Hello from Yerevan! We’ve been here for a full month now. This month has been quite something. When we arrived to Yerevan we had no host and no ministry to welcome us. We simply were told to pray and go where the Lord led. My team has been staying at a hostel near the center of the city run by a sweet Filipino woman named Jessie Lou. Each day we pray and ask where God wants us to go and what He wants us to do. The first few weeks incredible ministry opportunities literally just fell into our laps.
I have a deep love for hostel living. Hostels are a constant revolving door of people from all over the world. We’ve met and spent time with Iranians, Germans, Armenians, and Filipinos (SO MANY Filipinos lol). Everyone in the hostel eats breakfast together each morning and we’ve had some WILD conversation in that kitchen.
One of my friend’s, Oscar, wrote about our time spent with an Iranian couple in one of his blogs. You can check his blog out here: https://oscarromo.theworldrace.org/post/times-are-changing-los-tiempos-estn-cambiando
Oscar said, “I had the opportunity to get to know a couple and another gentleman from Iran. They shared how life was so different and controlled there. How the media portrays Americans to them is the same way they get portrayed to us. Speaking to them I was able to see a greater need as a whole. They are stuck in a place where they have been betrayed by others and their own and are now in a position of seeking.”
They have such an intense hunger for something greater. At one point I was sitting in the kitchen reading my Bible and one of the women approached me and asked if we could read my Bible together. Later, she shared with me more of her story and it brought me to tears. Throughout her story I could so clearly see God’s crazy pursuit of her. I kept telling her how much God loves her, and how much He desires a relationship with her. Man those kinds of conversations…WOW. God is so much greater than I will ever comprehend. Please lift up our Iranian friends in prayer. Lift up the entire country of Iran. God is moving in a wild way.
We also had a cool opportunity to pray with a Filipino man who has a sister who is battling cancer. When he found out that we are Christians, he asked if we could pray with him for his sister. During his stay in the hostel we would join together after breakfast, sometimes other random people in the hostel joining in too, and we would all pray for his sister. Gosh I loved that.
Another day we woke up early and walked to the top of one of Yerevan’s monuments, the Cascades, which is basically a giant flight of stairs leading to the top of a hill that looks over the whole city. We arrived just in time for sunrise and were planning on worshiping a bit and praying over the city. As soon as we got to the top, a very drunk man approached us and asked us why we were up so early. We explained that we wanted to worship God and pray over Yerevan. He explained that he was Mormon, but that he didn’t think God loved him anymore because he drank so much. We were able to share the Gospel with him and he joined us for worship. He even shared a donut and dark chocolate with us that he pulled out of his jacket with us…lol sketchy I know, but shoot that donut was GOOD.
Morning worship at the top of the Cascades
This month has also been really hard for me just with different situations happening back home. God has created the space for me to have more time to sit with Him, while also reminding me of who He is.
I have been attending an international church here in Yerevan each Sunday. Let me tell you, it is such a blessing to worship in English with a congregation of people from all over the world. Each time I stand with those believers worshiping our Father, I am overwhelmed by how the Holy Spirit moves. After months of being the one to pray over people, speak into people’s lives, and share God’s word, it is so incredible to be on the receiving end. Each Sunday I have had people pray over me and speak truth into my life.
I’ve also been able to spend time with a missionary family from South Africa. They have taught me so much about the Holy Spirit and what it means to walk in His gifts. Today the missionary wife invited me over and prayed with me through different situations in my life. God used her to encourage me in a huge way, and I just think it is so cool He used a woman from South Africa to encourage me, an American, in Armenia. #CULTURED lol.
Tomorrow morning we board a bus for Georgia, our ninth country. WILD.
I’m reading 1 Peter right now and 1 Peter 1:8 is currently blowing my mind.
“You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.”
I have a feeling the Lord is in the process of filling my squad with a glorious, inexpressible joy to share with the people of Georgia. LET’S GO!
