Greetings from the beautiful, but wet and muddy, city of Pogradec (pronounced Po-gra-dets) . We pray that this letter finds you well. The work here is just over a month old now, and we can see that this is a time of preparing the soil for sowing. As we prepare the soil we are trying some new things, we hope that God will be pleased with them and that they will be to His glory. We are excited about the opportunities that lie before us, and hope that you share that excitement. As you read our newsletter this month and in the months to come we ask that you prayerfully consider each new work and how you might be involved in them.
Community Outreach Plan:
We have decided that it is better for Xhumert to spend his days in the community rather than teaching with WEI materials. He will be looking for Albanians who are interested in God and Bible studies. The idea behind this is that a native speaker is more effective working among the people. While Xhumert is a wonderful English teacher we are hoping that he will be able to teach the gospel to the non-English speaking population. Xhumert will still be teaching two morning students, but the Morrills will be taking over the teaching of his afternoon students. This gives the Morrills almost a full afternoon schedule. Please pray that God will provide open doors in the community.
WEI Teaching Plan:
With Xhumert working away from the school most of the day, we will have two English teachers most of the time. This has prompted us to come up with a different screening process and procedure for scheduling students. To put it simply, we are teaching many beginning English students right now; our hope is to move these students into the Bible and English course as soon as possible, and to lower the number of students who start the course as beginners. Not that we don't want to teach beginners, but that for us to truly share the Gospel we have to use our native language, and if we are teaching someone the very basics of how to speak, teaching the Gospel often takes a back seat to teaching English.
Through the end of February, we have conducted 31 interviews and are teaching 29 (two will come for courses in the summer and one has stopped coming) of those students.
Please pray that our beginning English students will come to a point where they are able to study the Bible with the Morrills, or that they will ask to study the Bible with Xhumert in Albanian.
Adjusting to the community:
When we (the Morrills) moved here it was quite a change from Durres. Things that were taken for granted, like stores with aisles, are hard to find here. So our Albanian has begun to improve. We are also making new friends, learning the names of the shopkeepers and people who we see regularly and generally trying to be seen in the community and be a part of that community. It is still difficult because of the language barrier, but that to is lessening.
A good example of this happened to Allison this month. While she was getting her haircut the power went out, which is not unusual. Since Allison’s hair was still wet, the hairdresser did not want her to go out in the cold; she asked Allison to tell her a story from the Bible while they waited for the power to come back. In the following hour the women in the beauty shop had a discussion about the trinity, Jesus, and various other issues from the Bible.
Please continue to pray that we will be more effective in ministering to the Albanian people.
Campaigners:
Ken Sandefur arrived in Pogradec on February 19th after spending a night in Tirana with friends there. Ken is a great worker and is making our setup time easier. Ken will be working with us for several weeks.
Please pray for those who will come and work with us this summer. We also ask that you prayerfully consider being one of those who will come to Pogradec.
We appreciate your letters, and apologize in advance if we do not respond to them immediately. Please do keep the work here in your prayers, also our continued health, and ability to work in the service of The Lord.
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May The Lord bless you in the coming month.
With Love in Christ,
Xhumert, and the Morrills