Today, my friend Lauren & I walked down the street from our new apartment in Yerevan across from the park where artists come to create & sell their oil canvas paintings. We sat at the bus stop to catch a cab with our contact here in Armenia, it was one of the nicest & sunniest days we have had so far.
We got to go & volunteer at an orphanage run by sisters here in Yerevan. The orphanage has 20 boys and girls, all with physical & mental disabilities. When we arrived we hung our coats on a rack & were handed little blue slippers to put on instead of sneakers. We walked upstairs in the orphanage, following one of the sisters into a room of seven little boys & girls all under the age of five. The room was filled with light, little gnome wall paper & a large yellow sunflower in the middle of the wall. We started to meet the workers & kids & were shortly given bottles to feed them!
One of the little girls, Anni had a coloring book & pencils on her table, & she spent most of her time taking her pink glasses on & off, practicing saying hi & no, & playing peek-a-boo whenever we glanced over. Another girl, Inga, will be adopted by an American family at the end of February. She was the sweetest little girl, enthralled with a new game of throwing her pillow on the ground, & laughing as I would pick it up each time. There were also three boys in rockers, & three boys laying on a pad playing with little toys. Some workers came in with their coffee & pastries chatting in Armenian for a few minutes before we all started feeding. The majority of our time there was spent giving the kids attention, playing, feeding & after the children were all laid down for sleep we wiped down the rooms & hung up clean laundry to dry. It was such a sweet time to be able to interact with these children who just need people to care & love them.
Yesterday, we were introduced to a man living at a monastery outside of Yerevan. We told him that we were a group of people traveling for eleven months, partnering with different organizations & church ministries, helping wherever & however we can. He asked us, “What do you think Armenia needs? How do you think you can help this country?” It wasn’t meant to be offensive or challenging, he just wanted to understand our mission. But when he asked this question, I immediately thought of the overwhelming need for loving hands to care for the children in the orphanage that we volunteer with, I thought of the blind woman who needs a friend to clean her house. I thought of the women subjected to prostitution who need freedom, & the college students searching for purpose, searching for answers of what they should believe. There are so many faces that I have seen in Yerevan in the past two weeks with some kind of need. The faces of ordinary people who just need Jesus.
The pastor of an international church here said, “Jesus moved in power with unimportant, invisible people and met their needs and they followed him. A lot of people need a “felt” need before their heart is ready to accept Jesus.” I believe that this is what Armenia, & countries all over the world need. They need people like you & me to give up our agendas over and over, just like Jesus did. We need to have hearts & eyes to see the invisible, the unimportant, the poor, the people in want. We need to be available & ready to move when Jesus asks.
It has been incredible to be able to bless people in Armenia with our time, & our hands. There has been opportunity after opportunity for myself & my teammates to help active ministries here. More than anything, I feel that I have been the one blessed to be a part of what God is doing here, & so amazed by the people we get to engage with everyday. & I am so very thankful for all of you who made it possible to send me here! God is at work, He is alive & active, & He continues to surprise me with His heart for people.
Much love to all of you!!
Emily
