Morley Update 2013 #32

Everyone -



Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in America. This was always a day when we gathered as a family. Sometimes it was just the family in our area. Sometimes we traveled to be with family who lived away and sometime people came to us but always there was family. There was food. LOTS of food. I always cooked a turkey of at least 20 pounds, often getting up at 5am to get in in the oven to be ready at 1:00. People made their signature dishes and Kent always sculpted the mashed potatoes into something amazing. The kitchen was a busy place and "too many cooks" only made it more fun. There was laughter and reminiscing - my mother always managing to say to me "don't drop the turkey" bringing back to mind the year this actually happened. I miss my family. But God has also given me a family here. On Saturday, 22 of us gathered at a friend's house to have Thanksgiving dinner together. I cooked one of the turkeys (we had two). I didn't need to get up early to put this bird in the oven in fact it was done in only 3 hours. The largest turkey you can find here is 3400g or about 7 pounds. People made their signature dishes, Tasha's grandma's potatoes, Lisa's rolls and even though McCracken's have moved back to the USA their broccoli casserole still appeared on the menu. The kitchen was busy, there was laughter and reminiscing and it was good to be together. I'm thankful.



This week we are gearing up for our Christmas Parties. On Monday we decorated the ARC. It was fun to see the kids excitement as they entered for family meal day yesterday. Next week we will be closed for our regular programs and we are having 3 parties with 150 guests at each. That's 450 meals, 450 gift bags and 450 smiles. We will also have a 4th party for believers with about 50 guests. There is still much to be done. I need to get the puppets out and costumed. Kent needs to prepare his object lesson. We are practicing our Christmas songs in Farsi and we will have a long day setting up for the parties, packing bags etc. In the midst of this there has been a sore throat/ cold bug going around and Lisa our Christmas Coordinator has been hit with it. Please pray that she and all the members of the team will be able to stay well these next weeks and that everything will fall into place. I have also been feeling a bit "under the weather" for a few weeks. When you have a compromised immune system it is sometimes tricky to know what to be concerned about and what is just "the way it is". Please pray that I will get back to feeling 100%. Several of our staff are leaving following the Christmas parties so we will be a bit short handed in the two weeks before Christmas, pray for God to send those who will "stand in the gap".



It is still not too late if you would like to donate toward our Christmas parties. You can do so by following the instruction at the bottom of this letter on How to join our support team. Only INSTEAD of designating For the Ministry of Kent and Myrna Morley designate Helping Hands Athens - Christmas. Thank you all for your faithful support and prayers - have a wonderful Thanksgiving whether it is filled with family or a time to reflect on your own. Our daughter wrote that our grandson (7 years old) made a list of the things he was thankful for. #1 A head. She asked him about it and he said "Well if I didn't have a head I would be dead!" No matter what our circumstances we can find something to be thankful for!





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
To join our Support Team:
Online go to: www.iteams.org select: US, Select: What do you want to do, Select: Give
Or Send to:
International Teams
411 W. River Rd.
Elgin IL 60123
Please designate for the ministry of Kent and Myrna Morley and indicate whether this is a one time gift or monthly support. Thanks :)

Morley Update 2013 #31

Everyone -



It was a good week. Friday was one of those days when I think - THIS is why I love what I do. We had a great day in the kids room. We started out with playing some games, then singing some Farsi songs and having a lesson from the wordless book. We watched a video of the miracles of Jesus (it seemed funny to me because the audio was in Finnish but to the kids it didn't matter because they can't understand anyway) Liisa translated into Farsi. After that we set up to do a craft. We had several new families that day and one of the girls was in our class and seemed very happy to be there. She was not quite finished with her craft when her parents came to get her to leave. She wanted to finish and often parents are insensitive to this and will just make their children leave anyway but they told her to finish while they waited. We were helping her to hurry and we encouraging her sayng "Khali zeba" (very pretty) and "ah fa reem" (good job). Her parents seemed so happy that we were helping her. When she finished Liisa told them in Dari that she could either take it home or leave it on the wall (most kids leave theirs) they said "Take it home!". They seemed so happy and grateful with all we did and kept saying "Tashacoor" (thank you) as they left.



After the children's room closed I had a chance to sit with some of the women (which I don't get to do very often). I was trying to practice some of my Farsi (often much to their amusement). I know the words for "sit down" "listen" and "be quiet" from working in the kids room. Tasha was doing something crazy and I said to her in a fairly loud harsh voice "Bishi, Goosh Ga, Sarket!" I looked up and several men around the room were looking over to see what in the world was going on in the women's corner - we got a good laugh out of that.



This week Dr. J went on an out of town trip for a few days and when Kent took him to the airport he asked Kent if S and the kids could maybe stay with us because she hadn't been feeling very well and was a bit nervous about being alone. Our house is full right now (we have two intern girls staying with us) so we called our pastor who lives at a sports center (think playground, soccer fields etc) to see if maybe she could stay with them. Fotis, our pastor was gone but his wife Mary felt the Lord asking her to have S come anyway so Kent picked her and the children up after school and took them there. Mary said that the Lord's hand was really in it because she had forgotten that they had a family from India staying there as well and the wife and S spoke the same language and spent quite some time talking. The other couple also had a little girl so the children had a wonderful time playing together. God is good - please keep praying for Dr. J and S.



We had a busy weekend getting ready for and welcoming a short term team. They are a church called Glad Tidings from Omaha Nebraska and come each year about this time. The team leaders are the same so they know what they are doing and it makes it very easy for us. They are a great team and spent their first day with jet lag doing a bunch of heavy duty cleaning and clothes sorting.



We are gearing up for our Christmas programs which are coming up the first week in December. This is such a great time to share with refugees who might not normally stay to hear the message on a Tuesday who Jesus is and why He came. Along with their other small gifts the adults receive the Jesus DVD in Farsi and the children will have a coloring book with the Christmas Story in Farsi. If you want to donate toward our Christmas programs or towards sleeping bags for the winter please see To join our support team: at the bottom of this page and follow the instructions except instead of designating for the ministry of Kent and Myrna Morley designate Helping Hands Athens - Christmas OR Helping Hands Athens - Sleeping Bags.



Thank you so much for your prayers and support, we are so blessed to have such a wonderful extended team. We could not do it without you.


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
To join our Support Team:
Online go to: www.iteams.org select: US, Select: What do you want to do, Select: Give
Or Send to:
International Teams
411 W. River Rd.
Elgin IL 60123
Please designate for the ministry of Kent and Myrna Morley and indicate whether this is a one time gift or monthly support. Thanks :)

Morley Update 2013 #30

Everyone,



I am going to try and get back into the swing of writing weekly. This week was a bit different because Thursday through Monday morning the team was at a hotel just outside Athens for our fall planning retreat. We have two retreats a year. Every month each person on the team contributes to our team fund - we use this money to pay for team retreats and a few other small items that we do as a team throughout the year. Our spring retreat is a time to rest and refresh, our fall retreat is a working retreat where we look at our ministries, our schedule, personnel issues, future plans etc. This retreat was a good time of reflecting on what the Lord has done in this past year in the ministry and in our personal lives. It was also a good time to tweak some things in the ministry and try to answer questions or address underlying issues that have come up. We have seen much fruit in this last year especially among the Afghan women with many coming to the Lord and those that have come to the Lord beginning to be more bold about speaking out. We talked about the need to disciple some of these believers (both men and women) and to make sure that they are getting plugged in to fellowship. Pray for Kent and I as we determine how to use our personal ministry time and who God is asking us to spend extra time discipling over the next weeks and months.



Monday on our way home from the retreat we stopped at the airport and picked up Janneke (pronounced Yanaka) the young Dutch women who will be living with us for the next three weeks. She speaks very good English and is easy to have in our home. She is looking for a place to serve long term so please pray that the Lord will guide her and the team here whether this might be the place for her. We had planned to go back to the airport at 6pm and pick up Aunie the young American woman who will be with us for 6 weeks but due to her first flight being delayed she missed her connecting flight so did not arrive in Athens until 1am in the morning. Kent went to the airport to get her and I got up to greet her and settle her in when they got home at 2am. Though she was exhausted she did not sleep well so stayed home on Tuesday to rest and settle in while Janneke and we were at Farsi Family meal and outreach.



It was a good day in the kids room Our story that day was Jonah, and "G" read from a Farsi children's book that we have. It does a good job of telling the story and the kids did a lot of giggling in some places especially with the illustrations. Afterwards we asked them some questions. One of them said Jonah was a prophet so we talked about how a prophet was a person that God used to speak to the people. I said that now we have the Bible to read and know what God says but they did not have that so God used prophets that he spoke to and told them what to say. One of the boys raised his hand and asked how God spoke to them. I told them that sometime he spoke out loud like with Moses and the burning bush but that sometime I thought he just spoke in their minds. BUT I made it very clear that these men were chosen by God and knew that it was God speaking, it wasn't just something they made up. I said that there were people that the Bible says were false prophets, people that pretended God was speaking to them so that they could tell the people what to do.



Later I also talked to the kids about Jonah getting swallowed by the fish. I asked them if that was usually a good thing - I said "When you are swimming, do you think 'I hope I get swallowed by a big fish'?" They said "No". I said but in this case what would seem like a bad thing God used to save Jonah. So sometimes God uses even things that seem like bad things in our lives to help us and to do good for us. When bad things happen we can always pray and ask God to help us through them and ask him if he can use this thing to do something good in our life. Not a bad lesson for any of us.



It thundered and there was lightening last night and it is supposed to rain today - I need to go grocery shopping (I walk) and I am getting a scratchy throat - there has been a bad cold/flu going around so I am hoping it is just a scratchy throat and will not turn in to something more. Thank you all for your prayers.



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
To join our Support Team:
Online go to: www.iteams.org select: US, Select: What do you want to do, Select: Give
Or Send to:
International Teams
411 W. River Rd.
Elgin IL 60123
Please designate for the ministry of Kent and Myrna Morley and indicate whether this is a one time gift or monthly support. Thanks :)