MISSION: ARMENIA 2023 – DAYS 11 TO 13
SUNDAY, August 20: On our way to church this morning we pulled over to pick something up, right where we stopped an elderly street vendor was drinking water from one of the many water fountains in the city. The Pastor opened his window and offered him the What Are You Searching For? tract. The man quickly read the title and responded, “I hope I find it”. As we pulled away, we noticed him reading the tract and had gotten to the back side where the prayer is printed. Please keep this man in your prayers so that the planted seed may take root.
Pastor Joseph spoke at the Armenian Brotherhood Church of Yerevan (ABC). We connected with this church in 2011 on our first official trip. Many familiar faces and new ones, even a newly married couple from Australia.
After church, we headed to visit a family that we are familiar with. It was meant to be an hour-long visit but ended up being almost three hours. Over two hours of that visit was answering the questions of this young man, Davit. There have been many unfortunate events in this family, starting with the suicide of his father after an adulterous affair, to Davit himself ending up in prison over a woman. He now lives with his grandfather and grandmother. Please pray for this young man so that he will open his heart and accept the Lord Jesus as his personal Savior.
MONDAY, August 21: We started the day off by going to the bank and finally being able to settle the payment for the Bibles we purchased early last week. There have been a lot of back and forths with the Bible Society. This has nothing to do with the Bible Society or us. Simply the bureaucracy that we have to deal with in Armenia.
Our first visit was in Davitashen with a sister in Christ, Gayane. She has been handing out the Pastor’s books and Bibles and holding women’s groups in her home. Gayane went with us to our second visitation which was with another sister in Christ, Anna, who is a believer since 1995 and has a heart for missions as well. Gayane and Anna went with us to our third visitation of the day to the district of Bangladesh, a suburb of Yerevan, to visit Aida. Please pray for these women who have a heart for Christ’s work.
TUESDAY, August 22: As most days, we started with a team meeting to finalize the day’s activities, talk about the upcoming baptism service, and pray together. We had several visitations today, starting with a neighbour of our missionary couple. The neighbour’s name is Laora and though she is Armenian she is much more comfortable speaking and reading in Russian. The Pastor ensured that Laora understood the meaning of baptism, prayed with her, and assured her that she would be baptized on Saturday with the rest of the group. Please pray for Laora as she has epilepsy and has bad episodes.
The second visit of the day was with a family member of our missionaries, Christina, who had requested prayer.
After these visitations, we drove back to Davitashen to Sister Gayane’s home. Every week they have a meeting in her home. Today the Pastor was asked to speak. There were about 18 of us. There were hymns sung, prayers said, a study, and testimonials were given. The meeting lasted two hours.
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