Newsletter March/April/ May 2009

This has been a busy few months. We are both currently in the US preparing for the birth of our first child. Allison is 38 weeks pregnant which means that she has two weeks until the baby is due July 5th. Kevin arrived in the Wisconsin on June 11th and we have since attended a child birth class, prepared a baby registry, and toured the hospital. The doctor said that his timing was perfect, because a baby usually comes anywhere from two weeks before to two weeks after the due date.

We are sorry we have not sent a newsletter in the past few months. So many wonderful things have happened that we wanted to share, but we have been very busy. We hope that this letter will be informative and catch you up on the activities of the past few months. We promise to be better at sending our letters out in a more timely fashion. We apologize for its length.

Remember you can read our Newsletter online at http://www.korca-newsletter.blogspot.com/ . We can also send you the Newsletter as an attachment if you would like, just send us an email and we will add you to our list that receives the Newsletter as an attachment.

March

March was a month of holidays. We had a number of parties and festive occasions which included the national Teacher’s Day, March 7 and the national Ladies' Day, March 8. The most festive occasions occurred though on March 22 and March 30 when two of the ladies who have been attending worship were baptized into Christ.

A Wonderful Sunday:

Elvin’s Visit: Sunday, March 22 we had visitors from Durres. Elvin Xhimtiku, a college student that we have known since our time in Durres, came to visit the church here with his friend Enea. Elvin was a big help. He gave the Sunday morning lesson and shared the message for the Lord’s Supper. This was a nice break for Kevin and a good opportunity for the church to hear a different speaker.

Bruna’s Baptism:

Bruna Coti (pronounced Cho-tee) a 17 year old girl that has been studying with us for about a year was baptized on Sunday March 22 after the service. Bruna is currently Allison’s student, but she has studied with a variety of teachers over the year and a half that she has been coming. She has been attending worship for about 8 months, and we are very excited that she made the decision to put Christ on in baptism. Bruna loves the Bible and Diana Zhuleku has been mentoring her. Brunda’s sister was able to attend the baptism, but her mother was not there due to a death in the family.

Potluck:

After Bruna’s baptism, we shared in a fellowship meal. It was so nice to have 10 of us sitting around the same table and enjoying each other’s company. We also celebrated Roger Michael’s birthday, and Klotilda’s visa approval (Klotilda had been trying to move to the US to be closer to her son, daughter and grandchildren. She got the visa approval that week ). We had five cakes to celebrate the various occasions.

Klotilda’s Baptism:

Klotilda Petriti, 49, was baptized on March 30. She has been Kevin’s student since we moved to Korca in 2006, and she began attending worship when she began studying. We have written about her in many of our newsletters because she had expressed an interest in baptism. She wanted to be baptized before her move to Las Vegas in May. If you know anyone in the congregations in the Las Vegas area we would love to share this information with Klotilda. She is very interested in continuing to worship when she goes to America. She has stronger written English than spoken, but we think she will pick up more spoken English when she is immersed in the culture.

Women’s Day Party:

March 8th was a Sunday so the women who attend worship decided to have a party. We invited the mothers of our students and those who attend worship. In all there were about 15 ladies. We were impressed by the number, because this is a celebration day and many women were busy celebrating it in a restaurant with their friends.

Diana gave the lesson for the party. She shared some information about the women of the Bible and related it to problems that Albanian women face every day. Diana was baptized one year ago on March 8th. It was amazing to see her growth over the past year and her willingness to teach. There were a few interruptions in the lesson from women who did not agree with submitting to their husbands and to God (Diana had given the example of Sarah’s traveling with Abraham to a far away place), but Diana handled everything very well and all of the women seemed to really be paying attention. Diana has continued to teach some of the girls about women in the Bible and we hope to expand to their mothers in the future. We also hope to have other events for women that are more discussion based.

Praise God:

Klotilda and Bruna- Two of the three ladies that we had asked for you to pray for in previous newsletters have decided to take Christ on in baptism. This is a real testament to the power of prayer. Thank you for being so involved in our work. Prayer has no boarders.

April

Allison’s Arrival in the US:

Allison left for the US from Tirana on April 8 with a connection in Rome landing in Chicago the same day. Kevin’s parents made the journey from California so they could pick her up at the airport and visit for a few days. They were able to spend time catching up, shopping, and preparing Allison for life in the US. She arrived in Wisconsin on April 9, where she met with her family. It was so nice to see them. She is living with her grandparents in Oconomowoc, WI. She has a lot of family there and it is nice to be so close to all of them. Her mother lives about 5 minutes away so they get to see each other often.

Internet Teaching:

Before Allison left Korca, we set up a desktop computer as a communication station. When she arrived in the US, she began teaching classes over the internet with some of her students using Microsoft Messenger for 3 hours a day, 4 days a week. This started on April 14 and she taught through the first week in June. This has proved to be a successful tool. It was a good way to stay in contact with some of her students and church members. With messenger they could talk over the internet like a phone call. There are options to use a webcam too, but that usually affects the voice quality, so we have chosen not to use it. We were impressed by our students’ abilities and willingness to work with this system. It does not replace one-on-one interaction, but it does help our students with pronunciation and allows for chatting before and after the bible lessons. It is much easier than e-mailing lessons because most of our current students cannot type. Kevin was in charge of the Albanian side of our classes: setting up the computer, trouble shooting any problems, and grading tests. These classes were a blessing for both Allison and her students.

May

Klotilda’s Departure:

Klotilda has been an important part of the church in Korca for the past two years. She attended nearly every Sunday since she began to study with Kevin in 2007. We knew from the beginning of her studies that she wanted to move to the US to be closer to her children and grandchildren. She was always the first to volunteer for any church activity and loved to bake for all our parties. Klodi was baptized in March and moved to the US in early May. She and her husband are currently living with her daughter and son-in-law in Las Vegas, but hopes to find an apartment soon. She plans to find a church body to worship with them she gets settled. Please pray for her. This is a big move and a challenge for a new Christian. We miss her so much already.

Kevin’s New Class:

Kevin began to teach members of the local government in Korca. He was asked by one of his former students to teach members of the government in the county government building. He began with beginner’s English, but hopes that this will lead to Bible classes in the near future. We are always looking for new ways to meet members of the community. Kevin was able to have coffee with a group from his class after many of his classes. We have learned that conversation is an effective evangelistic tool.

May 2nd:

The first of May is Labor Day in Albania. It has a long tradition of having picnics in the most picturesque locations. We thought that this was a good day to have a fellowship time with some of our students but decided that Saturday May 2 was a better day. We walked to the top of one of the mountains surrounding Korca (only 2 hours), while Roger and another student drove up with a barbeque, meat, and other supplies. We spent the day in fellowship and returned to Korca in the evening.

Roger’s visit to the US:

Roger Michael returned to the US for the wedding of his son in early May. For about a month Kevin was the only American working in Korca. Kevin taught classes as normal and preached for the congregation. It was a successful, but busy time. Roger returned to Albania on June 5th to work in Korca while we are in the US. We are grateful for his continued work; he is a very valuable asset our to work.

National Youth Day May 16th:

Kevin took a group to the National Youth Day in Tirana again this year. We decided that it was best to have a smaller group of people who where already involved in other church activities. Of the 4 that came with Kevin 3 are non-Christians who are searching and one was Bruna Coti a new Christian baptized in March. These meetings are always an encouragement because we can see how God is working in other parts of the country.

Tom Langley’s Visit:

Tom Langley, a member of our sponsoring congregation in Maryville, TN, was the speaker for the national youth day in Tirana. Tom rode home with Kevin to Korca after the youth day. He was able to worship with the body in Korca on Sunday the 17th. We had a picnic on one of the mountains overlooking the city. It was a beautiful day.

June

Kevin spent the first week in June preparing for his departure and tying up loose ends. He had planned to finish teaching in the last week of May, but ended up teaching about half of his students the first week in June and working with Allison’s internet classes as well.

When you leave for a trip in Albania, long or short, everyone wants to have a coffee with you and spend some time before you go, so Kevin’s last week was also filled with meetings. It was a blessed and stressful time. On June 9th Kevin flew into Knoxville, TN and spent a couple of days catching up with our friends in Maryville, attending Bible class Wednesday night and getting over jetlag. He drove our vehicle from Maryville to Wisconsin on June 11. Since then he as been very busy. We had a two day speed child birth class, various family meals, Sunday worship, and a tour of the maternity ward.

Prayer Requests:

Our baby: Please pray that we have a successful delivery and a healthy baby. All of the appointments have gone well so far.

The church in Korca: We are constantly thinking about the work in Korca. Please pray for the workers in Korca in our absence. We will be returning to Albania on September 5th.

Thank you for your continued interest in our work,

Kevin and Allison Morrill