September 1, 2012

• First Minstry Trip Out of Ukraine

  In the past few weeks I have taken my first trip out of Ukraine into another country of the CIS… Armenia. On Friday, August 17, I left Kiev for Yerevan, Armenia (the capital city). Traveling into Yerevan is very interesting. Flights arrive into the Yerevan airport at 3:30 AM! I met up with Lonnie Norris, the CIS field strategy coordinator, along the journey and we arrived in Yerevan on Saturday morning… at that very early hour after a night of missed sleep.

  I learned much about the country of Armenia while visiting there with the pastors. Did you know that Armenia was the first Christian country? Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion… early fourth century. Also, from the capital city of Yerevan, you can see (on a sunny day) Mount Ararat. I was only able to see a dim outline of the great mountain during this visit. I took a picture, but if I posted it and showed you where the mountain was you would doubt my sanity. Mount Ararat today belongs to the land of Turkey, which is a sore subject for many in Armenia.

  Armenia has a rough and difficult history of wars. One of the topics that came up often in simple discussions was the genocide that occurred in the early 20^th century. The genocide occurred at the end of World War I. The Ottoman government (modern day Turkey) determined to eliminate the people of Armenia and massacred somewhere between 1 and 1.5 million people (mostly men). The people are still greatly affected by this history and speak often of great-grandparents who lost their lives during this horrible time.

  Another great point of discussion for the Armenian people was the devastating earthquake of December 7, 1988. It occurred near the city of Gyumri, where the Church of the Nazarene has four churches within 30 minutes of each other. The earthquake killed approximately 25,000 people and devastated many towns and villages in the area. Many people were forced to live in storage containers for many months. In fact, today (24 years later), there are still people living in these containers. When the earthquake hit, it was already very cold. Most families were forced to live outside in tents for up to a month to avoid further loss of life due to the collapsing of the buildings.

  During the three days in Armenia, we met with the district superintendent, the district’s kid’s club director, and 6 pastors. It was also my privilege to preach at Akhuryan Church of the Nazarene. God blessed our journey to Armenia. What a wonderful group of pastors we have there! We are working through some challenging things on the Armenia district, but there are reasons for excitement and the future is bright.

  The departure from Yerevan is a similar story to our arrival. The flight out of Yerevan left at 4:30 AM… meaning that we had to arrive at the airport at 2:30 AM… another sleepless night.

  Following my trip to Armenia, I traveled to the European Region Office in Busingen, Germany. We stayed at EuNC and were a part of a training session done by Dr. Gustavo Crocker and Dr. Stan Toler. We were surrounded by around 25 leaders from Europe and Asia for training in evangelism and church planting. My desire and challenge is to turn and train others across the CIS field on the same topics over the next two years. It was a great time of learning and growing.

  It was wonderful to return home to Kiev and my wonderful family. Jenni, Bekah, and Sarah did great in my absence, but we rejoiced as we were reunited together 8 days after I left Kiev.

  This past week was our week of VBS at Pozniaky Community Church of the Nazarene. It was a great success as this church plant continues to train new leaders for ministry and reach their community for Christ. The VBS was broken into two groups (younger kids from 4:00 PM – 6:30 PM and teens from 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM). One of the highlights for me was seeing teenagers who came to faith in Jesus during the week of youth camp in Ukraine NOW serving and sharing with the younger kids the life-changing stories of Jesus Christ and salvation through Him!

  In the days ahead, I will be speaking to a group of 30-35 singles regarding godly relationships, preaching in one of our Kiev churches, and meeting with pastors from across our field. We greatly appreciate your prayers and loving support of our ministry here. God continues to help us learn the Russian language. We are seeing progress…

  • 5:08 am
  • 1 Comment