Updates

Dear friends,

It is wonderful to be back at home, taking a few days of rest, catching up with old friends, and eating good home baking! It is also very profitable to “take a step back”, review the work so far and pray about the next step. I recently heard an interesting comment about George Muller, the great modern hero of the faith and champion of children. In his Bible, beside the verse Psalm 37.23 “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord”, George Muller wrote “and also the stops”. I praise God indeed for this time to stop and think!

2007 was, honestly speaking, a time of much testing and endurance for me. Although the work seemed to be more and more blessed and to be continually growing, I myself felt weighed down with many personal difficulties and heartaches. I felt very tired and discouraged. For a certain period of time in June/July I developed quite bad insomnia. My mind simply would not “hand-over” to the Lord and go to sleep. I cried, I prayed, I told the Lord it was all in His hands, whatever His will was for me and for the work was perfect for me, at whatever price; I only wanted to obey and be at peace. Still no sleep. One night, at 3am, I decided if sleep wasn’t going to come, I may as well get up and work; there were mountains of preparation work to do for the up-coming summer camps. I went down to my office and began to think about one of the lessons I was preparing, the story of the Lord walking on water. Amazing! It was exactly what I was going through! I had followed the Lord’s instructions to the best of my knowledge, and here I was in the middle of a very real and terrible storm. There didn’t seem to be a single solid thing around me. Everything I had ever leaned on in life was suddenly being tossed up and down on winds and whims; it didn’t feel as if anyone was in control. All the work I was doing seemed hopelessly doomed, like bailing water out of a sinking ship would be.

Then the Lord Jesus came. He was there, in the centre of the storm. He didn’t stand on the shore and calm the storm; he didn’t even immediately rebuke Peter’s lack of faith. He was in the middle of the storm, and He held Peter’s hand. When Peter learnt what he had to learn, the storm passed. That was God’s promise to me, “the storm will pass”. I slept like a baby the rest of the night. Unfortunately, I can’t say I didn’t have another sleepless night, but lying in bed on Yew Year’s morning, (after a wonderful New Year’s Eve night of praise and fellowship!) I realised that the storm had passed. Every one of Satan’s fears and doubts were lies, and only God’s promise was true!

I have also had time to realise and reflect on the things God has done this year, in spite of me. This summer we had five wonderful weeks of camp in our own luxurious campsite (well, it feels like that after some of the terrible conditions we’ve put up with!) and 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! (We had been learning the story of Isobel Kuhn during the camps). She is a distant relative of mine, and for many, many years her family stubbornly refused to have anything to do with the Lord. This year Louisa got saved and brought her brother, mother, auntie and cousin to the Lord too! Her mother, Hripsime, was a leader in the camps, and one of our most precious sisters and industrious workers! To see Louisa make such a stand for God made me cry! God is not limited by our fears and failures. His power is not dying or diminished. Away with our doubts and fears, we serve a Risen Saviour!

There were five conversions among our village children, also. 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 guilty boys looked at me, their eyes still full of the tears of hurt and bitterness over the cruel words and blows exchanged. “Can’t you see there’s a better way to live; that love is greater than hate, forgiveness is sweeter than revenge?” That is the beauty of camp; children don’t just hear about God’s love, they see it lived out before their eyes. Praise God, there is no disunity among our workers, and I treasure this greater than any diamond in the world! After a week of loving them, it is hard to let the children go back into the world of violence and sin. Praise God, He is greater than he who is in the world.

And what a comfort, also, to remember that the contact is not cut off. 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!

Also, as the clubs are held on Saturday and take up most of the day (with traveling included) 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 (all unattached!). We also have help from a most unlooked-for corner, our Yerevan teen’s group! Armine 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 since then has been one of my greatest blessings this year. Armine 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. Please pray for her continued growth, her spiritual protection, and her confidence! She is also seriously ill, on a long-term basis, which is hard to see in one so young and promising, but we know she is in God’s hands! Armine is studying philology at Yerevan Pedagogical University.

Our second helper, Elena, is a coiled spring full of energy and confidence. She was saved at a children’s club (not AMs) as a child. She is only a little older than the children herself, and due to tender years is not given too much responsibility yet. She helps with the singing. Sarkis, Azaduhi and Ani’s brother, recently returned from National Service, completes the Baghramian team. He also was saved as a child, and although he went away from the Lord as a teen, the army experience seems to have drawn him back! He has lately begun to teach the memory verse, and before I came home he expressed a desire to teach a lesson in 2008. After the words were out, I think he looked very much as if he regretted saying them! Praise God for eager hearts that over-rule fearful minds! It is very encouraging to have a young man want to join the team.

Sorry, I forgot two other important members of the team; Vahan and Gevorg, who attend on alternate weeks. Their responsibilities are two fold: to drive the minibus, and throughout the duration of the clubs stand guard to protect us and the children from a group of eight or nine ruffians, 20 year old lads, who inevitably gather outside in order to disturb the clubs, either by throwing stones through the windows (some of you are probably already sympathizing with the director!), or throwing them at the children, should anyone come out to use the “inconveniences”, (there is no other way to describe them!), which are located in a wooden shed 500 yards from the main building.

Serving God can often be difficult, discouraging, even dangerous, but it is never dull. Don’t you praise God for excitement?

The work in Yervandashad continues well. Thank you for all your prayers for this needy village and the very encouraging responses from my last update, “a crack in the door”. Sadly, we were unable to complete the building works in the camp in time to bring the Yervandashad children to camp last year, but we hope to bring them in 2008. This year we organised a Christmas play with them. They performed “The Three Trees”, and were wild with all the enthusiasm that can be expected to attend the first Christmas Performance! Naturally, the girls’ greatest concern was “What am I to wear?” However, once assured that the charity would supply all the necessary outfits from the supply of beautiful clothes we receive in the containers of humanitarian aid, success was assured in their eyes! Fortunately, they were equally enthusiastic about learning their lines! The long and varied program went off without a hitch, having, if I may say so myself, a remarkably professional air! 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 packed 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. Well, maybe it wasn’t packed! The enormous hall can easily seat 200 guests. Nevertheless, over 50 parents attended, as well as the village chief’s wife and all the school teachers. Past experience has shown us how reluctant villagers are to leave their work for any length of time at all, so this attendance was very encouraging. A wonderful and relevant gospel message was presented at the end by my father, Mr. Ivan Pambakian.

At the end, we presented the children with cuddly toys, colouring books and stationery supplied through the containers of humanitarian aid. Also, each child received a copy of the story of “The Three Trees”, which they had just performed and which we had printed to this particular purpose. Details of this book and its English counterpart are now on our website, here. Please do check it out! Each book sold in England allows one child to receive a copy in Armenia free of charge.

Naturally, while very excited about the progress of the Clubs in the villages, we do not neglect our 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 have recently begun studying Genesis with Gevorg.

Many of the children in the Yerevan Clubs have been with us for two years now and become very precious friends. Among them, for the first time, I relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of our Christmas program. The story “No room in the inn” was simple but challenging: a retake of “the Christmas Carol,” where a young, busy housewife learnt the importance of putting Christ first. The “Ghost of Christmas past” showed her that she had made the same mistake as the innkeepers; she had no room for Christ in her heart. The Spirits of Christmas present (the cutest array of 5-8 year olds with pretty white bridesmaid’s dresses, flowers in their hair, and shrill voices!) showed the mother how precious a time Christmas could be, when centred around God’s word, and the Spirit of Christmas future pointed (well, he would have, could our 9 year old remember which way to point!) to the tragic consequences of having no room for Christ.

So ends my own reflections on the past and present. As for the future, a man may have many plans and desires in his heart, but “the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord”. In 2008 I have no greater prayer for myself and for all my friends and fellow soldiers, but that our every step should be ordered by the Lord. The verse ends with a beautiful promise: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth in his way”.

May the Lord grant each and every one of you a “delightful” New Year!

In His hands
Ruth Pambakian

Back to Updates