Love from Armenia

Thank you for the wood!

2012-03-01T23:19:00.002-08:00

I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who readsthis blog that has contributed towards the wood. A dear couple in the UK justpurchased the last truck of emergency supplies of fuel and we are grateful tothem, as well as to anyone who has contributed to wood throughout this verydifficult winter.

On the same day as the wood arrived the men started choppingthe logs into manageable pieces and had got them organised for some emergencydeliveries the next day. Meanwhile Mikeand I with one member of our team (the others were chopping!) went onvisitation. When we got to the block offlats which we had been given as an address we were on the verge on turningback and returning as we were all sure that we were at the wrong place. The flats were derelict and looked like theywere ready for demolition. In fact, someparts had already fallen down. Sadly wewere not in the wrong place and almost all the rooms in the place wereoccupied.

The young mum we visited (who was herself in urgent need andhas been added to the list of people that we will help on a regular basis, Godwilling) very generously informed us that she knows of many other families inthat very building who are much worse of than herself. “I have an indoor toilet” she said proudly “althoughI don’t have any running water and have to carry it in buckets from the end ofthe hallway” We spent some time sat talking with her and playing peek-a-boo with her one year old!

As we were getting ready to leave the place, all of usfeeling very weary, another woman ran towards the van. She said “Won’t you please visit us also, weare in such a desperate state” and then she started crying. They lived on the ground floor of thisdilapidated place, there was no heating in the place at all and we all feltinstantly chilled to the bone. The wallswere running with water. She had notoilet to speak of really and her washing facilities I have photographed foryou to see. There was no running water - it had to be carried from the opposite building.

The bathroom and laundry room

Her invalid son was in bedand the other daughter was so humiliated that she could barely look up. I tried to talk to her a bit, at which pointshe said “I have my own bedroom, would you like to see it?” Feeling rather pleased that I had broken theice I followed her and we entered a cupboard! Whilst I fought the feelings of claustrophobia I decided they wouldactually have to come back to the charity building with us and receive instanthelp. They were finally taken home againwith most of the wood that our hard-working men had chopped ready for the nextday, food parcels and lots of bedding. All three of the visitation team came back home with a migraine due toall the emotional tension and I’m still having nightmares about it. Mum summed it up for me though – she said “Atleast we know that for the rest of this winter they will sleep in warmed roomsand with wool blankets”

Answering a call for help

2012-02-29T02:11:00.000-08:00

We have just had such a wonderful opportunity for witnessingand sharing the gospel in an afternoon of visiting some families who have onlyjust applied to the charity for help. Itwas so exciting to enter these incredibly impoverished homes and not only helpthem with some material help but to give them lots of Christian literature(tracts, calendar and New Testament) and to talk with them about the Lord andHis love for them and how He died to save them.

Although the weather has improved a lot there is still a lotof ice on the roads that are not main routes. We set off in the charity’s van with some boxes of wood and food parcelswith the intention of finding a family who had been referred to us asparticularly in need of urgent help. There seems to be no local street map of the area of Yerevan that we were searching, so it was acase of asking every local taxi that we saw “Where is number 31 street?” A number of times we were sent in thedirection we had only just come from and we were on the verge of givingup. Finally, one taxi driver told us totake the next right turn, which turned out to be a tiny side-street which wasliterally only just wide enough for our van to pass through. To add to our driver’s difficulties the iceon the road was hard-pressed and thick! When we finally found the elusive address getting into the housepresented the next difficulty. The womanwe were called to visit, Nellie, was living in a two roomed attic which wasabove the main section of the house. Shewas renting the attic from the landlady at a nominal fee. The landlady explained to us that sheurgently needed the money from this attic’s rental but cannot possibly evictNellie as that would make Nellie’s family homeless – she is not even managingto afford the current nominal fee. Nelliehas five young children, one of them an invalid and the other only two yearsold, but sadly her husband, frustrated with his situation and poverty, decidedto run away to Russia and has left them to face their fate. The attic was so damp that every member ofthe family including Nellie had dreadful chesty coughs and the two year old’snose was running and had to be persistently wiped with her sock!

I was just trying to assimilate the whole situation and takein what we were seeing and wonder how best to help them when the landladyarrived on the scene. Nellie had been abit slow in telling us the urgency of her needs but the landlady was very vocalas to how desperately poor Nellie is and what she thought of Nellie’ssituation. Finally, she calmed downenough to listen to us all and we managed to get some information and instructedNellie to come to the charity’s building and get some clothes, shoes, etc. Her 8 year old daughter has not beenattending school as she has no appropriate clothing, no school materials and noshoes whatsoever other than flip-flops. We invited the mother to bring the child to the children’s clubs and tocome and get school materials. In thephotograph Nellie is the lady with her eyes shut (she was only 37), the lady inthe dressing gown is Nellie’s mother. The young girl standing behind the baby is the 8 year old daughter. Photographing them in their home situationssometimes causes some embarrassment so I did not want to repeat the photodespite the shut eyes!

All this time the landlady was listening to what was beingsaid and continually interjecting and telling us that she also was in a verybad way and in urgent need of help also. I must confess my initial reaction was that to think this woman had justheard how we would help her tenant and was now simply jealous and notparticularly needy. We decided at theend of our visit with Nellie that we must also visit the landlady to find outher situation. How wrong can impressionsbe?

The landlady and her husband (whowas dressed in what I can only describe as rags) were living in a home that Iam sure it would be illegal to use as an animal shed in England. Numerous parts of the ceiling were leaking –I mean pouring water! There was noplaster on wall, floor or anywhere. There were lots of bowls and buckets all over the cold floor to collectthe freely flowing water. The bare,undecorated, dark and cold room contained 4 beds – for the husband, the wifeand two teenage children. All thebedding was mouldy and smelling atrociously. The father of the household, who was only 47, looked much older and healso had a chesty cough from all the damp. Once again we felt overwhelmed in the face of such need and weregrateful that we could at least present a food parcel, some warm bedding, somewood etc. Once again we were able alsoin this home to present the gospel message and leave them with not only somematerial help but Christian literature and lots to think about with regard totheir souls.

It made a difference to that one!

2012-02-25T04:56:00.001-08:00

A couple of photographs for you today! I mentioned a few blogs ago how Mike andHovig visited an old man who was sat in his bed for fear of the cold. When they arrived the inside of his house wasabsolutely freezing and they had to come back and get a load of wood to takehim. Here is a photo of that dear “granddad”– he makes broom handles for a living (he’s about 80 years old)

In a recent newsletter (I think about 2 newsletters ago) Imentioned Rima. She lives alone and whenwe visited her last year she was in such a sorry state. She cried throughout our entire visit andtalked about how alone she was in the world and how hopeless. We told her the gospel and then promised tosend her food parcels and lots of Christian literature. After we returned to England thevisitation team faithfully visited her. Meanwhile in Englanda dear Christian sister was touched by the story of Rima and made her a patchworkquilt. When we returned to Armenia wedecided to visit Rima, see how she was doing and give her the quilt.

What a change! Shehad taken hope from the help she was receiving. She had cleaned her home and tears had been replaced by copioussmiles. She hugged Mike and I so manytimes. I asked her how she was copingwith the cold winter and she said “With family like you to send me warmwoollies and the lovely colourful blankets on my bed, I am coping very well.” She told us how she has become a Christianand is now praying every day and trusting the Lord to see her through each dayhowever difficult it is. She said I’mnever alone as I talk to the Lord and I know that you are my family and carefor me! We came away with singingrefreshed hearts. What a privilege tohave made a difference in someone’s life so that they now feel they are nolonger alone in the world.

Once upona time there was a wise man

who usedto go to the ocean

to do hiswriting.

He had ahabit of walking

on thebeach

before hebegan his work.

One day hewas walking along

the shore.

As helooked down the beach,

he saw ahuman

figuremoving like a dancer.

He smiledto himself to think

of someonewho would

dance tothe day.

So hebegan to walk faster

to catchup.

As he gotcloser, he saw

that itwas a young man

and theyoung man wasn't dancing,

butinstead he was reaching

down tothe shore,

picking upsomething

and verygently throwing it

into the ocean.

As he gotcloser he called out,

"Goodmorning! What are you doing?"

The youngman paused,

looked upand replied,

"Throwingstarfish in the ocean."

"Iguess I should have asked,

why areyou throwing starfish in the ocean?"

"Thesun is up and the tide is going out.

And if Idon't throw them in they'll die."

"But,young man, don't you realize that

there aremiles and miles of beach

andstarfish all along it.

You can'tpossibly make a difference!"

The youngman listened politely.

Then bentdown, picked up another starfish

and threwit into the sea,

past thebreaking waves and said-

"Itmade a difference for that one."

A photo of our day!

2012-02-22T00:25:00.001-08:00

It is Wednesday morning again and we have just finished theladies’ meeting. There was such awonderful atmosphere in the meeting today. I gave a small illustrated talk on lessons we can learn from the eagleand Mum spoke on the theme “Do not be weary in well-doing”. There was a very good turn-out this week –there has been no more snow and the main roads are clear now, although our roadis still an ice rink.

It’s a normal working day here in the charity building. Mike is spending this morning immersed inArmenian Grammar. His teacher is hereand one of them is pulling their hair out (usually, anyway). The children are occupied with school. The children’s team are busily preparingcrafts and later today they will be going shopping and buying materials readyfor when the clubs restart. Weatherpermitting we are hoping that the clubs will restart in the first week ofMarch. The cook is making mashed potatoesfor lunch and another lady is cooking a cake to serve church folk. Several of the ladies are sorting through aidthat has been sent – they are looking for suitable sizes to give to a fewpeople who have asked if they can have some clothes. Two of the visitation team have driven off inthe van to go to a village (about half an hour’s drive away) to take wood tosomeone there that has run out of heating. The other member of the team is out in the “food” room weighing rice,lentils, sugar into packages and bagging food parcels ready for when the drivergets back and they go visiting.

Our secretary is quietly chipping away at accounts whilehuddled next to the oil-filled radiator – its cold downstairs. One of our team, specifically with us fortranslation work, is working on the translation of some new tracts while Mum isreading through the Major Prophets and proof-reading. Two ladies are cleaning the church hall,following the ladies meeting this morning, getting it ready for prayer meetingtomorrow morning. One of the young menis preparing one of the computers that came in the container. It needs some technical work doing on it,some programs adding and more memory putting in and then it will be given to aninvalid child. She is a genius child of about10 years old with disfigurements all over her body, including her hands. Sadly, this means that her studies have beenstunted as she cannot write. We arehoping that the computer will change this situation.

I think this sums up what everyone is doing! I am writing this blog, some emails to folksat home and home-schooling. Hopefullythe visitation team will be back soon and after lunch we shall be able to govisiting with them. I’m not sure who ison our agenda for today. We were goingto visit a 40 year old mum of three who has terminal cancer. However we heard that she has the doctor’scoming to visit her today so that may have to be post-poned. We are praying God directs our paths andsends us where He wants us to be.

First camp meeting of the year!

2012-02-16T22:17:00.000-08:00

We’ve just finished our half term. The children are all rested and waiting tostart school again but the teacher is not so willing (me!). I’ve battled with a cold all week and itsleft me with a bit of a dry cough. WishI could have another week’s rest! I’mhoping my cough improves during the day because I want to teach another one ofDad’s translated hymns at the meeting this evening – “I will sing the wondrousstory”. I think they’ll really enjoythis one as Mike as found some lovely backing music for it too.

Aside from trying to rest a bit this week we’ve also had ourfirst “formal” and another “informal” meeting with the summer camp leaders anddecided on a few preliminary things. Wenow have a rough idea of what weeks camp will run, God willing, who will teachwhat and also some idea of themes and how we are going to decorate rooms. We are going to need lots of craft materialsbringing from England,which I’m quite excited about – I love going shopping! Ruth has very kindly volunteered to write thelessons which will be taught in our camps and send them to us. She is also going to produce the morningbooklets we use for teaching the children about prayer. Due to Ruth’s going we were short on oneteacher for morning prayer groups but one of the other team workers has alreadyvolunteered to fill that spot! I loveworking with these people and pray that God gives them the health, strength, abilityand courage to do all that they want to do for Him! It was rather weird having a meeting aboutsummer camps whilst in our woollens and huddled round the electric heater.

This last week we’ve also handed out almost all the 2 truckloads of wood that were delivered about a week ago. Now Mike is wondering whether we will need tobuy yet another load. I mentioned in mylast blog that we got a plea for help from a family who had run out of wood. Whilst in that area of town (which is verydifficult to drive to in icy conditions) Mike and Hovig decided to pop in tovisit one of the elderly men we give food parcels to, to see how he wasfaring. He is about 80 years old andlives alone as his sister recently died. They found him in bed – he had obviously not got out of bed for awhile. The house was freezing cold. Unfortunately they had delivered all the woodin the van so they had to come back and return the next day again to that areaof town with yet more wood. The needsthis year are overwhelming and Mum correctly summed it up last night when she said“At this stage the important thing is to prevent people from freezing to death. Wood has become more important than food” –that says it all.

Ladies meeting

2012-02-15T00:02:00.001-08:00

We’ve just come out of the ladies meeting. Once again Mum and I have been amazed at theturnout. Although no fresh snow hasfallen for a few days, the present snow has frozen solid and our entire streetresembles a skating rink. This morning’smeeting was a particularly lovely, and blessed meeting. Mum continued her series today on “Spiritualdepression” – today’s lesson being an exhortation for us to look at God andkeep our eyes focussed on Him, His goodness and power and not the waves andstorms in our lives. One lady sang abeautiful song for us about God’s mysterious ways of working and I gave a smalltalk on lessons that we can learn from a honeybee!

The general rule is that we do not give out monetary ormaterial help following a meeting. Theidea is to draw a clear distinction between church and charity. However the rule had to be laid aside todaywhen we discovered that one of the families (the wife of whom was at themeeting) was sat in the cold at home. Theycome from a cold part of town and their house is generally cold even when thelog burner is on. I can’t imagine how coldit is without. Their wood has run outand no one will take wood to their part of town for them as the roads are tooslippery. One of our main workers is illtoday, so Mike and another driver will attempt to get wood to this family’shome later today. Pray for safety.

Hard work

2012-02-14T02:20:00.001-08:00

I am feeling guilty. I sort of chickened out of the visitations yesterday. Actually there was a reason for it. Mike urgently needed my help in doing the yearly accounts for the expenses in Armenia and also I have caught a bad cold - not surprising considering how cold I generally am. Anyway I was just sat puzzling over the accounts and sneezing heartily when two of the men in our team came in and said they were heading off to Halbert and would we like to come. This is such a poor area of town and all the folks who we help there urgently needed wood for burning, which is why they were attempting the journey despite all the snow. Two of the most desperate families live on a steep rocky incline, so I knew that the visit would also involve a steep climb and slide back in the snow as the charity van wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near.

Mike and I worked very hard and got our accounts done but I must confess that my heart was with our team in Halbert. They rang several hours later to say that the van had got stuck, they had had to trudge in the snow carrying the wood to the various families and they had all got back with soaking wet and freezing feet. I am so thankful for our team who are so diligently working to help their countrymen in these difficult situations.

Tomorrow

2012-02-12T22:10:00.000-08:00

“Guide me O Thou Great Jehovah” must have been one of the last songs that Dad translated. We have found a batch of songs that he translated that the congregation in Yerevan have not yet been taught and Mike and I are hoping to work through the pile and teach a song a week! This last Friday and Sunday we taught this wonderful hymn! It is particularly well translated and the congregation loved it so much we sang it three times on Friday and again on Sunday.

Mike spoke on “Tomorrow” from Exodus chapter 8. When the plague of frogs came upon the Egyptians and Pharaoh was given the opportunity of being rid of them, Moses said “You have the choice, when would you like to be rid of them?” and Pharaoh answered “Tomorrow!” He spoke on the nature of tomorrow, its uncertainty and the necessity of making our decisions and doing our business with God and in our relationships today. Now – is the God-appointed time! After the meeting one of the ladies who attends very regularly but is not saved, in fact she argues quite determinedly against most of the Biblical teaching, came up to Mike and asked all sorts of evasive questions about tomorrow. I think she had been very convicted. She went away with a New Testament. All this time she’s been coming to church, she just sits, listens and critically analyses. For the first time yesterday she took a New Testament and hopefully decided to do some investigating for herself. We pray that she will truly seek with all her heart as then the promise is that she will find.

Still cold!

2012-02-10T01:19:00.001-08:00

Mike and I had to venture out last night. I don’t know what thickness of snow we havebut its jolly thick. I’ve never knownanything like it in England.Its powdery snow that you can’t even make snowballs out of and you literallyhave to wade through it. We had a dearfriend taken ill last night who lives in our neighbourhood. Mercifully Mum had just visited them andthought that he should see the doctor so she called the doctor and asked for ahome visit. Once the doctor arrived, heprescribed a battalion of medicines, and Mike and I ventured out (in the lateevening) to find an open pharmacy and get it for them. I wore almost all the clothes in my wardrobein one go as Mike said that if the car got stuck I would need to push!! Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

As we spent the evening running round I had very little timeto cook tea so I decided to make some yellow split pea soup in the pressurecooker. It was all going very well untilI added the tomato based sauce (the equivalent of Dolmio). Unfortunately I cannot read Russian so I didnot know that it was full of chilli and very hot!! It did taste very good though and warmed usall up and made our brain cells defrost!

I have spent quite a lot of time in our aid office duringthis last week as we have been reviewing all the people who receive help fromus – we try to do this at least twice a year. Whilst I am sitting there working I am never allowed to forget howblessed I am too have thermal socks, or heating, or to be able to have a hotshower. A young woman walked in at thebeginning of the week as her two children were hungry. She came through the snow and ice in pinkworn-out slippers (that had once had some fluff on them I think) – she wentaway with new shoes for the whole family and food. On Wednesday a middle-aged woman came in whowas desperate for any help at all. Shewas practically homeless and wanted us to help her get into an old people’shome. She was given a full change ofclothing and a lovely warm wool coat – she just took off everything she’d comein and I think most of the old stuff got thrown away. Then she was given soap, a comb and a toweland directed to our bathroom to have what I think must have been her first washof the year.

The deep freeze

2012-02-07T00:26:00.001-08:00

I thought I’d write a few lines today to tell you somepersonal details about life in Armeniain the wintry month of February. Thanksto the big Europe freeze it has been amazingly cold and frosty here in Yerevan too. We have woken up to completely frozen windowpanes for over a week now. During theday it’s beautifully sunny and crisp but nevertheless, the cold isferocious. I think during the nights it’sbeen around -16C. We have two oil-filledradiators in our bedroom/school room and office (this is all the sameroom). We have decided to save money byusing the minimal number of rooms necessary – so the girls all sleep in oneroom (the smallest and easiest to heat!), we sleep in our room and school andstudy there too, and Mum is in the third room. The kitchen is generally frozen! The inside layer of the double glazing is frozen so hard that you can’tsee out any of the windows. After I wentin this morning and cooked our porridge the condensation on the inside of thewindows froze too!

Despite the two radiators we still wear top to toe thermals(double layers in my case) and long thermal socks. I have so many socks on that I can no longerwear my normal boots so I go round in stretchy slippers! – very elegant. I went down to prayer meeting in my wool hat,wool coat and scarf this morning. DuringFriday seminar I overheard two of the ladies talking and saying “When Perouzfirst came she looked very nice but now she has suddenly put so much weighton. I wonder what’s happened to her!” I’m not surprised – at that particularmeeting I had so many layers on that I was finding it hard work to move myjoints. I think next time I’ll just godown in my sleeping bag.

The positive side is that we no longer have to worry aboutbuying anything from the meat market. Everything, including fresh fruit and vegetables, purchased from themarket is bought ready frozen. Yousimply defrost and enjoy!

Hurrah - a happy delivery!

2012-02-01T23:01:00.000-08:00

The floor is thick with snow and ice. The roads look like ice rinks and the snow issteadily falling. First thing thismorning we have received a phonecall that the two truck loads of wood weordered are going to be delivered this morning. These are an extra emergency delivery due to the many people we know aresitting in unheated homes. The men (whomyou cannot identify as they are so muffled up) are all out there defrosting,de-snowing and moving the charity’s vehicles from the drive to make way for thewood delivery. When the wood has beendelivered they will continue to break it up into manageable, burnable chunks –no small job, as it is all done with axes! It will be rapidly packed into apple boxes (which came full of clothesin the container, have been emptied and are now being filled with wood!) andthen taken to desperate people’s home. Thank you, thank you to anyone who made donations for winter fuel! - I hope your hearts shine with warmthtoday. You have brought some warmth andsome glow to someone’s hearth today.

Keeping warm

2012-02-01T03:07:00.000-08:00

I’m eavesdropping again – the conversation between theMichael and two of our main visitation team workers. They are worrying about the huge amount ofwood we have already distributed (7 large truck loads) and the amount of peoplewho are still found almost freezing to death. Several of the people who we support are apparently looking to oursupply of wood as their only supply of any form of heat. I heard mention of one lady lovingly referredto as “the one who talks a lot” – she will apparently have no heating left ifshe is not visited today with a box of wood. Another young girl who lives in flat with 4 or 5 children, andapparently plentiful numbers of rats running round, will also urgently need abox of wood if her children are not to spend tonight in an unheated house. An old lady, bent with arthritic pain, in asuburb of the city, has no wood left and is too embarrassed to say so….and soon. Michael has had to issue thepurchase of two more truck loads of wood. It is cold in Yerevan. Cold enough for me to be sitting with anoil-fired radiator permanently on; a rather inadequate central heating system,which although its inadequate does keep the edge of the cold; a hot drink by myside, two thermal vests on (one long and one short sleeved, thermal socks and awoolly jumper and thick skirt. Many ofthese people we are helping don’t have proper windows, proper bedding, properwarm clothes. I just don’t understandhow they manage to keep alive.

…and to think that yesterday I was having a small moanbecause I have to think of a way of drying my laundry without a tumbledrier.

Someone urgently needs your prayers

2012-01-29T23:33:00.001-08:00

Please pray for a dear lady who is urgently in need of theLord’s comfort in her life. We will callher Mrs S. She came to the building onSaturday evening with a plea for help – she was beyond asking for money, shewas beyond asking for clothes and didn’t ask for food either. She asked for hope. She wanted a listening ear and someone tocare – mercifully she found a human ear and was told about a much moreimportant source of comfort “The God of all comfort”, Who is waiting to hearour prayer.

Mrs S. said that she doesn’t see any point in her lifewhatsoever. She is about 60 years oldand very seriously diabetic. Her pensionin only just enough for the rent she pays on her tiny room and so she has no moneyleft for food or diabetes medication. She survives on the food she gets from us and we also pay for hermedication. Heating, electricity etc areall unaffordable luxuries! Her son liveswith her but due to their intense poverty he is desperately suicidal. She said that if he commits suicide she willtoo. She said she is ashamed to ask forany more help and quite understands if we send her away without any furtherhelp as she considers herself “a disgusting and revolting beggar” who shouldn’treally be alive any more.

I might look as though I’m writing this to you as a factualaccount but the tears are coming as I tell you. She will be visited this week with more urgent supplies and money andsomeone to once again tell her that Jesus considered her precious – precious enoughto shed His blood for. Please pray thatwe manage to help her and please pray most of all that this dire need turns herto God and opens her eyes to her soul’s great need. Please pray for Mrs S.

Amy Carmichael encouragement

2012-01-18T03:31:00.001-08:00

Before the winds that blow do cease,
Teach me to dwell within Thy calm;
Before the pain has passed in peace,
Give me, my God, to sing a psalm,
Let me not lose the chance to prove
The fulness of enabling love,
O Love of God, do this for me;
Maintain a constant victory.

Before I leave the desert land
For meadows of immortal flowers,
Lead me where streams at Thy command
Flow by the borders of the hours,
That when the thirsty come, I may
Show them the fountains in the way.
O Love of God, do this for me;
Maintain a constant victory.

Proofreading

2012-01-16T05:51:00.000-08:00

Nothing to it - right? You just sit down with a nice cup of tea by your side, get your red pen and add in full stops, correct spelling errors and put in the odd comma!

Mum is busy proof reading at the moment. It sounds like she's finished and there's just a few hours to when she can submit the document. That is until you realise what she's proofreading - the entire Old Testament. It has, of course, been proof read several times already. It is now in the process of being prepared to printing and after is has been handled by the typesetter, it must be proof read once again.

I don't know about you but I congratulate myself if I get through reading the Bible in one year. Mum's already read from Genesis to somewhere in the middle of Kings and its only the 16th of January!!

Piles of paper!

2012-01-09T04:36:00.000-08:00

I have been lost in the land of paperwork! I must confess that I doenjoy the paperwork side of Armenian Ministries. I guess that's a side wedon't ever tell anyone about much - mainly because everyone is interested inthe results but not in how they are achieved.
This year I am particularly proud of myself as I finished the 2011 accountson the 2nd January (aside from the bits and pieces and photocopying etc). Michael's been working on a new database for me too which means that when I goto Armenia I shall, God willing, no longer have to remember to take with me importantpaperwork, files etc – it will follow me mysteriously and be waiting for methere (please don’t ask me how!) I am promisingmyself that in 2012 I am going to correspond a lot more with our friends and supporters– so be expecting a phonecall, visit or letter – or you can beat me to it if youlike!
Unfortunately the job of paperwork also involves filing. I do not like filing! You should see the way Dad set up the charity’sfiling cabinets – all perfect, straight and in order. I like to think he would be proud of how I’vemaintained them but this involves a lot of boring, back-breaking work. Dad trained me when I was only about 13 tohelp him with accounting and filing (it was the paperwork of the farm’saccounts at that time!) and boy, am I glad he trained me! Now I think its time I trained Abigail and Ithink I’ll start with the filing…..

Happy New Year!

2012-01-05T01:59:00.000-08:00

How good is the God we adore,
Our faithful, unchangeable Friend.
Whose love is as great as His power,
And knows neither measure nor end.

Tis Jesus, the First and the Last
Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home
We'll praise Him for all that is past
And trust Him for all that's to come.

Happy New Year to you all. May 2012 be a blessed year for all of us.

Some warmth to give

2011-12-16T02:45:00.001-08:00

As I sit at my desk working on the yearly accounts for the charity I amlistening in to the conversation between Michael and our local director inYerevan on skype. Gevork is updatingMichael about the needs of the last few days; the people that have come andasked for help and so on. I, as usual,am sat with tears in my eyes.
Gevork’s last statement was “Michael, I wonder if we could order anothertruck of wood to distribute. I know itsvery expensive but I have had to give a lot of wood to some people who are notregularly helped by us (he sounded apologetic at this stage). For example, a lady who we don’t normallyhelp came to the charity building and asked for some warm clothing andbedding. When we asked her about hersituation she said she has three small children at home and they are allfeeling very cold – they have NO heating in the house at all. I felt too bad to send her away – I know wenormally visit and assess people’s situations before we give them wood and foodbut I couldn’t bear the thought of three small children sitting feeling cold inthis harsh winter”
No, we couldn’t bear that thought either. Thanks to some extra donations that we’ve been sent due to peopleresponding to these blogs we have ordered TWO truck loads of wood. Praise God!

Reality check

2011-12-15T00:26:00.000-08:00

I'm struggling to blog - I'm sorry. The reason I'm struggling is because I can't cope with what I'm hearing and having to deal with in Armenia over the last week and Christmas festivities here. I feel like a hypocrite. On the one hand I'm wrapping presents - smelly soaps, sweets and candies for stockings, books; buying turkey and bacon and sausages - and within the same hour I'm hearing about a woman who is living with her mentally ill son and has absolutely NO heating in her house right now.

How can you live with no heating? I spent some time crying about that one. She is a tiny little old lady (short even for Armenian standards!), has a lovely sweet character, lives alone with her mentally ill son who spends his whole day in bed and they can only just afford to pay for their food with her pension. The charity workers went earlier this week to deliver her her month's food parcel and discovered her sat there with her son and NO heating on at all. She not only didn't have any heating on she had no method for heating her house. We cannot give her wood as she has nowhere to burn it.

So Gevork suggested we buy them an electric heater. "Yes definitely" - was the answer "Go and get one straight away" but does she have the money to pay for electricity. "Well probably not, we'll have to pay for that too but we shouldn't give her too much as there are too many others in the same situation" - was Gevork's answer.

I don't know if thats had the effect on you that its had on me but at least lets promise ourselves one thing. Let's stop fretting about whether everything is magazine-perfect for Christmas and lets start being grateful for our bed which is warm, our clothes, the heating and food to eat. We owe it to ourselves to be honest and see our blessings.

I'm n..n...not c..c...c...c...cold!

2011-11-22T12:31:00.001-08:00

Winter has come to England too and our team of volunteers who sortthe clothes and goods, here in Lincolnshire, that are going to go to Armenia in the next container havefinally gone home. Its already dark andcold but they didn’t leave too long ago. I don’t get much time to get involved in the packing of the containergoods but I love going outside sometimes to see what has been packed and I lovelooking through the lovely neat boxes – all neatly labeled with their contentsand their country of origin. Our patientvolunteers not only have to categorise all the clothes eg. Teen’s clothing, butthey have to separate them according to whether they originate in India, Chinaor Spain!

I ventured outside recently to see whatsort of things have been packed. Themost enormous orange teddy bear (it wouldn’t fit in an apple box and had to gointo a huge bag!); a set of knitted toys in the shape of vegetables – anaubergine, sweetcorn etc; handmade quilts covered in little animals; a newduvet; lots of schoolbag equipment; a lovely cherry coloured adult bike; fouror five shiny crutches and so on.

Michael has spent a couple of days so farthis week weighing and labeling some of the boxes and preparing them forshipment. We are estimating that we mustbe near completing enough boxes for the next load! This will be an exciting moment.

As I said in my last blog the village clubshave now been shut and on December 3^rdthe club in the village of Baghramian(just outside Yerevan)will be doing their Christmas presentation and shutting. We got a phonecall last week reminding usthat Christmas presents are needed to give to about 120 children in the Yerevan and Baghramianclubs. We were so thankful when we wereable to ask the ladies who work in our warehouse in Yerevan and they were able to put togetherlovely gifts from the container that arrived in the summer. We only had to spend some money on sweets andalso to buy aftershave for the teen lads (as nothing suitable was found forthem). Imagine how much more we wouldhave had to spend if we had to buy toys, colouring pencils etc all there!

By the way, in talking to one of theleaders of the children’s clubs about these presents I learnt the rest of thestory that I related in my last blog. Itold you that we had to shut the village club as the children were all jogginground the room during the lesson as they were so cold. At the end of the club the leaders made theannouncement that due to the severe cold they had decided to shut the club andwould not be returning next week. Someof the little children immediately stopped their jogging and turned with tearyeyes to the leaders “Oh no, please come, please come back. We promise not to be cold, we won’t becold. See – already we are notcold!” Apparently as they said thistheir teeth were chattering with the cold! That touched us to the heart!

Learning on the run!

2011-11-14T10:26:00.001-08:00

I had to share with you the latest news from Armenia. The winter has arrived so fast that they have made a decision to run the last Bible club in the village of Arteni and shut it for the winter. This is because during the last club the infant's group were so cold during the teaching of the memory verses and Bible lesson that they had to jog round the room during the lesson! - I am not sure if the teacher was also jogging or not!

Winter wonderland?

2011-11-11T07:40:00.001-08:00

Winter has well and truly arrived in Yerevan. Soon the children's Bible clubs in the villages will have to shut for the winter as the roads become too difficult to drive and the buildings where the clubs are held are not in any way heated. The children are already attending the clubs wrapped up in their woollens and our children's team have dug out their woollies, scarves and boots! There is, as yet, no snow in Yerevan itself but the weather forecast is threatening them with snow at any moment. It sounds romantic, we love snow...but our local director was sitting in an unheated room preparing his Friday Bible Study when I telephoned some time ago. In an attempt to keep the bills minimal the charity worker's have condensed themselves into just two offices and the kitchen and are heating only the rooms they use.

We got a phonecall from Gevork on Monday saying that it was imperative that we add another two families to our list for help with food parcels during the winter. He had been to visit them and the story he told made me shiver even though I was thousands of miles away in my comfortable office in England at the time. One of the families consists of three small children and a young widow - she is only 30 years old and her husband died 5 months ago. They have no income whatsoever and have no extended family to turn to help to. Before he died her husband managed to procure a room for them to live in. It has no proper floor, no glass in the windows, no proper door. The mice, rats and scorpions have ready access to the room. Gevork didn't even give us a choice - he simply stated "We have to help them". You can hardly think about budgets or economising or whether the money is enough when faced with such a need. I'm hoping that we can get some photos of the family soon. I will definitely visit them when I get to Armenia. What sort of Christmas are those children going to have?

To close for comfort

2011-10-25T06:13:00.001-07:00

That earthquake in Turkey came to close for ourliking! They felt it in some of the highrise buildings in Yerevan. At the time of the quake most of our churchfolk were gathered in the church for Sunday school and communion service. Apparently they didn’t feel anything inchurch, but later they heard that many of the people in the top floors of thehigh rise buildings had fled out in fear.

Michael said that over the last two weeks while he was in Yerevan they had heard of several minor quakes and tremorsthroughout the country of Armenia.

We pray for the safety of the people, especially theChristians, in these dangerous areas and especially now we pray that a few morepeople will be safely discovered in Turkey and given another chance tolive. We pray also for those who have sotragically lost loved ones and homes.

Village Bible clubs

2011-10-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

Mike has been in Armenia for a week now! He decided to go and visit for a fortnight. He went with one of our charity’s trusteesand a precious family friend – Bob Chamberlain. Bob is doing all the preaching while they are out there and Mike isputting paperwork in order, visiting a lot of the families we support and doinga tour of all the children’s clubs, especially in the villages.

They went to the village of Baghramian on Saturdayand then Arteni on Tuesday. Arteni isabout one and a half hour’s drive from Yerevanand constitutes an entire day’s work and energy. The bumpy roads don’t make the drive easy andthe lack of facilities once you arrive are quite amazing and to be perfectlyhonest I have never managed to visit the village of Arteni due to my fear ofthe lack of facilities!! I know thatsounds cowardly but I can’t bear to think of 8 to 10 hours with no toilet! Mike really enjoyed the visit though – we adorethe children from these villages – they are so keen, eager and NOISY. We know them quite well due to the camps andit is always a pleasure to see them again. Here are a few village club photos.

New schoolbags!

2011-10-07T05:14:00.000-07:00

I have got some photographs for you to admire today! Michael and Gevork went to several villagesin the last week of August and handed out a schoolbag to each child startingtheir first year of school. In Armeniathe first year children have a “first bell” celebration. The school hosts a presentation where eachchild recites poetry, sings a song, dances etc and Michael and Gevork wereinvited to the “first bell”.

Each school bag AM hands out contains pens, pencils, rubber,sharpener, pencil case, ruler, geometry set, crayons, coloured pencils, felttips, exercise books and some Christian material too (either a child’s Biblestory or tracts).

Here are the children doing a patriotic drama - notice Mt. Ararat in the foreground!

Proud as punch with their new schoolbags!

He has changed my life completely!

2011-09-26T06:11:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday Michael had the honour of giving a reportat the 180th Annual General Meeting of the Trinitarian Bible Society. Mumand I went along for the privilege of being there and meeting all thesewonderful people who before were, to me at least, just names that Icommunicated with by email. There is no greater work than getting theWord of God into the hands of people all over the world and we were excited tohear about the ongoing work of the Society. Michael gave a report aboutthe progress of the Armenian Bible and told them a few stories of the influencethe New Testament is having in the lives of people to whom it has been given.

I would like to share with you the story that he told theTBS on Saturday. The hero of the storyis a 17 year old teen lad whose name is Harout. He comes from a tiny and very poor village on the suburbs of Yerevan. There are several very poor families in thatvillage to whom we take support and it was during a visit to another familythat our visiting team came across Harout. They invited him, and the youngsters with him, to our teens club (whichis now on Sunday mornings) and he promised he would come.

This incident happened a few weeks ago only and the verynext Sunday a whole group of youngsters from that area turned up. Harout was unable to come on that occasion,however, the next week he turned up too! He listened carefully to the lesson and stayed and listened to the churchservice at 4pm too. The young lad wasthen given a New Testament and sent home. The following week Harout turned up to the teen’s meeting again at 12noon and having listened attentively said that he wanted to get saved. Our teen group leaders talked and prayed withhim and then sent him to talk to one of the church elders. Harout had fully understood the message(which he had only heard the week before) and was very excited about committinghis life and soul to Jesus.

That week two of our visiting team went specifically to seeHarout in his own home and learnt much more about his background. He had been thrown out of his parental homeat as a young teen (presumably due to poverty) and had lived by stealing. The police had finally tracked him down andas he was underage they threatened him that they would be watching his actions. Thus he lived as a very poor, unwanted streetlad. He proudly showed our visiting teamthe bookmark in his New Testament – in that short time he had read most of it(no wonder the Gospel had been understood so well - it entered a thirsty, hungry heart). He told our visiting team “I am not at allthe same person any more. I love theLord Jesus now and will live completely for Him. He has turned my life around completely. I wanted to die more than anything else (heproved this by showing the numerous scars on his wrists that told of failedsuicides) but now I want to live for my Lord Jesus. I have a new Master now!”

Wow! I love storieslike this. The visiting team had takenhim a parcel of food. The once-upon-atime thief told them – “Oh no! Don’t give that to me, I can managesomehow. There is a family who live downthe road who are much poorer and need it more than me – let me take you tothem”

Wedding bells!

2011-09-21T03:48:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

I am sorry I have not blogged for such a long time! I have not forgotten you - I managed to lock myself out of my account when I moved from Armenia.

We are back in England now and we have just had the wedding of my sister Ruth to Matthew Hillier on the 17th September. It was such a wonderful day and God gave us some wonderful sunshine to enjoy. Enjoy the photos and soon I will blog about the work again!

No, never alone!

2011-08-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

After visiting the family in the courtyard on Wednesday, we emerged in a contemplative mood and the visiting team informed us that the next home was on the fifth storey of a high-rise building. We were going to visit a grandma who lives by herself. She owns her own flat and receives a pension. I made a mental note to myself that this wouldn’t be very distressing and she probably would only need minimal help with the occasional food parcel. How wrong can you be?

The lady that answered the door seemed to be looking straight through us. She stood in the doorway and looked around at us in a vague manner and with a questioning face. The man closest to the door explained that we were from Armenian Ministries at which point she burst into tears.

Going into her home whilst everyone in front of me was trying to calm her tears, I took note of my surroundings. There was a little hallway, a tiny bathroom which contained a bowl of tomatoes. The only other room was the kitchen/sitting room and bedroom all in one. Her sofa was also her bed, and I was invited to sit on that. On the opposite wall there were some shelves which contained some books (just two or three), on the other wall was a fridge. The fridge was years old, wasn’t working and was empty. None of the shelves contained any evidence of food. By the time I had taken note of where I was the poor lady was crying again. Our local director, Gevork, had asked her what her income was and whether she needed clothes or help with food. Her income was about £20 a month, she had no clothes other than what she was wearing (which was an old lightweight dress with numerous patches). She had no warm bedding. When asked about heating for the winter she said she had none at all and sat in her empty flat with no heating whatsoever. When asked if she had any food she said she manages with what her pension can buy and then stays hungry the rest of the month. She never leaves her flat as she cannot see well and survives on what her neighbour’s will buy for her. Her rags and her thin body paid testimony to this unbelievable story.

When Gevork handed her the food parcel that we had taken she burst into more voluble tears and said she had no idea why she was living at all. She is 73 years old and one eye is practically blind with cataract, the other eye’s sight is seriously hampered too. She sobbed that no one cares for her and no one even knows she exists. She told us how many a night she has sat with no lighting in her home and looked out of her window at the world beneath her and felt so hopeless and lonely. Gevork was able to tell her of Someone Who loves her very much and wants to be her Friend. He told her about how Jesus died for her and we promised to go and visit her again and tell her more. She listened carefully. Some of what he said had to be repeated again so she would hear and understand it and then she clapped her hands and said over to herself “No, I am not alone, I am not alone, God is with me. When I am frightened at night and hear sounds I will remember that God is with me.”

She had stopped crying by the end of our visit but by then I was crying. My heart was absolutely breaking inside. As soon as she mentioned that she was 73 and her cataracts I remembered my dear Dad and thought of how well loved he was by us all. I remembered how we took care of him and worried about his eyes and fussed over him when he had his cataracts done. I thought of how we got him special vitamins so his eyes would heal fast and never left him alone at all. I cried all the way home and my heart is still crying for her – all alone and uncared for. But not, hopefully, quite as hopeless and lonely as she was before. We are trying to introduce her to a Friend that wants to always love her and be with her – Jesus.

With the visiting team

2011-08-22T22:15:00.000-07:00

We set out in good humour, a seat full of food parcels next to me and notes on the people we were going to visit. Every time we come to Armenia Mike and I go through the entire file of people that Armenian Ministries helps with food parcels – the visiting team give us all the information about what has changed in that family since we last saw them and whether we need to increase or decrease their help. For example, has the husband just found a job – can we help them a little less now? Sometimes the information is very sad – the husband was an invalid for many years and now he has died – they have no income in the family at all. In a few cases the visiting team has been called to someone’s home and found such a great need that they think that monetary help is required or some medical assistance. In these cases Mike and I try to visit these families ourselves and try and assist in a “more than usual” way.

This week our job is to visit these homes and try to help as much as we can. Yesterday we set out to go to a few of these cases. The charity’s minibus stopped outside a huge metal gate, we took a food parcel and went into a courtyard. It was a quiet courtyard, surrounded by about 4 or 5 rooms that had been rented out to families in need. We were aiming for one of these rooms but stopped short before we got there. There on a bed, just outside, was a little child – at least he looked like a baby but it turns out he three years old. He took no notice of us whatsoever but continued to kick his legs and arms in a tireless, repetitive manner. One of the members of our team turned to us and reminded us that it was because of this little lad that we had come to visit this home. When he was born, there had presumably been very little medical assistance, and he had been starved of oxygen. He had actually died when he was born and they had revived him and he is brain damaged. Of course, no medical analysis has been done on the little lad so no one has any idea what sort of brain damage, or to what extent. However, they now know that he cannot see and for some reason he is not growing. He cannot walk either, although his legs and arms were kicking and movement appeared to be normal – in fact he can’t even crawl. It was a heart breaking situation. As if that isn’t sad enough, his father is also an invalid. He was earning money for his family by collecting pieces of scrap metal for recycling. One day he picked up something explosive and sadly lost his eye and seriously damaged his leg. The medics tried to remake his hip (not sure if I understood that bit correctly) but something must have gone wrong as he cannot walk properly and is in constant pain. To cut a long story short there is no breadwinner in the family at all and two serious invalids. What a tale of woe!

I’ll tell you about the next visit tomorrow.

Why? Because the Love of God constrains us.

2011-08-15T00:27:00.001-07:00

I want to tell you the sequel to Gayane’s snake bite. If you haven’t read the original story please scroll down to a blog entry just a few day’s ago “Glad to see Monday!” As I mentioned in that blog we were waiting to hear from Gayane to see if she was improving and the finger was healing. I had not managed to go and visit her due to the pain of my shoulder so I was waiting anxiously for news.

News did come – it came Friday lunchtime in the person of Gayane herself. Mike and I had just driven back from camp as Mike was preaching at the Bible study on Friday evening and wanted to have a few quiet hours preparation. We had just finished eating lunch when Gayane and her son suddenly walked into the charity building. It was last year when I last saw Gayane and at the time I was struck by how poor she looked and how tatty and dusty her clothers were. This time I was shocked – she is so thin her bones were all sticking out. She looked poor, thin and sad. Her eyes looked so sad. Yet she has such a loving smile and a lovely attitude. After the usual greetings she sat down and Gevork asked her how things were. She muttered something to him that I couldn’t hear and so I had to wait for someone to tell me what she was saying. She was obviously very embarrassed, very stressed that she had come to us to ask for help.

After the snake had bitten her she had gone to the polyclinic but due to her lack of money they had sent her away without any treatment (only some paracetamol). The poison had worked into her system and her finger had gone black. The rest of the fingers of her hand were swollen and numb. She had gone once again to the doctor (just before coming to us on Friday) and the doctor had said that gangrene has set into her finger. The calm looking woman muttering to Gevork in front of me was actually in dire pain. The doctor had told her that she would need her finger amputating before it spread into her hand but that the amputation would cost her 150,000 dram – she who earns 500 dram a day from looking after a cow. Poor people are supposed to get some type of free or reduced medication but she has no home (she lives in a tin shack stuck on to the side of a dried up waterfall). As she has no registered address the doctor refused to do anything without the money. She walked out with the knowledge that if no one helped her (and after all, why should any one help her?) then her gangrene would spread …..and would eventually kill her. I can’t bear to think about it. How hopeless is this situation?

We were all so taken up with discussions after hearing this horror story that no one thought to actually turn to Gayane and assure her that we would pay. All of the charity workers went into overdrive. Our cook put a dinner and coffee out for them, Gevork and a few others started looking for good doctors among their acquaintance for a second opinion. Mike instructed Gevork to get two doctor’s opinions and find out what needed doing and what they would charge. Anyway, several hours later it was confirmed that she could have her amputation at our local hospital and it would cost 80,000 dram. We were all relieved to have a decent doctor’s second opinion and called a taxi to take Gayane home – she was sent home with money for returning to us in a taxi on Tuesday so that Gevork can take her for her operation. We also sent a bag of groceries home with her too. Just as she was leaving Mum heard her once again muttering to Gevork – he laughed, hugged her and sent her off and it was only afterwards that we heard what she had asked. She had whispered “You have gone to such a lot of effort today on my behalf, you have found a doctor who will do my amputation, but who is actually going to pay for my amputation?” Gevork explained that the charity would foot her bill and pay for all her medication and expenses. At this point she warily looked round at everyone and her eyes rested on Gevork again “…but why?” What an opportunity Gevork had to explain about how God’s love makes His children love each other and help each other! He didn’t miss his opportunity!

A snapshot of my Tuesday

2011-08-10T05:17:00.001-07:00

Thankfully the temperatures have cooled to a much more tolerable 35 to 37C and I can think and write normally. I am writing this blog from the campsite – we are in the midst of camp week 7. My shoulder is moderately better and I am exercising it by rinsing and drying dishes (I thought I'd have a break from washing dishes for a while). I think I'm going to give my dishwasher a hug when I get back to England, it is a very unappreciated member of our family.

This morning I was awakened by the camp alarm – a particularly rousing tune of “Rise and shine and give God the glory!” I dragged myself out of bed and down the path aiming for the kettle and a coffee cup. However, I was interrupted on the way by the kitchen staff who wanted to tell me all about their eventful evening. Our cleaner, a very precious little grandma, was in a very bad mood with all and sundry due to the loud, giggly teens in the bedroom next to hers. Apparently they had giggled all night long. At about 1 am she had lost her temper and struggled through to the kitchen where the cooks were cleaning potatoes (yes I did say 1 am) and told the cooks to sort the teens out. Of course, cooks, cleaners, children's leaders …..they are all to no avail when dealing with giggly teenage girls! It took us a lot of persuasion and coffee to make Grandma smile again! She took it out on the toilets – the floors were so clean this morning that you could easily have thought there was no one using our campsite.

I finally got my coffee and breakfasted on boiled egg and then the children went into the prayer meeting while I rinsed dishes. During the morning Gevork rang us from Yerevan to say that an old lady had come into the charity building. She was in a sad state, her son is very ill with some type of chronic bronchitis. The doctors admitted him into a “free” hospital, as they are so poor, but when it actually came to it the doctor refused to inject his antibiotics unless he was first given about £25. So she had no choice but to look for someone to help her.

During lunch we got another phone call from Yerevan. This time an old lady who we support with food parcels had come from quite a way out of town. She simply had nothing left to eat and didn't know who else to ask. When asked how much money would help her she asked for £4 to £6. It is humbling how little makes such a large difference to people.

….and so our day continues. Now I have a moment to sit down and write a blog. The cabbage, carrots and potatoes have been shredded and the borsch is cooking for the children's tea. We are hoping it will cook before the gas runs out. The children have all finished swimming, eaten icecream and are now sat in rows answering questions from this morning's Bible lesson – trying to earn points for their teams. It is a pretty normal day for which we are thankful to God.

Freely we have received, freely give.

2011-08-08T01:04:00.000-07:00

Feeling just a bit overwhelmed just now – I’m going to sit down with a cup of tea to have a good cry, but first I’m going to tell you why!

Mike and I have been very burdened recently about someone who has come to our attention recently who is struggling with a big financial worry. She has incurred a debt due to a family member’s illness – the treatment and hospital stay. It is not such a huge debt but on her current salary it would take the family about five years to pay it off. She is the only able-bodied breadwinner in the home. They live in a small, undecorated and very inconvenient house. There are about ten family members all living under her roof and she is the only wage earner. Some of the older folk receive a small pension and help pay various family bills. We have been praying that someone at home would donate money for a medical purpose so that we could pay for the hospital treatment and close her debt. Today we were enabled to do that!

The tears in her eyes, the five minutes of disbelief after she was told, her telling me about her gratitude to her unknown donor and of course to God, her telling me how precious Jesus is to her and how she has her quiet times every morning locked away in her bathroom. How precious is our dear Lord Jesus to people in such affliction. How close He wants to walk with them! He saw her need and touched a heart thousands of miles away to help her.

Glad to see Monday!

2011-08-07T21:21:00.001-07:00

Monday morning and I think I’m going to breathe a sigh of relief. The weekend was so eventful, somehow we seemed to see lots of problems and frustrations. For a start, Saturday morning I rolled over in bed and there was a tearing sound ( I thought it was my pillowcase tearing) and then an excruciating pain in my neck/shoulder. I daren’t go to the local doctor but I’m assuming I’ve torn my neck muscle. I have had minimal support power in my neck. If I lay down on my back I cannot get myself up at all!

So I was out of action and Mike had to go do Saturday’s visitations on his own with Gevork. I was very upset because they were going to visit a lady I like very much called Gayane. I have written excerpts about her previously in the blog as well as the newsletter. She is one of the poorest people that we support. She lives in a village outside Yerevan in a little tin shed perched on a precarious hill side. The first time we went to visit her our van got stuck. The second time we went to visit Michael’s aunt Evelyn was with us and we were all struck by her intense poverty. Her clothes, her thin, gaunt, leathery skin, the dire state of her shoes and feet all tell their own story. Gayane has subsequently been visited several times by Dad, Mum, and others in our visiting team. Dad only made it to Gayane’s place once. I asked him to come with us last year as I thought he would be able to witness to her – she has been given some Christian literature as is very interested in the Gospel and has lots of questions. I’ll never forget poor Dad’s face as we walked into her house. He barely managed to say anything and eventually when we bundled him back into the car he made Gevork drive to the nearest shop and bought a huge bag of goodies – cakes, oil, a sack of flour, and other groceries – and we took them back to Gayane as a present. Dad cried on the way home.

Since the very first visit Gayane has been on our visitation list and receives regular food parcels and wood to burn in the winter. She earns about a £1 a day for grazing her neighbour’s cow. She is out all day in the intense heat for that measly £1. All through the summer, her son and her collect rubbish glass and bottle lids etc from all round the village and they sell it to recycling through the winter and that is the money they live on. The reason for Saturday’s urgent visit is that we got a message that Gayane has been bitten by a snake. On the phone we understood that she had been to hospital and was now safe at home so I didn’t feel too bad that I couldn’t visit. However when Gevork and Mike arrived, poor Gayane was sat there with an obvious snake bite on her hand and her affected finger already had turned black. The other fingers were also already discoloured. When they asked what the medical treatment had been she said that she cannot possibly afford to go to hospital. She had just popped into the clinic (in case someone should take pity on her). At the clinic they had not given her any antitoxin (as this is expensive), they had sent her home with paracetamol! I think God must have preserved her life – I have no idea how her son would survive without her. We are due to visit her again today or tomorrow and Mike says if she has not made a significant recovery we will bring her into the city and take her to hospital ourselves.

Youth camp - week 6

2011-07-31T10:55:00.001-07:00

We are home from Youth camp – camp week 6! It was a wonderful camp where 30 teenagers and young people got together and relaxed and listened to a series of talks about Walking with God. Our speaker this year was Ruth’s fiancé, Matthew Hillier, who has been with us in Armenia for the last week from Australia.

It is such a blessing to listen in relaxed surroundings to wonderful truths from God’s Word. It is equally a blessing to be listening with 30 young people – about 16 to 25 years old – who had chosen to come to a Christian camp! We sang lots of songs with much enthusiasm and everyone listened very attentively to the Bible studies. The day started with Quiet Time. We gathered round and started with prayer and then everyone spread out all over the camp site to find a quiet spot to sit and read the chapter of the day that Matthew had given and pray. It was such an encouragement to look out over the campsite from our little “house” at the end of the site and see all these young people praying – some were sitting on chairs in the almost-finished new building shell, some were on the concrete paths and others under trees. One of the lads even took an armchair into the tiny utility room and prayed in time with the washing machine! What a blessing! Ruth translated two new songs for the camp this year, which were sung over and over and really enjoyed – “All I once held dear” and “I am a new creation”. Quite a few of the young people have good voices and the singing was enjoyed by everybody!

The afternoons were spent in water fights, swimming in the pool, reading, sleeping or doing jigsaws! The young people took it in turns to cook, clean and wash dishes too! Another week of camp is done and for now I am back in the city of Yerevan. It is probably above 40C during the day – it feels dangerously hot to me. I am trying to keep up my hydration levels but as I’m trying to stick to drinking boiled water for my stomach’s sake, I am struggling to get enough water cool enough quickly enough to enjoy a cold drink!! I must have drunk several litres of iced tea today!

Start of week 5 of camp

2011-07-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

In about 1 hour we are heading off to camp. We've just had a week off - in that week off we caught up with paperwork, correspondence, wrote a newsletter and received and unpacked a container. This morning I need the words of this song - maybe you do too!

He giveth more grace when the burdens greater;

He sendeth more strength when the labours increase.

To added affliction He addeth His mercy;

To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

His love has no limit; His grace has no measure.

His pow'r has no boundary known unto men.

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,

He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,

When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources;

Our Father's full giving is only begun.

Baptism party

2011-07-17T22:03:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful Saturday. We hired a bus and took about 60 of our church folk to our campsite in Garpi. It was a day of fellowship, chatting, singing and a baptism service - 11 people were baptised ranging in age from about 75 to 9 years old!

We started the day in the only way we could have done - with a good strong Armenian coffee and a sweet pastry.

Gevork, Mike, Sako and I (as translator) then talked with each person who was getting baptised individually. Wow! That was such an uplifting experience. One of the 50 year old ladies getting baptised was so excited she couldn't sit still during the talk. She said "I love the Lord so much, I want to obey what He has told me to do. I want to be baptised and walk with the Lord for the rest of my life. He has changed my life completely" Another young lad, about 13 years old, was a little more shy in his testimony but just as exciting. He said "I want to live my life in a way that pleases God". One of the points that we checked during this short pre-baptism interview was that they all understood that baptism wouldn't magically make them sin-free or better people. So when he said "I want to live in a way that pleases God", I asked him if he would be able to do that and if he had the strength in himself to live a better life and not sin so much. His reply - "Oh no! I wouldn't be here if I could please God myself. I need to die to my "old man" and let Jesus live in me, then in His strength I will be able to please God" Wow - a young teen on the right road!!

It was a particularly happy day for Mike and I as two of the baptism members were our two eldest - Abigail and Kezia and one of their best friends Asya. Before getting baptised the three of them sang "I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back! No turning back!"

The day was concluded with a lovely dinner picnic! Everyone sat around chatted, fellowshipped and then we all got the hymnbooks out and had a good old sing-song!!

The container has arrived!

2011-07-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

Our container arrived on Thursday. We thought it would arrive Tuesday and the men ran round from one office to another while everyone stood on standby waiting to unload. The same thing happened on Wednesday but on Thursday ....... HURRAH! Thank you to everyone who gave anything and who worked so hard to pack everything. Thank you to everyone who helped unload!!

Walk in the night

2011-07-08T11:53:00.000-07:00

Having got back to Yerevan today after a tiring, but excellent, week at camp we faced temperatures approaching 45C. It is now 5 minutes to midnight and the sweat is pouring off my body. I have showered, I have drunk so much iced tea and iced water that I have stomach ache and the fans are blowing on me continually but I can barely think with the heat.

Mike and I waited till 11pm, when the heat was a bit more bearable, to go and get some urgent grocery supplies. When we got outside, about an hour ago, we decided to go to the local, lakeside, park for a little walk and a drink of iced Fanta (where in England could we do that at 11pm?). To believe the sight in that park you would probably need to come and see it for yourself. It was heaving. The entire local population was there. The play area was packed full of little children, families were walking, eating icecream, laying on the grass. Several old folk were sat around on benches in their pyjamas and flip-flops and looked like they had settled there for the night! Now as we prepare to sleep at midnight the neighbours are all outside on their balcony watching TV, the neighbours on the other side are hosting a backgammon party - the majority of elderly men on our road have all gathered (in their pyjamas and flipflops) and are having a rowdy game of backgammon and discussing world politics!

It is a nocturnal world!

Sleeping rhinos and screams in the night

2011-07-02T02:12:00.000-07:00

The first night of this last week’s camp seemed to start as we meant to go on! Ruth went to bed at around 11pm expecting to find all the girls in her room fast asleep. They were asleep but it was certainly not the slumber of normal cute little girls. One of them was snoring so loudly and so erratically that now and again she gave a little scream (probably frightened herself with all the noise she made!). When she got particularly loud all the girls in the room woke up with a fright and a half hour of giggling followed in which Ruth couldn’t maintain discipline because she was giggling too! This was funny for the first hour but after that she got a bit desperate. So she moved the snoring girl to the bedroom that hosts the two cooks and the cleaner. Ruth thought that it wouldn’t matter too much to them as they all snore too. The cooks were not yet in bed so Ruth sat down with them for a quick cup of tea at about 1 am hoping that the disturbed room of children would soon settle down again.

At this stage Mike and I had been in bed for about 1 hour when we were suddenly startled by a loud disturbing noise from the children’s rooms. Mike immediately flew out of bed and peered into the darkness towards the main set of rooms to see if he could see anything. At the same time the door handle of our room was rattled. It was the young teen male leader of that week. He rattled the door handle and shouted “Quick, quick come down Michael – there has been an accident!” and with that very unclear description he raced off back down into the darkness.

What had happened was that one of the lads had woken up screaming very loudly (the noise that woke us). He repeatedly screamed and cried and shouted “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!” It took a lot of persuasion of Ruth (who hadn’t actually got to bed yet), and Mike and the young teen leader to get the lad to even lie down again. He was obviously absolutely terrified! Anyway there wasn’t much sleep to be had by anyone at all that night. The male leaders were too rattled to even go to bed. Ruth was too busy soothing everyone’s fears and the cooks and cleaner were kept awake by our snoring rhino!!

…and that was just the first night.

Our local director, Gevork, went to the young lad’s home at the end of the camp and discovered a family steeped in desperate poverty. The lad’s father has gone to Greece to try and earn some money. The mother is simply never at home – she works round the clock to try and keep their head above water. The lad’s older brother presumably also disturbed by tremendous poverty beats the younger lad and bullies him (hence the fearful nights). Incidentally, this was the first encounter our charity has ever had with this family. A police official told us about the lad’s family and recommended him as someone who could benefit from our camps. So the gospel has entered into such a desperate, lonely little heart. It was a receptive heart. He wanted to listen, he wanted to talk about God, he memorised the Bible verses and learnt the lessons and at the very first prayer meeting he wanted to pray to God. Another little seed sown.

A legacy of Dad's prayers!

2011-07-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

Felt so happy in church today. It was our weekly Bible study meeting today. The weather is so hot it was difficult to breathe but the place was pleasantly full and many of the older folks had come – with their umbrellas up and flip-flop slippers on. The reason I was so happy is that the young man who was the preacher was someone Dad loved very much. In fact, Dad talked about that man a lot in the last weeks of his life and was planning to come to Armenia and mentor him and encourage him to preach. The young man had a lot of struggles over the last year – in particular with giving up smoking and Dad prayed very hard for him and had lots of conversations with him.

A few months after Dad died the young man was finally brave enough to preach and today’s sermon was his third excellent sermon!

What an encouragement!

Direct from camp

2011-06-30T22:38:00.000-07:00

It’s Monday afternoon and we are at camp. I thought I would write a blog on Mike’s laptop and that way you can hear from me directly from camp! We have 49 children this week – we are practically full to capacity. Every room is full of excited, loving, bubbly children. Mike and I arrived at camp earlier today, about half an hour after the children. What a reception committee we had. Lots of kisses, hugs, children climbing all over us. I absolutely adore these village children. Some of them are long familiar faces. Do you remember young R…. – the young lad upon whom part of the concrete structure of his house fell? His story was in the newsletter and we were able to fund tidying away the rubble of his house, much of his hospital stay and care, and a new basic structure to be built in the place of what fell. He was the first young face to come running up and greet us today as we got out of the car. But what a tall, young man he has turned into. In his face is a shy confidence – I am sure he knows and loves the Lord. His sister is here at camp also – shy, bubbly, loving and with a cascade of lovely curly dark hair!

This week we also have children from the village of Hankavan. They are from families of renowned poverty. Sadly they bring with them a few unwelcome guests (in their hair) – which we try our best to purge when they come to camp. I think they just live with them the rest of the year. As I write the leaders are all walking around with the washed-out look that comes from trying to survive temperatures of high 30s. I think it must be around 38C today. Mike has just leapt in the swimming pool to the great excitement of the lads. They have all climbed on him and I think we can safely say that we will be saying goodbye to another of his T-shirts – they get stretched completely out of shape when about 15 lads have hung on it! I can hear his voice shouting “No, don’t climb on my neck. That’s enough of you on my back etc” in Armenian. Then about 20 lad’s voices all in English shouting “No, no, no!” with an Armenian accent!!

God be with you till we meet again!

2011-06-26T09:00:00.001-07:00

We have had a lovely Sunday. The meeting was wonderful and so was the communion service. I am always touched when I see so many turn up in such hot conditions when I know that some travel a couple of hours on uncomfortable public transport to get here.

Armenian boys must all go to the army for 2 years at 18 years old and today we sent “one of our own.” This lad is a special friend of all of the charity here and especially of our family. He has been with us since he was a small lad and started attending the first year that the camps were held. He has been to Bible clubs ever since, until he became a young teen and then started coming to youth meetings. He has given his heart to the Lord and we have all seen steady, continual growth in his life. He is going to the army to serve his 2 years in 2 days time and today we all, as a church, committed him to the Lord.

He has very little worldly means. His family are of no influence and he is a lovely kind lad. It was difficult for us to see him go off into the dangerous world of the army – possibly to be sent to guard Armenia’s borders. We know though that he is a son of the King of Kings and we have asked God to be his Heavenly Father and protect him from danger and even to give him a few Christian brothers to encourage him in his walk.

Strength as your day is!

2011-06-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy but lovely second week of camp. The children listened attentively during the meetings and played heartily albeit NOISILY!! I am glad to be back for a couple of days in the city though. I got very tired this week – I think it was just all the noise. They are noisy from when they get up (at about 5 to 6 am) until they go to bed (about 10.30 or 11 pm). I found myself praying on Monday as I faced the first lot of washing up that the Lord would give me strength for that day’s work. By Thursday I was praying for each load of dishes that the Lord would give me the strength needed! By Friday I was praying over each dish!!

I did some cherry harvesting this week too. It was so lovely to pick cherries for a couple of hours (all the time keeping an eye open for snakes as Abi had spotted one in the nearby field), bring them in with a huge bucket and wash them up and serve them to the children. Fresh fruit is expensive and a big luxury at the moment and the children absolutely loved eating cherries! The two cooks spent the early hours of the morning (until about 2 am) cleaning the stones out of hundreds of cherries and making and bottling cherry preserves so that the later camps can eat cherries too!

We had a birthday girl on Thursday. A huge sponge cake was made and decorated with cherries and pink icing – made out of icing sugar and strawberry jam! She simply beamed with pride when 50 people sang “Happy birthday” to her in both Armenian and English!

The missionary story for these older children is the story of Corrie Ten Boom. Everyone listened so attentively. At the end of each session the children begged Ruth to finish the story of that evening but of course, they had to wait till the next instalment. It is a very powerful message about storing up for yourselves treasures in Heaven and not on earth where nothing is permanent. It seemed to provoke quite a lot of thought!

To the dentist again!

2011-06-21T00:11:00.001-07:00

I am back in Yerevan in the middle of the week so I thought I’d write an update. We had to come back as we got news yesterday that our container (despatched at the end of May) is almost in Poti, Georgia. This is really good news and we just need to make sure that all our paperwork is in to the correct government departments now. Mike, Gevork and our translator and secretary are all busy rushing round today! Do pray with us that we get it sorted out soon!

The children all arrived yesterday from the village of Arteni – about 45 of them! Super active, very excited and absolutely bursting with energy. Unfortunately, the bus that brought them (which I think must have been the one Noah used to load the animals on the ark) was very slow and very uncomfortable and the sun was very hot and bright, so the children arrived bemused and dazed and travel sick. It didn’t take long for them to recover their noise and energy levels though!

As there are so many children we are actually using our half-built new building this camp! Two prayer meetings are being held there; the floor is now concreted and the metal roof on. It was so nice to hear praise and prayers coming out of the new building this morning.

We started camp with an emergency visit to the dentist. Almost every week one child, at least, has to go to the dentist. Last week a young girl had to go and have a tooth filled – the filling fell out. Yesterday, the patient was a young lad. He arrived at around noon and by four was crying with pain. We rang the mother who said that she had known that he has a toothache but he was so desperate to come to camp that she couldn’t prevent him. The emergency dentist was so shocked on examination of this boy’s mouth that he refused to do any treatment. He said we should stuff the poor lad full of painkillers and let his family’s local dentist worry about it. The lad (and it turned out his sister too) do not have any teeth in their mouths aside from the front two. The molars and premolars are all so rotten that only the roots are left and there black stumps on top.

According to our observations teeth problems are a major issue amongst the Armenian children – by far the vast majority of the children have many rotten teeth. Almost all their milk teeth are filled or pulled out. I can only attribute this to very bad diet – not just sugary diet but diet lacking in the necessary nutrients and this lack dates back to before the child’s birth. There is very little calcium or proteins in their diet. We have been very shocked during the camps at the state of the children’s teeth. We can help by giving them toothbrushes, paste etc. but unfortunately I think the root of the problem is in their diet in the formative years.

Food!

2011-06-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

I shall be heading off in about two hours to start our second week of camp. This week 48 children have been invited from the village of Arteni, aged around 10 to 14 years old. Last year this group was one of my favourite camp groups and I am looking forward to re-meeting them and see how much they’ve grown in a year!

Its been a weekend of shopping – buying some footballs, skipping ropes and games for the children, a new swimming pool, some toys and trinkets to sell in the shop. Some extra groceries had to be purchased too. Due to the enormous increase in food prices our cooks decided that they would only buy half the staples necessary for the summer’s camps. They are hoping that the prices will go down. We have definitely felt “the pinch” in the camp this year. In fact, we got a phone call from our cook whilst we were still in England. She had gone shopping and couldn’t bring herself to buy the necessary staples – the prices frightened her too much. She felt she had to come home and ring us first and warn us how much they’d gone up. We had to assure her that we knew the prices had gone up, we knew that she was being honest and we trusted her not to waste money. The two cooks spent most of last week telling me how incredibly proud they are of the incredibly “posh” meals our children eat – the fact that we serve them a type of meat every day. I quote “Who in Armenia can eat like this at home. In my house we eat one meat dish and we know that will probably be the only meat that we taste that month”. They were also very excited that the children got to eat fresh fruit – a now completely unaffordable luxury in Armenia for the average person. We have not seen fresh fruit in anyone’s home at all since coming back. Our camp children this week got one cup of cherries on one day and on another day one cup of strawberries. This was deemed such a luxury that they wouldn’t allow us to buy icecream for the kids this week (that would be going over the top!). More strawberries and cherries were picked and made into sweet preserves so that in future week’s the children will also taste the fruit!

I’ll give you an idea of the camp food. On Monday we had mash potatoes with a cabbage salad and in the evening lentil soup. On Tuesday we had vermicelli and a fried chicken drumstick each and then for tea borsch (beetroot, carrot and cabbage soup). On Wednesday we had pasta and mince with peas and corn and in the evening sbas (yogurt soup with a special grain in it). On Thursday we had buckwheat and hot dog stew and a vegetable broth. On Friday we had homemade Armenian burgers and chips. Every evening the children get a cup of natural yogurt (bought straight from the village) and a biscuit for supper.

For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven

2011-06-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

I want to tell you the story of two of these children that you see in these photos.

The little girl on the left and the young lad on the right are the children I want to tell you about! They were two of our noisy participants in the camp we’ve just finished. They have not been to our camps before and they have never attended our clubs either. We have only just heard about them, in fact. Gevork received a phone call from a third party asking us to help the family of these children. There are four siblings in the family (these two being the youngest). The children live in a “night school” in Yerevan. These schools are a cross between orphanages, schools and boarding homes. The children in these schools are either orphans or they have parents who are so poor that they cannot look after the children. My eyes are full of tears as I write that last sentence. I cannot imagine having to send my children away because I cannot feed them – how that must hurt. The children are kept in these schools through the week, fed and educated and then sent home at the weekends.

Gevork went to visit these children and the directors of the school asked him to help their mother. On discovering that the home of this family is very near our campsite, our charity’s visiting team took a food parcel and a bag of clothing, bedding and other useful items and set off to visit the family. The mother was grateful for the help given but looked a little ill at ease when she was handed the bag of pasta, oil, rice, lentils etc. The visiting team asked her some questions and finally got to the cause of her unrest. The poor lady had absolutely no kitchen facilities – nothing at all to cook on, nowhere to heat water, no fridge – no facilities at all for cooking a bowl of pasta. Can you believe what you are reading? I cannot believe what I am writing. So they asked her what she eats all week – and what she feeds her children at the weekends when they are at home. Her very kind neighbours give her bottles of homemade jam and she eats them with biscuits – all week – a diet of jam and biscuits.

The little lad came to camp with one pair of trousers and one little matching black jacket – it only had one button in the middle. He got warm whilst playing some games and removed his jacket and Ruth took that opportunity to wash it for him. Immediately we rang our charity workers back in Yerevan to send some small T shirts for the little lad. I am eternally grateful to God that these precious little treasures could come to our camp this week. Their older siblings are coming in their turn too. I am so grateful that Gevork immediately came back to our campsite and took the charity’s own little gas cooker to her, so she now has some basic facilities. I am so glad she has been found and that the children now have some toys from camp and have enjoyed a week of good food and fresh air. Even more exciting than all of these, the little ones have now heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, learnt some precious memory verses from God’s Word! They have stored it all up and taken it home. Pray hard that the precious seed takes root and germinates!

Camp week one!

2011-06-17T23:29:00.001-07:00

Camp week 1 is safely over, for which we are all praising God. Week 1 can often be a challenge and it was even more so this year. We arrived in Armenia on Saturday morning and camp started on Monday, so we hadn’t really had enough time to buy enough toys for the children. There were 32 children – ranging from 4 years old to about 10 and only one football, about 3 skipping ropes, a swing and some little drive-on cars. We had bought three excellent jigsaws with us in our suitcases, and all the stuff that we sold in this camp had also come with us in our suitcases. Unfortunately we could not come any earlier to Armenia, due to the aid container which we sent only the week before we came! Mike bought the tickets to Armenia the very next day after the container was dispatched but only two days to get ready for camp is not really enough. – especially when one of the days you are jet-lagged and the other Mike was preaching for Sunday service!

Anyway this morning Ruth has gone with the girls to buy more jigsaws, footballs, skipping ropes and bits to sell in the shop. We are sad to have to spend money on local goods to sell in the shop as ordinarily the shop toys and camp toys all come in the containers from England. However, the container should be arriving soon and hopefully we may be able to use some of the stuff for the latter half of the camps! Mike has gone shopping with Sako too. They are going to buy a second swimming pool. Each camp has about 40 to 50 children from now on so we need more swimming space.

All that said – the children this last week had a wild time! They really enjoyed every minute of camp and there were some dusty, tired but very happy faces waving goodbye on the last day! The theme this year is Treasure Island and the lessons are about the slave Onesimus and the rich young ruler. The noon devotions are taught by Michael and Manul. The evening story time, for the little ones, is the story of Mary Jones and her Bible, which Ruth told. The older children are going to hear the story of Corrie Ten Boom.

Frustrations

2011-06-12T22:33:00.000-07:00

We are about one hour off departure for camp week 1. I have already shipped my children off in the charity's minibus along with many other squawking little uns! We are on little people's camp this week - 6 to 10 year olds from Yerevan Bible club and the village of Baghramian!! I love this camp and am really looking forward to it - albeit through very bleary eyes. Jet lag has registered.

After church service yesterday Mum and I went to visit some dear friends and I heard the most amazing story - the typical sort of thing we hear a lot of here and the dire situation hit me once again with full force. The couple we went to visit have a daughter who has married and is living in a village about a half hour's drive from our campsite (about one and a half hours from Yerevan). The daughter, Lucy, lives in a tiny "hut" with her husband and two adoring sons (teens). They are such a loving family - we absolutely love visiting them. In the last month one of her sons woke up and could hear his mother crying, so he went to investigate. She sent him away insisting she was well but he could repeatedly hear her moans and cries. Finally she confessed that she had terrible stomach and back pains and had no idea why. She has tried to prevent them finding out as she was terrified of doctor's bills. Anyway the whole family was wakened and decided they needed to get mum to hospital. So they rang 999 and the ambulance came and took her, diagnosed her, gave her the medication and a nice bed to sleep in. Did you believe that last sentence? I so wish that was the truth.

They wanted to get mum to hospital. So, at 4 am they went out into the village and tried to find a neighbour with a car which had fuel in it to take them to the nearest town (half an hour away, near our campsite). One was found (this isn't too difficult in Armenia as the social spirit is very strong and neighbours love to help one another). The family and several neighbours (for the fun of it?) were bundled into the car and set off, all the time with poor Lucy crying with pain and fear (of the bill). They arrived at the town hospital - an xray was done and the doctor assured them that her kidney was damaged and needed operating on and possibly removing.

Mercifully, the neighbours and family decided that if such a big operation was needed it would be wise to come to the city of Yerevan where more professional help could be found. Once in Yerevan the consultant said that he would need his own xray to judge the situation. The result of this xray was that nothing whatsoever was so very wrong - a stone needed to be passed. For the sake of a stone she almost lost her kidney - so that some consultant in a village hospital could claim extra money for an operation on a young mum. If that doesn't frustrate you and make some hairs turn white I don't know what will!

Back to my fatherland!

2011-06-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

Once more I am writing to you from the foot of Mount Ararat. I am sat in my late father's bedroom, on his computer. The balcony door is wide open to let the early morning sunshine in and outside is Mount Ararat in all its glory.

We landed at 6am Saturday morning and I must confess that I shed quite a few tears. The first time that I returned to Armenia with my dear father was in the dark and difficult years for Armenia. It was 1994 and when the plane landed we exited the plane straight on to a dark runway. The sun was just starting to rise and Ararat was just visible. Dad was so overcome with the moment and so happy and excited to be bringing me back to my fatherland. When we left after a week - a week in which I got serious infection in my leg due to water infection and a mild case of cholera poisoning - we exited the airport on to the same dark runway. We were being heralded out by soldiers who were armed to the teeth and guns were trained on us all. As we left Armenia the sun was once again rising and Dad and I promised Armenia that we would never forget her. We promised that however difficult it was we would both return.

Well, here I am again! It took me a lot of nervous energy to get here this time. Those who know me well, know that I don't travel easily. For a week before I was super nervous this time. Somehow leaving England felt like I was leaving my Dad all alone. I know that sounds silly but there it is. I was filled with fear all week that I wouldn't finally make it on to the plane. We travelled down to Gatwick by train and then from Gatwick to Rega and Rega to Yerevan. God gave me a verse on Friday morning "The Lord hath sent strength for thee" and I travelled with that verse the whole day and testify to His sustaining, strength-giving Hand. We spent yesterday sleeping off jetlag - we missed a whole night - unpacking our cases and then repacking them for camp!! We're ready for "off-to-camp" tomorrow morning. I can't wait to see the building project in real life! I can't wait to see the children!

Mike is preaching today - on the value of the fifth sparrow. As a dear friend took us to the train station on Friday he said something very precious. He was talking of God's care for us and He said "He who never missed a sparrow's funeral, cares for us all so much!" Wow, what a God!

Link to slideshow

2011-06-08T06:14:00.000-07:00

Please watch this little slideshow. It is good to see the need we are addressing through someone else's eyes. I cried while I watched it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13626871

Make sure your speakers are turned up

Calls for help

2011-06-06T00:20:00.000-07:00

Joy camp 2011 is over and God was very good to us. It was cold and rainy before the camp, its now cold and overcast and drizzly. During camp it was hot and sunny and the bouncy slide was converted into a water slide! The children heard some excellent devotions. We had a very receptive group of children who listened well during the devotions and prayer groups and we had a very good time of fellowship with them!

On the first morning of camp I got a phonecall from Armenia that jolted me into another world. A world away from pineapple upside down pudding, custard, chocolate biscuits, chips and crisps. A dear friend in Armenia had got a serious infection. She had gone to the medics who said they would fix it for her (for just less than £100). So she had taken out a debt and started treatment. In the middle of all that pain and dealing with infections she was informed that the full amount was now £400. She has no way of obtaining that much money. So she had told the local director of our charity in Armenia, but was too embarrassed to tell us.

While he was on the phone Gevork also told me of another family whose daughter has been studying now for several years at university. She has worked very hard and is ready for her exams. However she has no money to actually sit her exams and get the results. They are hoping that she will obtain good results and go abroad and get a good job. This will mean leaving her mother completely alone but the mother is willing to sacrifice her comfort and security so that her daughter will get a good job and have some financial security herself. At the moment they live in a small, very inadequate house. Last year when the mother broke her leg she had to stay at home (as they couldn’t afford the medical fees) and simply sit for hours in pain and wait for her daughter to come home from university to look after her. When our charity workers found out they went to her home and carried her into the hospital (two of them literally carried her all the way up the stairs to the X-ray room as the lifts were all broken). When they got a plaster on her foot (finally!) they carried her home again and then went to visit every day while the daughter was at work to carry her to the toilet and give her a hot drink. Life is not easy

Starting the camp season with English camp!

2011-05-27T00:15:00.001-07:00

We are in the throes of setting up camp! “Joy camp” which is based at our home in Lincolnshire, England is due to start next week. Please do pray for the sun to shine!

We are expecting about 20 children this year. The vast majority have been before and so will know the rules and one another well. I am cooking for them all! So here goes – chicken nuggets, chips and an unbelievable amount of ketchup. The first year that I cooked for 25 children I had ordered two bottles of ketchup. I learnt some thing quite astounding that year. Twenty five children, in three days, get through 10 bottles of ketchup!! As we have slightly reduced numbers of children this year I have decided to do some home-baking. I’ll probably end up losing some sleep worrying about the amount of ingredients I have ordered. Two years ago after Tesco had delivered all the food I had a minor panic attack and lost half a night’s sleep worrying that I’d ordered too much and then had to send two parties out for more shopping later in the week!

The theme this year is Mr Men and Little Miss! Everywhere is being decorated with Mr Happy and Little Miss Giggles etc etc! The Bible lessons are around the theme of “Called to copy the Character of Christ”. Bob Chamberlain has been invited from Yorkshire to do some of the devotions for the camp. We are all really looking forward to camp – just hope we can get ready in time! I have to rearrange the kitchen today. Michael has already washed and cleaned our caravan and prepared the drains of our outside toilets (lovingly known as the Joy loos!)

Bricks and mortar!

2011-05-14T01:40:00.000-07:00

The new building at the campsite continues to grow!!

Let us really hope and pray for good weather so this good rate of building continues!!

The camp garden has been planted too (I'll twist someone's arm to send me photos this week). They have planted tomatoes, peppers, beans and other things - that will save a lot of money on camp food. The little cherry trees planted in the early spring are covered with cherries too - so its fresh cherry jam and compote for breakfast!

Training seminar for children's team

2011-05-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

Ruth has now returned from Armenia and will be in the UK until June. While she was in Armenia she held a training session for the children's team workers. Armenian Ministries has a core children's team, who travel out to the villages, run the Bible clubs and are responsible for the lessons, crafts, games, and special events (such as drama presentations). Aside from this team we also have lots of volunteer part-time workers who help out - some of the older teens go with the team to the villages, they help set out crafts and supervise the children in games and singing. We also rely on our teens for help during camp time. The teens, who are still full of youthful energy!, are invaluable when we are searching for someone to play water fights with the children during camp!

Ruth held a day-training session for some of these new teens, and some of the core children's team. She went over teaching memory verses, tips on story-telling, discipline and maintaining order during a lesson, self-preparation and organisation etc.

The new building - answer to prayer!

2011-05-10T00:02:00.000-07:00

We are in May and we are thinking about Joy camp. That is the camp that we run for 4 days for the children of churches in our surrounding area (and a few further afield) in Lincolnshire. In the past we have hosted 25 to 30 children. We accommodate them in tents, cook the food for them in our kitchen, do crafts with them everyday, run two meetings a day for them in our converted chicken shed (!!) and entertain them with the purpose-built adventure playground and the bouncy castle. I love Joy camp and I am looking forward to it very much but I can’t help but compare the conditions that we have for that week with the conditions we are going to face in the next 9 weeks of children’s camp when we get to Armenia. We are already planning and preparing our next block of children’s camps. The village children have been invited, the toilets are being fixed, the menus are being planned and I need to buy some good, sturdy shoes.

Over there we cannot accommodate them in tents. Who wants to sleep under canvas when its at about 30C (in the middle of the night), and your bed-companion is wild dog, snake, scorpion or poisonous spider? We struggle to do the games in the playfield under the scorching sun – games time has to wait till 8pm. All 30 plus children are accommodated in about five to six bedrooms with muslin drawn over the windows to keep the bugs out. One bedroom in the complex has been lost as it is needed for a meeting room and camp shop and another bedroom has been lost as it is needed as a kitchen. We cannot just go and buy some nice craft kits for 400 children. The children are all brought to camp free-of-charge, the charity pays all the expenses. Crafts, therefore, must be made out of materials that go from the UK by the container – I am trying this year to think up Pirate related crafts! One of the biggest challenges of camp life in Armenia is that there is nowhere comfortable for the leaders to go and sit and rest, have a cup of tea and put their feet up. Mike and I are treated as privileged campers and we have a bedroom of our own, and in past years I have taken an armchair into my room! All the other campers sleep on camp-beds or mattresses and share their room with about 8 others. The kitchen staff all sleep together. None of the staff have any wardrobe or drawer space – we all live out of suitcases for 3 months. When we want a cup of tea and to sit down for a minute we have to sit outdoors where it is sunny, dusty and noisy!!

For many years now we have been wanting to put up a new building that will address many of these needs. It will contain a meeting room, kitchen, sitting area, place where we can do the crafts without all the bits flying away every time there is a gust of wind! My Dad encouraged us all to spend a lot of time in prayer praying for finances for this building and God hears prayer. Last year, we received a single donation that gave us enough to start work on this building and progress towards having some of the quarters completed by this camp, God willing. I wish you could have all seen the rejoicing - Dad's in particular! Here are some photos of the work so far!

This picture is from last year's camp. The plot of land behind the game is where the building will be put up (slightly to the right of where the leader is standing)

Here is how it is progressing!

2011-05-05T14:50:00.001-07:00

I have neglected my blog. I am sorry to all my readers. I have lots to tell you all about too but it will have to wait till next week. The good news is that the container paperwork is all done, and the inventory of everything we are sending is now sent to the charity who finance the sending of our containers!! It’s been a busy few weeks but we are very pleased it’s all done now.

This weekend Mike and I are down in London. We are visiting a very dear church, where Mike will be doing presentations on the work that we are doing in Armenia. In preparing for the talks we have been looking at lots of pictures and putting together a presentation and the memories of working all together as a family have overwhelmed us – sweet memories, but sad when we think that Dad is not here with us to see the next stages of the work. So much is being done that he would have been so excited about. When I get back from the weekend I’ll tell you all about the new building that’s going up at our campsite!

Long distance church service

2011-04-25T02:16:00.001-07:00

We attended church service in Yerevan yesterday morning! - thanks to technology (we listened in via skype). It was lovely to join with the singing and prayers and then listen to a lovely Resurrection message from Don (a visitor from Australia). He chose as his text 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We are so encouraged that the church services are growing and continuing.

After the service they had a time of fellowship with biscuits and cakes and we chatted to a few people!

We took a few days holiday last week and went up to Otley, Yorkshire. It is such a beautiful place and I, for one, appreciated the time to sit and think and contemplate about everything that has changed and pray about the future.

Today, we are back to work. The boxes, to go in this next container, are packed and ready now. The schoolbags are sorted; the craft boxes (always the most fiddly!) are packed and inventorised. Michael is frantically weighing, sorting and measuring volumes of boxes and items today. We are hoping to get the inventory paperwork finished during this week! We have to submit a full count of everything we intend to send – numbers of boxes with their weights and volumes. The contents of each box have to be itemised and detailed according to its country of origin. It has involved a lot of hard work and we couldn’t do it without all the volunteers who come on Mondays and Tuesdays and work very hard. The items we cannot send we recycle. We use the money from recycling to buy food for the food parcels we distribute in Armenia!

Some of the older folk

2011-04-14T03:26:00.001-07:00

What else has come in through our office recently? This morning we received some woolly blankets through the post, and some large woollen jumpers. A few days ago I opened a large parcel to find some colourful cross-stitches; they are a handmade gift to an old person who may want to hang them on a bare wall to cheer their room. At the weekend an older lady in the UK brought brand new nightwear for an older lady in Armenia to wear – a cheerful pink, warm and long. A business woman sent a cheque specially designated for help with a medical emergency – hospital fees or operating fees.

In the last blog I told you about things we have recently received that are destined for homes with children. Today I thought I’d tell you a bit about the older generation. We have all sorts of PC terms for the older generation in England but there are no such hang-ups in Armenia. The older folk will happily take on the title “dadig” or “babig” – Grandma and Grandad. In fact, it’s a title of endearment and they like to be called “dadig” by younger people.

The general rule in Armenia is that families stick together. The younger son, when he marries, stays in the parental home and takes his family into it. He and his wife are then responsible for the aging parents. To look after your parents in their old age is considered not only a duty, but a privilege. The advantage of this is obvious but there is a rather serious disadvantage. As this is the accepted norm the government do not provide for old people and so those who have no family, or whose family don’t look after them are very uncared for.

Where have we found these old people, how have we managed to help them?

The lady below has featured in our newsletter before. She lives alone in a very inhospitable hillside (very difficult to access by car in the summer and impossible in winter and spring). She is completely alone in the world and splits living between her own dreadful house/shed and an equally dreadful old people's home. Last year when we went to visit her she had left the old people's home as there were many people sleeping in the same room and keeping each other awake. She was so unhappy there that she returned to her own room. We take her wood, bedding, clothes and food parcels (pictured in front of her)

This dadig's family has also featured in our newsletter. Eleven of them share an unfurnished, undecorated two room flat. It is essentially unheated and has no running water, toilet, carpets, sink or any facilities at all. Last year we took them two new beds - I think they slept in two beds and a "sofa" before (in shifts!). I know that sounds crazy but I can't explain how else they slept.

The man below is not on our regular help list. Another charity took us to their home in a village outside Yerevan. We took clothing and bedding.

One of the older ladies who comes to our church being given a food parcel. She is not on our regular list to help as she is not considered as needy. She has an income of sorts - she sits on the road leading to our building and sells sunflower seeds. (yes that is considered not quite as needy!). In the latter part of 2010 there were several tragic deaths in her family and the hospital fees drained all the family members so she was given food parcels during the winter.

Where does all the stuff we send go?

2011-04-06T11:19:00.001-07:00

I can’t think of anything serious to write about just now. That’s not because nothing is happening but rather because I’ve been down with a virus of some description for a number of days now. The doctor says all the grief and stress has affected my nervous system and I need a few days of rest. So I’ve been sat under Dad’s favourite willow tree and God has been very good to me and given me lots of sunshine to sit under!

So instead I have decided to tell you about some of the charity’s communications (post, email, phone) in recent weeks – this could take a few blogs!

For a start I have to tell you about a little toy car. A lady living in the Midlands had gone to the chemist a few days ago and she said she felt the Lord prompting her to buy a little car that was for sale. It was presumably hanging near the check out till where she could see it. She bought the car and sent it over so that it could be sent to Armenia. She has no idea who it will end up with but feels God has someone in mind for it. Being much more curious than her I have decided to take the little car with me and am hoping that I’ll be able to see who the little car gets given to and take his/her photo for the giver.

Recently some amazing quilts and baby bedding have come in. There are several people who knit and quilt for us – actually it would be more correct to say several groups! These quilts are backed with fluffy material and have all nice coloured squares and sometimes pictures at the front!

We’ve also received a gift of money from another charity who wants us to buy shoes for children who can’t go to school otherwise.

So I’ve told you about some things – all of whose recipients will be children. Do you want to see what sort of homes they’ll go into?

Meet one stressed mum. She lives with husband, at least three children (unless some were at school when I counted) ........

... and grandma (below). They all live in this one room. They cannot afford nappies (hence the soiled pants in the picture above). When the trousers are soiled she must go outside and wash them in cold water (winter and summer) and I have no idea where she dries them.

Here is another resident of this house - he couldn't go to school, he didn't have any paper or pens The baby on the bed behind him had chicken pox - completely untreated and with barely any comfort at all. Do you want to know what their house looks like outside?

Welcome to what one of the leading men in our visiting team introduced to me as the Yerevan hotel! It was cold, so cold inside, the wind howled through the corridors and made all the very shaky timbers shake? Are you still going to complain because your carpet looks old/your furniture needs replacing/you are fed up of your kitchen? Am I? Countless families live in this hotel all facing cold corridors and bleak lives.

Let me introduce you to another family in the village of Artashat. I don't need to say anything - you'll see it in their faces. (The lady on the left was from another charity who took us to these people to see if we could help them)

The piles of stuff all around them is what we've taken - can you see the homemade blankets, quilts, woolly jumpers.

Packed schoolbags

2011-03-31T08:26:00.001-07:00

Mike and I have spent most of this lovely afternoon packing schoolbags to send to Armenia in this next container. We are truly bowled over with all the beautifully packed bags and also all the lovely stationery, empty bags and craft materials which we have sorted through. We have just about finished the task – another afternoon should do it!

I particularly enjoy packing the craft materials. For the sake of our inventory this includes shiny, glittery paper and cards, glitter, pipe cleaners and stickers and also all the little bits and pieces that we can sell (in exchange for memory verses well said and rooms kept tidy) in the gift shop in camp. I have been in the camp shop a number of summers now and I know with what shiny eyes the little girls will look at the Tinkerbell pencils and hair clips and slides and I also know with what enthusiasm the boys save up several days to buy a pencil case with a Disney character or a car on. I am very excited about getting them all out in Armenia and giving them out in camp!

De-bugging our campsite

2011-03-28T02:33:00.001-07:00

The male workforce of our charity is once again occupied with tidying up the garden at the campsite. It’s the time of year for spraying against snakes and scorpions so that they die before they lay their eggs or the babies die after hatching. Lying in bed a few mornings ago I remembered the danger of snakes at our campsite and lost about an hour’s sleep. Please remember to pray for our safety during the summer camps. Also we should all pray for the safety of our charity’s men while they are out there cleaning weeds and digging.

One of my father’s greatest pleasures in life was seeing a well-cultivated vegetable garden. While Mike was out in Armenia, he and the men went to the campsite and planned out the vegetable garden for this year. We want a prize garden this year. Please do not go away thinking that this is some useless hobby or even for cosmetic use, the garden will not only save the charity a reasonable amount of money but also means that the children will get to eat something other than cabbage! (not to mention us!)

We are hoping to plant green beans, tomatoes, potatoes (phenomenally expensive last year!), onions, okra, aubergines and lots of other staples. The ground is very stony and the season dry in Armenia so our camp guard will have to be responsible for watering the garden every day.

Aside from the garden, all the buildings must also be sprayed anti-snakes and scorpions, and the windows completely shut with very fine mesh to prevent harmful bugs from crawling in. The bedrooms house about 6 to 8 children each, so obviously the windows will be left open throughout the camps! I can’t believe I’m already writing about camp preparation. It feels like spring has only just arrived but we are making active preparations for summer.

Hi - tech Bible study!

2011-03-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

At the end of last week we had a “first of its kind” youth meeting. The young people had all gathered in the meeting room in Yerevan and Ruth, and Mike and I joined them in our kitchen in Lincolnshire. They sat clustered round their laptop and we sat round ours and communicated – thanks to skype!

Thanks to supreme technology we prayed and sung over hundreds of miles! During our series of meetings which concluded whilst Mike was in Armenia at the end of February we had been studying 1st Peter and now in our “new style” meeting we have started the study of 2nd Peter. We email them a series of study questions and then read the chapter altogether and study and discuss the questions.

I love interactive meetings and these are very special indeed. It was lovely to hear all their voices over the skype. We shall go even more high-tech in our next meeting, as they will be purchasing a camera for their end so we shall be able to see them. They could see us in this last meeting but not vice versa!

A very special little person

2011-03-19T06:00:00.001-07:00

I will motivate myself to write here once again. My dear late father was one of the most avid readers of my entries and used to comment to me about them all the time. I miss his comments. If you are reading and enjoying my blogs I would, at this stage, really appreciate a comment or an email. Let me know you’re there, please!

I have been kept very busy over the last fortnight trying to complete the charity’s accounts for 2010. I have finished! They are in the post to our accountant and I can breathe a sigh of relief and have a cup of coffee. My next imminent jobs are to claim the gift aid for donations made during 2010 and then to sort school bags to go in the next container. Mike is desperately trying to organise the next container and do the necessary inventory and paperwork. Every box has to be weighed, itemised and clearly labelled.

I have a confession to make – I have “pinched” a handmade quilt from the humanitarian aid. Please don’t stop reading – I will explain my sin! It is such a georgeous quilt – with a lovely fluffy backing and squares of colourful animals. Do you want to know who I pinched it for?

On his recent visit to Yerevan Mike went with our visiting team to the town of Artashat. Our team has been there before and has a list of some desperately poor people that we always go and visit when we go there. In addition, the social services give us extra people that they know urgently need help. On this particular visit our team turned up at a small home and were greeted by a middle-aged lady. She was living in this room with her husband and four year old daughter. Due to some illness the husband has gone completely blind. I am not sure how long he has been blind but the point is that currently they have no income in their home. The lady searches for work on a daily basis but finds nothing in this small, impoverished town. The little girl was all smiles and cuddles. She ran bubbling up to Mike (obviously recognised a kindred spirit!) and said “Will you play with me?” Mike answered that of course he would and asked her if she had any toys. “Oh yes!” came the proud reply, “a whole bag of them!” She arranged a little stool between herself and Mike and fetched a small hand-sewn bag (like a little purse). She emptied out her precious treasures – about 10 coloured bottle tops, an broken ruler, a doorknob and part of a belt buckle. She laid them all out in order and proceeded to tell Mike how to play lots of games with them.

That’s who the special quilt is for.

Mike's recent visit to Yerevan

2011-03-08T02:33:00.000-08:00

My husband Michael has just returned from a short trip to Armenia. We felt it was important for him to go and encourage everyone there (not to mention how much he was encouraged by them of course!). We felt that there was an air of purpose-less about them and a complete loss of vision since our great loss of Dad. Michael wanted to go and inspire them to “get hold” of their vision once again and of course, at the same time renew his sense of purpose too.

Dad, as many of you know, was 100% dedicated to the work in Armenia. He lived and breathed the worries of the Armenian church, the poor people, the lack of literature – they were not just mild concerns to Dad, they were the ache of his heart.

We are so proud/relieved/happy to announce that everyone is now once again at their work stations. The children’s workers have restarted the clubs. The visitation team and aid distribution is fully underway. The Sunday services are continuing. When Michael went out we feared that we would have to stop the Friday Bible studies (as these were Dad’s time for teaching) and the ladies’ meetings (as Mum is obviously still in the UK with us) but people have stepped forward and said they would all contribute so none of the meetings have stopped at all! We are so grateful to the Lord for this huge encouragement! Dad will definitely be singing in heaven!

The visitation program and food parcel distribution is as necessary and vital as always. When we left Armenia just before Christmas I stated (in our winter newsletter) that food parcels have gone up from 200,000 dram a month to 340,000 dram a month (approx.). That exact same food parcel distribution is now costing the charity 480,000 dram a month! That’s how much food prices have increased in Armenia. Michael says that he did not see hardly any fresh fruit at all whilst he was there – with the exception of 2 oranges! No fruit, no fresh vegetables and prices soaring through the roof. Wherever he visited, all the houses were cold and either on minimal heating or no heating at all. We must continue to distribute food and wood as rapidly as possible over the next few months. We are also working to try and send out an aid container over the next couple of months. The storehouses of the charity in Yerevan are practically empty and there is such a huge need. I will tell you more about his visits in the next blog.

A sunset on earth…..A beautiful sunrise in Heaven

2011-02-26T03:25:00.001-08:00

My dear father, Ivan Pambakian, completed his life on earth and went through the pearly gates to his eternal Home at midnight on the 5th February.

His going home was a complete shock to all of us but not to His Heavenly Father. Years before when Dad had been ill and was frightened that he was going to die I had sent him a small poem, now that poem is a comfort to me.

“Our times are in His hands,
Why should we doubt or fear?
Our Father’s Hand will never cause
His child a needless tear.”

For those of you who would like to know a little more I will try to tell you about Dad’s last few hours. Michael and Dad had gone together to speak about Armenian Ministries. They were with a group of dear friends and supporters in a home in London. Michael said that Dad spoke with his usual clarity, enthusiasm and good humour. At the end of the talk the hostess provided cakes and tea and there was a time for questions about the work. At some time during this session Dad was heard to say, on two occasions, “Death where is thy sting. Grave where is thy victory”. He also told one of his friends there that he was not frightened to die, but was looking forward to going to heaven to be with His Lord Jesus.

At the end of their time there Dad told Michael that he wasn’t feeling very well and would like to go home. Michael packed all the bags and prepared for leaving. Whilst walking to the front door Dad was taken ill and the paramedics had to be called. The evening’s hostess – who is a dear family friend – said she heard Dad say to the paramedic “Can I go home to Lincolnshire?” Those of you who knew Dad well knew how much he loved his home and his family. The paramedic said “No, I’m sorry sir. You will have to come to the hospital.” Those around him heard Dad give a little sigh. Then he bent his head and said “Jesus”. Not in a panicky manner, nor in a frightened manner – I am assured by those who heard him that it was a submissive “Jesus”. Michael saw him for the last time as he was being wheeled into the operating room from the ambulance. Dad was peaceful and calm.

God took Dad exactly as Dad would have wanted to go – still in active service.

Please pray for those of us to whom Dad left a legacy. He used to talk about how we as Christians are people who “hold forth the Word of Life as the Light to those in darkness around us.” He has put down his torch and gone on and we must take it up.

Aged beyond his years.

2011-02-03T05:55:00.000-08:00

I’ve just made an awful discovery. I’ve just found out that one of the men we support and regularly visit is about 30 years younger than I thought he was. The charity visits this Christian household on a regular basis – as they are not only poor but in continual need of medical help. In a telephone conversation with our local director I’ve just found out that this man is ill and has only just got out of hospital. Our team had gone to the hospital and bought about £20 worth of medications to try and help this man and reduce any pain. Unfortunately it seems that his illness, which I think must involve nervous infection or dysfunction in his head and eyes, seems to be incurable. I have visited their home a number of times and have always thought that this man is about 60 or 65 years of age. Therefore I was rather surprised when our visiting team seemed so upset that he is no longer healthy enough to till his land and grow some vegetables and look after livestock. I am now completely shocked to discover that he is younger than me!

The view from my office window first thing in the morning!

2011-01-26T03:06:00.000-08:00

Keep clicking those needles!

2011-01-24T02:24:00.001-08:00

I am really overwhelmed sometimes at the generosity of our supporters in the UK (and elsewhere too!) The sheer hard work that goes into the some of the donations that are given to us is amazing. This last weekend we have been given bags of knitted cuddly toys by several groups of people. I know of several groups of elderly ladies around the country who actually get together, maybe once a week, and sit and knit for us and then send their donations to us. We are so grateful for their hard work and for the imagination that goes into what they send us.

I also know of some isolated folk around the UK who knit for us. I am particularly grateful to many of these, who I know are knitting from sick beds or in loneliness. Mike and I visited a couple to collect some beautiful hand-made items recently. They are both very ill – with stroke related paralysis and crippling arthritis – and have produced the most colourful blankets for families in Armenia. As they live their lives in their own four walls, with very little interaction with the outside, she knows the importance of colour and warmth in a home and has produced these with not only use, but colour in mind! I also know of one lady who only a year ago was in very serious depression. Someone told her about some of the old ladies in Armenia and what terrible conditions they live in. She decided to try and help some of them by producing woollen wear for them, and in helping them she actually found she had helped herself and her depression was eased a little.

Thank you to all the knitters!

Hospital help

2011-01-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

I have mentioned the village of Ervandashad in this blog many times. There is a very dear Christian man in that village who has a family of three or four children. Some of the children are camp-going age and they are among my favourite children – very well behaved and loving. They are, however, a very poor family. The man has for many years been losing his eyesight, in fact, he has featured in the Armenian Ministries newsletter before due to his failing health. His failing eyesight is of course a disaster for his family, as he is the only breadwinner in the house.

We received a phone call yesterday at the charity headquarters in Yerevan to say that this dear man is in hospital. He was admitted as the condition of his eyes has suddenly deteriorated and it seems that he is going to go completely blind. The doctors have been treating him. Social security, or a local charity, has paid for his stay in hospital but he could not afford the medicines needed to take home. Our charity director rushed over to the village and bought the medications that this man needed. It is such a sad state of affairs as blindness is an awful prospect for anyone, but when the entire family’s livelihood depends on your sight it is so much worse. Our director is going back to the village during this next week with some money for the family as well as to visit them and see what else can be done to help – such as taking winter fuel or food.

Our literature table outside church

2011-01-12T09:11:00.000-08:00

Our church in the charity building in Yerevan is starting its New Year with much excitement as their consignment of tracts has been delivered. The literature table outside the church had been getting rather low in supplies and stale, so we have used some funds from our literature fund to print 25,000 new tracts.

Many of the elderly ladies, or ill folk, take this literature and we know of several people who take it literature into their homes and at an informal coffee gathering they read the publications to each other and encourage one another (almost like devotionals). The people out there are very keen on getting any Christian literature that they can and so this is very exciting for them.

New gates and new foundations!

2011-01-10T07:05:00.001-08:00

Our charity DIY man and the team have made use of the milder-than-usual weather in Yerevan and have been doing some building at the charity’s campsite. We are now the proud owner of two nice new gates. These should hopefully protect the campsite from dogs intruding during the camp times. The dogs are a substantial nuisance as they are wild dogs and therefore could attack the children. Aside from this serious danger there is also the nuisance factor of the noise they make and the stolen and chewed shoes!! The cooks aren’t best friends with the dogs either as many a time the rubbish that they neatly left in bags in the evening has been strewn all over the balcony by morning.

The foundations have also been dug for the final (at least, final in our minds so far!) stage of the camp building.

We are wanting to build kitchen facilities and a meeting room that can be used for the camp meetings, crafts and just somewhere to sit out of the incredibly hot and dusty winds that frequently hit the campsite. We are very excited about this building as, at present, the camp has nowhere where even a small group of people can go and sit and relax out of the wind or sun or dust. For the entire 3 months we are at camp we are very exposed to the elements and this, on its own, is enough to tire, exhaust and stress your body! So we all are hoping that the weather stays mild and building continues!

One lady's plight with a broken leg.

2011-01-06T06:35:00.001-08:00

We were talking to our local director, Gevork, yesterday. Thanks to skype it is now easier and cheaper to keep in contact with what is going on in Armenia on a daily basis. Anna, Gevork’s wife, has told me of a rather difficult visit they have had to do. Anna and some of our visiting team when to visit a middle-aged lady who we have supported in the past. She does not generally need food parcels as there is only her and her daughter in their small home and both of them work very hard to try and make ends meet. However, the woman’s income is only enough to pay for their rent of their room and so they must survive entirely on the daughter’s income. The daughter, in her early twenties, is actually a full-time student. She is a very intelligent girl who is studying computing and English and at the same time tutors a few friends in the neighbourhood in English. It is this tutoring income that they live on.

While we were still in Armenia the woman broke her leg. She fell down a step and crushed her ankle. The charity’s visitation team got to hear about this a few days after the accident. Of course, the income of the lady did not allow her to go into hospital so she did not have any idea of the extent of her injury. When the charity’s team, including Anna, went to visit her they found her sitting in her room in dire pain. She was completely immobile and alone –waiting for her daughter to come and cook for her, give her a drink, dress her etc. The woman, whose income was also obtained by teaching English, could now no longer teach so it was even more imperative that the daughter kept going to work. This meant that there was no one in the house with the injured lady. Anyway, our charity team took her to hospital and had her x-rayed and her leg was put into plaster. Anna said that they had to carry her in the hospital themselves – literally carry her between two people with her broken leg – in between departments and in one situation up some stairs!

That all happened when we were still in Armenia in late November. However, in my recent conversation with Anna she told me further bad news. This poor lady’s daughter was involved in a very bad car accident. She was hospitalised for a few days (yet more money!) and unfortunately her face was scarred. Now, the daughter is at home and beginning to try to work again. The charity is helping them as much as possible with food, clothing, medical fees and physical help and visiting too. This story reminded me how easy it is to take medication and medical help for granted.

The official unveiling of my desk!

2011-01-03T04:32:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Christmas is over, the presents are unwrapped and the turkey is eaten – at least it is over here! In Armenia Christmas is celebrated on 6th January. They don’t celebrate it like us though. It is mainly a time when extended family get together and its time off work. New Year’s Day is the bigger celebration for them. On the 6th January the folks in our charity are all going to get together and hold a celebration service and hear a special message (hopefully my Uncle in London will record one for them and send it by email!)

We have been trying our best to adjust as quickly as possible to life in England. In some things we have been successful – I can see the wooden surface of my desk. This is a huge improvement as when we walked into our office 3 weeks ago we couldn’t even see my desk! The office had been used to store the many schoolbags and schoolbag equipment that has been given (very kindly!) over the last few months. I now have unearthed my desk, I have 5 fat files of paperwork that my father has given me which need sorting out and a decent set of the charity’s accounts needs to be prepared and presented from them! At the very top of my to-do list, however, is starting school again, and all that involves. We need to buy some new textbooks (very exciting!) and the girls will start their swimming lessons again – this will stand them in good stead when they are thrown into the pool at the next set of children’s camps!

In other aspects of settling in we are not doing so well – I have got into the wrong side of the car several times and wondered who had stolen the steering wheel! It took me several days to remember my pin number and which card belonged to which pin number and even then, a few times I simply gave my card in and then stood and looked a bit blank for a few seconds! In Armenia I paid for everything by cash so it’s a bit shocking at first to get asked for £10 when in Armenia that would be 5000 dram! Ruth got a rather nasty shock too when she asked Dad to buy her super-glue – it cost £5, where the equivalent in Armenia was 20p….and Mike still refuses to eat yogurt at the English price (its about 1/6 of the price in Armenia!)

The children are doing much better than us – it’s all right for them as it doesn’t matter which side of the back seat you climb into. However, they do occasionally forget to do their seatbelts up! They will be starting school this week and the routine is bound to do them good!

Adjusting!

2010-12-24T02:31:00.000-08:00

We are gradually settling back into life in England! A few of my blog readers have expressed a desire that I keep blogging and keep you updated with the details of the Harrison family life as we get ready to pack and send a 40 foot container (or two), keep up-to-date with the visitation team in Armenia who, of course, are still taking food and wood parcels to the needy in Yerevan and so on!

Coming back to England for Christmas has been very exciting, and we are so grateful to God that we flew in the weekend before all the troubles at Heathrow airport. Seeing the food and the presents and the endless shopping in the UK has reminded us of what we left behind. We must be grateful to God for our blessings but praying always for those, all around the world, who don’t have what we have. We went to the farm shop near us last week to buy the vegetables for Christmas. Dad and Mum picked up a big sack of carrots and while Dad was paying for them and putting them in the car Mum was just standing and looking horrified. She told me later that she had remembered a conversation with one of her dearest friends in Armenia only a couple of weeks before. This grandma is responsible for an entire family who live in her house – her daughter, son-in-law, and their two children. She had proudly told mum how she had brought 2 kg of carrots which would see them through the entire winter. She would occasionally chop one into soup and that would give the soup a lovely flavour and some wholesome vegetable for her grandchildren. Please don’t ask me how 2 kg carrots can last a whole winter – I simply don’t know and don’t want to imagine it.

I know that our charity team has been working over-time this whole week and everyone on our list of needy who we are responsible for, has a food parcel to last them for the month of December and also January. Many of the poor who are only enlisted for a food parcel once every two or three months are receiving every month through this winter, as food prices are so high.

Back to England!

2010-12-14T23:31:00.000-08:00

My time in Armenia for this year is over! On Monday we flew back to England. It was absolutely heartbreaking leaving our dear friends in Yerevan but incredibly exciting to come back to England, to see our family and friends again. The stores at Cyprus Lodge are all full of the most wonderful humanitarian aid ready to send to Armenia, once its been sorted and organised of course! We are certainly not going to be bored!

We are at the moment getting used to being back in England, unpacking and trying to get ready for Christmas. We don't have a car on the road either!

The journey back was eventful! Our two oldest girls were travel sick on the first flight (from Armenia to Prague) and then at Prague we had to wait for 3 hours on the runway due to the intense fog above London! Anyway we finally got home - two tired parents, my sister, 3 sleepy children, 4 pieces of hand-baggage, 2 laptops and 6 suitcases!!

Ladies meeting!

2010-12-10T22:55:00.000-08:00

It is all action here in Armenia! The ladies' meetings have shut for the month of January and the closing meeting was so exciting that everyone was buzzing for quite a while afterwards. We sang quite a few carols, which have been translated by my father, Ivan. In particular, we taught the ladies "Hark, the herald angels sing!" The translation is absolutely beautiful and they loved singing it so much, we sang it through twice. Interspersed with the singing, several ladies also read the entire story of Jesus' birth from the New Testament.

After the meeting the ladies all gathered round and made a beautiful bookmark for themselves. When they were told they had a craft to make some of the grandmas got so excited. One of them declared "Oh, but I can't I have no memory at all!".....she was told that a memory wasn't really needed, and she went home just as proud of her bookmark as if she had written an entire book! One of the grandmas got very excited and sang an entire song for us, whilst another one recited a long poem in Russian (but I've no idea what it was about!) The jolly party ended with tea, coffee and cake!

It is all action here in Armenia! The ladies' meetings have shut for the month of January and the closing meeting was so exciting that everyone was buzzing for quite a while afterwards. We sang quite a few carols, which have been translated by my father, Ivan. In particular, we taught the ladies "Hark, the herald angels sing!" The translation is absolutely beautiful and they loved singing it so much, we sang it through twice. Interspersed with the singing, several ladies also read the entire story of Jesus' birth from the New Testament.

After the meeting the ladies all gathered round and made a beautiful bookmark for themselves. When they were told they had a craft to make some of the grandmas got so excited. One of them declared "Oh, but I can't I have no memory at all!".....she was told that a memory wasn't really needed, and she went home just as proud of her bookmark as if she had written an entire book! One of the grandmas got very excited and sang an entire song for us, whilst another one recited a long poem in Russian (but I've no idea what it was about!) The jolly party ended with tea, coffee and cake!

Grand performance in Yerevan

2010-12-08T03:44:00.000-08:00

As I promised here are some photos from "To save the world" - a play written by Ruth especially for the Bible club children to perform. The above photo is the entire cast. As you can see one of the sheep is so tired at the end of the performance she is practically asleep!

Below is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

This is the little English girl!

..and here is the Russian girl

These are two flowers!

...and here is another flower (on the left) and Eve on the right

The children performed beautifully. Once again the DVD of the play will be available once we get back to England!

Last trip to Baghramian!

2010-12-05T22:08:00.001-08:00

Saturday early afternoon saw two minibuses stuffed full of our charity’s team, including our family, heading out to the village of Baghramian. The children have rehearsed for weeks and Saturday was the grand performance of “The three trees”. I’m afraid I didn’t get any photos of the actual performance, but the whole performance was video-d and when we get back to England you can contact us for a copy of the DVD!

The children were so hyper-excited that it was difficult to dress them. You try putting a robe over a 10 year old lad who jumps up every 10 seconds and shouts “Hey, Arto! I’m over here” or “I’m Joseph! Who are you?” or “Armine, your hat looks funny. Hey everyone, look at Armine’s hat!” Anyway, the children’s team managed it somehow, and the play was completely successful! The hall was packed full of mums, dads, grandads and grandmas. The excitement reached its pitch when the big sack of Christmas presents were brought in at the end. I must confess that, as usual, I shed quite a few tears. There were all these dusty village children practically mobbing the children’s team as they handed out a small bag to each child. The present was a picture frame with a postcard in it of a pretty scene and a Bible verse and a little pretty notepad and pen, or in the case of the very little ones something pretty for their hair etc. We waved them off, clutching their precious presents and all shouting at the same time!

Here they are waiting for pressies!

Tomorrow’s blog I will tell you about the performance the Yerevan children did on Sunday!

Teen invasion!

2010-12-02T23:39:00.000-08:00

The building was invaded by over 40 teens for the annual Christmas party which signals the end of their Bible club for the winter season. The children’s team spent the day making home-made pizzas for the party and salad! The party started with a lovely meal with lots of chatting and giggling, which was followed by some singing. Many of these teens have been in Ruth’s Bible clubs since they were children and some of them are returning on Sunday to help with the grand performance of “To save the World”. The main performers of the play are the infant and junior children but the teens are also playing some key roles – especially in getting the Gospel message across clearly.

After the meal Michael spoke to the teens from Ecclesiastes “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth...” They listened very intently and attentively. In fact, the whole party went very well and it was with a sigh of huge relief and content that we all packed up for the evening. There is a tell-tale quantity of tinsel bits and glitter all over the building stairs and a reasonable quantity of left-over pizza to devour!

Ladies meeting

2010-12-01T00:24:00.001-08:00

We’ve just finished our Wednesday morning ladies’ meeting. Ruth has been doing a series for us on “Methods and tips for Bible study”. I personally, love such practical studies, so I’ve been sat on the edge of my seat taking it all in. It is a lovely sunny day here in Armenia and the sun was streaming in while she was talking. It was so nice to sit with all the familiar ladies and sing for half an hour and then open our Bibles and study. I suddenly felt overwhelmed that I have to leave them all!

Bible study over, some of the old ladies gathered round and drank a coffee together before setting off on their journeys home. Some of them will take over an hour of catching buses and walking to get home. I am burdened continually about the footwear I see on some of our ladies. One of them comes faithfully from quite a way out of town. She lives about 3 bus changes followed by a half hour’s walk away, and comes in the only footwear she seems to possess – a man’s pair of slippers. I am quite concerned what will happen to her feet when the rain and snow starts (assuming it will of course, 1^st December is still sunny and mild!). Another of the old grandmas comes in shoes that seem to be more cling film and sellotape than shoe. We have finished all our supplies of shoes, sadly, and have no more to give. Still, nothing steals their joy, and I guess it should also not steal ours, that they can come and sing and read God’s Word with their sisters in Christ. Nothing seems to give them more pleasure than coming together and singing (mostly out of tune but very loudly!) and then enjoying a piece of cake and a coffee, and a conversation about their ailments, before going off home again!

Busy, busy!

2010-11-29T22:14:00.001-08:00

It is a rather chaotic day today – in fact it has the promise of being a chaotic week! Everyone seems to be doing something with a strict deadline to it. Mike and I will spend today doing humanitarian aid paperwork and going to the bank. The visitation team has two beds to deliver, along with food and wood. In the afternoon, Mike is going to a village outside Yerevan with our local director, Gevork. The charity’s men are spending a lot of time over at the campsite in Garpi. They are fixing, in fact, they have almost finished fixing a gate over the entrance of the driveway. The purpose of this gate is to keep the dogs out of the campsite. There are a lot of wild dogs in the area, half-wolf-half-dog, and at the best these frighten the children and leaders during the camp. The men are also hoping to begin digging the foundations for the new building at the campsite. They will be doing some measuring and planning and then they intend to call the digger in later this week. The weather is ideal, at the moment, for building work.

Ruth is desperately trying to finish work on her quotes calendars. She collects quotes from missionaries, preachers, books and devotionals all year and then puts them into a calendar. The quotes are then translated into Armenian and put together in a pretty calendar – a quote a day. She has finished decorating them and is now trying to get some printing done. After that some of the children’s team will work with her to cut the papers, collate them into the correct order and bind them. There is a huge demand on these calendars. Many of the Christians are only just getting to know about these famous missionaries and preachers – Spurgeon, Hudson Taylor, James Fraser, William Carey, FB Meyer....and these quotes are a blessing to them.

Last trip to Ervandashad village

2010-11-26T23:36:00.001-08:00

Bright and early on a cold Saturday morning and the children’s team have already hit the road. They left about half an hour ago, laden with trays of home-baking – cakes, pies and all things nice. They are going to host a Christmas party for the children in the village of Ervandashad. They will be playing games, doing a craft and eating! Most importantly of all, they will be handing out Christmas presents! I can only imagine the noise and excitement of the children who will probably all be there when the van arrives. Today will be the very last day of village work for the children’s team this year. They are all sad and relieved at the same time. Sad because they will genuinely miss the children but relieved as they are all tired out. It is quite a strain for the team to do those long journeys every week. The lack of facilities adds considerably to the strain too – no heating, no lighting (especially not in the toilet), no proper seating etc.

At the end of today all the three village clubs will have officially closed for this year, which leaves Saturday and Sunday’s clubs next week. On Saturday the children of Baghramian (just outside Yerevan) will be performing “The three trees” and in Yerevan next Sunday we have the grand performance of “To save the world”. This latter play is being performed by all the Yerevan club children. They have been rehearsing for several weeks now and props are being prepared! My children are all in the play too so we are all actively preparing lines to be memorised in Armenian. In fact, Abigail is an angel and has to sing with the other angels! Ruth doesn’t allow any of the children to have words with them – they have to memorise everything, including the song they are singing!

The play is being performed during the regular church service – the Christmas special, and the message is being given by three teen lads (who are terrified and excited!)

Last trip to Arteni village

2010-11-25T02:42:00.001-08:00

As the weather gets steadily colder it gets more dangerous and difficult to continue to go to the villages and hold the Bible clubs. I believe England is colder at the moment but the temperatures in Armenia are beginning to plunge too! The villages are of course several degrees colder than the city and all the venues where we hold clubs are unheated and usually the windows and doors are missing.

This week, therefore, we are officially closing the village clubs for Christmas break. Ruth and the whole team of children’s workers went to Arteni for the last time this year on Tuesday. The place was absolutely packed with super-excited children; about 180 of them! Ruth had taken treats for the children – Armenian sweets made out of caramelised condensed milk, lovingly referred to as ant’s nests! The children’s club was followed by the teen’s Christmas party. Ruth handed out the ant’s nests and the teens munched on them whilst playing games and talking to each other. Ruth noticed, though, that throughout the party one of the young girls was holding on to her ant’s nest. She assumed that she was going to eat it later.

After the clubs were all finished Ruth and some of the team decided to go to one of the families which the charity supports in Arteni, visit them and take the left-over cakes there and sit and chat with them for a bit. This particular family have two children, both of whom attend the Bible club. In fact, it was the family of the young teen girl who had kept her ant’s nest. When they arrived the scene they met their eyes floored Ruth, and when she told me, floored me too. The family of four was sat in their cold sitting room. The small ant’s nest was on the table in front of them and was neatly divided into four! She had taken her cup-cake sized treat home, as she couldn’t bear to eat such a treat without her whole family sharing. I can’t bear to write it without tears.

Anticipating Christmas

2010-11-23T00:31:00.000-08:00

Not many weeks now to Christmas, and to our return to the UK. We have so accustomed to our life here and made so many friends that we are torn in two now between two countries. We are thoroughly looking forward to seeing our friends and family in England of course, but at the same time are simply dreading saying goodbye to the folks here.

It has been an unusual experience being away from home so near to the Christmas season. We know from past experience that in the UK everyone is busily Christmas shopping, all the shops are decorated and as soon as December comes the trees and lights go up. However, we have been exposed to none of these things. We haven’t seen anything remotely like Christmassy (except last week when in a modern supermarket I spotted a few baubles) and no-one at all is talking about Christmas shopping. Ruth and I suddenly remembered just yesterday that we need to put in internet orders for Christmas shopping otherwise the items will never be delivered on time. It is going to be a breath-taking experience suddenly arriving in England right in the middle of the Christmas

flurry. It will, I think, be a little difficult to adjust at first.

Before we leave we have the most enormous to-do list to get through. At the moment I am preparing another newsletter – hopefully I’ll be able to get it to you all soon. Mike’s computer decided to die. It died so effectively that it took Mike almost a week to coax it back into life. Even now, though, it now and again freezes and needs some re-programming or re-booting to get it back to life (I guess this is like my morning cup of coffee). As soon as we have the newsletter we will put it on the Armenian Ministries website for you all to read.

Of course, on top of the charity work I must also draw the first term of home-school to its conclusion. We have actually run out of textbook material for Talitha so for the last few weeks I have been scouring the internet for worksheets for her. She worked faster than I had reckoned on!

Dark corridors, dark lives.

2010-11-20T23:52:00.000-08:00

I have just returned from what felt like the corridors of darkness. Mike and I were asked by the visiting team to accompany them to the home of a family who has been causing them some concern. There are 6 children in the home along with the parents. They live in the most dreadful block of flats (though if you saw it you would not describe it as such – more like a high rise of tumbling concrete). The entrance to the building was just a hole in the wall – any vestige of a door was long gone. They live on the 7^th storey and of course there was no lift. As we climbed the wind howled around the stairwell. The entire front and back face of the building had once been windows but was now nothing but gaping holes and broken glass. Rubbish was piled up in corners all over the building and the general smell and look of the place gave the impression of living in a rubbish dump (it costs money to have your rubbish collected and taken). The stair area and entrance lobby of the building was bare, cold, colourless concrete.

Finally, we reached the 7^th floor and walked into the corridor leading to the rooms occupied by the family we were going to visit. The contrast from the stair well was shocking – there was no light anywhere. To walk down the long corridor we had to open our mobile phones and use the light. By using several lights combined and all walking very close together we finally found the door of the “home” we were visiting. Inside one small room were packed the woman and her 6 children. I would say she is in her 30s but most of her teeth were missing. My immediate emotion on entering the room was the desire to run away again. The smell made me reel back. Six children, parents, bedding, clothes, food and living quarters all stuffed into that one room. There was no proper heating and the room was already colder than outdoors. They had actually been assigned a room across the corridor too. This room however is completely unfurnished – I really mean that. It was 4 bare walls and a broken, wooden floor. The father of the family has been assigned to that room (presumably he is the toughest of them or there was no space for him in the cramped room). There he stood, in that empty room which was not even heated. There is no heating or furniture in there. At night he curls up on that soil floor and sleeps. He has not exited his room for months – he is frightened of the men who want to beat him up due to the debts he has incurred. His hair is long and unkempt. He has no shoes on his feet (the visitation team say he doesn’t have any).

Mike and I left that home feeling a bit sick. True, we took them a lot of help – food parcels (they get them every month), clothing, bedding, the promise of a single bed for the man next week, some pretty postcards with Bible verses printed on them, but it seems so insignificant compared to their need. To be honest their needs were much more than food and clothing, they needed hope. Their home was full of bitterness and hatred for each other – each blaming the other for the terrible state they are in. Our visiting team were really excellent, they spoke gently to them, trying to tell them about God’s love, inviting the children to come to our clubs, telling them verses from the Bible.

We will visit them again next week with more clothes. Unfortunately the shoes in the container from England have finished so if we are to take him shoes we have to buy him some. Our DIY man will visit him with us next week to fix his door – it has broken off at the hinges and the rats from the corridor are running all over him at night. Someone from the charity will take him to have his hair cut and beard shaved, and he will receive his brand new bed and bedding. Hopefully, over time, we will be able to make some small difference in their terrible, dark lives. Poor, poor children, living in such darkness, void of anything pretty, void of love, void of anyone to spoil them.

New bank account

2010-11-16T02:17:00.001-08:00

Mike and I have just got back from opening a new bank account. It took us 2 hours! It’s amazing how such a seemingly simple procedure points out so many differences in our cultures. Mike went in to the bank, while I went shopping estimating that it would take him about 30 minutes to do the business.

When I got back there was no sign of Mike. The man who was at the welcome desk gave me a questioning look, so I exited the bank and returned a few minutes later. Mike was sat in the waiting area, where I joined him and a few minutes later he was called to the desk. It turns out that a change in our phone number (we hadn’t put one down before) had caused some confusion and delayed the paperwork. The bank manager was called and the two bank officials greeted each other with a warm hug and kiss! A further phonecall had to be made to another department, and once again at least on our side of the conversation the friendliness of the call was as if she was talking to her long lost friend! At this point the lady dealing with Mike’s papers spotted me quietly sitting and watching the proceedings. She walked up and asked if she could help me at all, to which I replied that I was simply waiting for my husband and indicated with my hand to where Mike was standing. She was delighted! What an incredible pleasure to meet the Englishman’s wife! I think if I’d taken the children I would have had a dinner invite!

Increasing prices

2010-11-14T23:48:00.001-08:00

My parents should be flying over Europe around now, somewhere between Prague and London! There is a quiet, subdued spirit in the charity this morning – due to its noisiest member’s absence! The heating had gone off during the night too (the gas supply had been cut sometime yesterday) and the building is a bit cold too! Still everyone is quietly getting on with their work.

Ruth and a few of the ladies are upstairs working on some projects – Ruth is preparing her quotes calendar for 2011. The charity’s men are all working on food parcels. I can hear bags of pasta, beans etc being dragged round outside. We keep hearing, from everyone we visit, that it is going to be a dire winter this year. Some folks are frightened of this winter – they are literally scared that people are going to starve to death during the winter months. As I have said before in this blog, the price of fruit was so high throughout the year that not only did the people not eat any fruit but they haven’t bottled anything either. Armenians depend on their bottled supplies to get them through winter. Every family I visit (including my family and friends) I always ask them “Have you bottled any fruit or vegetables this year?” and the answer is always “No, we couldn’t afford to”. My next question is “So, what will you eat through the winter?” and the answer is a shrug of the shoulders.

Prices of dried foods have escalated so high that the Europeans here are finding it difficult to afford their shopping. The staples of the Armenian diet such as lentils, buckwheat, pasta have become very pricey. Most Armenians are happy with bread and cheese but cheese is now so expensive that its about the same price as the beef in England!

The effects of this situation on our charity are multiple. Aside from the obvious – we need to give help to more people, we also need to give more help to our regulars. For example, those that used to receive a food parcel every two months are no longer able to survive with that help. Mike and I will be combing through the people we support and increasing the quantity of help that some of the people receive. This will obviously mean that our food budget must go up quite significantly through this winter. Aside from this each food parcel has also gone up in price. Buckwheat for example has more than doubled in price, per kilogram!

Getting a little colder!

2010-11-12T00:23:00.001-08:00

It is the second week in November already. The charity is actively getting ready for winter. Dad and Mum leave us, for the UK, on Sunday night. This morning we had the last charity meeting and everything is being organised before their departure.

My mum and Mike have been working on the type-setting of two translated books that are ready for printing. This afternoon they will be going to the printers to collect some newly-published tracts too.

Ruth and the children’s workers are beginning to wind down the work in the villages – as it is getting terribly cold in the villages (there is no heating in any of the rooms they use for teaching). Next week the groups in the village of Ervandashad will finish for Christmas – although a group excursion to Yerevan is being planned. The Bible clubs in Yerevan and Baghramian continue for a little longer and the children in these groups are preparing for two dramatic presentations. The group in Baghramian will be presenting “The three trees” and the group in Yerevan “To save the world” – both of these are plays that have been written for the children by Ruth. “The three trees” is taken from the classic story of the same name, and adapted for the children, but “To save the world” is written by Ruth for the children to perform.

I have been warned that when the temperatures drop, they will do so suddenly. Apparently the heater in the church meeting room will work until the temperatures, in that room, reach -10C. Below this temperature the heating appliance refuses to work! I don’t blame it!

All in a day's work.

2010-11-10T23:01:00.000-08:00

It never ceases to amaze me the “jobs” I hear that people are doing round Yerevan to earn some money. In fact, “normal” jobs seem to be very few and far between. I was talking to one of our young people (that faithfully attends church and young people’s meetings) a few days ago. She is a trained pharmacist but none of the pharmacies want to employ her as she has no experience. As soon as they hear she has no experience they reject her from the job position but they offer to let her work in the pharmacy to gain experience. For this privilege she has to pay at least 30,000 dram (around £50 or more) a month! Very often when the 3 month experience position has finished they send you away home with no job. The new position will still want her to have experience with them so she has to do another 3 months of labour (and pay for it!) In addition to this very frustrating situation, during the actual employment the young people are under a huge amount of pressure to cheat, lie and steal. Tablets will often be counted incorrectly, sold out-of-date, medicine diluted and so on.

A family we took help to yesterday is in a dire situation. The wife is the only one who has managed to find work. She cooks in a bakery from 3am to 12 noon the next day – 7 days a week and brings home about £1.50 to £2 (depending on the price of flour).

A young couple came to visit the charity recently. Our family has known their family since the lad was a young boy. He visited us with his wife last week and they were telling us their job situation. He is very artistic and has made the table and ornaments shown in the photographs (pictured with my mum and his parents) completely out of matchsticks. He has also painted quite a selection of watercolours. However, he explained to Dad that there is no market for artists in Yerevan – there is nowhere for them to display, unless they have connections (relatives already in the art world, or backing by a rich sponsor). His pretty wife had found a job to keep their heads above water. She has to go in at 7.30am and doesn’t come home till 11pm, seven days a week. She earns about £2 a day and sews all day long. After a few weeks she handed in her notice as she wasn’t manage to earn enough to pay for her travel expenses. When the boss questioned her about why she handed in her notice, she said that the pay was simply to low. His reply was that if she wanted to get paid better she could be his “friend and companion”!

Reverse culture shock

2010-11-05T02:04:00.001-07:00

My girls are slowly starting to get ready for coming home. We are not planning to fly back till December but the mental preparation has started! They are reminding themselves of what they have missed at home, of what they will be able to do at home that they can’t do here etc. They really do love their time here, and they have mountains of friends – literally – but I am very proud of them that they are looking at the positive side of being in both places, rather than crying in England about what they miss here and vice versa.

Almost every time we sit together as a family one of them will suddenly say “Won’t it be funny in England when....” and the list of things they have discussed has truly shown me the amazing reverse culture shock we are going to suffer! Talitha has forgotten how to use a knife in her right hand. Armenians mostly eat with the fork in the right hand and generally a chunk of bread in the left. All 3 children are now addicted to bread with literally everything they eat (yes, watermelon included!)

We are probably all going to get run over the moment we try to cross a road in England. The first few weeks I was in Armenia I just did not manage to cross any roads at all. For a start even the “small” road at the top of our street is wider than the M1 in England. Cars stream down it very rapidly and not in straight lines at all (they avoid each other, pot-holes, pedestrians, dogs and any other car joining the main road from the left or right). Eventually, I have perfected how to cross the road. This is my method.

Hold the children’s hands very firmly
Find a section of the road where the bus stop is
Wait till the bus stops
Bury yourself in amongst all the people who come off the bus and are trying to cross the road
Do NOT look left or right
Do NOT think
When the crowd start to cross the road, rapidly follow them, staying right in the middle of the crowd.
Pray hard as you walk

It has been successful so far! Shopping will also be a very strange experience. For a start, I won’t have a small crowd of shop assistants following me “Oh look! Here is the English family!” I will also miss the friendly advice from the shop keeper down our road “No, no, don’t buy that yogurt, its past its sell-by, buy this one!” or “Don’t buy that type of chocolate, it doesn’t taste good!” Furthermore, I will be able to put my groceries at the checkout and go through in my turn, without half of the shop tutting at me and saying “Oh, you have too much, I am going before you!”

When I am ill who will make me warmed vodka wraps to put on my stomach, and tell me that my socks are not warm enough? Who will tell me, every single morning, that my children’s footwear is unsuitable and that they will all have stomach ache tomorrow morning as their feet are not being kept warm enough? Who will bring me a carrier bag full of herbs to boil to put on my chest to stop me coughing?

I'm missing my Fruit and Fibre!

2010-11-04T03:27:00.001-07:00

We’ve been discussing diet recently. This has been triggered by the conversations of our charity workers during their coffee breaks, about the dinners they cook in the evening. Mike and I have been amazed recently whilst doing our shopping how much prices have escalated in the last month. Our workers assure us that they never buy meat and very rarely this year have they been able to eat fresh fruit. Though we have tried to eat like the locals while we have been here we have found that, as we are here for a longer period of time than usual, we do not want to put our children’s health at risk by doing so. Yes, I know that sounds drastic, indeed, maybe you may even be tempted to think that I exaggerate. I will let you be the judge.

Most of the Armenians don’t eat breakfast. However, if they do, their breakfast will be a cup of sweetened tea with a chunk of white bread, condensed milk, or a tablespoon of sour cream or a slice of heavily salted white cheese. Their meals consist mostly of oily carbohydrates. For example, boiled pasta (tossed in lashings of oil), or deep fried aubergine slices served with tomatoes and bread, rice cooked with green lentils etc. Very often, lunch will be a piece of salted cheese and bread. There is very little protein in the diet compared to the average English meal – fish, meat and cheese are all quite expensive. We usually buy a cheddar equivalent (which is cheaper here than in England), but the locals buy a white, heavily-salted type of cheese. Until recently this was about half the price of cheddar, but has now gone up dramatically and I have heard many of the families worrying about what they will eat if they can’t afford cheese. Already they have cut meat, fish, fruit and honey out of their everyday diet. Dried fruits and salamis, tinned beans etc. are unaffordable by the locals unless they make it themselves. The honey many of them eat is simply boiled sugar syrup.

What we consider healthy foods – such a breakfast cereal and milk in the morning, steamed vegetables, roast chicken, grilled fish for lunch – just seem to be unaffordable. Instead the diet is full of white carbohydrates and lots of oil. I am amazed, too, at how difficult it is to eat a variety of vegetables. As I’m in a continual battle with anaemia I have to make sure I eat iron-rich foods. That is not easy. It is also important for me, and for all of us, that our Vitamin B level is kept high. The only readily available vegetables I can find (at reasonable prices) are carrots, beetroot and white cabbage. They just don’t sit down to a plate of healthy steamed vegetables – baby carrots, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage. I know....I know, I imagine all my blog readers are heading out here on the next plane. No brussel sprouts sounds like heaven!

Sing unto the Lord a new song!

2010-11-02T22:42:00.001-07:00

The charity is having a few quiet days this week to recover from the excitement of the weekend. I am sorry I didn’t post a blog sooner about the activities on Saturday unfortunately I have had a horrid head cold – and despite the Armenian remedies, some of which I have tried – its taken me over a week to begin to feel better. I am now feeling a little better and pumped full of amoxycillin.

On Saturday we hosted a “Praise Evening”. We invited all our church, their friends, many of our teen’s group and the choirs of two other churches. Armenians love “exciting events” and our charity workers didn’t leave a stone unturned, in making the evening beautiful. The whole building was reverberating, most of last week, with various singing groups trying out their pieces. The church stage was re-carpeted and decorated. The ladies made a huge banner to decorate the front of the church, covered in colourful musical notes and “Let us sing a new song unto the Lord”. Michael sang 3 pieces for the concert, all in Armenian! My girls sang two Armenian pieces with their friends, and two other groups from our church sang too. Sandwiches and cakes were served in the interval and people were gathered in clusters all over the hallways and stairs of the building chattering and fellowshipping with one another. Several of the old ladies were so excited during the singing, you could see they were finding it hard to stay sitting down. They were grinning all over, swaying to the music and singing quietly (and not so very quietly) along with the choirs. One of them got so excited that she asked Ruth in the interval whether she could sing a piece too! – we managed to deftly persuade her to sing another time!

It was so good to see everyone forget the trials outside, the worries of a cold winter, and family concerns and come and sing heartily to God! Praise and worship are miraculous healers. You can’t sing and praise God, focus on His goodness and greatness to you, focus on the beauty of His holiness, the greatness of His power and the wonder of His love and stay depressed, worrying about your problems and focusing on the nitty gritty of life.