Saturday, June 7, 2008
We're Home
We got home this evening. The flight was on time and all the luggage arrived.
We're basically all exhausted and ready for sleep. :)
Just thought I'd update you all that aren't family that we made it home happy and safely! :)
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
We Leave Today
Well, we are leaving in a little under an hour. Last night's Good Bye party was pretty fun. Everyone was so hospitable and it made me not want to leave. But alas, we must start our journey home to bring back our experiences to share with others. I can only pray that we have made a difference in some lives over here. It sometimes didn't feel like we were doing much but the feedback we received was positive.
Well, I guess this brings my post to a close. I'm not sure how much more we are going to post as I don't think the internet service is free in London (everything in London is expensive). If you don't hear from us again, I think I can say that we all look forward to sharing our stories and experiences with you. We appreciate your prayers and we look forward to seeing you again.
Our Last Full Day
Today has been our last full day in Armenia. It is somewhat bittersweet. While I would love to stay here and continue serving, I also miss different aspects of my own home (Amanda has been craving Mexican food the past couple days).
We visited our last english class today and it was pretty casual. We pretty much just talked about the differences between our worship and their worship. We were then asked to evaluate the trip so that others can be planned better in the future. During this discussion, they shared with us how we had touched them and how they thought we were very mature in our faith. This came as a surprise to most of us as you know how Jon and Tommy can act sometimes (ok, we all have had our moments on this trip, just some more than others).
This whole experience has shown me how we can touch others lives without even knowing it. On Sunday, the priests at the church we helped out at mentioned that just our presence encourages the other young people at their church. Then Arsen mentioned that he was really impressed that we stayed through the entire Sunday service (liturgy). He said it showed them how devoted we were. They even mentioned that they felt there was much they could learn from us. I honestly don't feel worthy of that compliment.
When I was preparing for this trip, I tried not to have many expectations of the time here. I didn't want to put this experience in a box and only do what I had in my mind to do. I thought that it would just be really fulfilling to help others in need and through the process I wanted to enlarge my idea of what Christianity was. However, I found that I was being ministered to by the very people we were ministering to. It just continues to amaze me how that happens.
Why is it that we feel the need to go to the other side of the World to do this sort of thing? How many opportunities are there locally where we can serve? I think we get into the mindset that we are too busy to take time out of our schedule. Yet when we do take time out of our schedules to share the Love of God, we are blessed beyond imagination. I think this is one of the things that I have taken out of this trip. I plan on writing more about my experience during our plane ride to London tomorrow. Then I'll be able to explain my thoughts a little clearer.
Again, Thanks so much for your prayers. It has truly been a great trip and I can't wait to share all the pictures and video with you when we return. Please pray for our continued health, team unity, and safe travel. The NLI staff is throwing a going away party for us tonight so we're leaving for that in about 45 minutes. May God continue to bless you beyond all you can imagine or think to imagine.
Monday, June 2, 2008
With our blogs combined... we are too long of a post.

Monday ... it has officially been one week since we left!
Today was an amazing day!! Yes, as Dani mentioned the girls are grumpy sometimes, but only because we are a little tired sometimes. :) And as I said before, I think it's good that we're getting tired on this trip. :)
We got to spend the entire day today 2 hours outside of Yerevan in the town of Gyumri. It was made famous some years ago (1988) after the giant earthquake they had there. There is still evidence of the earthquake in the city, but they are definitely rebuilding. Well we spent the day visiting orphanages.
The first half of the day was spent at an orphanage that housed over 70 children from the ages of 4 to 23. The older kids were away at school, but they were able to spend their summers at the orphanage until they were able to establish themselves and graduate. Some of the children sang for us and Joe juggled for them. We also worked in the play yard that they had with various projects. The boys did something that required muscles, and they found a rat? I'm not entirely sure what happened because I was on the other side of the yard pulling weeds and playing volleyball, so I will let one of them fill you in on what they did.
In the afternoon we visited another orphanage that is the only one of its kind in Armenia. It houses children from birth to 6 years old that have a variety of physical and mental disabilities. It was absolutely heart wrenching. I wanted to take each and every one of them home with me. We had a great time playing with the kids. They absolutely loved Joe's juggling, it was so cute how amazed they were by it. We were able to give them stickers and stuffed animals and we played with the kids for a while. The kids all had great smiles, and it was so sad to leave them. Please pray for the workers at the orphanage because it definitely takes a special person to deal with dozens of disabled children that are so young and not able to take care of themselves.
Well it's getting late and Joe got mad at me for stealing his computer last night for over an hour, so I should probably let him have it back now. :)
See you all soon!
--Anne
We got to spend the entire day today 2 hours outside of Yerevan in the town of Gyumri. It was made famous some years ago (1988) after the giant earthquake they had there. There is still evidence of the earthquake in the city, but they are definitely rebuilding. Well we spent the day visiting orphanages.
The first half of the day was spent at an orphanage that housed over 70 children from the ages of 4 to 23. The older kids were away at school, but they were able to spend their summers at the orphanage until they were able to establish themselves and graduate. Some of the children sang for us and Joe juggled for them. We also worked in the play yard that they had with various projects. The boys did something that required muscles, and they found a rat? I'm not entirely sure what happened because I was on the other side of the yard pulling weeds and playing volleyball, so I will let one of them fill you in on what they did.
In the afternoon we visited another orphanage that is the only one of its kind in Armenia. It houses children from birth to 6 years old that have a variety of physical and mental disabilities. It was absolutely heart wrenching. I wanted to take each and every one of them home with me. We had a great time playing with the kids. They absolutely loved Joe's juggling, it was so cute how amazed they were by it. We were able to give them stickers and stuffed animals and we played with the kids for a while. The kids all had great smiles, and it was so sad to leave them. Please pray for the workers at the orphanage because it definitely takes a special person to deal with dozens of disabled children that are so young and not able to take care of themselves.
Well it's getting late and Joe got mad at me for stealing his computer last night for over an hour, so I should probably let him have it back now. :)
See you all soon!
--Anne
I think the girls are tired!!!!
So we have one more full day here in this lovely land of Armenia!!! The girls here have been doing so good if i do say so myself. We have alternated grumpy days so that only one girls is grumpy at a time. It sounds weird but, one we are girls and to if we were all grumpy together the boys would go crazy.. OOO wait they already our.. Anyways the girls and I are loving are time together and building on each others strengths and i think being up lifting in there weaknesses. As for Don and Lana they our putting up with us.. Well more Lana then Don.. Don in it selfs says a lot but he makes it way to easy to pick on him... Just Kidding.. (nope i'm lying)
But until we get home and people can watch and see for yourselves i am going to do something use full..
Dani
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Video
Hello all,
I've been working on a video the past couple nights to show in church this morning. So, I've been working on my computer the past couple nights after everyone has gone to bed. So, I'll post it here so those of you who missed it at church can see it here. Things are good (as you've read in Anne's long post below). I'm going to head to bed now: the first time in a couple nights that has been before 12:30 a.m. Enjoy the video.
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