Morley Update 2013 #12

Everyone -
This last month was rough. There were many stresses and I was often comforted by my daily devotions which seemed to be about trails and hard times. HOWEVER, this last week it was like God opened the windows of heaven and rained his blessings down upon us. We were concerned because of the medical bills were would be facing - thanks to you our extended team for your very generous donations. That has been covered with some extra to go toward some medical expenses we will have in the USA. Thank you SO much. We were concerned about our visa which was due to expire in June after we are gone. You cannot apply for a renewal until you get your visa and ours has not come yet this year. Last year it arrived after it expired and we immediately had to apply for a renewal in order to maintain our status as legal residents. We were unsure of what would happen if it came when we were gone and how we would be able to reapply while being out of the country. God was not worried - because our permit did not come until the middle of October of last year our temporary permit is good through Oct. 15th which is the day we plan to return to Greece. The man in our visa office said if ours came while we were gone he would hold it until we returned and we could reapply then. Had our visa come on time last year this would have been impossible. Thank you Lord! Another concern that we have had is leaving our house empty while we are gone and paying rent for all that time. We have a girl who will be living in our house July and August and paying half our rent but the rest of the time it was empty. Just this week we were contacted by a man with another mission organization to see whether they could house a team here from the beginning of May through the middle of June. God is good - all the time! We found out all of these blessing in a two day period and that next morning when I opened my devotional Bible, I was directed to read 1 Chronicles 16:8-36 which begins "Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make know among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced....." It goes on like this for 24 more verses. What an echo of what my heart was feeling - Praise His Name Forever! We are SO blessed!

We continue to be very busy getting things ready to be away. We are preparing presentations, getting things organized to hand off responsibilities and continuing with our normal work here. This week we hosted our community group for the last time until we return. On this evening its was all men so there were 10 guys and me for dinner and our sharing and prayer time. It happened to be "V"s birthday so after dinner we had cake and sang "tavallodet mobārak". This is such a great group of guys. Several of them became Christians here and several of them were already Christians. They support each other and help each other to grow in their faith. It is not easy. One of the guys shared at prayer time this week that sometimes he is just SO tired of the struggles. He has a wife, a daughter who is about 11 and another baby daughter a couple of months old. He does a lot of translating for us and other ministries and they are happy to have recently moved into a real apartment but even with the rent being provided they are struggling to make ends meet. Then there are always the worries about the racial violence in Athens and the trials of their own people rejecting them for their Christianity. There are worries over schooling for his daughter, work for him, and just the strain of living in a foreign country and culture. As he shared his exhaustion most of the other men nodded their heads. Please pray for these brothers that are striving to follow and serve the Lord but have such a difficult life.

Today is Persian New Year. This is one of the biggest holidays for Persian culture. This week as people arrived for our family meal we wished them Nowruz Mobarak. It is traditional to have a table set up with different items on the table which each have a meaning such as: health, happiness, creation etc. Many of the women especially wanted their pictures taken by the table. We served a special meal of chicken and french fries and passed out some Persian calendars that had been provided by a visiting team. When we make an effort to do something honoring to their culture it says a lot to our refugee friends. They miss their homes and it is so nice to have something familiar. It is just one more step in showing them that we care.

As always let me close by thanking you once again for your unfailing support to us - I am especially aware of it when times are a little hard. We are upheld by your prayers, we are strengthened by your encouragement, we are sustained by your provision and we a blessed to be a part of such a wonderful team of people . 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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