MA26 – August 12

August 12, 2026

We don’t have many activities to report on for today but sometimes ministry is as much about sowing as it is about reaping.

We had the opportunity to meet with the team that serves with The Bible League in  Armenia, thanks to a connection Jonathan made through The Bible League Canada, a ministry from which our church in Montreal received resources (such as a daily planner) for several years. 

The Bible League operates in 50 countries worldwide and has a two-fold mandate: to provide Bibles and Christian educational materials to small churches who may not have the funds to obtain them otherwise; and to support church-planting initiatives through discipleship and leadership training.

They showed us several different resources that they not only use themselves and offer to churches to use, but for which they are responsible for the translation, formatting, design, and printing.

Today’s meeting allowed us to get to know the director for Armenia, Manik Eloyan, who has held this position for 26 years. She is in the process of retiring and is mentoring her son Taron during his transition into the director role. Also participating in the meeting were a board member, a local pastor, and a representative from the Iranian community.

We had a wonderful time of fellowship, discussion, lunch (they have a policy that their guests never leave without being fed), prayer, and discovery of ways that The Bible League is not only able but also readily willing to support our ongoing ministry in Armenia. One immediate area of focus will be materials for the new Sunday School program in Horom. They also gave us a small quantity of New Testaments that are written in an easy-to-read font and include both Psalms and Proverbs.

We are once again amazed by how God has opened doors to provide new opportunities and resources to the ministry here. Emmi will now be our Armenia point of contact for The Bible League and, with this connection now made, it will be a lot easier and faster to obtain materials when we need them.

MA26 – August 10 and 11

August 11, 2026

On Monday, we didn’t have a full day planned so we had some “down time” in the morning and took care of a few personal and administrative tasks. In the afternoon, we visited the Armenia branch of the Bible Society (“Azdvadzashoonch” on the outdoor sign means, literally, “God’s Breath,” which is what the Bible is called in Armenian) and had an uplifting time of fellowship with Lilit, who has helped us in past years with our needs for Bibles, New Testaments, and children’s Bibles and is eager to continue working with us in the future. Our next stop was to pick up 100 Bibles that a supporter in Canada had ordered for us in advance as a donation. We’re grateful to be able to supply our local partners with Bibles, books, and tracts for outreach and evangelism. 

On Tuesday morning, we had the opportunity to reunite with Gor Hambardzumyan, the blind boy that Pastor Joseph baptized in 2021, along with his mother and siblings. He and the family are all doing well, and Gor is continuing to sing but has also picked up competitive arm-wrestling as another hobby.

In the afternoon, we attended the Tuesday Bible study at Pastor Stepan’s church (House of Hope), led by Arayik. We were a small group, and two of us obviously had a little bit of difficulty following the discussion (despite a valiant effort by Ann-Margret to translate for us) but, all the same, it felt like we were at our Tuesday Bible Study at Temple: lots of Scripture reading, lots of questions, lots of discussion… and they are even studying the book of Ephesians, just as we currently are. The cherry on top was being handed one of our mugs from Temple during the refreshments after the study!

Although these past two days were not as busy as we sometimes experience (or will be soon), they were important days of seed-sowing and nurturing. We continue to trust that God will take the small efforts we are making today and use them for great things tomorrow.

On a side but related note, we would like to ask for prayer for Leila (Jonathan’s friend who translated Pastor Joseph’s devotional Does Your Life Have Meaning? into Persian) and her family. Because of an urgent medical situation, Leila’s husband has had to travel to Iran to be with his side of the family. The current conditions in Iran naturally raises concerns. Please pray for safety for Behrooz at this time.

We cannot express enough thanks to all of you for your prayers, your encouraging comments (keep them coming, please!), and your support. We look forward to sharing more with you soon!

MA26 – August 9

August 9, 2026

Antsyal tari, ays tari (Last year, this year)

Today was our visit to Horom, an annual reunion we always look forward to because this little church feels like home to us since our first meeting in 2013. It is always a blessing to worship and fellowship with this small congregation. Here are some highlights from today’s visit, specifically the changes we observed since last year.

One of the first things we noticed was Pastor Tigran’s state of health. Last year, he was very thin and pale. This year, he had returned to a healthier weight and, as Shubroto told him, his “face was shining. And when the Pastor’s face is shining, the whole church will shine.”

Last year, there were only two children present at the church. This year, there were 12, and two of the regulars were absent. Because of this growth, the church restarted their Sunday School program a couple of months ago. The children sang three songs during the service and ended their presentation with the recitation of Bible verses. The littlest of the girls had the longest part: the Lord’s Prayer!

Last year, our team did a lot of the sharing but, this year, the church members themselves were more involved and shared testimonies and needs. Pastor Joseph even changed his usual approach to preaching: After asking Samvel to read the Bible text, he added a few points and questions to encourage the members to make sure they really understand and have the assurance of their salvation. Our team members shared their own reflections or words of encouragement, with Pastor Tigran offering a personalized response to each one.

It was a short but wonderful time… wonderful to see how this church, although still quite small, has grown over the past year and is praying and planning for more growth still. God willing, they will have one or two candidates join the baptismal service on August 22nd.

After the service, we drove to Gyumri for lunch and a little visit of the city centre, then began the trip back to Yerevan.

On the way, however, we took an impromptu detour through a Yazidi village, where we stopped to observe their open-air shrine, take a few pictures, and do some research into this religion. Stay tuned for more information on this subject, as we will be visiting a Zoroastrian community in the next week or so (the Yazidis and the Zoroastrians share a similar sun- and light-based belief system).

We thank you for your continued interest and prayers for this mission!

MA26 – First Days

August 8, 2026

We are thankful that our long journey from Montreal to Yerevan was uneventful. Although our stopover in Paris was several hours long, it gave our team the opportunity for great conversations. It is rare that we have so much extended time together so we enjoyed getting to know each other better. (Our daily morning devotions are also deepening and solidifying our relationships with each other.)

After a joyful reunion with our brother Arayik who picked us up from the airport, we happily arrived at the same hotel we stayed in last year, which immediately made us feel comfortable.

After breakfast the next morning, Emmi came to meet us and then Arayik helped us take care of some errands, the most important one being visiting the print shop to see the books we had ordered (1000 copies of God’s Workshop, 1000 of Does Your Life Have Meaning, and 1000 of DYLHM newly translated into Persian). We later gathered at Arayik’s home for fellowship and a chance to visit with his wife Nelli.

This morning, we organized all the donations given to us for distribution: a generous number of bottles of medication and 97 pairs of glasses, the most we have ever received!

Around noon, we met Tsoleen, a contact of Ann-Margret’s, who is an American-born Armenian living in Yerevan for the past five years. She works with NGOs for various causes and we learned a lot about the history, culture, and challenges of this nation. In the evening, we met Jonathan’s Armenian tutor, Vrezh, who will be graduating from seminary on December 25, and had interesting conversations about faith.

These are just a few small details of what has happened so far. It may not seem like much, mission-wise, but we believe that this is setting us on the right path to continue to follow up the rest of the month.

We are looking forward to worshiping in Horom tomorrow morning!