October 20, 2018
William L. Morgan, “Mr. WEI”
Back in 1989, when WEI was just a dream, I shared my vision with the church in Pleasanton, California. Bill and Mozelle Morgan were there, and they immediately caught the vision.
Bill was not only an elder in the church; he also taught evening classes at the Bay Area School of Preaching/Teaching for thirteen years.
Professionally, Bill was the Vice President of Retail Accounting at Safeway’s Corporate Headquarters in Oakland and was responsible for, and had direct oversight of, fifteen accounting offices across the United States.
Bill says, “When Dick first described his concept for WEI to me, I saw a potential I had never before seen for effective world-wide outreach. The attraction of learning English was without question and using Bible stories as reading assignments not only met the desire of the students to perfect their English but also gave God an opportunity to knock on the door of their hearts.
“With years in the grocery industry, I understood the concept of displaying merchandise in such a way as to attract the customer to buy it. WEI is applying that very principle to its mission to teach the good news about Jesus worldwide.”
Mozelle started teaching Albanian postal students shortly after the fall of communism when 4,500 Albanians responded to a newspaper ad and enrolled as WEI students.
After Bill retired from Safeway on June 30, 1994, he spent six weeks with me in Albania, and the mission bug bit him. Since then, he has been back to Albania fifty times and has been a prime mover in advancing the kingdom there.
In addition to teaching WEI students in short-term mission campaigns, Bill has provided leadership training for thirteen congregations in Albania, most of which were established by following up on WEI students. I credit Bill and the churches he recruited in Bartlesville OK and Kennett, MO, and several Albanian preachers, with saving five of the churches in southern Albania from extinction.
In 1998, the elders of the Metro congregation in Gresham, OR, who had sponsored WEI from its inception, saw a need (1) to develop a succession plan, and (2) to restructure WEI under a board of directors in order to give WEI a stronger position for worldwide promotion and effectiveness. Bill and I were put in charge of those two tasks. The first WEI board consisted of five elders: Dick Ady and Doug Davis from the Metro church in Gresham, Randy Harris and Bill Morgan from the church in Maryville, TN, and Jim Fox from Knoxville. Since then, board members have come and gone, but Bill Morgan has steadfastly served with distinction.
In 2004, Tom Langley and his family returned from Romania after serving as missionaries there for ten years. Tom immediately came aboard as Executive Vice President with a view to assuming the presidency at the right time—a position he now holds.
More recently, Lee Allen was added to the board and serves as WEI Director of Development and Teacher Encouragement.
Bill Morgan is a man of uncommon wisdom and organizational skills. He has blessed the WEI board by serving as Chief Financial Officer and as a member of the Administrative Committee. Yet Bill says, “I feel spiritually blessed to be a part of this work. The WEI method meets the needs of our changing times.’. . . It became natural for WEI to start using the Internet for teaching. Our thanks to Bob, Jan, and Jonathan Towell for helping us get this area developed.”
Justin Acuff served as Technical Director of the WEI Internet Ministry for several years and did a masterful job of expanding and improving the WEI teaching website.
Bill comments, “Worldwide, we are seeing people become New Testament Christians, and congregations are being formed in many countries. WEI is taking the Gospel into places where the Gospel could not go otherwise. The materials attract, teach, and bring many people into a relationship with the Lord in a way we could not do as effectively in other ways. The Internet gets us across borders and into hearts we could not otherwise reach.
‘While the Internet seems an impersonal way to teach, believe me, your teaching by the Internet can be just as personal as you and your student want it to be. The real relationship comes when you and your student come to share a relationship with the Lord.”
Bill, we are grateful that God brought you and WEI together. We thank God for you and Mozelle. We love you.
Dick Ady
