Morley Update 2012 #45

Everyone,

I am writing this update early because we just got home from family meal day and my heart is full because of something that happened today. Two weeks ago when we had our Christmas parties, Kent gave a talk on the Gift of Jesus. He took things from a box that illustrated what the Gift of Jesus was. He had a candle - Jesus is the light - he had water and bread. He also had a paper chain which he took out and hung around his neck pretending it was very heavy. He talked about how our sin weighs us down like this heavy chain and we cannot do anything about it. Then he told how the Gift of Jesus and what he did on the cross can free us from the burden of that chain of sin. On the family nights when he gave this talk, the children had already been sitting for a puppet show and a song and they were pretty excited, wiggly and a bit noisy. I wondered how the adults could even concentrate on hearing the message at all.

Today in the kids room we talked about the Christmas story and how baby Jesus grew up to die on the cross and take away our sin. Donna asked the kids in Farsi if anyone could tell her what sin was. A little boy of about 5 or 6, who is kind of a wiggle worm raised his hand - he raises his hand any time we ask a question. Donna called on him and he rattled on for some time in Farsi. When he finished "G" looked at me and said, "He said, 'Sin is like a big heavy chain around our neck and we can't get rid of it but God can take it away'". I was amazed! Here in the midst of semi-chaos two weeks ago, this little child actually listened to the message, remembered it and applied it. As I told Kent about it later I could not help but weep and his eyes filled with tears too. Sometimes you feel like maybe your words are just going out into thin air, but the Holy Spirit is at work and God's word does not return void. At the end of class we asked if someone wanted to pray. This little boy raised his hand again and prayed in Farsi. Donna told me afterwards that he said "I love you Jesus. You are my best friend. I'm glad you are in my heart." What a gift in this special season! Please pray for this boy and his family. His mother has gone on to another country to try to get asylum and the father is here with this little boy and his younger sister. The father always stays for the message on Tuesday. Today we talked with him a bit afterwards and told him how his son had repeated the message he had heard at the Christmas Party. Our teammate Carolyn and her husband told the father that if he ever had any questions or wanted to talk about these kinds of things they would be glad to sit down with him.

This is our last week and then we will be closed for the Christmas holiday and won't reopen until Jan. 8th because of another Greek holiday. Many of our team are away at this time so it is a busy week ahead and we will all be glad of a bit of rest. Kent and I will stay close to home since we will be taking our 6 month home assignment next year and didn't feel we could spend any money traveling now with that coming up. We will have refugee friends and team mates in during the break and may take a day trip or two. Have a wonderful Christmas. We will miss being with our family but as always we are so thankful that God has called us to this place and has provided us with a network of people we love. Thank you for your faithfulness to God and to us. We love you all.

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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