Monday, August 25
As it was the 7th wedding anniversary of our friends Sanadroug and Mariam yesterday, and it was Pastor Joseph who had married them, we took them out for lunch today to celebrate. We hadn’t really had a chance to visit with them until now so this was a good occasion to catch up.
We then met Samvel back at the hotel, went to Davitashen to pick up Gayane and meet with two of her contacts. When we got to the first house, we were a bit surprised by the relative luxury we found. We were greeted by a lady who was home alone except for her youngest grandson, a boy of 12 named Artur. Although Pastor Joseph tried, as usual, to get to the point and engage our hostess in a conversation about her spiritual life, there didn’t seem to be a lot of interest. However, we have been praying daily that God would lead us to those that need Him so we knew there had to be a reason we were there, especially since it was Gayane who had arranged the visit.
Before long, Artur presented an opportunity to turn the conversation to more serious matters. He had been sitting alone off to the side but suddenly joined the adults at the table, apparently wanting to hear more about God and faith. Pastor Joseph asked him if he knew who Jesus was and he confidently responded: “The Son of God.” When he was asked who Jesus was to him personally, he hesitated, unsure. His grandmother said he reads his Bible every night so Artur went to get it to show us. It’s a “Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes” type of Bible, but it presents all the stories in order, with a reading and accompanying picture. Jonathan had this same book in English when he was little.
Then Artur surprised everyone by moving to sit beside the Pastor to ask: “Babi Hovsep, I have heard that Jesus is coming back some day. Is that true? And when?” The conversation went from there to prayer, how to keep in contact with God, and the importance of daily Bible reading. Pastor Joseph invited Artur to reach out to him if he ever has any questions so we helped him connect with Pastor on Facebook. We also gave him a New Testament and the two devotional books to his grandmother, then had a word of prayer. We left with a feeling of “mission accomplished” and pray that our visit today will leave a long-lasting impression on this family, especially this young boy who seems so spiritually open at this stage of his life.
Our second visit was to a family with three small children, the youngest being the same age as Pastor Joseph’s great-grandson: not even six weeks old! Again, the visit finished very differently from how it began. We met the whole family upon arrival but suddenly found ourselves alone with the father, Antranik, in the livingroom. He was quite willing to talk and, with no hesitation, identified himself as a Christian; but then he went on to say that it was only natural that he was a Christian since he was born in a Christian country, just as he would have been Muslim if born in a Muslim country or a Hindu if born in a Hindu country. He went on to say that this was God’s plan and this was basically how it worked everywhere around the world.
Naturally, this wasn’t the answer we were hoping to hear, but it did open the door to a longer and much more fruitful discussion. In his own style, Pastor Joseph challenged Antranik on various points. During the rest of the conversation, the other members of the family joined us one by one and pretty soon we were all sitting around the table, focussed on one main question: If I were to die today, and God asked me why He should let me into heaven, what would my answer be? This was the real turning point and, at the end of the conversation, the head of the household said: “I have really been affected; there is a fire inside me now.“ They were very grateful to receive the devotional books, tracts, Bible, and New Testament we offered and promised to read them because, as Pastor Joseph said, “Like life-saving medication, it’s not worth anything if you just lock it away in a cupboard and never use it.”
For the second time today, we ended the visit feeling that the Holy Spirit had really intervened and led us exactly to where we were supposed to be. We ask you to join us in prayer for these two families, especially Artur and Antranik who responded with genuine openness to the gospel. Pray, too, that the Lord will continue to guide us so clearly during our last two days here. Tomorrow is the baptismal service and six souls, including two children, will be taking the big step to identify themselves with Christ.
English