worse, I left all my original documents regarding my degree back in Italy. So in the worst case, I have to go back and forth Indonesia-Italy-Singapore-Italy to get the document and may not make it in time for the defense.

The case is already beyond my ability then. The embassy people normally would not care about your personal problems, plus they have very short opening windows and I dont have original documents. It was safer to bet that I wont be able to graduate on time. So I prayed.

I didn't really like playing with (low) probabilities. I liked to play safe. I had taken more credits during the course that I would still graduate on time even if I were to fail one or two subjects. I started my thesis few months earlier that it would complete well on time. I had searched (and got) a job offer early on. Everything was taken care of, or so it seems. But that time, there's not much I could do. I didn't have time and prayer was a last resort.

So here's how it went. On Monday morning I called Italian Embassy in Singapore. It turned out some other agency is doing it for them. Then I called Italian Institute of Culture. The officer there was unusually helpful. I explained the situation to her and she told me that I could ask the italian school to send a fax of the school documents required. In the afternoon I asked the school to fax the documents. They did. Next morning I flew to Singapore, straight to the IIC. Then I got the DoV on the same day. Next day I flew to Italy.

It felt like it's a miracle. I did not need to change my travel plans at all. (Not to mention that it's not easy to do for long distance flight). I only needed to show my original passport and got my DoV in one day.

When I mentioned to my father about how kind IIC officer was, he rebuked me. Surely she has been really helpful. But is it not God who is capable of making all these things happen?. By doing that, I was rationalising and not acknowledging God, not giving Him the glory He deserves.

Many times God works with invisible hands over our lives. And if we do realise those, then perhaps we are more blessed.