I’m not really sure how to write what I want to today. My heart is heavy and I don’t know how to portray fully what I am feeling.
My team and I just finished up touring the Armenian Genocide museum. Before coming to Armenia I had never even heard about this awful event in history.
I’m not going to try to tell the whole story because I’m not very good at recounting history, though I love it, but I will share a little of what I know and what I learned.
From about 1912-1918, the Republic of Armenia experienced a country-wide genocide by the Ottoman Turks. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were brutally and disgustingly slaughtered by other humans. Men, women and children killed…why?
BECAUSE THEY HAD FAITH IN JESUS.
This nation, the first Christian nation, experienced this deep persecution only 100 years ago. But they didn’t renounce Jesus. Children saw their parents murdered, mothers saw their children slaughtered…all for the name of Jesus! I imagine Jesus, sitting by His Father, was so sad…but I’m sure He was also so proud and so ready to have His kids with Him.
I’ve been wondering since we arrived in Armenia what this deep feeling of sadness and solemness was from…now I know. There are deep hurts and a feeling of loss in this country because of a massacre that happened only 100 years ago because of a love for Jesus.
It just makes me wonder if I would continue to proclaim the name of Jesus if all my family and friends were being killed because of their love for Him. Would you? The people of Armenia did…they stayed faithful to Jesus until their death.
This is a serious question that a lot of people across the world have to face every single day. It’s a question I pray my family and I never have to face…but if I did, I want to proclaim the name of Jesus and stay faithful, just as so many Armenians did.
