Greetings to you all from all of us at Armenian Ministries. Thank you once again for your prayers and support. It has been a productive and busy season in Armenia for which we praise God with grateful hearts but also thank you for your prayers.

“When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places....”

Church Work

The ladies’ meeting and the communion service are attended very well. The recently planted church meeting in Yerevan is growing very fast. There was a baptismal service in the river, where eight people were baptized in a very joyful service!

Bible teaching seminars are held in the meeting hall every Friday. In one of these seminars, Ivan was teaching about the doctrine of the institution of marriage representing the relationship between the Lord Jesus and His Bride – the Church.

In the congregation, there was a man who had been separated from his wife for some time. In the very next meeting, he turned up with his wife beside him. Naturally, there was much astonishment which soon turned to joy. It seems that he went to his wife and repeated what Ivan had expounded, and the Lord convinced them both that it was much too serious a fault for believer to find themselves in. Hence, they made it up there and then. They are now together present at every meeting, and the Lord has blessed them with great joy and love. What a powerful and gracious Heavenly Father we have. Praise the Lord!

Children's Work

Break for the Summer...

The children’s weekly Bible clubs stopped at the end of May for the summer holidays. This gave Ruth and the rest of the team about two days of relaxation before plunging straight into preparations for the holiday Bible clubs and of course, the summer camps! The children’s team worked very hard during the last season and saw many good results and lots of children attending the meetings regularly. Although they are all very tired they are very encouraged by the work that has been accomplished.

Summer Camps

This spring and summer saw a huge amount of work and effort put into the building of the campsite. We are so grateful to everyone who helped, including visiting teams. Hovsep, one of our local workers, really put his back into the work, often working right through the night if the weather was suitable. I personally have been very challenged by the dedication that Hovsep has shown to this work; during the early spring he often came back to the charity building with frozen socks! Pray with us that God will bless the work done in this campsite! Already some children have been saved! Although the work in the camp is not complete yet, it has been usable for the summer camps. Those of you who read last Autumn’s newsletter will remember the difficult conditions under which last year’s camps were done. We are praising the Lord so much for this year’s vastly improved conditions!

We have been very encouraged by how the team has worked well together during the summer months when it is hot and the task is particularly demanding. During the camps a few Armenian Christian young people from America and Australia went over to Armenia to help Ruth once again, for which she was very grateful. Four children were saved during one of the camps in July and seven children were saved during the camp in the first week of August. These conversions caused us all much excitement.

The Reyburn family: As many of you will remember Frank and Edel Reyburn came to Armenia a number of years ago with Armenian Ministries, to learn Armenian and see how they could serve God in Armenia. They are still in Armenia but have recently expressed a desire to work independently. Hence, we are sorry to announce that they are no longer part of the Armenian Ministries team. We trust and pray that God will direct them in the way they should go, and give them much fruit to the saving of souls and the glory of our Heavenly Father.

Humanitarian Aid Work

AM continues its work of helping the poor. Visitations are done on a regular basis and we combine distribution of clothes and food with the telling of the Gospel message as much as possible.

Recently we have reported a lot about the work in the border village of Ervandashad (there are updates about this work on our webpage). We have now started working in another village. The village of Yerakshavan is closer to Yerevan but is much poorer and more desperate than Ervandashad. There is no piped water to Yerakshavan, the people have to buy their water in buckets, from visiting water tankers. The Azeris often shoot at the lorries to stop the water getting to the village.

The AM workers have been shocked at the plight of some of these villagers. The man pictured in the photograph was very cheerful and happily showed off his home and what he did not have! He even showed off the undergrowth that is coming through his walls. He tapped gently on the walls and the workers were treated to a downpour of plaster from his ceiling and walls! How long will this dwelling stand and what will he do when it collapses? Of course, whilst distributing humanitarian aid, in particular shoes, clothes and food, in Yerakshavan, AM is also looking for an opportunity to start Gospel outreach and a children’s club in the village. It is early days yet for this village but please pray with us that God will direct the work amongst these people.

Another lady that made an impression on the visiting AM team was a woman in her forties (see photograph). This widow lives with her father-in-law, who is almost blind. They have only his pension to live on. Apparently, she used to work as a nurse but extreme bad health has forced her to stop working. She has had endless stomach problems and a series of operations that have completely drained their finances. Unfortunately at the time of the visit her stomach was still causing her a lot of problems and she could no longer afford any medical help. These are such sad situations to see. The lady is not a Christian and the photograph shows Ruth handing her a Gospel tract and sharing the good news with her. It is wonderful to be able to help people physically and give them hope in their lives but also to use that opportunity to give them lasting good news for their eternal lives.

Cool News!

As we were putting the final editing touches to this newsletter an email came from Ruth in Armenia, with some very good news! Ruth wrote “A most amazing thing has happened. Yesterday, someone turned up on our doorstep, and said “Is this Nor-Aresh 26 street, house 59/1, and where is Hovsep? We have an air conditioning unit for him” !!! A lovely gift from someone, delivered to our door! Hovsep lost no time in installing it and the room is now cold!” Thank you to our anonymous donor.

Update on the work of Translation.

Sona has been translating steadily through the Old Testament. During the last few months she has been working on Exodus, Leviticus and Joshua. Ruth continues her translation of Isobel Kuhn’s “By Searching” and Ivan continues to translate hymns and children’s choruses for the use of the church. The publications that AM have translated to date have been freely distributed and are well received. They are given out with humanitarian aid, during visitations and with every other opportunity.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supports us both in the UK, abroad and in Armenia. We are indebted to those of you who regularly pray for us, send us monetary as well as material donations. Thank you to all our anonymous donors. Thank you to the teams and individuals who have traveled from abroad; the UK, Australia and America, to help with building work and camp work in Armenia. Thank you to all of you who support us by collecting various items from colleges, schools, hospitals etc. We also want to thank the volunteers who transport these items, sort through the goods that are given for the containers and put in time packing boxes to send to Armenia. Thank you so much for all your help. The clothes, shoes and other materials that have been, and are being sent, in the containers, are very gratefully received by destitute families. Food, purchased in Armenia using money given for the People in Need fund, is also added to the donations given to these families and individuals. We would appreciate your prayers as we are now in the process of searching for a new warehouse for the goods that we send from the UK and for the food that we buy. The warehouse we have been using is no longer available to us and we now urgently need a large, dry storeroom.

In my morning Bible readings I have been reading through Paul’s letters. Whilst reading the first two chapters of Galatians I was meditating on the way Paul realized and responded to his calling from God to go and preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. Paul very clearly describes where he went and who he spoke to as part of his response to God’s calling in his life. I was particularly blessed when I read Galatians 2:9-10, “And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.” Throughout the Old and New Testament we see that God’s people are reminded that missions and remembering the poor go hand in hand. Very often helping the poor opens the door for mission work in that household.

Thank you once again to everyone who has contacted us by phone, email and letter. Thank you for your encouraging messages and notes!

Yours by Grace alone,

Perouz Harrison

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