As our trip is quickly coming to an end, we are making our last few visits. Today we visited with my grandpa’s first cousin and then went to visit a family who’s son is the boxing champion of Armenia. All the beautiful paintings you see are done by the father.
We started our day with a visit from a journalist here in Armenia and then later headed out to see a young girl who my grandfather baptized last year. We spent several hours with the family at their home where they asked questions and spent time learning new things about the bible.
Today was a really exciting day! We drove over two hours to our first destination where everyone had a little picnic, from there we drove at least another forty-five minutes and pulled over to the side of the road, walked down a steep and slippery metal ramp (sorry no footage of this as I feared dropping the camera into the creek below), down to an area where it was decided the baptism would be held.
This is by far the hardest day we had in Armenia. We had many visitations and with each stop we learned about the troubles of each person. And it’s sad to say, there are many more situations like these.
There was a lot going on and it was very difficult for me to express the emotions going through my mind and honestly I don’t think I will ever truly will be able to. These will always be difficult memories for me to revisit.
To quote my grandfather, “Even though there are many suffering families and people, and though we can’t help them all, we try to help as many as God helps us to. Our main mission is to bring the good news and the gospel of hope to hundreds of people through visitation and speaking to them in small and large groups and also through tracts, books and bibles we purchase.”
This morning we drove over an hour to a church so my grandfather could preach. After the service, they asked us to stay and join them, at the church, for lunch and fellowship.
Later on, a family member who lives in Philadelphia, USA, who happens to be in Armenia at the same time as us and who has family here in Armenia asked that we get together.
This morning we made a stop at the vernissage not far from where we are staying and then later in the afternoon/evening we went for a visitation. I thought it was really interesting to see all the canned food that they are preparing before the winter arrives.
We ended up driving over 2 hours to get to the camp at Lake Sevan, there were 80 people there. There was an hour long service at 11:00am and then we met with a group of people at noon as you can see in the video. As the hour went on the more people joined in to listen and ask questions. At 1:00pm the baptismal service began with prayer and those who were being baptized answered a few questions.
This morning we picked up a few things that we needed for the baptism tomorrow. Later on we stopped at a few stores to find a washing machine for a lady who is stuck in bed. We were able to make the purchase with gifts that were given for Armenia. The lady will be receiving the washing machine in a few short days!
This morning we had a visit with a man who lost his wife and now takes care of two children on his own by working as a taxi driver, my grandfather spoke with him for a while and prayed with him.
In the morning, someone came to visit us we gave her a ton of the “What Are You Seaching For?” tract in all the language that it is available in, later on we visited the missionary family who you may have noticed in one or two other videos. While at their home my grandfather spoke to their daughter-in-law about her faith and about baptism, she will be baptized with a group of people on Friday, August 19, 2016.
Apologies for the short vlog, I wasn’t feeling well! (Alexis Livingston)
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