Korca Albania

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Matt 28:18-20

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
NIV

John 20:10-16

10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"

"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

16 Jesus said to her, "Mary."

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
NIV

WELCOME!

Korca, Albania

Kevin and Allison Morrill
have moved to Korca.

The church in Korca began in the summer of 1993

When a couple came to Korca and baptized three people who had studied WEI lessons. In 1994 James and Barbara Jones, of Nashville, TN., came to Korca and stayed about three months before returning to the USA. They returned after a short period. During 1994 and 1995 an unknown number of others were baptized. Their names are unknown. James and Barbara left Korca in Dec. '95. In Sept. 1995 Bill and Nancy came to Korca and have lived there since. In June and July of 1996, three girls were baptized of which two are now out of Albania. The third, Bruna, is still active with the church. She has helped Nancy with the children's classes. Bruna says a school to teach the Bible needs to be started. To do that we would need more money and more teachers, but it is a good idea. Bill and Nancy stayed in Korca during all the trouble of 1997, and because they stayed many people called the Saltsman heroes. This has also helped in their teaching. Roger Michael has worked with Bill in Korca. Roger has worked in Eastern Europe for several years. He was in Korca in the summer of 1995. His home is in the Nashville area.
The Morrills now have a baby.

To view photos of the church in Korca.

Mission contact:
Kevin and Allison Morrill
Kutia Postare Nr. 11
Korca, Albania, Europe
Our email: morrills@fastmail.us
Website: www.churchesofchrist.org/gallery.html

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

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

Website:
http://www.korcachurchesofchrist.com/myalbum.html

On the road between Korca and Tirana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OvawBnUMBA

Newsletter January 2010

After the holidays with visits and visiting, life returned to normal. We started teaching our students again and were happily surprised how easy the transition was from holiday schedule to normal teaching schedule. In past years it has taken weeks to get our students back in the routine, but this
year it was a smooth transition.

We did not have much winter weather in December and early January but we are making up for it in late January and February. We have had lot of heavy snow, ice and cool temperatures.

We are happy to report that Roger Michael has joined us again. Roger arrived on February 5. He is such an asset to our work and we are always so happy when he comes. Roger works with us about 6 months out of the year.

A Really Cold Sunday:
January 25 was one of the best Sundays we can remember. It was the coldest day of the winter so far and we felt that attendance may be down. Then an amazing thing happened. We had the best attendance in months from the children’s class to morning and evening worship services. It seems that in Korca the worse the weather the better the attendance because Korcars are hearty people who don’t mind the cold, snow, ice, etc. Worshiping with the body on a cold day when everyone has come sacrificially is such an encouragement. We could see our breath as we sang even though the wood stove had been working for hours.

Our God is one:
One of the hardest concepts for us to combat is the idea, which is widely circulated here, “Our God is One.” This means that it does not matter whether a person is a Muslim or a Christian we will both be saved. The differences between our religions are not very important. We all have the same God.
Allison heard a 10 year old girl in kid’s class say it when she was explaining why her Muslim family goes to the Orthodox cathedral on Christmas Day. We also hear it from our Muslim students when we explain to them that Jesus is the way to salvation. Albanians pride themselves in religious tolerance.
There are many who will celebrate the Muslim holidays at their Muslim friends' homes and invite their Muslim friends over for Christian holidays. Unfortunately, by doing this many people loose the point of the holidays and water down their religion. We pray that we can share, in a loving way, that there is just one road to life and happiness and that is through Jesus not
Allah or anyone else.

Campaign:
We are really excited about campaign this year. We have three people who have expressed an interest in the summer campaign, but would love to have more. If you would like to know more about our summer campaign we would be happy to share information with you. We would like to have people working
with us from late June until late August.

Also, if you are very busy during the summer and would like to come for a time in another part of the year, we would love to have you. Please reply to this e-mail and we will get back to you regarding summer campaign or another visit. Everyone who comes to work with us is such an encouragement to the church
and our students. The church members still talk about visitors we had years ago.

Prayer requests:
Ola: Please continue to pray for Ola. Her attendance has improved, but it is still a struggle for her to juggle everything.

Male Members: Sotiraq - is a 15 year old boy, who is very active in church activities, and has been attending since summer break. He has talked about baptism, but has not taken that step yet. We pray that more males will attend and become members of the body. We have a great core group of women, but
would love to train some male leaders in the future.

Support:
We ask that you prayerfully consider supporting this work. We will be loosing some support in 2010 and will need to replace it. If you cannot support us financially we ask that you make a commitment to pray for the work in Korca. If you would like more information about our financial need or would like prayer
requests more often than once a month, please reply to this email and we can share that information with you.

Michael Update:
Michael now has 5 teeth and is 7 months old as of February 9. He is a joy. He may be a preacher one day because he likes to make some noise in church, and loves the singing. He hasn’t spoken any words yet so we don’t know if his first word will be in English or Albanian. We figure it will be English, because that is the language we speak at home. He is getting mobile so we bought a rug for him to crawl on in our living room/ kitchen. He can crawl backwards, move forward and can get around pretty fast.

In Christ,
Kevin and Allison Morrill

morrills@fastmail.us

February Newsletter 2010

Prayer Request:
This Sunday, March 7, the church in Korca will be celebrating Women’s Day, usually celebrated on March 8. This is the Albanian equivalent of American Mother’s Day. It is a holiday that not only celebrates mothers, but all women. We will be inviting the mothers of many of our students as well as older female students, and we pray for wisdom to have the appropriate words to say to them. We have decided to expand our women’s bible class to invite these ladies as well. Please pray for this outreach opportunity.

Reading Plan:
We started a church wide reading plan in January and are really happy with the results so far. It has been nice to be reading together as a body. The plan is to read the Old Testament once and New Testament twice in a one year period. Kevin organized the plan so that the books that we have just covered will be read last. Kevin’s Sunday night lessons have been based on the New Testament reading for that day. It has been a blessing to have so many people participating; Bruna is even creating a list of her favorite scriptures from the reading.

Pizza Potluck:
On Sunday February 21 we had a pizza potluck. Allison made the
dough and everyone else brought toppings. It was entertaining,
as many of the girls who helped did not know how to cook so it
was fun for them. Even the guys volunteered to assist. It is
not common for Albanian males to cook outside a restaurant
setting. It was a nice time to work together for a common
goal.

Sotiraq and Nasian:
While we have talked about Sotiraq and Nasian before we want you to continue to think about and pray for these two brothers. Sotiraq never misses a meeting, whereas Nasian attends sometimes. Sotiraq expressed an interest in baptism, but is still learning. He is studying with Kevin. Nasian is also studying with Roger and Kevin and comes to worship sometimes, but he never really expressed much interest. He came the day of the potluck and was touched by Kevin’s morning lesson. He told Roger that he realized that life was not all about him. He needed to serve God. This was a big step for someone who had just been coming to improve his English. He had always talked about Sotiraq’s desire to be baptized, but on that Sunday he said that he feels he should be thinking about it too. Please pray that these brothers will first understand the commitment of becoming a Christian, and then desire to take Christ on in baptism. Nasian is a senior in high school, so soon he will be very busy with preparation for end of school exams. We pray also that school does not get in the way.

Financial Difficulties in Albania:
We ask that you keep the Albanian people in your prayers. The prices of some common vegetables have doubled in this past month. It is difficult for many families to deal with these prices, since a majority of Albanian cooking centers on these vegetables (leeks, onions, tomatoes, peppers etc.).

There have been several strikes this month in Greece which have closed the border with Albania to anything but foot traffic. This means that commerce between the two countries has been affected. Many people in Korca are employed by sewing factories as seamstresses, and general laborers. Most of the sewing factories are Greek owned. With the boarder closed the raw materials cannot pass over, and as a result the seamstresses do not have work and are not paid. The problem is that a one day strike may cause a 3 day delay at the boarder.

Another hardship facing Korca and the rest of Albania is the flooding that has occurred in much of the countries farmland. Many of the farmers had planted their fields prior to the flooding, so they have lost their seed as well.

February has also seen an increase in the cost of electricity. People have been worried about this since December. In such hard economic times, we pray that the citizens of Korca and the surrounding villages will depend on God and not simply become discouraged.

Thanks and Campaign:
We appreciate your continued prayers and support. If you are interested in joining us here in Korca for campaign please let us know. We have one confirmed campaigner, and another group that will be with us for about a week, we would love to have others coming to encourage the church throughout this year. Please prayerfully consider joining us in the work here.

In Christ,
Kevin and Allison Morrill

morrills@fastmail.us

March 2010

March was a month of mixed emotions. The weather was still very wintery with a few snow storms at the beginning of the month, but with the days getting longer it has made a lot of things easier. Students were more willing to stay a little later and were not so worried about rushing home. This month we were able to celebrate ladies day with a wonderful group of women, but we also lost a dear friend, our Albanian teacher Mira.

March 8 celebration (written by Allison):
On March 7th, we celebrated March 8th which is International Women’s Day and in Albania Mother’s Day. There were 26 in attendance, included in the group were: church members, students and their mothers. Diana spoke about the interconnectedness of women in the bible that all women seem to deal with the same problems, no matter when and where they lived. March 8 is the second anniversary of her baptism and we are so proud of her spiritual growth in the past 2 years. We also had a time for songs, games, finger foods, and some Albanian traditional dancing. All of our guests had a good time. It was amazing that during Diana’s lesson everyone was concentrating so hard and it got so quiet she stopped to see if everyone was ok. To get 26 women to be quiet at the same time is pretty amazing, which shows that Diana’s lesson was really interesting.

After the party, 10 women stayed for evening worship. The following Sunday, one of the ladies came for morning worship. We hope that this event has opened some doors to help these women to attend.

Our Albanian teacher Mira passed away:
On March 6th Allison visited Mira, our former Albanian teacher in the hospital. She had had some problems with her pancreas while we were in the States this summer and she had surgery. We thought she was doing better, but the problems spread to her liver. Mira passed away on March 23rd. We made a home visit the next day. Mira was very special to us, and we hope we can do everything we can for the family. Mira’s husband Sulka is a very sweet man and wanted to continue a relationship with us. He has a grandchild who is 6 months younger than Michael. Mira was a great woman. She was honest, so honest that many students would not take her university class because she would not take a bribe. She was the director of schools and did not ask for bribes, she was living in a rented home when she died. Unfortunately, she, like a lot of Albanians her age, would read the children’s bible we gave her to her granddaughter, but she was not interested in having a personal faith. Her death brought to light how many people we meet on a daily basis that may not be here tomorrow.

Summer Campaign:
We ask that you prayerfully consider summer campaign in Korca. We still have only one confirmed campaigner. We asked the church members how helpful summer campaigns were for them, and they said that they were very encouraging not only because they bring new people into the church but because they encourage the Christians here to keep “fighting the good fight.”

March 6 Camp Meeting:
On March 6th Kevin traveled to Tirana for a preachers and missionaries meeting with a specific focus on camp. The camp will be held this year in Borsh on the Ionian coast. We plan to send some youth from the church.

Philippians Study:
On March 13th Allison and a group of three other ladies finished a 6 month study on Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi. This was a great study and very interesting because Philippi is only about 5 hours from here. The ladies learned about exegesis, finding the meaning from the text then applying it to their lives when possible. Allison was really impressed by how much the ladies were able to glean from the text. Diana is going to continue to study, but the other girls have to take a break to study for end of the year exams in school.

Michael is on YouTube:
Allison’s sister sent us a Flip camcorder. We started a YouTube channel so that our family could keep up with Michael’s growth. If you would like to see some videos of Michael go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/morrills3
We are definitely beginners in using the camera and posting.

For pictures for March go to:
http://www.korcachurchesofchrist.com/2010/index.htm
If you would like copies of any pictures, please just send us an email and let us know which ones. We’ll be more than happy to send them to you. Hope you enjoy them.

Prayer Requests:
Please pray that we can be a light to Mira’s family.

We pray for Albanian male leadership in the church and specifically and Albanian preacher. Kevin still has the responsibility of doing preaching, song leading, Lord’s Supper, prayers etc. because he is the only baptized male attending the morning (when Roger is not here).

Lastly, please pray for the church to grow, there are many larger churches in Korca, most of which give people money through programs, gifts, jobs etc. We cannot compete with them and do not what to reach people in this way, but it is a struggle because we can get great numbers like 85 people when we give away pizza, but then about 10 when we have worship. Please pray that we do not get discouraged and can find people who are looking for God not material possessions.

In Christ,
Kevin and Allison Morrill

Mailing Address:
Kutia Postare 11
Korca, Albania Europe
Our e-mail: morrills@fastmail.us

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

Tom England (Chair Missions Committee)
e-mail: tpengland@comcast.net
phone: 865-856-0731

***************************************************************
If you are printing our newsletter and would prefer to have it
sent to you as a Microsoft Word Document please let us know.

morrills@fastmail.us

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