Newsletter June 2008

This was a wonderful and busy month. It began with a week of travel and Bible study. Then, a great meeting and the beginning of our summer campaign. God has been so good to us this month. It was a month of answered prayers.

Trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina:
This trip was planned and unplanned. Allison was fortunate enough to be accepted to participate in a retreat for missionary ladies. The “Come Before Winter” program is a marvelous one that Allison was blessed to be a part of once before. In October of 2002, she took part in a meeting in Florence, Italy. In April, Allison began the process of applying to attend the Come Before Winter that was to be held in Jahorina, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She was excited because a group of 12 was planning to go from Albania (Allison, Ellen Walker (Tirana), Ruth Byrne (Fiere), Deborah Stematis (International Bible Institute of Albania), and eight Albanian ladies from Durres and Tirana).

Deborah and Ruth had planned to fly, but the remainder of the group had planned to travel by van. A driver was found, prices were agreed upon, and a travel route was selected. Then the waiting process began; Albanians, you see, must have visas to travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The week before they were scheduled to leave things seemed to be falling into place then they fell apart. All the Albanians were denied their visas; this, of course, included the van driver who had been submitted as part of the group.

Flying was out of the question as it would have cost about $600 for the tickets, plus hotels so that Allison and Ellen could arrive on time for the meeting. So, Kevin set about securing all of the papers to take our car outside of Albania. With two trips to the Albanian equivalent of the D.M.V. he acquired a “passport” for our car. A short trip to the insurance agent and we had a month of international insurance as well.

On Sunday June 2, shortly after worship, we left for Tirana. We stayed in Tirana resting and doing last minute odds and ends. Then, at one in the morning, we loaded Ellen’s things in the car and headed off into the night.

The drive was blissfully uneventful, in a good way, and we arrived in Jahoraina at 2:30 in the afternoon, half an hour before Allison and Ellen needed to arrive. Allison and Ellen enjoyed a week of fellowship and Bible study with ladies from all over the world; while Kevin enjoyed exploring Sarajevo, and some quiet time to himself to study and pray.

If you want to know more about our experiences, and believe me there is more to tell, visit our blogs:
Kevin www.kevin-morrill.blogspot.com
Allison www.allison-morrill.blogspot.com

A Wonderful Meeting:
On Saturday June 14, preachers and missionaries from all over Albania came to our home for a meeting. These meetings began about 6 months ago and take place about every two months. We were able to attend the last meeting in Elbasan in April and volunteered to host the next event. We were so happy to have more than 20 visitors: representatives from over five different cities. The theme of the meeting was “What Works in Your City?” Another encouraging aspect was the singing and praying with the brothers who are working for God like us. At the end of the meeting we had a fellowship meal with some of the members of the church in Korca. It was a blessed day.

Visitors:
Ruth and Steve Byrne missionaries in Fier, Albania stayed with us the weekend of June 13-15. It was nice to be able to show them the work, and they were able to stay for worship on Sunday. It was such a blessing to have guests.

Eddie Released from Prison:
On June 11, Rosa’s son was released from prison. He has been serving a sentence for a drug related offence. We don’t know all the details and have heard conflicting stories about what exactly transpired, so we are enjoying getting to know Eddie with no expectations. He seems to be very nice, and we look forward to building our relationship with him.

This past Sunday we enjoyed lunch with Eddie and Rosa. It was nice to talk with Eddie and listen to his plans. He hopes to stay in Korca only as long as he has to for his probation then his hope is to live with his uncle in another city, Saranda, to start a new life. Eddie has been open to hearing about God and the Bible and we hope that we can encourage him to attend worship. Rosa said that if he attends she will come too.

Campaign Starts:
There was an overwhelming response this month to our television advertisement for the World English Institute Course. We were getting nervous when there was only one interview the first week but since then we have had interviews every day. It has been great to see the new faces. We are blessed to have two friends from college, Sarah Day and Ginger Hodson, here to work with us. Ginger and Sarah came in the middle of the month and will stay for three weeks. This has been great for our students and for us to have more workers. They have been an encouragement. It is so nice to have the building full with six teachers. There is so much energy. This has also been great because a few of the students come accompanied by parent and grandparents. This gives us a chance to make more contacts with people we do not know. Our Albanian has come in very handy.

Second Sunday Service:
We are trying to be flexible with our work and to listen to the specific needs of the members here. In fact, that was one of the major comments of the preacher’s meeting: don’t plan so much that there is no room for God to work. About a month ago, Ridvan one of the male members, had to take on a second job to make ends meet. This meant that he was going to have to work Sunday mornings. We did not have an evening service on Sunday, but we brought this idea up to him and he really liked it. His only request was that it be in English. So, on Sunday June 22, we began having two services: the morning service in Albanian and the evening in English. The members thought that this might also be a draw to bring some of our students to church for the first time. We will continue to be flexible to see who can come to each service and how that group as a whole can be best served.

Prayer Requests:
Thank you so much for being so diligent about praying for our specific requests. It is humbling to know so many people are praying for us as we serve God here. Our prayer requests for this month are:

Eddie- Pray that he will find a new life away from drugs and will not fall into old habits and that he will continue to be open to God’s word.

Rosa- Pray that she will be supportive of Eddie and that she will open her heart to God’s word.

Summer Campaign- We are being introduced to many students and their parents. Pray that we will have an impact on these new families and that some will want to know more about God.

Language Study- We do not want to seem like a broken record, but the more we know about the Albanian language the more we realize we need to learn. Your prayers have been helping. It is getting easier. We are taking the summer off from formal language study, but we have promised our Albanian teacher that we will write her essays for her to correct while we share coffee. This was the best for our summer schedule.

In His Service,
Kevin and Allison Morrill