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
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