Just before leaving Nepal, my team, Zola-ish (or as we sometimes say, Zish), talked a little bit about what we were feeling the Lord was calling us to for ministry in Armenia. I had a few ideas that I felt He wanted me to press in to but I was a little insecure about them because they seemed too “me focused”…I wasn’t really getting much that was outside of that—more to come on that!
But then, one of my teammates mentioned gym ministry. My heart leapt! Exercise is one of my passions and it’s been something that has been lacking from my life a lot on the race. I miss it. And I had felt the Lord telling me to be more disciplined in so many areas of my life. So, I decided to join 2 of my teammates in checking out the gyms in Yerevan.
Jada wasn’t feeling well so Bre and I walked the WHOLE city in search of a good, reasonably priced gym. At the end of the day, we had pretty securely decided on one! We were excited to get into the routine but even more, go and meet women in the gym and be a light to them and hopefully invite them to bible studies, coffee, or meals…the possibilities are endless!
So yesterday, Bre and I got our membership and we started with just an hour pilates class and immediately started meeting women! The class was in Armenian but our lack of the language allowed us to connect with the women even more, I think.
Today, the 3 of us went together and sat in the ‘body workout’ class. All the sweet women around us loved that we were there. They got multiple good laughs as they tried to communicate to us what we were supposed to do but still didn’t understand. The instructor, Naira, would come up and push our bodies into the position they needed to be in…and everyone would laugh. We bonded over exercise and a language barrier…who knew? We introduced ourselves to all the women in the room and had the opportunity to tell them we were missionaries and we love Jesus!
It’s literally day 2 of gym ministry and we’ve already met a handful of women and are excited to continue building relationships as well as care for the temple the Lord has blessed us with through exercise! We’re just waiting to see where the Lord brings this ministry from day 1 until the end of the month!
If you would like to help with this extra ministry cost the Lord has called me to, I would love to partner with you in this! Please let me know if you would like to financially be a part of gym ministry this month with God, my teammates and me!
