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! :)

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.

With our blogs combined... we are too long of a post.

This post is actually two night's worth writing put into one. Feel free to take your time, for it is an incredibly long post. As you can see by the picture, we are sitting outside on a Sunday night in some sort of outside bar/café area. “Jazzve Coffee” is the name. As usual, people are staring at Tommy trying to figure out what animal he killed to put on his head. Little do they know that he is a vegan, and that thing on his head is just two years of unkempt hair. Though the culture here is wonderful and the people incredibly friendly, I have never been around so many smokers since the last time I was in the Las Vegas airport. Tonight at dinner (what an experience that was, see below) a man walked in and began smoking a cigarette. My honey chicken tasted wonderful with the hint of Noy Brand Cigarettes. Simply put, it’s been a wonderful few days. On Friday we had the privilege of being invited to a disabled center in a village just outside of Yerevan, which is the capital of Armenia. What a fascinating time! Not only was the drive over there a treat, as our taxi had to be restarted nearly 6 times on our way to the Philadelphia Center (the disabled center), but the entire day was an incredible cultural indulgence. The first sight that we saw as we pulled up was a man, Hovannes (Jonathan) or Hovo (Jon), coming down the stairs from the center greeting us with open arms, a smile, and a camera in his hand. We’ve been told that the mentally and physically handicapped are somewhat cast aside around here, so I imagine that for them to have anyone come in and lovingly care for their students, help them paint, and simply be there means the world to them. In my 23 years of living, I have never been as imaginative or creative as some of these students in their artwork. Sergi, a mentally handicapped man in his 30’s, had made upwards of about 20-25 sculptures that were just fantastic. (Just to let you know, I just drank a great coffee/ice cream drink at this café. You should be jealous.) In each fissure of his work held evidence of the amount of work that went into each piece of art. Speaking of artsy individuals, the young adults of NLI prepared an art show as somewhat of an outreach event. We had the privilege of attending and seeing some photographs and paintings. Again, my art creativity is nothing when compared some of these individuals. Perhaps I should just spend a year over here and become a professional artist. Knowing me, though, there is no hope. Other than the fact that it was 85 degrees inside the room and all of us were already tired and our feet near dead, I would say that the NLI students put on a great show. Humble hearts mixed with hands created to create equals God in action. I need to look at our schedule to remember what we did day by day. Yesterday was nice. More Armenian cultural enlightenment by way of heading to Garni-Geghard. In Garni, there is the “church in the rock.” Literally, it was a former pagan temple turned Christian church carved into a rock. It was also one of six Christian churches to remain standing after the Soviets came into Armenia. Fascinating culture over. If you ever get a chance, buy a plane ticket and cruise on over here. ……………… So, last night before I could post the rest of this blog, my computer ran out of juice and by the time we got back to the hostel, I was too tired to do anything. Luckily, Anne has more common sense than I do and she stayed in the hostel to finish her blog. Thanks Anne! Where did she leave off? I believe she talked about the Bazaar? We got back into Yerevan from Garni and we entered the Bazaar. Let me tell you; it was bizarre (get it? Bazaar… bizarre. I’m hopeless.) I paid about 90 dollars for a painting, a full size Armenian flag, and a few other things. In America, I would be broke. I love it here. The little money that I do have gets me a long way around here. Let me finish this off with some final thoughts on what we did today as well as some spiritual reflections on my part. Today was something unique. When people speak of mission’s trips, there seems to always be some mentioning of an orphanage here or there. So, here is the mentioning. Today we headed to a couple of orphanages. Both were quite different in whom they housed, but both were on level when it came to housing and loving children who would elsewhere be tossed aside and forgotten. At the first orphanage we were able to witness some really magnificent children. Two sung for us, and both were touching. It’s funny how words don’t matter if song is beautiful. The songs were in Armenian, but I would be a liar if I said that my eyes did not well up during their performance. After Joe did some juggling, which, by the way, is always outstanding, we headed out to the yard to do some work. God graced us with exceptional weather today, again, so the yard work was really quite enjoyable. As Anne mentioned, the ladies played volleyball and picked some weeds. The men, on the other hand, had to clear out a side yard, which was filled with rocks, weeds, trash, and some of the finest specimens of large spiders I had ever seen. As we moved these large rocks (or in Don’s case, pebbles) a few mice scurried out and through our legs to find a new home. We finished up, shook some hands and picked up a terrific drawing that a child did of the creator of the Armenian alphabet, Saint Mesrop Mashtots (yes, mash-tots). You’ll be able to see this drawing in the church office. After that, we headed to another orphanage. At this next orphanage were children that had been born with mental or physical defects. What an emotionally trying time. Speaking personally, I felt I wanted to stray away from saying anything after the experience for fear that my inner being would be exposed and my words would be too raw and untested. We walked from classroom to classroom, seeing the work that had been done regarding the reupholster of the buildings and to meet the children (ages 3-6) we would be working with for the allotted time. Of course, I had to go to the restroom before we headed into the “main event” as I like to call it. After getting lost, a helpful nurse finally pointed me into the right direction and I entered a room in which about 10-15 young children sat in a row at the front of the room, one of who was singing. Cute. She sang. We clapped. She sang again. We clapped again. Joe juggled. These were all good and well, but the next half hour was when I was truly moved. We were given stickers and stuffed animals to hand out to each child. We were able to put stickers on the shirts, hands and faces of each child. Hilarity ensued. What happened to being amazed by such things such as having stickers being put on our face; Or having a stuffed animal being rubbed against our cheek? No child said the sticker was too sticky or the stuffed animal was too harsh against their skin. Rather, we ambassadors of Christ were given smiles and giggles, hugs and kisses and acceptance. I’ve always been somewhat jaded when it came to short terms missions. I felt as though it was something that people did in order to get their spiritual fill and feel as though they had made a difference in the world. I can be a fairly negative person, and often I will say that helping one person just isn’t worth it. See what I mean? But something occurred to me today. Something that perhaps we all are hoping for, but never acknowledge. On our way to Gumri, I got a great chance to pick up “The Return of the Prodigal Son” by Henri Nouwen. In here, I read the words “inner place.” I meditated over them and wondered what my inner place was? I wondered if I had been to this place and if so, have I allowed myself to make myself comfortable there? Not everyone on this mission’s team is alike. We all chose to come on this trip for various reasons. Perhaps it was to help the helpless and love the unlovable. Either way, we are all faced with our inner place. For some of us, and this includes me without a doubt, this inner place is too dark or too true for us to handle, but we appeal to our curiosity and take a peak. Through our working with orphans and the NLI students we all have been faced with a harsh reality. For me, though, I cannot say what this reality is. Perhaps it is too soon, and my writing would be too confidential to share with you readers. Know this, my faithful prayer warriors. You are not only thinking and praying for those we are helping, or even our strenuous schedule and dealings with each other. No, you are praying for something much deeper and much more meaningful. Yes, you are coaxing God to reveal Himself to His people in Armenia as well as yourselves. Dive into that deep fissure that we so often try to hide from others and ultimately ourselves. Throw yourself into the mercy of the Cross, and face the demons that so often haunt you, causing you to be wary in your faith and shallow in your relationships. It’s 11:30, which explains the atrociously long blog. Thank you for your patience, prayers and uncompromising love for our team. I hope to bring back lots of pictures, and better yet, lots of stories of Christ’s love in action over here. Funnies: 1) Tommy is a celebrity… still 2) A little girl pulled on my beard today… and it hurt bad 3) The driving is still dangerous… but we’re putting bets on all of our lives 4) Armenian rap music 5) Don Gray… all that needs to be said. ☺

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

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

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.

Finally! An Update!

Hey there everybody!

Sorry you haven't heard from us in a couple days.  The internet connection was down here at the hostel, so we had a little trouble updating for a little while there.  It's all better now though.  

Well, I finally got the time to kick Joe off his computer and write the blog I've been telling him I would do for the past 3 nights.  Armenia.  Oh Armenia, what can I say?  Where should I start?  First off, I'm not quite sure if you all know that we literally are on the other side of the world.  It's a 12 hour time difference from California, so as you guys are just about getting out of church this morning, we are getting ready for bed.  The trip has been quite amazing so far, but since others have updated you on what we have done for most of the time I will just update you on the past few days.

Friday was a beautiful day.  We took an amazing taxi ride (similar to the video Joe posted earlier) right out of town to the disability center.  The people there were all so genuine and kind.  We took some time to take a small tour of the facility and then got right to work.  The first half of the morning was spent moving furniture and painting.  It's amazing how great a place can look after a fresh coat of paint.  Then we had lunch.  Everyone agrees that lunch was AMAZING!  I think it was the first and only genuinely home cooked meal that we will get on this trip.  But enough about the food.  After lunch, we were waiting for the kids to arrive and Amanda, Dani and I went for a little walk around the apartments nearby.  Amanda had been told that they were built during the Soviet era, and because of this, they were all identical.  I can't tell you how crazy it was to see over a dozen identical apartment buildings lined up one after another.  I could almost hear a Soviet anthem playing in the background.  After lunch and our random wanderings, some of the local kids gathered around the disability center and we got to play musical chairs with them and give them some presents.  It was really neat to see how simple games and laughter cross all language barriers.

Saturday was a whole lot of fun.  It was our day to get in touch with the Armenian culture (sightseeing day).  Really though, I find it fascinating to learn more about different cultures and in order to help others you need to first understand where they are coming from.  We started the day off with a breathtaking view of Mt. Ararat.  After some pictures we continued up the road to "The Church in the Rock".  It has a proper Armenian name that I can't remember right now, but basically it is a church that was partially carved out of the side of a mountain.  The monks there lived in caves carved out of the same mountain surrounding the church.  It was very unique architecture.  According to the stories we were told, a monk was given a vision from God of how to carve a church out of the mountain, and well ... he did ... and it's still around today.  After spending the morning there, we went down into a beautiful gorge and had a fish Barbecue.  Delicious.  Then when given the option of a two hour hike or a one hour hike, we opted for the one hour hike.  Much to the dismay of Joe and Tommy, who could have hiked all day.  The girls didn't brink their hiking shoes. :)  I must say that it was absolutely beautiful though.  The rock formations in the canyon were like nothing I had ever seen, and if we had a USB cable, I could show you, but alas, you must wait until we get home to see.  There was a beautiful babbling brook running through the canyon as well, Jon went swimming (unintentionally).  That afternoon we went to the Yerevan bazaar (swap meet?).  It was a whole lot of fun to try and get some good deals.  They had everything from engine parts to jewelry, from clothes to paintings.  That evening we went to NLI (National Leadership Institute) and watched a film in Russian (English subtitles) with some of the students there and via translator had a small discussion about it.  

Sunday (today) we got our earliest wake up call yet.  We had to be ready to go by 8:30!  Ugh! haha.   It wasn't that bad, we have just been exhausted from our long days lately.  And waking up a little earlier was totally worth it.  Today we got to visit a Sunday School is a town of about 5,000 outside of Yerevan called Mughni.  The kids did a play for us that was demonstrated three of the ten commandments.  Joe juggled for the kids, they really enjoyed that.  We played Red Light, Green Light with the kids, and passed out crowns and tiaras that the Lake Hills Sunday School students made for them.  After the Sunday School we went to a church service ourselves.  It was very, very different from what we are used to at home.  It was very traditional.  Thankfully one of the NLI leaders Armen found some books with English translations of what was going on throughout the service, so we were able to follow along.  Back in Mughni we got to experience how "lavish" is made.  Lavish is a flat bread that we have had with every single meal over here in Armenia.  I know that Joe has a video of this, so instead of attempting to describe it with my mediocre words, I will convince him to post the video.  But what you should know is that lavish is: delicious, even better when fresh, my new favorite food, and you can get it at Trader Joe's :)  After lunch we distributed the prayer shawls that were made by ladies at Lake Hills to the Sunday School teachers from the surrounding villages.  They were very thankful that they were being thought of and prayed for by people back in the States.  After lunch we were put back to work and varnished the doors and window frames of the Community Center in Mughni, which is also where they held the Sunday School classes.  It was a lot of fun, hard work.  

Well that is all I can think of at the moment to say ... it's nearly midnight here and I really should be getting to bed soon. haha

Hope you all are being safe back in the states.  Thankfully the only problem we are having over here is exhaustion, but that just means we are being useful and doing what we came here to do. :)

--Anne