We are grateful to the Lord for helping us through 2018. There were a lot of challenges, blessings, and there also were prayer needs and exciting answers from our dear Lord.
Thank you for your prayers, believe it or not, we consider that – we have a serious backup “on the rear lines”! Thank you for financial partaking in God’s work! The year of 2018, of course, has kicked off with the Christmas holiday among the children of Yazidi Kurds. This is a great victory of our Savior, since these children are pagans, now they are participating in the celebration of Christmas – this is a great joy, as well as blessing and privilege for all of us. Christmas among the Kurds is a great miracle! Today, we’ve heard quite a few testimonies of the children who do not want to worship idols anymore (there are about 40 of them in Yazidism) since they realized that they are being forced to do that. All Yazidi holidays comprise a special detail – when people drink and say “cheers” to Melek Taus (the head of all angels in the Yazidis religion, which is depicted as a peacock). So, being at such event one child refused to do this, knowing that this is wrong – that’s also the victory of Jesus Christ!
The Yazidi people in Armenia live as a closed community. In our district, there are villages about which we dreamed and prayed, so that there would be an opportunity to convey at least some kind of literature. Today, there are open villages where we serve quite freely: doing visits, praying, and studying the Word. And there are closed villages, where we come on the sly at night, and sometimes, we just stop by to pray sitting in the car and leave.
Last year, the village of D. was closed for us, and brothers jeopardized when they decided to go there just for a visit.
In this Yazidi village, there is one Armenian family, who mostly speaks Kurmanji instead of Armenian, since they live among Kurds, and is adhering to some rituals from the Yazidi faith, that even for Armenians, who consider themselves Christians, is something new! A few years ago, the Lord blessed us to build a relationship with them. Especially our brother-minister and his wife fell in love with the granddaughter, a young girl, whom they were taking to Christian camps with them, and constantly visited them in this settlement. This girl had an uncle, who was very aggressive towards Christians and always stood in her way, forbidding her to communicate with Christians. For some time, it was a blessed time for a girl, since her uncle was working outside of the country. But the last time, when brother J. was there, this uncle was at home, and he told them not to come by again and drove them out of the house. Leaving from there, brother J. said that the uncle stands in the way of God’s work and, that he must be very careful because he is dealing with God. A few days later, as this uncle was driving a car, he got into a car crash, and instantly died right on the scene. But, the passenger got out of this situation almost unscathed, just having a few minor injuries. Thinking about the moments like that the verse from the Bible comes to mind: “It is terrible to fall into the hands of the living God!” (Hebrews 10:31). Entering this house of mourning, the brothers expected to be kicked out again, but through this situation the Lord has softened the hearts of people to listen to the Word of God, and they even ended up being willing the brothers to pray for them. Please pray for this family, this girl married an unbelieving guy, her brother is open to communication (he was in the car with his uncle when he died), so the ministers keep telling him that God left him alive for a reason.
The Lord blessed a winter camp as well. We had a good opportunity to stay together in the same campsite for 3 days, listen to the Word, and pray. Thanks God there were 20 Yazidis with us, and several people decided to give their lives to Jesus Christ!
In the summer, there was a children’s camp for Yazidi-Kurds and for orphans from the city of Vanadzor (which was destroyed during the 1988 earthquake, where many Armenians live in impoverished conditions to this day). The camp was held near the beautiful Lake Sevan. There was a good and special atmosphere – praise the Lord for that! Many children reconciled to the Lord and are willing to read the Bible. After repentance, the children wanted us to meet their parents, and the ministry continues up until now. I am glad that most of the ministers in the camp’s team were Kurds!
This year, we have experienced many difficulties, both in the ministry and in the church. We are grateful to the Lord for all our brothers and sisters who worry about us and help us to follow our dear Savior. As we’ve gone through these challenges, we became even more focused on the need and goal — the planting of a church among the Yazidi-Kurds. Today, there is a small group of men, who get together and study the Word and pray on the regular basis. Another outcome of the difficulties was, the beautiful opportunity for brother J. to start his training at Rivne Bible College, where brother Sevak is translating classes into Armenian. Even during the session, students read the assigned book in Russian, and Sevak had to translate it online, so that brother J. can get a good grasp of what it’s all about. Brother J. has been in the ministry for 14 years now, but during this time, he has never trained at any Bible school.
This year, we had a special blessing in the ministry in the city of Vanadzor. There are several families, who are willing to open their houses for the celebration of Christmas for children. Orphans, who live there, are staying in especially difficult conditions. Sometimes, it happens to be that during our visits, there is no bread in the house whatsoever. Praise the Lord that all these people are open to the Gospel!
Prayer needs
We’re grateful:
- – For God’s grace, mercy, love and care;
– For the regenerated souls among Kurds, Yazidis and Armenians;
– For being participants in His work;
– For trials that come our way from God’s hand, and for the opportunity to see God’s faithfulness as we’re going through them;
Please pray:
- – For the Yazidi-Kurds and Armenians to be reached with the Gospel;
– For the Lord will raise new brothers-ministers out of the local believers;
– For the spiritual growth of those who repented;
– For the closed Kurdish villages;
– For the church among the Kurdish people;
– For the ministry among the Armenian orphans and adults in the city of Vanadzor;
– For the study of brothers in Rivne Bible College, they should fly to Ukraine 3-4 times a year, leaving the ministry and families.
Nina Parvanyan
