Greetings from all at Armenian Ministries and from your brothers and sisters in the charity in Armenia. The year 2007 has been a time of challenge and growth within the work of the charity and we are excited about what the Lord will do in 2008.

Experiences of Armenia

During the last few years while I have been manning the AM office in England I have spoken to many of you on the phone and by e-mail and a number of you have expressed an interest in my personal experience of Armenia. I have written much of this newsletter as a description of my observations in Armenia. I spent six weeks of my summer this year in Armenia, with my three young children, getting to know and love our dear friends, and of course, family there. I was closely involved in a lot of the local work that was going on in the charity.

Humanitarian Aid

Helping the poor, and in particular the poor within the family of God, is a high priority aim of AM. Many of the Armenians that AM regularly support with food, financial help, winter fuel and clothing, are in unimaginable need and poverty. During this summer I was able to visit a few homes and heard quite a few shocking stories from the charity’s visiting team. A lot of the people we help hardly have any income at all, and there are many who have literally no income. Having stayed and shopped in Armenia, I have no idea how they survive on the incomes they receive. One day I took my three girls to the local city park and bought them all ice-cream. This cost us about 3500 dram. I know one pensioner who gets 10,000 dram for one month. A lovely Christian lady who I made great friends with has a hard-working husband who works from about 7 am to 11 pm. He earns about 2,000 dram a day! Under those financial conditions priorities have to be adjusted and I saw some sad sights to illustrate this. One lovely mother showed me her system for nappies for her baby. She bought one nappy (that is possible in Armenia) and hollowed it out. She fills it with old rags and uses it over and over again with her baby. Needless to say the child is continually wet and laundry is done by hand in cold water. I had to buy nappies for my youngest while I was there, they cost 5000 dram for a normal packet size – half of the monthly pension!

The children have hardly any toys and are sadly devoid of colour in their lives. I would like to take this opportunity to thank anyone who has donated items for the humanitarian aid containers. You can imagine the difference it makes to these people’s lives. The photo shows some knitted toys that have been donated to us to take to Armenia. Imagine the joy they are going to bring to the whole family. Without exaggeration it might be the only colourful thing in their whole home. My first trip to Armenia in 1994 happened before AM was started, before I was married and while the war with Azerbadjian was still on-going in Armenia. The situations I experienced in Armenia were a shock, and a turning point, in my life. My family left Armenia when I was one year old and none of us had returned to Armenia until 1993. Right at the beginning of my stay I scratched my foot in the airport (we had to unload our own baggage in a dark airport and customs took about 4 hours on average). The toilet facilities in the airport and in many homes were far from healthy and somewhere I got a septic infection in my scratched foot. In the first 24 hours of arriving my foot swelled to alarming proportions and I was in terrible pain. That was Thursday and Friday. On Tuesday I contracted a terrible stomach infection (the water pipes ran through the graveyards and were not being maintained) and was at death’s door for about 24 hours. To cut a long story short, my father dragged me to the airport on Wednesday (one of the Christian elders literally lifted me and threw me over the wall of the customs so I wouldn’t have to walk). During the huge wait at the airport, during which we were held at gunpoint for about 15 minutes, my foot swelled badly again and by the time I got home to my mother, it was hurting and really swollen. There was no health insurance and no telephone, post or email in Armenia at that time. I believe the Lord kept my foot from becoming too dangerously infected but kept it hurting and allowed the stomach infection so that He could drive home to me the horrible fears and illnesses that the Armenians were living through. As I left Armenia I looked at the sun rising over Mt. Ararat and I promised God that I would not forget His people there.

Perouz visiting a family in Armenia

When I returned in 2007 I was delighted to see the airport which is now a good modern airport. I was delighted to see the supermarket containing most of the foods we have in the West, and nappies and toilet roll! In my first visit we had used shredded school textbooks. It was wonderful to be able to purchase antibiotic when my middle daughter was ill; medicines of any description were completely unavailable in my first visit. However on closer inspection, on visiting our friends, and the people AM support, I realized that the situation at home for poor people has not changed at all. They cannot afford the toilet rolls, the nappies or the medication. As I strolled along the city park this summer I saw a little old lady in her slippers collecting green herbs from the pavements. I don’t know if she intended to use them as medication or food but her plight has stayed in my memory.

One Thursday during the summer, my mother Sona, went with the visiting group to see a family. The pregnant young lady was in dire need of medical attention. She had gone to hospital the week before and the doctors had told her that sadly, her baby had died and she would need to be delivered. Unfortunately, the family in question had no money whatsoever and so she could not afford the medical fees. She was forced to return home with the knowledge that her baby had died, was unborn, and she could get no help. Imagine the despair and lack of hope in this young lady’s life. By the time our charity got to know of this case the young lady was already suffering from blood poisoning, but praise God, they were in time to save her life.

During this winter the charity workers have been very busy taking urgent help, food and winter fuel particularly, to all the people that AM supports. However, Gevorg, the local director for the charity, told us this last week that they are rapidly running out of winter fuel. He said it is ferociously cold at the moment (-30°C) and they are all struggling to keep from freezing. The charity building itself is cold! Under those conditions he went to visit a few families where there were four or five children living in homes with no heating whatsoever. Friends and supporters reading this newsletter, I urge you, with tears in my own eyes, please remember your dear Christian brothers and sisters in Armenia and pray for them. It is not easy to sit in a house at -30°C and watch your children huddled up and freezing cold. I wasn’t told this but I’m assuming if they cannot afford any fuel at all to warm their houses then they probably don’t have much food in their stomachs either.

It was a time of incredible blessing for me personally to be able to spend time with the dear believers in Armenia. They are poor, they are badly dressed – it is not a rare sight to see someone turn up to the meeting in slippers or bed robe, often ill and usually toothless, but they know and love God and sing multitudes of hymns with gusto. My father, Ivan, has a full-time job translating hymns which they then learn off by heart and sing them over and over again. There are three meetings held in the charity building at the moment; a teaching seminar on Friday, the Sunday service and the ladies meeting. During the six weeks that I was in Armenia I spoke at the ladies’ meetings. All three meetings are growing and the attendance is regular and enthusiastic.

The children are equally eager to learn, take in Bible stories and learn memory verses and hymns. As a national trait the children love to perform and will without hesitation stand to attention and recite as many verses as they can remember as loudly as you please! The children’s Bible clubs consist of half an hour of singing. These were probably my favourite times during my entire visit. The children sing so loudly that at times you forget that there is actually a tune buried in there somewhere. They wave their arms enthusiastically to the actions and know most of the songs word perfect. Then the group splits into smaller groups and the children are taught the memory verse for their lesson. The actual lesson is taught very interactively and colorfully; using flashcards, actions, drama or flannel-graph. The main points of the lesson are emphasized in a fun quiz at the end of each lesson.

Finally, there is about half an hour of craft work. When I first arrived I was asked to help with the crafts. Each piece of craft work is prepared by hand and must be enough for about 200 children – the total number that the charity reaches during one week. This involves a large amount of repetitive cutting, searching for material etc. and I must confess that at first I was inclined to advise an alternative! However, I then went to visit the home of a few of the children. Almost all the children have kept their craft work (all of the things they have made!) and they are being used to decorate their bedrooms, their family sitting rooms, their Grandma’s bedrooms and all sorts of other places. Remember I emphasized the lack of colour in these children’s lives. Craft work is definitely an important part of the charity’s work in Armenia and is probably the only time these children get to stick, colour and make a nice mess!! It warmed my heart to watch them.

I will let Ruth tell you about the children’s work in her own words - her full update is also on our website. “Summer 2007 we had five wonderful weeks of camp. Eleven children made an open profession of salvation. Another child, who was saved earlier in the year, without any prompting from anyone, declared in the meeting her desire, or rather, willingness, to go even to China as a missionary for her Lord! Following camps we have been very excited about the progress of the clubs in Yerevan, which are steadily growing. Well over 100 children regularly attend the weekly Bible lessons. This term they have studied the life of Samuel, Saul and David, and the early life of Christ. The teen’s group benefited from an in-depth study of Ruth and Esther, and has recently begun studying Genesis with Gevorg.

We have mentioned in previous newsletters Baghramian and Ervandashad, the two villages where the charity team goes to hold Bible clubs. At the summer camp, 2007, there were five conversions among our village children. Twenty five children attended the camps from the village of Baghramian. This was the first time children from this village had been taken to camp, and it was a God-given opportunity to get to know them much better. Some, we learnt, come from neglected or violent backgrounds. There were significantly more fist fights and brawls in this camp! “Do you really want to live all your lives like this,” I would plead continually. “Your little lives are full of hate; is it making you happy?”

The Baghramian team

Every child that came to camp continues to attend the weekly meetings. Since September our Children’s Bible Club in Baghramian has increased from 25 to over 50! We have been forced to split into three groups. This has been a great blessing, although it also provides us with certain challenges regarding space and leaders. The club meets in the village kindergarten, a large, spacious, ex-Soviet building. However, the kindergarten director, although very obliging and co-operative with us, is reluctant to give us more than two rooms. Understandably, she’s concerned about her building, because some of the children really are rough! We, however, have been forced to separate into three groups: teens, 7-13 year olds, and 4-6 year olds. As there are only two rooms available, the teens have been meeting in the cold, dark corridor. Also, as there is no glass in any of the doors, each class can hear and disturb the other classes’ lessons. Please pray for a solution to this serious problem!

The Baghramian clubs are held on Saturday and take up most of the day. I cannot ask all the leaders to come, as Saturday is the only day they have with their families. Ani, Azaduhi and I are the main leaders. We also have help from a most unlooked-for corner, our Yerevan teen’s group! Armine, pictured on the left, is from a non-Christian family. She got saved through the clubs, and brought her mother to the Lord. Both were baptized this summer, and Armine’s spiritual growth has been one of my greatest blessings this year. She has received two days training on teaching a Bible lesson, and is now teaching the 7-13 year olds. She is very nervous (to the point where she makes herself sick!) but she is willing.

The work in Ervandashad continues well. Sadly, we were unable to complete the building works in the camp in time to bring the Ervandashad children to camp last year, but we hope to bring them in 2008. This year we organised a New Year play with them. They performed “The Three Trees” and were wild with all the enthusiasm that can be expected to attend the first performance! It was amazing to me, having seen these children in their natural habitat of dirt and squalor, looking the colour of the earth they till, to then see them stand up in a hall and confidently throw themselves into their various parts, never stumbling over the many lines they had to memorise and recite with feeling and expression. At the end, we presented the children with cuddly toys, colouring books and stationery supplied through the containers of humanitarian aid.”

Thank you so much for all your support and friendship during 2007. I know that we have depended on the prayers of our friends very much. It can be rather easy to minimize the value of praying for each other. We can easily tell ourselves that the people who are “out there” are the ones doing the work and sitting at home and praying is the easy option. There are numerous examples within the Bible and in missionary stories that show that this idea is far from the truth. The real battle in all areas of spiritual growth is done on our knees, and so I want to specially thank those of you who have prayed and are continuing to pray.

Yours by Grace alone,

Perouz Harrison

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