Update 2010#7

Everyone,
Another good but jam packed week. Tuesday night was our third Greek class. We got a new student, a Canadian college student, who is very quick at picking things up and will be a nice addition. I am pleased with the amount we are learning in such a short time.

Wednesday Ilir (our team leader while Brett is on furlough) told us not to come in to the ARC (they were doing an inventory of food in preparation for a give away) but to stay home and get our prep work done. Right now Kent and I are responsible for preparing our gospel presentations on Thursdays. That means figuring out a skit and/or getting someone who can speak or translate. We are also responsible for the teaching time at our team fellowships twice a month. Add to that our Greek homework and Kent's prep time for his English class and Men's Bible study and it takes quite a chunk of time.

Wednesday night at Team Fellowship we did a skit called the stool. I give Jesus (Kent) a stool to sit on. He makes sure that I know that when He sits there he gets to make the decisions. I agree. However as issues come up I keep pushing him off the stool and making my own decisions. I think one of the best lines in the skit is when Jesus asks if I really want him to sit there and I say yes. "Then why do you keep taking back the stool" he asks. My answer is "This is just SO much more difficult than I thought it would be. I thought YOUR decisions would be a lot like MY decisions." Isn't that often the struggle we have? We are glad to let Jesus make the decisions as long as they are the decisions we would make anyway. We spent some time after the skit sharing why we take back the stool and what we can do to do a better job of letting Him sit there.

Thursday was Arabic day. "Y" our moroccan friend who is living with us right now, did a skit where he was a doctor preforming surgery. Behind a sheet that is back lit so you can only see shadows he pulls many crazy things out of the man's abdomen. (a teddy bear, a shoe, a hanger etc) Finally he pulls out a large heart with many sins written on it in Arabic. He then shows it to the people and says "I cannot do anything about this man's heart. He will die" He removes the screen and then covers the man with a sheet. Then he talks about how we will die in our sin unless we allow Jesus to raise us up. The dead man raises up and everyone clapped. Once again since it was Arabic day we had many men and few women. Several good conversations happened between men on our team and refugee men after the meal.

Friday Kent met again with his friend Dr. "S" the pakistani new believer. I prepared dinner for one of our team mate's birthday. We had Stacie (the birthday girl) and her roommate Jo plus Sam and Fran over that night. Sam and Fran are the couple who's home we lived in when we came over the first time for our three month short term visit. They have been ministering here in Greece for some time but are now making a move to Iraq to work in Kurdistan. Please pray for them in this transition. It was good to get to see them once more before they leave. After dinner we played Scattergories with some hilarious results. The biggest laugh came when Jo had to give an "A" answer to Cosmetics/Toiletries. She said "Aroma Therapy Gel" and my somewhat hard of hearing husband said "What is Aerobic Energy Gel?" We all envisioned this cream that you smeared on for a major energy boost. Okay, I admit it was late and we were tired which I'm sure made it MUCH more funny!

Saturday we did our major grocery shopping since I didn't have a chance to do it during the week. Kent spent time getting ready for a couple of classes and I mostly just "chilled out". Actually I took a nap by the fire which I guess is the opposite of "chilling".

Sunday we went to church again at Nea Zoi (New Life). We love this church more every time we go. Afterward there was a pot luck at Cosmo Vision Center, a Christian Sports Facility run by one of the church leaders. Before the potluck we went home with a couple we met at church who work with another group ministering to refugees. We enjoyed getting to know them a bit and I think we were able to be an encouragement to them. At the potluck we had a nice time visiting with one of the elders and his wife. She doesn't speak English so this was a chance for us to use some of our Greek and it was very satisfying to be able to actually say a few things in their language. I also visited with this couple's daughter in law who is an English teacher at a local college. She was very interested in the work we do and expressed an interest in coming to see it sometime. She also invited me to a once a month ladies group. Kent visited with a couple of the other men as well.

On our way home we stopped at Donna and Themis (team mates) house since we really hadn't spent any time with them since they got back from furlough. They are dear friends and we always enjoy our time with them.

Monday morning we got up and dressed but I was just not feeling well. I finally decided to stay home and Kent went on without me. I thought maybe I would feel like going in later but after about an hour I changed back into my pjs and settled in. I think maybe I am overdoing it a bit and may have just needed a day of rest. It seems like even on our days home we have things we need to do and there is not much down time. I spent the morning reading a book called The Prodigal God that our team leader had given us. In the afternoon I napped in the sun on the porch. Kent came home about 8pm since he has his men's Bible study on Mondays after tea house. He said he was in the kitchen at tea house and was really hopping just to keep enough cups washed to serve everyone.

The weather here has been crazy. As I mentioned, yesterday I napped in the sun but by the time Kent came home we were having lightening and torrential rains. It has been raining like that off and on for the past few days. It is sunny this morning so I think I will close and walk up to the grocery store before it decides to rain again. Kent is at men's showers and then we will be going to Greek class this evening. We love you and are always thankful for your faithfulness to the Lord and to the work here.

Serving Him Together,
Kent and Myrna Morley
Tripoleos 76
Elliniko 16777
Athens Greece
011 30 210 96 38 625
backhoeboy1@juno.com
http://kent-uniquelymorley.blogspot.com

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