Morley Update 2012 #33

Everyone -

I missed my update last week because we were away at our fall Planning Retreat. This is a time when we look at goals, programs and strategies for the coming year. As we spent time talking, dreaming and planning it seemed that our focus came down to two broad areas for the coming year. The first was Discipleship. As more refugees are coming to the Lord we want to make sure they are not "slipping through the cracks" but that we are being intentional about discipling them. This means both making sure they have materials to study that they can take with them if they are leaving soon and also hopefully developing a network of people to pass them on to as they settle in new countries. It also means developing a framework for longer term discipleship with refugees who stay. We have seen several refugee who have come to the Lord in the past year or two grow by leaps and bounds as they have been mentored by people on this team and others. We want to make sure that happens for each person who comes to faith. The second area we want to continue to focus on is Team Health. Our team is much smaller than it was when we first came here and sometimes that can mean people are more tired and stressed. Although we have great relationships on the team, just as it takes constant attention and care to keep a marriage strong so we need to attend to our relationships on the team.

Yesterday Kent received a phone call that had him in tears. However, this time they were tears of joy. As you may recall we have not heard from our dear friend "George" since we came home from furlough two years ago. We did not know if he was alive, in prison, in another country or ??? Kent especially had been worried about him and several of you have been faithful to pray for him. The phone call that came yesterday was from George. He is in Kurdistan! While here in Greece you may remember that he was brutally attacked while in prison and his jaw was broken very badly. Since then it has not healed properly and he has been in pain and had a lot of trouble eating. While we were gone he talked with his parents in Kurdistan who advised him to come home and get it taken care of. He returned to Kurdistan, had surgery and is doing very well. Kent was so thankful to know he is all right and we hope to remain in contact with him. Thank you SO much for those of you who have continued to pray for him.

Yesterday was a happy day for a little girl who has a very difficult life. "S" is 12 years old and is severely disabled with I believe Cerebral Palsy. She cannot stand or walk or even sit without support and has limited mobility with her hands. She has been using a baby stroller to be transported and to sit in. Recently our team mate Donna began the search to find a suitable wheel chair for her. With a budget of 500 euros you can imagine her options were limited. Finally she was led to a shop in her area. After looking at several chairs and trying to figure out how they could be adapted to work, the owner brought down a chair that sells for several thousand dollars. He offered to customize the chair for "S" and to sell it to them for the 500 euros. Praise the Lord! Yesterday Donna took "S" to the shop and they fitted the chair for her. She is SO happy and we can't wait to see her in it! "S" has become a Christian and is bold about speaking out about her faith. Her family is not kind to her both because of her disability and because of her faith. She suffers from almost constant headaches and yet she almost always has a smile on her face. Please pray for this dear little girl.

Last week in the kids room there were two sweet little girls who are sisters. The oldest is 7 and the younger one is 4. They are here with their father because their mother has gone on to another country to try and get papers so she can send for her family. We are seeing more and more fathers with children who's wives have done this. The men are not used to caring for the children and often let them run around the city alone if they are older or if they are younger they come to the ARC in dirty clothes and are not bathed. We have been talking about how to help these men at least with laundry and hygiene. When the two little girls came in to the ARC the younger 4 year old was afraid. She said "Will the police come here and take us?" Imagine at 4 years old worrying about something like this! We told her "No the police do not come here." Later the older girl was telling Donna that because her mother is not here she is trying to learn how to do the laundry (most likely hand washing clothes in a sink, wringing them out and hanging them to dry) - at 7 years old! Sometimes my heart breaks for these children forced to face such problems at such a young age.

Last week I asked you to pray for "G" a young man who is a great help to us in the ministry. He decided not to take the job handing out leaflets but recently had a chance to be paid to do some translating for a friend who is working for a local organization. She was willing to work around our schedule so he could still participate in ministry. Please pray that he can do this with enough regularity to pay his rent and have enough to live on.

There continue to be protests, strikes and unrest in Greece over the austerity measures. Yesterday there were strikes which made it a little more difficult to get to work. When we came out from work our big metal gate to the street was partially down which was a sign that there had been some trouble. As we walked to the Omonia Metro station we could see evidence that rioting had occurred - the streets were almost empty and littered with trash and in the metro station all the ticket machines had been destroyed. Kent said when he rode the bike through Sytagma on his way home there was enough tear gas lingering in the air to make his eyes water. We are safe but we worry about our friends with riots, the police sweeps and the violence against refugees and immigrants. Please continue to pray for this country.

Thank you so much for your faithfulness to God, to us and to our refugee friends!

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