NEW in the News

Another update for everyone. I have not done a good job of updates, so I am making up for it now!

First, as I showed in one of my twitter updates, we were recently visited by Ray Beahm from Convoy of Hope. He was here to see projects, ideas, and regions where we are working and dream about the possibilities to reach more people with real hope. One of the regions we visited was Nagorno-Karabakh. This is the current war zone in between Armenia and Azerbijan. In 1988 the region was 76% Armenian and 23% Azerbijan. With Azerbijan being mostly muslim country, they began to move Armenians out.

Since then there have been different countries in control. Armenia is currently in control with a “technical” ceasefire between the countries. Despite the ceasefire, actions from both countries have been anything but friendly.

We visited Pastor Arthur who lives in this rough region with his family. We were able to stay at his house, be in his church, and talk about some possibilities to further help this region. He currently has been able to help feed a orphanage with money from us He looks to furthering the impact on this war torn region. Helping independently displaced people, refugees, disabled military servicemen, and other disabled people. We are very excited about the future in Nagorno!

This last weekend we attended one of our new church plant services in the village of Spitak. Spitak was the epicenter of an earthquake here on December 7, 1988 at 11:41am. It took at least 25,000 lives. 500,000 people whose homes, built in apparent violation of seismic safety standards, were destroyed by two powerful tremors that rocked much of Armenia’s territory 20 years ago. Measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale, the many poorly constructed Soviet buildings across the region sustained heavy damage or collapsed.

The small city of Spitak was destroyed, while the nearby cities of Leninakan (later renamed to Gyumri) and Kirovakan (later renamed to Vanadzor) sustained a lot of damage as well. The tremor also caused damage to many surrounding villages.

Since most of the hospitals in the area were destroyed, and due to freezing winter temperatures, officials at all levels were not ready for a disaster of this scale and the relief effort was therefore insufficient. The Soviet Union allowed foreign aid workers to help with the recovery in the earthquake’s aftermath, and this was one of the first cases when rescue and relief workers from other countries were allowed to take part in relief works in the Soviet Union.

We attended this church service, and unknown to us, they had planned on taking up an offering for response to the earthquake in Haiti. This small, year-old church meeting in a living room of a member’s home (with about 50 in the congregation) prayed for the people of Haiti and gave their widow’s mite. Many in the village living on less than 3 dollars a day. They gave sacrificially with an offering of $180.00. They have asked us to get it to Convoy Of Hope.

This is an incredible answer to prayer for our team as we have been praying that God would open the door for Armenians to open their hearts to the needs both in country and beyond and get past the Soviet mindset of taking care of yourself. This was a huge step in the right direction for Armenia.

I put up some pictures above. It is exciting to see whats happening here! The possibilities are endless, and the needy are looking for the Hope! Pray that our container clears customs quickly, as it has been in clearing for almost 4 weeks. With over 30,000 pounds of food and other items, and  $150,00.00 worth coming from Convoy of Hope, we are ready to reach many unreached villages here!

Blessings

Chad

One Response to “NEW in the News”

1. Chels. says:

   February 8, 2010 at 9:07 pm

   Beautiful story. That’s over a day’s wage for most of them…
   Thanks for the new post! It’s fun to hear what you’re up to in Armenia.

   Praying for your guy’s container! You’ll have to let me know when it clears.