Korca Archive

Monday January 1, 2001

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I will try again to write a few lines.

Our New Year is off to a good start. Last night there were very few people out after dark. Then, at midnight the fire works started. We went out on our balcony and watched the sparks fly. People were shooting fire works
from their balconies. A few restaurants also added to the show. At that time, many people went outside to walk. I do not know why, but they do it every year.

Today, there are very few people out side. This is family day. The pazar and most of the shops are closed. Tomorrow, everybody will be visiting his friends. We will have a few visitors. Today two girls, Erida and her
sister Olkeda, came to visit us. Erida and her father started studying with Nancy in the summer of 1998 with plans to go to Canada. But they did not get their visas. So, Erida decided to be baptized in July 1999. The
girls brought us a card and some Baklava (that is a pastry from Turkey. It is very good and very sweet.). We have been given many cards, but this one was special. It said:

Dear Bill and Nancy!
First of all we want to thank you for being our spiritual leaders and for showing us the way to get closer to God and glorify His Great Divine Power!

There were a few more words and then it was signed. This is the type of thing that keeps us going.

We had some good rain over the weekend and it looks like more is coming our way. It was raining, with a little snow mixed in, last night when everybody was out walking.

I wanted to write more but I am too tired.
Bill and Nancy

Sunday, January 28, 2001

Hello,

Last Wednesday my cast came off and it feels better off. I still have some pain in my lower arm but it is getting better. I am using my right hand as I type this and this is the first time in over a month that I have been able to do that. But I can not type very long. The cast was on for one month, two days, and 13 hours (give or take a few minutes).

Last Sunday we had 32 for worship and today we had 34. The good part is that this is the time of year that the attendance drops off. This week many of our members have tests at school. Some of our students have told us that they will not come to study this week because of tests. Every Sunday we have a few members who do not come but the numbers stay up. Sometimes I wonder if they take turns missing.

We have had some good weather lately. We had some cold days about a week or ten days ago. We have had some good rain the last few days and it looks like we will have more rain the next few days. I think there has been lots of snow in the mountains. That is a good place for it. There has been a cold wind blowing today. The wind makes it feel cold.

We have added a few new students and we have a few others waiting to start. Roger M. will be back tomorrow and we will put him to work with a few new students. Beni Leke is here and will be here for about a week. Beni grew up here in Korca and now lives in Athens. He returns one or two times a year and helps with the work.

My arm tells me I have typed enough for now, so good night.

Bill and Nancy

Thursday March 1, 2001

Hello,

According to the people today is the first day of spring. They believe that winter ends on the last day of February. There is a cold wind blowing, otherwise it would feel like spring. Last night people built fires outside, I do not understand why. Most people here do not know why. It is a very old custom and some say it goes back to pagan days. The teenagers here built a large fire that burned until after 9:00 PM. It started raining before 10:00 P.M. There was a cold wind blowing so most people went back in early. Two years ago there were people outside until after 10:00. After the fire burns down people jump over it. The people who had a live Xmas tree burned it last night. The bad part of this is the smoke. Smoke came into our apartment and caused me some sinus trouble.

The weather has been nice lately. We had lots of snow Monday between 7:00 and 8:00 P.M. It was warm enough that the snow did not last long. We had some good rain Sunday and Monday and it has been raining off and on all day today. We have had lots of wind the last two weeks. When the wind blows our apartment becomes a wind tunnel and we can not stay warm.

Our attendance at worship is still staying at about 30. We have been told that we could be having 50 by summer. Last Sunday we had 31.

Our teaching goes on about the same. I am writing this at about 2:30 P.M. and Nancy has her class of seven (six girls and one boy present today) younger students. Today they started the book of Exodus. The students
seem to enjoy the class.

My passport is due to expire on June 4, 2002. We plan to return to the USA next January and stay there about 90 days. We want to give reports on our work and I would like to hold a few short meetings.

My wrist is getting better but I still have a little pain from my arm to my shoulder.

We have lights most of the time. They still go off but are back on in a few minutes. It helps to have heat when the wind blows like it has lately. When we first came here we were told that the wind blows. My thoughts
were that the wind blows in the USA. But now I think that the wind does blow here. Now I think that the wind does not blow in the USA.

Bill and Nancy Saltsman

Monday March 19, 2001

Hello,

I am late with this report because there has not been much to report. We have had some rain and wind but we have also had some sunshine and warm weather.

If you are hearing reports about Albanians being at war do not worry about it for now. This is part of the fighting that has been going on in Yugoslavia for several years. We hope that it stays up there and does not come into Albania. We are watching to see what will happen. If the fighting starts coming down this way we may have to leave Albania.

(Comment: fighting in Kosova has been between the rebel groups in Kosova and those is Serbia on the other side of Kosova away from Albania. NATO is on top of this conflict so there is nothing to fear in Albania or in Prizren, Kosova where Doug Smith is working with the new church there. Edit: Bob Patterson.)

The attendance at worship is staying at about 30. There has been lots of sickness since the first of the year. It looks like it is about over with or we hope it is. Some of our students come to study when they sound like they should be in bed.

Tomorrow we will go to Tirana for a WEI meeting. This will give us a break from teaching, the first since early in the year.

Another one of our students has gone to the USA. Ira is 15 and had studied with us since the summer of 1997. She is a wonderful girl and we will miss her. Her parents got their visa to move to the USA and they will live in
the Detroit area.

We thought we had a problem with our email system but now I do not know. We got no email Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (March 15-17). This is the first time in a long time that we have gone that long without email. If
you sent us something during that time, please let us know.

The weather is warmer and the power is better. There is little need for heat and so people are not using their heater. Also, there is not as much smoke in the air from people burning wood for heat.

One night last week our water heater went out. We called Klara and she called her uncle who has a shop that sells heaters. She told him what we needed. The next morning I went to the shop and arranged for the heater to
be delivered. The shop arranged for two men to come and put the heater in. I was afraid I would be taking cold baths but it did not happen.

Roger Michael is back in Korca and will be here until May.

That is all for today.

Bill and Nancy

Sunday, March 25, 2001

Hello,
If you ever need to call us from the USA our phone number is 011-355-824-5760.

Today we changed time. We started daylight time today. I was surprised at the number who came to worship. We had 35 for worship. That was the most we have had in several weeks. I was afraid that everybody would sleep late and miss worship.

Nancy prepared a very good dinner for us. We had skinless, boneless chicken breast. We also had green beans and a salad with red bell peppers, green onions, and lettuce. There were a few other things but that was the main part. This shows that we eat very well. The chicken is packaged here in Korca and it costs about $1.50 per pound. We have a good supply of good food now. It is not like it was the first two years we were here.

We had a very good trip to Tirana. We got home about 2:00 PM Friday. It took only about four hours to make the trip one way. It is about 115 miles from here to Tirana. That shows the condition of the road between here and there. But the road is much better than it was a year ago.

I do not like the time change. I have been sleepy all day. Roger preached this morning and I was very happy to have him do it. I was already tired from our trip and then I did not sleep well last night. The wind was blowing most of the night and my nose was stopped up because of the dust blowing in.

The weather has been spring like the last week. The high temps may have been 75 or 80. It was very warm (almost hot) in Tirana last week. The people who came from the USA came expecting cool weather and they were not ready for the heat.

I have recently added two new students. I added one today. She studied all of the WEI material with Nancy last year. When she first came she came with her brother. She was not planning to study. But she liked the material and started coming all the time. She is a friend of one of my other students and she wants to study with her friend. Her friend and three other girls are studying in the book of Psalms. I now have over 30 students. I may add some more in a few days. We are also working on our plans for teaching this summer. We may go to a few villages to teach.

It is almost 9:00 PM so before I go to sleep I will try to send this.

Bill and Nancy

Wednesday, March 28, 2001

Hello,

I know it has only been two days since we sent a report but we send reports when we have something to report. We think the following is worth reporting now. I hope all of you agree.

Anjeza was baptized last June 4. She has been studying with a few people already (I do not know how many). Recently she has been studying with a cousin and her cousin's husband. Now they are ready to be baptized but there are some problems. The cousin is four months pregnant so we do not know if we can baptize her in the bathtub. The lake is not warm enough yet. Also, the mother-in-law does not want them to be baptized. So please pray for these two that they might soon be baptized.

We are making plans for this summer. The last ones we baptized last summer were a young couple named Drini and Xhensila. They live in a village east of Korca. Yesterday Drini said he understands he must start the church in his village. They came to study planning to go to the USA. Now we are planning to help start the church in their village. They say there is a large building in their village that is not being used and we might be able to rent it. If our plans work we will start going out there when school is out in early June. Please pray for this also.
Senja is now 17. She first came to Nancy's children's class in the summer of 1997 and then she started studying the WEI books. Her cousin baptized her in the summer of 1999. Recently she told me about someone who came to her door. He was a boy and a member of the Jehovah Witnesses. As they were talking the boy said something about the book of Daniel. Senja told him that the book of Luke said that prophecy was already fulfilled. The boy could not find the book of Luke. After a few minutes he said "Don't you have something else to do?" About that time Senja's grandmother came out and the boy left. The good part of this is that Senja was in the Jehovah Witnesses when she first started studying with us. It took several lessons for her to see the errors of that group.

Some of the ones we have baptized were teaching the Bible before they were baptized. Others that we baptized started teaching their friends some after their baptism. We do not tell them to go teach. They see the need and teach. This is one reason we enjoy this work so much.

If we get a few extra teachers this summer we might try to go to two or three other villages to teach. There are some that we think we can get into without any problem.

Bill and Nancy

Wednesday, April 11, 2001

Hello,

Last week we told you about Anjeza who has been teaching her cousin. The cousin and her husband wanted to be baptized. The plans are to baptize them early Sunday afternoon but there will not be two, there will be four or maybe more. We have found a large tank to baptize them in. Anjeza is a good teacher and we hope that she and Bruna can go to the British Bible School this fall. I have always thought that Bruna was a good teacher but now it seems that Anjeza is better. Now, if we can get them into a Bible school no telling what they will do.

Last week we also told you about Drini and Xhensila. They plan to start the church in their village. We hope that some day they will be able to go to a good Bible school. Saturday they came and got some teaching material. Xhensila has five students that she will study with. She is only 17 years old and in her last year of high school. She will be using the World English Institute Bible lessons, which have been translated into Albanian. She will use both the English and the Albanian translation with her students.

Remember to pray for these.

Last Sunday was a good day. We had 30 for worship. It was a cool wet day. It started raining on Friday and is still raining. We know it is spring because last Friday there was lots of thunder.

It has been a long day so I will bring this to an end. I hope to send you more good email Sunday night. Have a good night! I will.

Bill and Nancy

Saturday, April 14, 2001
A day early and two short. The building that we were going to use for the baptisms is busy all day tomorrow so we baptized two of the girls today. We will baptize the couple very soon, we hope. I do not know who the main teacher was for these two girls. They do not speak English so we have not studied with them. They have come to worship for several weeks. There may have been four or five girls who studied with them. We are not the only teachers now.

Klara's baby is one year old today. We went out for a visit at 7:00 PM. She is a beautiful baby. Roger went with us.

We have had rain almost every day for the last two weeks but let it rain. It has been cooler the last few days. There has been snow on the mountains.

That is all for now. This has been a very good day for us.

Bill and Nancy

Wednesday, April 18, 2001

Hello,

More about the two girls who were baptized on Saturday: Their names are Ornela and Anxhelina, (in Texas it is Angelina). Anxhelina started attending worship last year and has come to a Wednesday afternoon Bible
class. About three weeks ago she told her parents that she wanted to be baptized. They said no and told her she could not attend the worship or the Bible class. They allowed her to be baptized and she was at worship Sunday. Pray for her that she will be able to keep coming to worship. Anjeza has said she will talk to Anxhelina's parents about letting her come to worship. She knows very little English.

We had 28 for worship Sunday. The weather was cold and windy. There was some snow coming down but it did not stay on the street or sidewalk. There is lots of new snow on the hills around town.

This is a short report. I started it this morning but the power was off for a while two or three times today. Also, there were other things going during the day. I will bring this to an end for now and try to write more
later.
Bill and Nancy

Sunday, April 29, 2001

Hello,

We had 38 for worship this morning. This was an overflow crowd. It is wonderful to see our members bringing their friends with them. There has only been one time that we had more than 38 for worship and that time we
had visitors form the USA and Greece. We have a friend named Leon and he was there this morning. He works with a government group that is working with a group from another country. They are working trying to improve things in Albania. We baptized Volbona last year but she has not been able to attend worship most of the time because of her work. Today, we were told that Volbona has just started working for Leon. So we hope they will both be able to attend most of the time.

Last Sunday we had 26 for worship. Then 12 of them came to our place and we ate together. We had a Bible quiz after eating. We had a very, enjoyable time even if it was cold and wet outside.

Last weekend it was cold and wet. Monday morning when we got up it was snowing, but the snow did not last long. It was gone by noon. Wednesday it started warming up and yesterday it was above 70. Today started sunny and warm, but now it looks like rain. It has been thundering for over two hours. Spring weather!

We plan to have a woman's day for the girls and women of the Korca church on Saturday May 12. The best part of this is that some of our girls have made all the plans. They told Nancy what they planned to do and have not asked for our help. Today after worship over 20 said they want to attend.

Today was Roger's last day to be with us until late July. He preached this morning and a short time later he left the country and went to Greece. No, we did not run him off. He had to return to Nashville, TN to take care of
some business but he plans to return in July. We will miss him.

That is the high points for now, so good night and have a good week.
Bill and Nancy

Sunday, May 13, 2001

Hello,

Yesterday we had our first woman's day and from what I was told it went very well. There were about 24 who attended, most stayed for the whole day but a few left early. Nancy was the last speaker and when she finished everybody left. The program was planned for 10:00 until 5:00 but it ended when Nancy finished at about 3:45. Ornela and Anxhelina, the last two we baptized recently, were there. Anxhelina had been attending the worship every Sunday but she was not there this morning. There were a few others who attend worship who attended yesterday but not this morning. I hope they will have another woman's day before school starts this fall.

Ornela is 13 years old. Recently her parents were divorced. This will be very hard on her because of the way people here feel about divorce. Her younger brother has been attending worship the last few Sundays. Some of our girl members have been studying with Ornela's mother. They say she seems to be open to Bible study. Keep this family in your prayers.

We had 31 for worship last Sunday and 25 today. Our regular song leaders were not there this morning but the singing was still very good.

Klara has recently been told that she can not have another baby. She was not feeling well so she went to a doctor and he told her the bad news. She was very sad for about a week. She seemed to feel better today.
The weather can not make up its mind if it is winter or summer. We had a day or two of hot weather last week but yesterday afternoon it turned cooler and today it is almost cold. We have not had snow but we have had some good rain.

Bill and Nancy

Sunday, June 10, 2001

Hello,

It has been a month since I sent a report because there has been nothing to write about. Friday was the last day of school for most students and there has been lots of end of school actives. There are a few who will go to school this week. There are many who will be taking tests the rest of this month and some who take tests into next month. Those who are finishing grades eight and 12 and all university students are taking tests. There may be a few others who have to take tests after classes end. See what students in the USA miss out on.

After a few false starts I think summer may be here. That is what I thought about ten days ago but it was a false start. Ten days ago it was very warm (maybe 90) but then it cooled down. There was a day or two when we needed a jacket when we went outside. Yesterday and today we do not need a jacket. We have had some good rain lately.

Wednesday we start our summer teaching program. We will have classes for all ages from 14 months (Klara's baby) on up. We do not know how many or what ages but I think we are going to be busy. Klara wants her baby to be with other children so Klara is bringing her baby to class.

Our number at worship has been down last Sunday and today. Part of this is because people are studying for tests.

We have several who want to go to Bible Camp at Vlora. Vlora is on the sea, south of Tirana. Last year was their first camp. The camp is in the mountains near Vlora.

See, I told you there was nothing to write about.

Bill and Nancy

Thursday, June 21, 2001

Hello,

There is something to write about, but not much.

The summer children's classes are going well. Bruna had 22 in her class. They are from about two years old up to about 12. Some of these have studied with us every summer since the summer of 1998. Bruna is a very good teacher. We hope she will be going to the British Bible School in September. She has taken care of all of her paper work and has an interview with the British embassy in July. She wants to teach the Bible
and she will study with anyone who will listen.

Nancy is teaching in English this summer. In the past she has used a translator. She has some who started late last year and are reading from the Bible. They have read the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy. Some new students have been added to the group this week. Tomorrow they will begin reading from the New Testament with them.

Today is the first day of summer but it does not feel like it. We had some very warm weather last week (maybe above 90). This week it is cool. The lows have been down about 50 and the highs may have made up to 75. We had some thunder and rain yesterday. The weather yesterday was very spring
like.

Angela was baptized in May 1999. She is about 25 years old and is a school teacher. She got married last summer. Her husband works in Italy and she will join him in Italy in a few days. We had a going away party for her on Saturday. I hate to see her leave because I have known her since the summer of 1996. Early this year she went to school to learn to cut hair.

That is all I know to tell you. Maybe there will be more later.
Bill and Nancy

Sunday July 22, 2001

This has been a good weekend for us. Our summer teaching program is going very well so everything looks good right now.

Friday at about 4:10 PM Nancy and 14 of our girls went to Tirana for woman's day. This has become a yearly affair for the church in Albania. All of the girls said they enjoyed it. They looked happy yesterday and
they sounded happy at worship this morning. We had a total of 18 from here and Pogradec. Bruna went to Tirana on Wednesday and stayed until yesterday. Fatmir's wife and a girl from up there went. They went in two taxi vans. They stopped at Fatmir's house to pick up those two.

Bruna went to Tirana on Wednesday for an interview that afternoon. She plans to go to the British Bible School. She had to get a visa to go to school. She had her interview at the British embassy. She talked to some others who have gone to the school and they told her what the interview would cover. But her interview was not like the others. She was interviewed for over an hour and then she was told she could have a visa. The visa is for over two years. We are very happy for her. She is already a good teacher so she will be better. If you want to help her you can send money to the school. I hope to get an address for the school.

Altin was baptized on a cool, windy day last September. He has impressed me with his knowledge of the Bible. This morning, a few minutes before worship, he asked if he could preach this morning. He had a good sermon. I hope that he will be a leader of the church in Korca for many years. I also hope that he will go to the British Bible School.

We have added over 20 new students since June 25. Nancy has one class of six girls who are about 17 and one who is 14. The six girls are going into their last year at the Malta school. They are thought to be the best in that school. It is great to have students like we have - the best in Korca. The 14-year old girl in the group took the test to go to the Malta school. She was number ten out of all who took the test. We had another girl who was number five.

One of our new students is a 15 years old girl named Ermenita. She started studying with Tom Price, who is from Lynchburg, Tenn. Tom and Richard Logan were here from June 25 until July 8. Ermenita heard Bruna teaching the children's class and said she wanted to be a teacher like Bruna. So we talked to Bruna and Bruna said she would be happy to have her help. On July 13 Bruna was sick so Ermenita did the teaching by herself and seems to have done very well. Last week while Bruna was in Tirana Ermenita did the teaching on Wednesday and Friday. We think we have another good teacher. Ermenita now studies with Nancy. The group she is in began the WEI advanced course last week. Please pray with us that Bruna and Nancy will be able to teach Ermenita what she needs to know to become a true Christian and that she will want to obey the Lord fully. She has been at worship every Sunday since July 8.

Bruna started her children's class with over 20 children so she divided it into two classes. The older children's class still has over 20 children in it. These children are age 2 up to about 12.

It has been very warm lately (about 90 to 95). Yesterday and today it is a little cooler. We have had a little rain since July 1. This is good for the farmers who need to harvest their crops. We have enjoyed some of their crops. We have had some good peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries, figs, and a few other good things. I am not getting my fair share of it. The cost is very low, very little of it is over 20 cents per pound.
The last four Sundays we have had 25 each time for worship. But is has not been the same 25 every Sunday.

The power has been off a few times recently. When it is off it is during the day and for up to about six hours. It gets a little warm without a fan to cool us off otherwise it is not a problem. We hope it will mean fewer problems next winter.

Thank you to everyone who makes it possible for us to be here and do the work that we enjoy to do. Have a good day.
Bill and Nancy

Monday July 23, 2001

Hello,
In our last report I told you about Ermenita, the 15-year old girl that is helping to teach the children. She studies with Nancy at 4:00 PM five days a week. Today she came early and told Nancy that she is ready to be baptized. She has talked to her parents and they said it was all right. She decided because of what Helen Young said Saturday at the meeting in Tirana. We will work out a time and then go to the lake. It may be Saturday before we can go.

Nancy was studying with another student, a young woman of about 25, about baptism. The student said she was baptized, by immersion, for forgiveness of her sins. She had studied the Bible and understood what it said. We have heard this from several people we know. I have heard it said that you must have help not to understand the Bible. We are seeing it more and more here. People have been given Bibles and they read and understand what it says.

Bill and Nancy

Saturday Aug 4, 2001

Hello,
Last Saturday we had planned to baptized Ermenita but it was delayed for a week. Therefore we baptized Ermenita and Olda today. We left here at about 10:30 AM and we got home at about 2:00 PM. It was not too hot at the lake but it was hot when we returned to Korca. Olda is a young woman who has studied with Nancy for about one year. She is about 25 and has a daughter who is almost three. I had been looking forward to Olda being baptized. I let Dhimitri (he was baptized last September) baptize Ermenita.

We have recently heard that one of Nancy's former students has been baptized in Canada. Kasjani and her daughter and son moved to Canada just over a year ago. Kasjani was baptized in May 2000. Her daughter, Helena, Was baptized May 6 in Canada. Kasjani's email address is at the top of this report. I wonder if other of our students may have been baptized after they left Korca. We hope so.

Helena and Ermenita were friends before Helena moved to Canada. Helena sent a wonderful email to Ermenita early this week. We were in the same class for four years and had a good friendship together. Now, it's even better because we are sisters in Christ, for the fact that I was baptised too, on May 6, 2001.

It has been a long hot day, so this is all for tonight.
Bill and Nancy

Monday, September 17, 2001

Hello,

The last few weeks the power has been off every other day from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM and sometimes it has been off when it should be on. It makes it hard to write email and watch TV. Sometimes it is better not to watch TV

Last Tuesday afternoon my student did not come at 3:00 so I turned the TV on at 3:15 and I was shocked at what I saw, the World Trade Center in smoke. I did not believe it at first, but they kept talking about what was happening so I had to believe. We have had several people tell us they are sorry about what happened. Two of my former students, one I had not seen in two years, came to see us with words of comfort. We have had a few phone calls also. Everyone has been very good to us. On Wednesday I told some of my students that I was not feeling like studying. Some students did not come and it may have been that they thought we would not be studying. It had been a long time since anything had hit me like that.

We can watch TV from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Albania, and Greece. We get most of our news from BBC. Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday most channels were caring only the news from the USA. We still see news about what happened.

Bruna is now in England going to Bible school. We have other members who are making plans to go to the school. One is Ermenita, the last girl we baptized, but we told her she will have to finish high school first. We planned a going away party for Bruna but she planned faster than we did so we let her have her kind of party. It was a good party.

Today is back to school for most students in Albania. Two of Nancy's students came after school for a short visit. One talked about how hard the first day was. We will take a holiday until Oct. 1. Since many of our students are in school we will give them time to get settled into school and then we will start teaching again. Nancy does not plan to take a complete holiday. She plans to clean house and I plan to try to stay out of her way.

The weather is cooler and we have had some rain. The rain started in mid August which is normal for here.

The attendance for worship went down in mid summer but now it has gone back up. We have had 27 and 25 the last two Sundays. We think it will go up some more this fall and winter. That is the way it has been in the past. People here are just like the people in the USA.

It is time to end this and send it.

Bill and Nancy

Thursday November 15, 2001

Summer is over and winter is moving in. It is time for another report. This is late, not because we are busy, but because there is not much to write about. Also because the power is off so much of the time. Since Oct. 22 we have been without power three or more hours every day. One day the power will be off from about 7:30 or 8:00 AM until about 2:00 PM. The next day it will be off from 2:00 PM until 6:00 or later. It is hard to teach by candlelight. Then there have been a few days when we should have had lights but we did not. Maybe now that we have had some rain there will be more water at the power plant and we will have better power.

Two weeks ago we had some very cold weather but after two days it warmed up and the weather has been clear and warm. Today it looks like winter is coming. It has been raining the last few days and we needed the rain. When the clouds are gone we may see lots of snow on the mountains and maybe some here in the city.

We have about 50 students and have added six new students in the last week. There have been times when we would have 70 or 80 students at this time of year. We wonder if we may not have the students because of September 11. Most of the students we have are very good students. We now have time to do better teaching for those who have been baptized.

We have decided to use our living room for our Sunday worship. The house we used for a year was good but the people wanted too much for it. A man was renting it and we rented it from him. He has bought a house, which has a large basement room that we thought about using but our members did not like it. So we decided that our living room was better. We used the basement for five Sundays and our attendance dropped from 20 to nine. It seemed like moving time.

We are planning to return to the USA about Jan. 9 and stay until late April. If we return at that time we go to Portland, OR first for a workshop. Then we will go to Abilene, TX or Jackson, TN. We want to give reports to some churches. I would like to hold some short meetings in March or early April. Let us know if you would like for us to visit with you.

There should be more to write but I can not remember what it is. So I will end for now and try to write more next time.

Bill and Nancy Saltsman

Monday, December 17, 2001

Hello,
It looks like we are in for a very long, cold, hard winter. Our first snow in Korca was on Saturday November 26. Since then we have had snow every Saturday and some in between. The early snow melted after a few days. Last week it was below freezing all day most days. Everything was covered with snow on Friday but some of it melted on Saturday. Then about midnight Saturday it started snowing and it is still snowing (it is about 3:45 PM as write this. It has been snowing almost nonstop for the last 40 hours. It looks like we will have a white Xmas and maybe a white Easter also. The schools were closed today and we were told that travel is very slow if at all. But it is nice to be inside and look at the snow.

We tried something new yesterday. Ermenita, one of our 16 year-old members, had a Bible class for children last summer. She had them singing. Last week some of her students told her that they wanted to sing. So she made plans for a program. Yesterday at 10:45 AM they put on their program. They sing a few song (Xmas and non-Xmas) and each child spoke a few lines. It sounded very good. Then everyone stayed for worship. We had 28 for worship, about half were here for worship for the first time. We hope that they will return for worship. Some of those in the program study with Nancy now.

We still have about 50 students between us. Most of our teaching is on Monday, Friday, and Saturday. Most of our students have been baptized and they are studying from the Bible. Nancy has one class on Fridays that has seven girls. They are studying the life of Jesus. Five of the seven have been baptized.

The power seems to be better now. The last week in November we had power most of the time but that may have been because there were two holidays that week. Lately, when the power has been off, it was back on within three hours. The bad thing is when the lights go off when they should be on. We heat with electricity and it gets cool in our apartment when the power is off.

They have put in new water lines all over Korca. They say we will soon have running water 24 hours a day. We have had running water from 6:00 AM until about 7:30 AM. Then in the afternoon we have running water from about 4:00 until 6:30 or 7:00. We have a storage tank that holds about 40 gallons of water so we have water all the time, if we get water every day. The washing machine only works if we have good water pressure (from incoming water) and good electricity at the same time.

The first Xmas we were here there was very little to show that it was Xmas. It was very drab. Now there are Xmas lights and trees all over the city. It is nice to see the lights.

Bill and Nancy Saltsman

PS It is now after 8:00 PM and it is time to wrap this up. I hope to send it in about an hour. The water came on at about 5:35 and was off before 7:00. It is still snowing. But the lights are still on. You can not have everything. Today may have been a legal holiday, the last day of Ramadan.

Bill

Friday January 4, 2004

Hello,
Our New Year is off to a mixed start. Our daughter lost her baby and my Mom has been very sick. There have been a few good things also. Here is a short report on the last few days.

The weather was very cold about Xmas time and we had a white Xmas. The last Saturday in December the temp went above freezing before noon and it stayed that way day and night until New Year Day. Then the cold air returned and it has been cold the last few days. It started snowing just before midnight Monday and we had about two inches of new snow to start the year.

New Year's is the biggest holiday here in Korca. On New Year eve there were very few people out until almost mid night. Then the fireworks started and people came out. People were shooting fireworks from their balcony and while standing in the street. It was very good to watch because we did not have to go outside.

In Korca the first three days of the year almost everything is shut down. Shops started closing Monday afternoon and nothing was open on Tuesday. Wednesday a few shops were open. On Monday I bought enough food to last the holidays.

Over the weekend our daughter lost her baby. That means our travel plans are changed again. We now plan to leave here in early February and return in May. I fear I may have diabetes and I need to see a diabetologist. Also, my Mom has been sick and we need to visit her. While we are back there we want to visit some of you. We will set some dates later.

We have had several of our friends come to visit us. We have received many Xmas/New Year cards from people in Korca. We received one from my former student who is now in the USA. We did not know that Manjola had gone to the USA. She said she received her visa and left the next day. She is in Warren, Mich. We have some other former students living in that area.

The power has been better lately but it still goes off at odd times and stays off for up to three hours.

I said this would be a short report so I better stop now.

Bill and Nancy Saltsman

From: BILL SALTSMAN [mailto:billsaltsman@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 7:06 AM
Subject: VBS Day two

Sunday July 4, 2004
IT IS DONE!

At about 2:30 PM Albanian time Lorena was baptized. Only one girl was baptized and the other one will have to wait a few days. She was not feeling well and had lots of pain. Lorena is 17 and will start her last year of high school this fall.

We hope you are enjoying your holiday as much as we are enjoying ours.

This morning Artan Samara preached for us. He grew up in Korca and he was living in Tirana in 1992 where he studied the WEI material and was baptized. Later he went to the Bible school in England. He does not preach full time but he does preach in Tirana about every five or six weeks.

Beni Leka is also here for a few weeks. He and Artan grew up together. Beni went to Athens in the early 90's and was baptized there. He has studied the Bible and preaches in Athens. He has preached for us a few times. These are two good young preachers and we hope they will have many more years to preach.

On Friday two of Mira's students had birthdays. One is 13 and the other is 14. So at 11:00 AM we went to a party. We enjoyed the party.

It has been dry and hot (about 90) lately. This is good for the wheat harvest which is under way now and should last about two more weeks. They now have machines that do most of the work. When we first came here lots of the harvest was done by hand.

That is about it for now. Enjoy your holiday!

Bill and Nancy.

Monday July 5, 2004
wrote the above yesterday but I could not get online last night or this morning, so I will add a few words.

We started our VBS this morning. We had 18 students and five teachers/helpers. We had some confusion, otherwise everything went well. We plan to have VBS the next four weeks. We will cover the same material each week and we hope to have new students every week. This was the first time for some of the ones helping to do this type of work.

Bill and Nancy

Tuesday, July 6, 2004
Hello,

We had 26 in VBS this morning. We also had three teachers and one helper. Nancy is trying to keep everything in running order. I do not know who is the most excited, the teachers or the students. We had eight more today than we had yesterday. If we get that many more tomorrow, I do not know where we will put them. Mira said they could stand up. VBS has gone very well. This is all new to two of the teachers. Last year Mira helped Nancy so she knows a little about this kind of school. One teacher, Elsa is 15 years old. Ardita is a schoolteacher in her early 30's. We have known her several years. Some of Mira's English students are doing the puppet show. They have done very well. They asked to do this.

Mira is staying very busy. Not only does she work with the VBS she also is teaching her English students every afternoon.

This is about all the news we have. I had to tell you about today. It has been very hot the last few days but they students still come.

Bill and Nancy

Wednesday May 18, 2005

Hello,

We have been back in Korca, Albania for three weeks today. At last we are able to get online. There has been a problem getting on line. I thought the problem was my computer but now I think that too many people are trying to use the internet service here in Korca.
Saturday I got on line for the first time since we have been back.

We had a good visit in the States but it was good to get back home. We did not visit all of the people we wanted to visit but the cost of gas kept us from driving too much.

We will write more at a later time. It looks like we will have a busy summer.

Bill and Nancy.

PS: Bill has one young man that wants to attend the International School of Preaching in Tirana beginning September 7, 2005. He will need support. Write Dick Ady if you would like to sponsor Bill's "preacher-boy." (Bob Patterson)

June 19, 2005

Hello,

I think it is time to tell a few of the things that have happened and we hope will happen.

There will be a new Bible school in Tirana in September. Mira wants to go to the school and we hope we can find the money she needs to live on while she is in school.

School finished for most students last Thursday. Some will have to take tests over the next few days. Teachers will finish this Thursday. Before school was out some children came asking when we would have Bible school.

We plan to have VBS in the village where Mira teaches. She has said about 75 of her students have told her they plan to come to the school. The problem is the place she had planned to have the school. We were told Friday that we could not use it because they have other things planned for that week. Tomorrow Mira will see if there is a place that we can use.

Then on Monday, July 4, we will start a one week VBS at our house. I hope it will be as good as the one we had last year. Our big problem is we need more teachers. At this time Mira will be the only teacher. Some of Mira’s students have said they will help.

Sometime, about July 1, we plan to move. We plan to rent a new apartment near where we now live. We hope that most of our students will keep studying with us. The apartment is not finished. It should be ready any day now. We hope it is because we need to get out of this house. It is making us sick because of the mold growing in it.

We think that will keep us busy for a few days. We will let you know how things go. Remember us in your prayers.

Bill and Nancy

July 3, 2005

Hello,
The last week was very busy. We had VBS in the village where Mira is an English teacher. We had about 43 students on Monday and a high of about 70 on Thursday. On Friday we took a busload to a mountain village. There was a total of 44 who went. There were several problems that we had to work around. If it had been me I might have quit after the first day.

On Wednesday afternoon we moved. Just try having VBS and moving at the same time. We have everything moved but we still have cleaning to do.

Tomorrow (July 4) we will start VBS here. We had thought we might rent a place near where we now live to have VBS. We will start here and see how many we will have. We might have too many to have it here and then will have to rent a place.

We will be off line for a few days. We do not know when we will have our phone moved over here. We will manage some way.

More later,

Bill and Nancy.

July 30, 2005

Hello,

I spoke too soon. On July 15 I said we were back online but we were not. For a week after that I could not get online. Then on Saturday night our phone was dead. On Tuesday we had a phone again. They said some men who were working outside our building cut a phone line and the whole building was without phone serve. I still have a problem. I can get to Yahoo but most of the time I cannot get to my email. I do not know when I will send this.

Many of our former students who have been away to school are back home for the summer. It is good to see them again and get a hug and a kiss.
It has been hot lately. We had a good rain on Wednesday but that is forgotten now. The highs have been in the low 90’s. That is not so bad as what some of you have had.

Many of our students and their families have gone to a beach somewhere. Some of them tell us when they are going but some we will not see until they get back, which may be two to four weeks.

We still go for walk every afternoon at about 6:30. It can be hot at that time but when we meet some pretty girls to talk to it is all right.

That is about it for now, Bill and Nancy.

September 29, 2005

Hello,
I will start with the bad news. On Monday morning Sept. 5 I was walking to the Supermarket when I fell down and landed on my left knee. My knee was very sore so the next day Mira took me to the doctor. They took an x-ray of my knee. There were no broken bones. The doctor told me not to walk for a few days. My knee is now all right.

Now for some good news: We have signed up some new students lately and a few former students have come back to study. July and August were so slow for us because many of our students left Korca for the holidays.

We have now lived in Korca 10 years, as of September 8. We thought about going out to eat but because of my knee we stayed home.

September 4 was Mira’s birthday. She is now 25. That was a Sunday so after worship we had a party for her. A few days later her mother had a birthday.

We are enjoying our new apartment. Our lease says we have two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen. The kitchen is great. It is about 25 feet by 14 feet. We will have room enough for a wedding.

Now for the best news: Bruna was my first student in Korca. She went to England to the Bible school and then stayed in London to work. She is now back in Korca for her wedding which will be Saturday. I will tie the knot for them. I am very happy that she asked me to marry them. She will go back to London and will also have a wedding there. They will live in London about two years because his work will take about two years to finish. The wedding will be in our new apartment. We can seat over 30 people.

There was more that I wanted to write but this became a very busy day. I will write more later,

Bill and Nancy.

June 1, 2006

Hello,
We are back home and back at work. Roger M. is here helping us teach. There were three others here but they are back in the USA. We enjoyed having them here.

We have added about 30 new students since returning. Mira has added about that same number.

We still cannot get online at home so I am at an internet calf. It looks like it will be this way for a long time. Bill and Nancy

October 5, 2006

Hello,
We will return to the USA on Feb. 19, 2007 and that will end our work in Albania. We will stay in Abilene a few days and then go to Jackson, Tenn. Then we want to visit all of the churches that are helping us. We want to be back in Abilene in early April.

Those are the plans at this time. Bill

November, 2006

Hello,

We have had our first snow this fall. It has snowed twice but it was gone by the end of the day. That is my kind of snow.

Nancy has been having pain in her lower back and left hip. Last week Mira went with Nancy to see a doctor. They took a Xray. The doctor said Nancy has arthritis. He gave her some pain pills and she does not have as much pain. I seem to have the same problem.

During the summer Mira started a children's Bible class on Wednesday at 9 AM. When school started she changed it to Sunday at 9 AM. Nancy and two girls help her. I write the puppet skits. There has been as many as 20 in class.

Nancy and I have about 10 students each and Mira has over 100 students. We now have another teacher teaching 2 hours a week.

Have a good holiday and do not eat too much.

Bill

Newsletter Spring of 2007

So much has happened since we wrote you last! It has been such a crazy time, and we have not sat down to write. We apologize for the length of our silence.

Romania/Albania Missions Workshop:
We braved a blizzard and severe ice storm to attend this wonderful event, hosted by the Adams Boulevard church of Christ in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Our time there was priceless as we were able to meet with many dear friends. Dennis and Fredia Winebarger, Alfred and Diana Zike, and too many friends from Bartlesville to list here made this time an absolute blessing for us. This conference encouraged us and built up our excitement to go back. We met with many who had traveled to Albania and even had a brief chance to speak Albanian with Alfred and Diana.

A Change in Our Focus:
One of our biggest changes was a shift from a single city to a dual city work. We will live in Korce (coretcha), Albania and work with both the Korce and Pogradec churches. This was a difficult decision for us as we did not want to disappoint the church in Pogradec. One contributing factor to our decision was the knowledge that Bill and Nancy Saltsman, who have worked in Korce since September of 1995, were returning to the states this spring. This left the congregation in Korce without a full-time American missionary and no Albanian Evangelist. This weighed not only on our hearts but also the hearts of the Missions Committee at our sponsoring congregation in Maryville, Tennessee. They contacted us with the idea of approaching the Killen church of Christ in Killen, Alabama, which had worked hand in hand with the Saltsmans, about the possibility of a work incorporating both of these cities.

In mid January we agreed to the contacting of the Killen church. We saw this as a way to encourage the congregation in Korce, as well as the Pogradec church.

Belton, Missouri:
The first weekend of February we had the pleasure of visiting Belton, Missouri. While we were in Bartlesville, we spoke with Dennis and Fredia Winebarger, and they invited us to come and visit the church in Belton. We had the pleasure of attending a night of church fellowship on Saturday night and Kevin spoke
on Sunday morning. The church was very welcoming. It was also great to see Dennis, Fredia and their daughter Leslie.

Trip to Maryville, Killen and Lynchburg (March 1st thru 5th):
During Kevin’s Spring Break weekend we made a trip to Tennessee and Alabama. Our stay would have been longer but we drove to the airport in a blizzard, had a flight cancelled, got on one of the only flights of the day, and had to sleep in the airport in Atlanta because of more flight problems. (Bad weather seemed to be a theme of our travels!) On Friday we met with some of the members of the missions committee in
Maryville.

On Saturday we traveled with Bill Morgan and his wife Mozelle to Killen, Alabama where we met with the missions committee, elders and deacons. This was a very helpful visit because we were also able to meet with the Saltsmans. They had just come back to the States and were able to fill us in on some of the details of the work they had done. We were also able to talk to Roger Michaels. Roger has been working with the Saltsmans for years on short-term trips and was just about to leave for Korce when we met up with him. He plans be over there from March until November. We had the opportunity to worship with the church in Killen on Sunday March 4th.

After lunch Bill and Mozelle traveled with us to Lynchburg, Tennessee where we met with the church leaders. That evening we had the opportunity to visit with the congregation and join them for their Sunday evening service. We flew out the following day from Nashville. The weekend was a whirlwind of activity. The churches that we met with seemed very positive about the work in Korce and Pogradec.

Auburn:
We also have been visiting with the brothers and sisters at the church in Auburn, Nebraska. Kevin was given the opportunity to preach there on March 25th. We had visited the church there a few times before and they were very interested in hearing about the work in Albania. Auburn is a two and a half hour drive from where we live, but it is a pretty drive and the church is very welcoming.

Fundraising:
We are still fundraising. Because our work has expanded to two cities we will have a greater need for one-time contributions. We have been blessed with $11,400 in one-time support already. This leaves us needing approximately $22,600 in one time support. One of our biggest upfront expenses will be the purchase of a van. Our hope is to transport the members of the two churches back and forth to visit each other and also to transport us for the work. The vans (taxis) in Albania are wonderful, but there are specific times that they are available, and we want to have the flexibility to visit people’s homes in Pogradec in the evenings. This was a vital part of our ministry before, and we predict it will be again.

We are so happy to report that we have reached our goal for monthly support for the first year! We say first year because part of our monthly support will be coming from the Bell Trust, an organization which helps to support missions. The idea behind the Bell Trust is that churches and missionaries will find ways to takeover the support that they have provided, so as we look to the coming years we need to see our funding as if the Bell Trust money is not there.

Packing:
We have begun the process of packing. It seems like such a long time away, but we will be leaving York May 28th. Our plan is to have a little family time and arrive in Maryville, Tennessee on June 13th to work with the church there for three months. There is so much to do, but the excitement is building!

Prayer Requests:
Please pray that we end the school year well. There is so much to do with both of our jobs before we are done. Pray that we are able to raise the funds needed to buy a vehicle. Most importantly pray for the cities of Korce and Pogradec. Pray that the churches and their workers will be encouraged. Pray that hearts will be softened and prepared for our arrival.

Thank you so much for your continued support!!

Kevin and Allison Morrill

Contact Information:
Our email: morrills@fastmail.us

Sponsoring Congregation:
Maryville Church of Christ
611 Sherwood Dr.
P.O. Box 5293
Maryville, TN 37802-5293

Tom England (Chair Missions Committee)
Email: teepe2@earthlink.net
Phone: 865-856-0731

Prayer Request

This is a very quick note to ask for your prayers for us, Roger Michael,
and the church in Korca, Albania.

Some of you may have already heard this news, but many more have not. On
Thursday May 23 Mira Meminaj was accidently electrocuted. Mira was a
central part of the church in Korca. She assisted with translation, and
taught beginners English courses to hundreds of children. Though only
27 she was a very strong and committed Christian. The few times that we
had met with her in the past had been such an encouragement to us. We
were truly looking forward to working with her and building our
friendship.

Please pray for the Christians in Korca, as well as Mira’s mother who is
a widow and now has no family close by.

We will keep you posted as we receive details from Roger Michael who is
currently working in Korca.

In His Service,
Kevin and Allison

Dear Kevin and Allison,

My heart is breaking. I have known, loved, and appreciated Mira for a decade. During the 1997 revolution, she and her mother took Bill and Nancy Saltsman into their home and protected them from the insurgents. She was like a daughter to them. I know they are devastated. I have observed Mira teach the Beginner's English Course for Albanians children of various ages. She was, indeed, the backbone of the church in Korce. What a terrible loss to the cause of Christ in southeastern Albania.

I know you are terribly disappointed and heart-sick, as I am. She would have been such a blessing to you in your work. The only silver lining in the cloud is the fact that she was a faithful Christian. My concern, right now, is for her mother. Mira has gone on to be with her Lord, but her mother has been left virtually alone.

All we can do is pray for her and the church in Korce and help in every way we can. I know that Roger will not let her starve.

May God bless you as you prepare to move. You are a God-send.

With brotherly love,
Dick Ady

June 2007

Greetings from the Volunteer State! Yes, we have arrived safely in Maryville, Tennessee. This will be home until we leave for Albania on September 3rd. Our hope, from this point forward, is to send monthly newsletters to keep you updated. As we settle into our house here in Maryville, we’ll try to catch you up on the events of this past month.

May 23rd Kevin’s parents and grandmother arrived in York to help us finish packing. Their arrival in York from California was delayed by two days due to an emergency stop in Evanston, Wyoming where Nina, Kevin’s grandmother, was briefly hospitalized with altitude sickness. Their arrival during the last week of May overlapped with Kevin’s last week of work. This allowed us to leave when the school year finished. As always Kevin’s parents were a great blessing in helping us move.

On Saturday May 26th, the East Hill Church of Christ in York hosted a going away party for us. It was so nice to have the chance to say goodbye to our brothers and sisters in Christ. This church is very supportive of us and our plans to return to Albania.

On Monday May 28th, we left York with our car packed, and a few items in Kevin’s parents’ truck and travel trailer. This began our vacation time with Kevin’s family.

On May 29th, we stayed in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. Kevin’s aunt and uncle met us there for a night to say their goodbyes. On Wednesday May 30th we dropped off our car in Maryville, TN and continued on a short vacation through North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida with Kevin’s family. This was a precious time for us because we will not see Kevin’s family again until we return from Albania on furlough. Also, Kevin’s grandmother is in congestive heart failure and her condition is not expected to improve.

During our trip around the southern part of the US, we were able to meet many brothers and sisters in Christ that encouraged us on our way. One of the camp sites we stayed at was a few minutes from the Titusville Church of Christ, in Titusville, Florida. We had the pleasure of worshiping with them on Sunday June 3rd. We were shown great hospitality. We met many others too, in gas stations, grocery stores, camp sites, and rest stops. The “others” included a couple with ties to York College that we met in Nashville. The couple, from Wichita, spoke to us for some time and was also on vacation. It seems like God has found so many ways to encourage us through his children. The world keeps getting smaller.

On June 8th, Kevin’s family dropped us off at the Knoxville airport where we flew to Wisconsin to visit Allison’s family. There we were able to visit with her parents, grandparents, aunt, uncles, and many cousins. It was so nice to see everyone and have family time. We even got to participate in a surprise birthday party for Allison's grandpa's cousin. It was so much fun to have time to share stories and see everyone. This was the last time we will see most of these relatives until furlough. We were also able to worship with the brothers and sisters at the Southside Church of Christ in Milwaukee, where we have many friends.

On June 13th, we flew back to Knoxville and moved into the house where we will be living until we move to Albania. It is on church property so the commute is about one minute. On Saturday June 16th, we had the pleasure of participating in the congregation’s River Fest, an annual gathering at the home of, Art Edwards, one of the elders at Maryville. There was a catfish fry/potluck, tubing down the river and lots of singing. It was a great time of church fellowship. We just might learn all the words to “Rocky Top” before we leave here.

On June 18th, we began classes at the East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions at the Karns Church of Christ. We will take classes five days a week for a month in the mornings. In the afternoons we will come back to Maryville and work with the congregation here.

Support Needs
As we wrote in our previous newsletter we have full monthly support for our first year. However, we are still lacking one-time support. In order to do the two-city work we have planned, we will need a vehicle. Currently, we do not have enough funding to buy a vehicle and cover the other start-up costs associated with our move. If you would like to bless us in this vital way please contact us through the information below, or reply to this e-mail.

Prayer requests
Please continue to keep the works in Korca and Pogradec in your prayers. As we wrote before the church in Korca recently lost a beloved and faithful member, Mira. This loss will take time to recover from. Please pray for their strength.

Also keep Xhumert and the church in Pogradec in your prayers. These brothers and sisters are gathering faithfully as a fully Albanian church. Pray for their growth, both in their walk with Jesus and in number. Pogradec is a difficult city to share the gospel in as many people have heard parts of the truth but never the full truth. Pray that these people will be able to hear the full truth as Xhumert and the church share it.

Thank you again for your love and encouragement. God has blessed us so richly with your love and prayers.

In Christ,
Kevin and Allison Morrill

Contact Information:

Our email: morrills@fastmail.us

Sponsoring Congregation:
Maryville Church of Christ
611 Sherwood Dr.
P.O. Box 5293
Maryville, TN 37802-5293

Tom England (Chair Missions Committee)
Email: teepe2@earthlink.net
Phone: 865-856-0731

Newsletter July 2007

This past month has been a nice chance to settle into our lives here in Maryville, Tennessee. Mind you, we have not slowed down very much, but it is nice to be resting our
heads in the same place, nearly, every night.

Classes at the East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions
During this month we were blessed to attend the East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions. We took two classes from brother James Meadows, Church History and Ezra to Malachi. We also attended Psalms taught by Tim Forlines, 2 Corinthians taught by Charles L. Brown and Educational Work taught by Tom Miller. Even though we were not able to attend the full session of classes because of our work commitments we did learn a lot and met many nice people. We finished our classes the week of the 4th of July.

Visiting with the Smiths and speaking Albanian
As many of you know we lived in Durres, Albania for a year and a half before moving to Pogradec. We worked with many wonderful people including the Smith family. The Smiths now live in Wartburg, TN about an hour from us. We have had the chance to meet with them twice now and to speak Albanian with Jona Smith, Patrick and Jamie’s daughter-in-law. Jona is Albanian and grew up in Durres. We hope to meet with her often and refresh our memories. A lot has seemed to come back, but we are still rusty. We believe God had a hand in moving us so close to them.

Wedding
On the 2nd week in June we had the opportunity to attend the wedding of Erin Casey and Nate Cleveland in Missouri. This was a rich blessing because we were able to catch up with many people from Oconomowoc, where Allison was born. Erin’s father Mike taught Allison about the bible, and performed our wedding ceremony. We also saw many other families that are so precious to us. We were able to see lots of friends from York and some who have had an association with York College. This was a surprise to us, and we were able to say goodbye to them again.

Kevin teaching
Kevin had the opportunity to teach the Wednesday evening auditorium class on June 27th. This was the largest class he has ever taught (188) and it provided a good chance for members of the Maryville congregation to know us better. Kevin taught from the 3rd chapter of Colossians, relating it to stories from his life as well as our work in Albania, at the end of the class time he answered questions about our work.

Allison learning to knit
We are in the process of getting to know the church members here. This has meant attending as many of the church events as we can, including wedding showers and funerals. We have also been invited to homes for dinner and Allison was asked if she wanted to learn how to knit. She explained how hard it was for a lefty to learn handy work, but her teacher has been very patient. One of the nice things that has happened as a result is that knitting is a conversation starter. Many of the members that do not know us have talked to us because of her knitting.

Prayer requests
Please pray that the rest of our plans and preparations run smoothly. It is amazing how much we need to think about and do before we leave. More importantly please pray for Xhumert and Irena Nuro in Pogradec and Roger Michaels in Korca our fellow workers. Pray they are encouraged and strengthened. Lastly please pray for the field that we will be working in that God will prepare the minds and the hearts of those we are going to teach.

In His Service,
Kevin and Allison Morrill

Contact Information:

Our email: morrills@fastmail.us

August 2007

This month has flown by. We have been very busy with activity and travel. Our departure date of September 3rd is quickly approaching. Thank you for you interest in our work we eagerly await the day we will be sending these updates from Albania.

On July 22, we had the opportunity to worship with the church in Killen, Alabama. This body is committed to the work in Albania, and will be one of our prime supporters while we are in Korca. This was our second time in Killen, so we had the chance to meet with the elders again and to fellowship with the church. We visited on the weekend when the church in Killen had an annual ice cream social after evening service. This was a great chance to get meet members, and it was a lot of fun.

During the week of the 23rd through the 28th the teens from the Maryville, Greenback and Karns Churches of Christ participated in a Work camp in Greenback, Tennessee. We helped with this camp for three days. This was a great chance to get to know the youth of the congregation better and work with the adult members of these churches.

Every Tuesday Morning a group from the Maryville church meets for breakfast. We had the chance to attend one of these breakfasts. It was a lot of fun to get to talk to and spend time with another group from the church. We have also had the chance this month to eat in homes of the church members here. In a couple of cases we were able to talk with people who were going to Albania soon and answer questions about the country. This was an added blessing.

With our departure getting closer we are in the process of shopping for things we need. We were shopping for clothes at a store called Belks, when the sales associate asked Kevin if he would like a store charge card. He told her that we was moving out of the country soon and would not need it. The woman asked if he was a missionary, and he told her yes and that we were moving to Albania. She informed us that a woman from Albania worked there. She also told us when Blerta worked. We went back to the store again and met Blerta. The following Friday we went to visit her home and practiced our Albanian. Blerta is married to a man named Ben and they have two girls. Blerta is not very interested in religion, but had a nice time talking to us in Albanian. He mother, Lavdia, and father also live in Maryville. We were not able to meet Lavdia the day we visited Ben and Blerta, but we hope to get to know her better. Blerta says that her parents are interested in religion but that they do not speak much English at all. On Friday of this last week we went to Little Caesars where Lavdia works to say hello. She was excited to see us. We are in the process of trying to set up a teaching schedule with her so that we might be able to set up a connection with this family and the church before we leave. The church in Maryville is committed to the work in Albania, so we think this family could be encouraged and taught.

We received news on the 23rd of July that Xhurmert Nuro, the minister in Pogradec, and his family plan on moving to the United States at the end of September. Irena, his wife, won the green card lottery. This was surprising news to us, and we are sad that we will not be able to work with them for long. Please pray for them that their transition is a smooth one. Also, please pray the church in Pogradec as this will be a difficult transition time for them.

We are also trying to continue to practice our Albanian language. We visited the Smith family, a family we worked with in Albania about once a week this last month. We spoke with Jona Smith each time in Albanian. This as helped us to remember more words and to learn a few more. We still have so much to learn. It has also been a blessing to talk to Patrick and Jamie Smith, because they were on the team that re-planted the church in Durres. It is nice to bounce ideas off them.

We are so happy to see that members of the church in Maryville visiting Albania. Every Thursday of July, members from the church left for summer campaign in Tirana. It is nice to have people here that have experienced some of the same things and have met the same people. They have a heart for Albanian missions.

Please pray for our plans and packing. We only have a month left in Maryville, and so much needs to get accomplished in that time. Pray again for the churches in Pogradec and Korca. Pray that we have wisdom as we plan for this ever changing work.

Thank you again for you interest in the Lord’s work in Albania. You all are in our thoughts so often.

In Christ,
Kevin and Allison Morrill

Contact Information:

Our email: morrills@fastmail.us

September 2007

Greetings from Korca! It is with great joy that we send to you the first newsletter from our second stay in Albania. We are readjusting to life here, as you will see this is not always easy.

Departure (Maryville):
Though we have only lived a short time here we have felt very much at home in Maryville. The weeks leading up to our departure were filled with dinners, visits and boating. What a blessing it has been to be able to know this congregation better.

This month also brought our final visits with the Smith family. These loving people have been our family since we first moved to Durres, Albania in 2002. It was a joy to be able to spend time with them catching up and practicing our Albanian with their daughter in-law Jona.

Arrival (Tirana):
We had the pleasure of staying with Ellen Walker for a few days when we arrived in Albania. This gave us a chance to begin our “Leje Qendrimi” paperwork this is literally
permission to stay and is the Albanian equivalent to a visa. We made a trip to the American Embassy for an official paper saying among other things that are not criminals. We also had help from Arjan Muca. to get papers notarized by a document lawyer and to buy a cell phone. During the time that we were in Tirana, Ruth and Steve Byrne were also in Tirana because Steve was teaching a class at the Bible school. We went with Ellen, the Byrnes, and Arjan Muca to the new mall outside of Tirana to see it. We had dinner and it was fun to see all the things that are available there. We had a good Albanian meal in the food court. The whole mall was about the size of a large Super Wal-mart. From the mall we paid visit to the home of Arjan Hyka, another Christian in the church in Tirana. Arjan Hyka has recently bought a vehicle and wanted us to see it, because we have asked him to help us find a vehicle.

Arrival (Korca):
We have arrived in Korca. We moved to Korca on September 7th, Allison’s birthday. This was kind of a hard day because when we arrived in Tirana it was a very comfortable temperature. It was in the low 80’s, a stark contrast to the hot summer, but on the 7th it became colder, and in Korca it was in the 50’s and raining. It felt like winter. We had to reorganize our clothes because we were not prepared for these temperatures in September, it even snowed in the high mountains. We are grateful that is has warmed up a since then.

On the day we arrived we met Roger Michael, a missionary who works in Korca, again. We have been very excited to work with him. We also met Altin Plassa and his brother, Aurel. Altin has been a member of the church in Korca for a long time. They have been very helpful to us. Also, at the apartment that day was Kozeta, a college age girl who teaches Beginners English courses for the church. Kozeta has been attending and working with the church for a long time, but has not yet been baptized. She has a very sweet and helpful spirit. These three have been a wonderful blessing to us.

Pogradec:
On Saturday, September 8th we traveled to Pogradec to meet with Xhumert and discuss the future of the work in Pogradec after his departure. The meeting was very positive. It was so wonderful to see Xhumert and Irena and to meet their two year old daughter Debora. We were able to share a visit and a meal together.

Worship:
Our first Sunday in Korca was very well attended. We first visited the children’s Bible class at 9 o’clock taught by Kozeta. Allison plans to help with this class and will begin
lesson planning with Kozeta. There were 7 children at the class, including the landlord’s two children. After class, it was time for the Sunday service. There were 11 people who came including us and Roger Michael. This was a great number for the service. The challenge is that of the 8 Albanians present only three have been baptized into Christ. We learned new songs and new versions to songs we already knew. We had a fellowship meal of pizza after the service and Allison bought some Turkish sweets for a birthday treat. As she prepared to pass them out the group sang happy birthday to her. It was so
nice to meet all of these people.

Settling in:
Right now we are in the process of getting settled. We have shopped for a bed and wardrobe because Albania does not have closets. We received great news from our landlord that we will be able to have a wood stove so we will be shopping for a stove and have it installed. We will also get our wood for the winter. We love the warmth of wood so this was a real blessing. We have also been meeting Roger’s students which we will take over when he travels to the United States. Our days have been filled with meeting as many people as we can. Most of our contacts, so far, are shop owners and for the most part they have been really positive about our work.

Prayers:
Thank you for your prayers for the work. It is always a little difficult to move to a new place. We hope to be settled soon, but we also know that the process of getting settled is bringing us in contact with a lot of people. Please pray for the many students who are attending courses that they will want to know more about God’s plan. As we write this the drums are sounding Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. These drums are played all month long. It is a visible, as well as audible, reminder of the fact that we, as God’s servants, have work to do. Please pray that we will be able to reach both the Muslim and Orthodox communities in this city.

In His Service,
Kevin and Allison Morrill

Contact Information:

Kevin and Allison Morrill
Kutia Postare Nr. 11
Korca, Albania, Europe

October 2007

Settling in:
We are still settling in, but we are not quite finished. We have bought a nice wood stove that will serve as a stove and an oven when the winter comes. We had wood delivered and chopped, so we will just need to chop it smaller when we need it. We now have a bed and do not have to sleep on a fold out. Our wardrobe is finally finished (October 1, 2007), so we do not have to live out of boxes anymore. We had said before that we are meeting people as we are buying things and getting needs met. The man that made the wardrobe had an interest in the Bible and could tell us some stories. We were able to talk one day with him and his fellow worker for about half and hour, and we gave the man a large print Albanian Bible and his partner a Children’s Bible for his daughter. You never know where things will go. We are still working on getting a faster/more consistent internet connection.

We have had some unexpected blessings. We have 24 hours of water and no need for a holding tank. This means that we live in one of two cities in Albania that has this luxury: Korca and Pogradec. We are also only out of power for 4 hours a day, two hours in the morning and two in the evening. The power situation will most likely change in the winter, but we are appreciating having it now.

Papers:
We have some very good news to report. Our papers for our “Leje Qendrimi” (permission to stay) have been turned into the police. This meant four trips to Noters, Albanian document lawyers. We have been very blessed. Altin Plasa, a long time member of the church in Korca, helped us turn our papers in. His cousin is on the police force in Korca which helped to cut through a lot of red tape. Altin also has had a job in the city government in Korca, so he has many connections. Just to explain a little of why we were so excited, this process of turning in our papers took about 15 or more trips to the police station when we lived in Durres. With connections it took only three. Also, added insurance for our paper work: when we lived in Pogradec we shopped every day at Beni and Gita’s shop. We talked to them for about 15 minutes a day and built a friendship. We drank coffee at a local café while Altin went with his cousin to turn in our papers, in walked Beni. He is now a police detective working in Korca. We were elated to see our friend, we had visited Gita, but Beni was in Korca when we went to the shop. Beni assured us that he would do his best to insure that everything went smoothly. We felt well taken care of.

One added blessing of our need to finish our papers was the need to make a trip to Tirana to pick up one last paper. We used this opportunity to also make a side trip to Durres. We were able to meet with Cimi and his wife Anila, and the girls from the AIM team. We also had the chance to see Suela, a longtime Christian of the church in Durres and a friend of ours. It was so fun to speak to her in Albanian even though her English is amazing. It was like coming home. The most encouraging part was seeing many familiar faces. Some of the ladies in the class had been taught by Allison five years ago when they were eleven.

Worship:
We have had the chance to worship with the churches in Pogradec and Korca three times now. On the weekend of the 23rd, there were 13 Albanians, 1 Australian (Gavin, Bruna's husband), and us attending the church in Korca. This number fluctuates a great deal so we were very excited to see so many. There were 7 Albanians attending the church in Pogradec the same weekend. They came from two families and most of them are Christians. This was our first week of a split Sunday with children’s class (9:00 -10:30 ) and worship (11:00) in Korca and worship in Pogradec (3:00). Kevin preached in both services with a translator. It was a very tiring day, but also encouraging.

Children and Teen Classes:
Allison is learning kids’ songs in Albanian so that she can sing with the kids. This week was the first lesson that is not from the VBS materials. We have been blessed to have some felt figures and the kids love using them to retell the bible story. Right now we have two Albanian girls who have volunteered to help with this class. They are learning the Bible for themselves as well. We are encouraged to see Mira, a 55 year old student of Koseta’s come to children’s class. She participates quietly with the children and is so excited to hear the bible stories. She had also attended our teen class. Mira has been attending on Sunday mornings as well. She did not come last Sunday, so please pray that she will continue to come even with Kozeta’s absence.

The teen class is new. We have met two times and this last Wednesday we had six people come to our apartment to watch the Gospel of John on our wall. We have been blessed by a projector, and it was so fun to have popcorn and learn. We had the subtitles in French, but next time they are going to be in Spanish. We then read the chapter we watched. This film is word for word from the Bible, so it was nice to read the passages in Albanian afterwards. We are going to do a survey of the Bible for this class, but we wanted to watch this film before Kozeta leaves for university. Kozeta had to leave early for university, but we will continue this anyway.

Ladies Class:
On Thursday September 27th Allison began a ladies class on the Women in the Bible. There were three in attendance, which were nearly all the women currently attending the church. One of the ladies was Reti, Berta’s sister. Reti is not a Christian yet and does not speak English. We hope that this study will be a chance for her to study the Bible for the first time and that she may want to study further. She has also attended worship two times. She has a kind and gentle spirit. Allison also began, on the same day, to teach Reti’s daughter a beginning English class which meets just before the ladies class. We hope she will stick around for ladies class in the future. The women hope to study two mornings a week.

Changes:
Roger Michael had planned on returning to the United States in October, but he had to leave early because his mother has been experiencing severe health problems. He left Korca on Wednesday, September 18th. He hopes to return in January. This meant that we took over all of his students and a few more. We have a full afternoon schedule in Korca. Our new location in Korca has brought in a lot of students for interviews. Because of our settling in, we have not filled up our schedules in Pogradec. We will begin with the family members of Christians and plan on making a commercial soon for the local TV station in Pogradec.

Also, the same week Roger left, Kozeta found out that she won the opportunity to participate in the medical school in Tirana. This means that she has left us to start school on the first of October in the capital Tirana. We are going to miss her very much.

Surprise:
The church was blessed with the visit of Bruna Lawson (Bardhollari). Bruna had been a member of the church in Korca and is now living in England with her husband, Gavin and her son Sean. It was so nice to meet her and her husband. This is one of the blessings of working with an established work.

Also attending with Bruna was her sister Stella. Stella is a member of the church but has not been attending. Stella also came the following Sunday after Bruna and Gaven returned home. She expressed an interest in continuing to attend and to start a WEI course again. Please pray for this.

Car Search:
We continue to look for a car. This search brought us to a market in Shijak between Durres and Tirana. Arjan Hyka, a Christian from Tirana, had called us on Sunday to come and look at a vehicle at this market. Unfortunately, when we made the trip to Shijak, it had been sold. We will keep looking. Arjan test drove two other cars for us, but we did not like them as much. We both got the opportunity to test drive one vehicle; Allison was scared to death to drive in Albania, so this was a great personal accomplishment.

Meeting a cousin:
Albania is a small world. We keep meeting people that know each other. It is kind of like being in the church. We have been taking vans to Tirana when we needed to make a visit. The trip from Tirana means about four hours on the road and going over three mountains. Because of the curvy mountain roads, most vans stop halfway for a coffee, or pilaf and yogurt. The restaurant we have stopped at going both ways was restaurant Cota. This is the last name of a former student in Durres, so we decided to ask he owner’s son if there was any relation, and they were cousins. What a small world.

Prayer Requests:
Please pray that we can get settled in and get our schedules straight. Please pray that we can be flexible. A two-city work has many challenges. Please also pray that we can meet those in Korca and Pogradec who are interested in God’s word and want to study. Pray that the churches grow in strength and in number. Pray also that we are effective servants to the people of these towns.

In Christ,
Kevin and Allison Morrill

November 2007

We have been very busy this month with teaching and settling in. We are still getting to know the city and will be for sometime, but we now know where to pay all our bills, buy
groceries and how to get around the city a little better.

BIBLE CLASSES: This month saw the beginning of a church wide bible class at our home. The people who attend the church are mostly adults, and they were interested in a class for the whole body. This also gives us a time to learn and teach new songs because the song books from Pogradec, Durres and Tirana are very different from the song book in Korca. The teen class has not taken off yet. Most of the people who have attended
the class are adults. We hope that some of our younger students will be interested. We may try changing the time or day.

ALBANIAN LANGUAGE: We are having a little easier time speaking Albanian, but have not found a teacher yet. We are learning new words everyday. Kevin preached for the first time in Albanian this month and taught the church Bible class with some word help. Allison also taught her ladies Bible class in Albanian. The church members are very patient with us, and we hope that we will become more fluent and make fewer grammatical mistakes over time, for the sake of the Christians here. We are still eagerly searching for a teacher and time to study with a teacher.

A TWO-HOUR HAIRCUT: Allison had the opportunity to have a two-hour haircut this month. When we lived in Pogradec before, she went to a hairdresser named Pranvera. Pranvera has always been very nice to her and likes to talk about lots of things. In the past most of the conversations had been primarily about American culture, but she had talked a little bit about God. Pranvera is a Muslim, who has read the Koran, but is not a strong believer in Islam. This time Pranvera had a lot of questions about Christianity and a lot to tell Allison about her personal faith. In reality Pranvera talked more than Allison did. Pranvera had just gotten home from Italy where her teenage daughter was in the hospital for a blood sickness. She had been helped by many nice people, and she decided that
God loves everyone. She also thought the most important thing is that we are trying to do good and to walk in the right way. She doesn’t see a difference between Islam and Christianity because both think that Jesus is a good man. It was a struggle for Allison to communicate advanced thoughts about faith in Albanian, but they talked for about two hours and both wanted to talk longer. Allison plans to return soon to have a coffee with Pranvera because she will not need a haircut in the near future. As Pranvera was talking Allison’s hair got shorter and shorter. It is about five inches shorter now. Please pray for
Pranvera. She is a little hard-headed, but she has a great heart.

STACKED LIKE WOOD: Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday we have taken a van to Pogradec. This is never boring. It takes about forty-five minutes on the road and about fifteen minutes to a half and hour to fill the van with people before we go. Some of the drivers have been great and others have driven so fast it felt like the van was going to shake to pieces. One blessing from the van ride is that we get to meet new people and tell people about our work. One day we sat next to a nice elderly gentleman. The van was filling and then was filled, then filled over capacity. He made a comment that made both of us smile. He asked the driver if we were wood to be stacked. We do not mind getting stacked like wood sometimes because many of the passengers are going to villages in between the two cities and are in the van for only ten minutes.

SCHEDULE CHANGES: We will be making the trip to Pogradec one less day a week. The church in Pogradec has decided to worship in the mornings, so we will not be able to worship with them every Sunday like before. We plan on making visits to worship with the church, but not on a regular basis. The worship time at three o’clock was difficult for the church members and their families because it was very close to dinner time and unfortunately we cannot come any earlier or later because of the travel time. The church members thought it best to start the day with worship. It is a bitter sweet decision for us
because we wanted to worship with them a great deal, but we are happy that the church does not feel that we need to be there to worship. They can be independent of our help. Virgil, a male church member has been doing lessons from the Book of Acts and he will continue with these ideas. We plan on using this time in the afternoon to visit the homes of Christians and students in both cities. We do not have a day off right now so this will be a good time for us to invite people to our home as well. Before this decision, the church in Korca liked the idea of inviting the church in Pogradec to worship and share a potluck meal every other month. We will tell you about the first one that occured in November in our next newsletter.

MEETING PREACHERS FROM ALL OVER: On the weekend of October
19-21 we had the opportunity to make a visit to Tirana for the first ever preachers and wives retreat sponsored by the IBIA (International Bible Institute of Albania). At this retreat we were able to spend time with friends, Cimi and Anila Kafexhiu, Alfred and Diana Zike (two of the ministers we worked with in Durres and their wives), and many more. This was also a time to refresh and to be taught. The speaker for the retreat was Chris Swinford the Dean of International Studies at Sunset Bible Institute. An added blessing for this trip was the ability to meet two of the preachers from the Berat area. This was Allison's first time to meet them and it was the first time Kevin was able to spend time with them. He had met them at the Men’s Day last year in Tirana, but had not talked for an
extended time. It was a tiring, but refreshing weekend.

This trip to Tirana also gave us the opportunity to worship with the church in Tirana, this was our first time. We were also able to introduce Kozeta to the church body there and
help her make contacts. Please pray that she will be convicted to continue worshipping with the church and will decide to be baptized.

PRAYER REQUESTS: In our last newsletter we talked about Reti the sister of Berta one of the Christians in Pogradec. Reti’s daughter has stopped coming to the Beginner’s Bible class and Reti had stopped coming to Ladies class and worship. Allison has asked Berta why. The reason that was given was that Reti is a compulsive house cleaner who dusts about three times a day. She does not like to leave the house. Both of the ladies are used to being at home. (Reti has begun to attend ladies bible class again in November, but has not attended worship.) Allison plans to make a house visit soon.

Also pray for Stella, Bruna’s younger sister, she is a Christian in Korca. Stella is looking for work and has decided to put off her WEI class for a month. She has been attending worship and bible class off and on. Please pray that Stella will be able to establish stronger ties with us, and especially with the church in Korca.

ODDS AND ENDS: As we have been getting to know the city better we thought it might be interesting to share some facts. Altin Plasa, a member in Korca, is a fountain of facts about the city of Korca. Although the city of Korca is very old and has been characteristically Orthodox, the city grew when the mosque was built. We live in a traditionally Muslim neighborhood. There used to be a river in the city that divided the city in two; the river now flows underneath the city. The Muslims lived on one side of the river and the Orthodox believers lived on the other. After communism, when there was new construction people did not choose their neighborhoods by faith; they bought land
that was available, so not all of our neighbors are Muslim. We can hear the mosque call when we are out but it is not very loud where we live. Most of our current students are Muslim, but none of them are very faithful Muslims.

In His Service,

Kevin and Allison Morrill

November 2007

This month brought cold weather and snow. The snow did not stick, but we were grateful to have a wood stove and a warm apartment. We have had good attendance for our one-on-one students, but lower attendance for Bible classes so we may take a rest from these and begin again when the weather gets warmer and the days get longer. As the days get shorter many people are focused more on staying home where it is warm.

House Visit:
We are adjusting to our new Sunday schedule. One of the blessings with this schedule is having time to make house visits. Our first visit was to the home of Rosa, Mira’s mother. She was having a hard time because it was drawing near to the sixth month “anniversary” of Mira’s death. Rosa has not attended worship since Mira’s death because it reminds her too much of Mira. She had been attending regularly before her death. Rosa is Muslim, but is not a strong believer in Islam. We tried to encourage Rosa. She truly has a hard life. She is in her early 50’s, a widow, has a daughter in Greece and cannot get a
visa to live with her, and her son is in jail for the next year (we do not know why). Please pray for her to be comforted and to want to learn more about becoming a Christian so she can truly be comforted.

Potluck:
The church in Korca had a potluck for the churches of Korca and Pogradec on Sunday November 11th. Those who attended really enjoyed it. Not everyone who came to worship could stay for the potluck, but we did have a good number. Due to illness and other circumstances, only two people were able to attend from Pogradec, Virgil and his relative. There was a good size group, about twelve, who attended from Korca. After looking at the group, it was encouraging and discouraging, because only two of the Albanians who participated were baptized believers. This is good because people are coming to hear the gospel, but it is hard to work as a church without a group of Christians.

Diana:
Altin’s cousin Diana has begun to attend worship and Bible class. She believes in God and knows a lot about the Bible, both the New and Old Testaments. She is truly searching for God’s will for her life. One day we talked to her about her faith and found out that she has not been baptized. Allison began studying with her about baptism. She is very willing
to study, and she is patient with Allison’s Albanian. This has been a challenging study for many reasons including language because Diana believes she was baptized with the
Holy Spirit already. Please pray that Allison will have the words to say to help Diana.

Conference:
At the end of this month we had the opportunity to attend the 44th annual Euro-American Family retreat in Rothenburg, Germany. This was a great chance to meet Christians working in twelve different countries. It was such an encouragement to meet people who are doing similar work and to have time to talk and share meals. One of the speakers was Tony Coffey; he taught about getting to know God through the book of Exodus.
It was a rich and blessed study. It is so nice to be taught when we are usually the teachers. There was also a speaker from Wisconsin, Dale Hawley. It was nice to have a York College connection that far away (We had gone to college with two of his children). We were also able to talk to and have dinner with Tom and Angie Langley and family. It was nice to talk to people we know and to send greetings home. We had a chance to spend time with other missionaries from Albania; Ellen Walker, Steve and Ruth Byrne, and Tom Bonner all attended this retreat. We do not get a chance to spend a lot of time with each other because we are spread all over the country of Albania. So this was a nice time to get together and talk about our individual works.

WebSite:
It is a dim light at the end of a long tunnel right now, but by the end of this month we should have it done. Until it is completed you can use part of it to enjoy some pictures from
this past month by following this link: http://www.korcachurchesofchrist.com/myalbum.html

(Some)Picture Explanations:
Rainbow November 1- This was a picture taken from the balcony of our apartment in Korca.

Potluck 1- Right to Left: Klotida, Kevin’s WEI student who is Muslim. Mira, mentioned in an earlier newsletter, a Muslim woman who is searching. Diana, mentioned in this newsletter.

Potluck 2- Ola and Sara: Ola is Allison’s translator for the children’s class and her sister Sara often attends the children’s class and worship with Ola. They are Muslim.

Potluck 3-Back to front: Altin Plasa, Virgil, Virgil’s relative, Ervis (Allison’s WEI student who has been attending)

Potluck 4- Setting up for the meal. Back to front: Diana Mira,
Klotilda, Ola, and Allison

Potluck 5- Sitting down to eat.

Snow Day- This was a picture of a wood delivery outside our apartment in Korca.

Thank You:
Know that we appreciate each of you. We are warmed by your prayers, and love hearing from you.

In Christ,
Kevin and Allison Morrill

December 2007

This was a very busy month. It seemed like we were rarely home. We had a couple weeks of normal teaching and a couple of weeks of house visiting. Overall, it was a blessed and exhausting month.

Buying Bibles:
We made a quick trip to Tirana at the beginning of the month to buy bibles for the church and school. We needed to buy some Albanian bibles to give out with our WEI books and the publisher of the bibles is in Tirana. It is hard to believe, but you cannot buy a bible in Korca, so we had to go to Tirana to pick them up. Buying them from the publisher also saves some money. Our students are so happy to receive these bibles. For many of them it is their first Albanian bible that is not a children’s bible. It is our hope that when the students bring this bible home that it will also peak the interest for other members of the family. If you would like more information about this part of our work or would like to contribute to our bible funds we can give you more information.

Kevin’s New Student:
Kevin began a new student this month named Eri and he is already a Christian. He came to practice his English language because he will be starting at the International Bible Institute of Albania at the end of January. In truth Eri knows a lot of English. However, he has never had a formal English course and Kevin is helping him practice some before he goes. Both Kevin and Eri are really enjoying their time studying. Eri is from Sovjan, one of the villages surrounding Korca.

A visit to Durres and Tirana:
On Christmas day at about five in the morning, we boarded a van for Tirana. We had been invited to Cimi and Anila Kafexhiu’s home in Durres for Christmas dinner, and we had also been invited to the Christmas program at the Tirana church. The church in Korca had decided that they wanted to have a Christmas/ New Years party on December 28th, so we decided to go to Tirana and Durres on Christmas. It was a very fun and exhausting day. On the way to the church in Tirana, we went by a fruit stand that always stocks foreign foods and were able to get some celery for Christmas stuffing and avocadoes for New Years. It is impossible to find either one of these items in Korca. The program at the Tirana church was wonderful. We got to see so many of our friends there. The auditorium was packed and there was a real festive spirit.

From the Tirana church we boarded a bus to Durres. Cimi and Anila were waiting for us. They had asked lots of questions as to what we normally have for Christmas dinner, and they even had a turkey. Kevin made the stuffing. We had a nice opportunity to spend time with their family. Cimi’s Dad was there from Tirana and Anila’s mother and brother were there as well. Spending this time with family helped us feel a little less homesick. This visit also gave us the opportunity to meet up with Eric and Eriola Weinbarger. We worked with Eric and his parents when we lived in Durres. Eriola is from Durres, and they had made the trip from Oklahoma to visit her family for the holidays. It was fun to meet with this couple and share stories. We returned to Korca December 26th.

Lots of Baklava (House Visits):
Before Christmas and after we participated in the Albanian tradition of making house visits. This meant that we had a coffee or a meal in the homes of many of the people who attend church and a few of our students. Almost every coffee or meal was finished with a piece of baklava or kadajif both traditional desserts for the holidays. Between Christmas and New Years we were averaging almost two visits a day. We know that in these kind of visits we have the opportunity to meet the extended family of many of the people we now. Usually, after the general politenesses and questions about our family, people also want to ask questions about God and our reasons for living and teaching here.

We spent two Sunday afternoons in the beginning of the month in Pogradec. One was at the home of Virgil and Berta Mitka. They are members in Pogradec, and Virgil is the only male member attending the Pogradec church right now, so he wears many hats. We also made a visit to the home of Lumteri and Idjet. They are both members, but have not been attending. Allison is teaching their daughter and Kevin is beginning to teach Lumteri again. Kevin was Lumi’s teacher when we lived in Pogradec. We hope that this contact will encourage them to attend again. They are wonderful people.

Allison took an afternoon to make Christmas cookies with Rosa, Mira’s mother. We are growing closer to Rosa. She is opening up more and more. She wants to be like an Albanian mother for us, and she has asked us to pray with her many times. She is
Muslim, but had been attending when Mira was alive. She now finds it difficult to come to worship. She has asked us to come once a week for a Bible study, and we will begin this
next week. During the weeks surrounding Christmas, and the New Year we visited at least four times. Rosa does not know English, but she is very patient with our Albanian.

We spent New Years Eve with Diana Zhulleku. She is Allison’s student who was talked about in last month’s newsletter. Diana and her mom invited us over for a lunch, and we had a wonderful time with them. They always make us laugh. Diana’s mom likes to use Turkish words and phrases, so we are expanding our language ability too. People in Korca use more Turkish than we have learned before.

Party:
On December 28th the church organized a party. We invited our WEI students and also the children from the kid’s class. The children’s class did a short informal program. They read parts of the gospels about the birth of Jesus and sang a few songs. There was also a gift exchange game for the students. Each brought a small gift. It was a lot of fun and everything fell into place. Everyone had a wonderful time, and we were reminded that it is impossible to plan everything to the letter. There were about twenty-five in attendance.

Ritvan:
Ritvan is a young Christian who was baptized about a month before we arrived in Korca. He is a veterinarian who works with the meat inspection and safety in the city. He is a wonderful married man with children. About two weeks into our time in Korca he was given the opportunity to participate in an exchange program and go to China to learn about their food handling practices. This trip lasted a month, and we had not seen him since. We called him and yesterday he knocked on our door to have a coffee with us. We had a four-hour visit. From talking to him, it sounded as though he had been trying to
contact us as well, and we kept missing each other. He has great desire to start the year out worshiping the Lord. Please pray for his growth. It will be such a blessing to have another male member worshiping with the body again. Roger Michael had been studying and talking with Ritvan for a number of years before he made the decision to become a Christian. Please pray that his wife and children will also want to come. A whole family would be an amazing blessing.

Prayer Requests:
Please pray for our language study. Albanian is a very hard language. Pray that we will be patient, but also study what we need. The problem is we need to be proficient right now,
because we do not have a translator. We have found a teacher which is an answer to prayer, but learning and correcting mistakes will be a long hard process. Also, please continue to keep Diana and Rosa in your prayers. They are great ladies who are searching. Please pray for the churches in Pogradec and Korca to grow in number and strength. Pray that these churches will grow in male members as well.

May God's Richest Blessings Be on You in the Coming Year!!

In Christ,
Kevin and Allison Morrill