Greetings to you, dear friends! As usually the year began with Christmas visits, which serve as an excellent springboard for further ministry throughout year.

People are mostly in no hurry, stay at home and at this particular time, they are especially open to the gospel and spiritual conversations. Therefore, we always try to use this time wisely. We visited all our distant and nearby Yazidi settlements (more than 20 settlements) as well as believers and their guests, and relatives, and there was a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel. In addition, we organized children’s Christmas holidays at our missionary sites.

In the S. settlement, this year, we celebrated Christmas in a special way (accompanied with music and national dances). This is a special grace for all of us, since not so long ago, in this settlement there were also celebrations with music and national dances dedicated to melekitaus (Satan).

Praise the Lord for this and thanks a lot to the churches from Vinnitsa and Ivano-Frankivsk that they helped us to organize this low-key, but wonderful feast for the Yazidis children that glorified the Lord. At the end of January, we had a wonderful opportunity to participate in the missionary conference in Rivne with a team of ministers (6 people). It was a week of blessed and very upbuilding time, where we both served people and were served by others. We heard a lot of testimonies about the works of the Lord in different cities, towns and countries. We had two brothers Karapet Stepanyan from the southern part of Armenia, who is engaged in the service with the Yazidis and the new convert brother A. from the Yazidi settlement of M.
Here are a couple of words from their impressions:

My trip to Ukraine was filled with unforgettable impressions. First, the family that accepted us was a wonderful manifestation of Jesus’ love. And even if they did not share with us about Jesus, their attitude and the way they treated us spoke up for them. Second, there were excellent seminars, which I found very useful and well organized. I also had a great opportunity to meet new spiritual people and be inspired by their testimonies. The stories told by the missionaries were very impressive, too. I saw the power of God and the unity in Christ. Thank God and you for this opportunity to be there. Karapet Stepanyan

This trip was special for me, since it was my first trip outside of Armenia. To say that the trip was just interesting, it means nothing to say. For me everything was very new and I still try to digest a lot of information that I’ve heard. I heard about Jesus from my childhood, but this trip helped me to understand what it really means to follow Jesus, and everything was profound. So I decided to “swim” at this very depth. Brother A. (new convert from Yazidi)

Right after returning from Ukraine, my mother passed on. As if she was waiting for me. In her last days, we sang Christian hymns with her, and I read her the Bible. She was 77. My mom had a disease and the last year she was bedfast and never got out of bed. Mom was ready and knew where she was going and who would meet her there. Thank God! The most interesting thing is that at a funeral service, in the evening, when the brothers preached the Gospel, two people from our non-believer relatives have repented.

Every time we do visit our Yazidi settlements in the south and north. In the villages of S. and T., there is a regular children’s ministry. We also had the consecutive session of the School of Biblical Preaching. There were 42 students in the class not including free listeners. We studied “Life of Jesus Christ,” which is very edifying and useful for our guys.

The biggest challenge and prayer need in our ministry is the resources. Thank God that we have very good physical resources, there are excellent and dedicated ministers. This is simply grace given by the Lord. But there is not enough material resources. The ministry is developing at a tremendous pace and we cannot keep up with it because there is shortage on funds. Please pray that the Lord will help us.

We thank the Lord for our families and for the solid understanding and patience of our wives. We understand that, we, as ministers, do not spend enough time with our families and this, in all respects, can make us hit the rough patches. But by the God’s grace, our wives understand that at this stage of ministry it is really necessary for us, so they not simply understand, but they help us and support us. And through them we have an excellent rear, thanks to the Lord!

Dear brothers and sisters, we thank you for your dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Great Commission! We thank all those who pray and help for the ministry in Armenia. We want to encourage your friends that your contribution is a contribution to the Eternal Kingdom and may our Lord supply all your needs from His glorious riches. Philippians 4:19;
We want to ask you to continue facilitating in every possible way and pray for us, as well as for those whom we deliver the Good News.

With love and prayers from Armenia, Your brother Arthur Marandyan