A great retreat in Mount Smash, Ajaltoun

On April 26 and 27, the Emmanuel Church junior youth spent two awesome days in Mount Smash, in Ajaltoun area. On Saturday morning, 35 youth and 6 leaders had already packed up their bags, ready and present in Emmanuel Church to head to our destination at 9:30 am.

Almost everyone was excited. We arrived safely, and we had lots of fun time.

Raffi led the worship time after which our speaker, the wife of our pastor, Mrs. Vera Svajian talked to the youth about their parents and their relationship with them. She gave very real, practical and every-day examples, to which the youth identified very closely.
Later on, we discussed the issues between parents and youth further in our 5 discussion groups.






The fun part was never missing. The youth had plenty of hours to swim in the pool and to steam up in the sauna. Moreover, another interesting, and fun part, was during the night game session that we had. Raffi led the night game session and we played "Who am I?" for the first time. The youth got really excited and were so much into the game that some even protested on the idea of being "slaves" to their new "master". In the end Areni Svajian won and she became the "master" of all.

Jimmy had brought with her the movie, "Liar, Liar", that we watched and had our movie night in the salon. While watching, Hagop and Manoug took their time serving popcorn.






The next day, on Sunday, the youth spent time alone with God and tried to see what God had to tell them through the devotion that Jimmy had prepared. Later, we had time to walk in nature and admire the beauty that God had created.

Hagop Gojigian led the worship time and he provided the opportunity to the youth to submit their lives to Christ and to follow him. A number of youth decided to follow Christ and to live for Him. We are now praying for them, knowing very well that their path will be filled with temptations and struggles, however, we also believe that God is good and He will not allow them to be tempted beyond what they can bear.



The time to return back to Emmanuel Church was almost here. We wanted to stay, however, we knew that we had to get back to our families and to our community to live the life for Christ, with Whom we can live our lives stronger, even though the path will not be smooth and easy.

We are very grateful to God for allowing us to have a great retreat, through His servants and those who love the youth. We would like to thank Mr. Serop Ohanian, who helped us in finding funds for our annual retreat, and rode part of the group back to church.





The condition of the Armenians in Lebanon

YEREVAN (Combined Sources)-The safety of Armenian citizens in Lebanon as well as that of the greater Lebanese Armenian Community is secure for the time being, Head of the Middle East Department of Armenian Foreign Ministry Armen Melkonyan told a press conference in Yerevan Thursday.
Melkonyan's statements came as Arab League mediators said on Thursday they had brokered a deal to end Lebanon's worst round of internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war. According to the mediators, Hezbollah has agreed to hold talks with the government and remove a roadblock that has shut down the airport for a week.
Shortly after violence broke out between clashing pro-government and opposition Hezbollah forces on May 7, the Lebanese branches of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Armenian Democratic League (Ramkavar Azatakan Party) and Social Democratic Hunchakian Party came forth with a joint statement urging the feuding sides to put an end to bloodshed, engage in dialogue and restore national unity, Melkonyan explained.
The Armenian community in Lebanon has remained neutral in this latest round of internal conflict to hit Lebanon since the civil war, he said. The position of the Armenian national parties and the whole Armenian community during the internal conflicts in Lebanon should therefore be assessed positively.
Melkonian explained that the only major damage suffered by the Armenian community has been the burning of the "Sevan" radio station, which shared the same building as a pro-Hezbollah political party. Despite that fact, the radio station was allowed time to evacuate its equipment and resumed broadcasting a few hours later from an alternate location.
The Armenian Embassy in Lebanon and the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been closely following developments in Lebanon and will be increasing embassy staff in order to deal with the situation on the ground, he told reporters.
"We are ready to assist our citizens there and, if possible, the Lebanese Armenians," he added.
"Lebanon is a friendly country with which [Armenia] has many historical and cooperative ties," The Foreign Ministry Official said. "Lebanon is the only Arab country that has recognized the Armenian Genocide, and it is the only Arab country we have an agreement on friendship and cooperation with."
The situation in Lebanon concerns Armenia, not only because the country is home to one of the largest Armenian Diasporas, but also because the stability of Lebanon affects the stability and security of the entire region, Melkonyan stressed, noting that Armenia is very close to the Middle East.
"We hope that the [conflicting] parties will soon reach a solution to the issue through dialogue," he said.
But Armenia plays no role in the given situation and cannot interfere with the domestic affairs of Lebanon, Melkonyan noted. The conflict is the internal affair of Lebanon, and any foreign interference will result in an aggravation of the conflict.
"If we look back, we shall see that what is happening in Lebanon, is the consequence of foreign interference," Melkonyan said.

"The work of a critic is easy. We risk very little..."

It was fascinating, watching Remy, the rat, in Ratatouille, the animated movie. Yet, the character that grabbed my attention was Mr. Anton Ego (the critic), who resembles many of the critics that we encounter in our lives.
Here's a confession that Mr. Anton writes as part of his review, after he tastes the dish (ratatouille) prepared by Remy, and is flash-backed to his childhood, when his mother used to cook ratatouille for him...
In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talents, new creations. The new needs friends.


Raffi

Do you decide...?

Do you decide
where you are going?
Or like me,
you let yourself
be dragged away by somebody?

Do you face
whatever happens?
Or like me,
you lie hidden
behind lies, for eternity?

Do you cry
when you feel like it?
Or like me,
you hold it in
to escape mockery?

Do you smile
in your sleep?
Or like me,
you try waking
to forget what you see?

Do you delight
in what you did?
Or like me,
you wish it hadn't
gone so badly?

Like me,
do you sleep,
when you wish to wake?
do you laugh,
when you wish to weep?
do you wander,
though you know the way?
do you embrace,
those you wish to murder?

Do you do
what you want?
Or like myself,
don't realise,
the only one stopping me,
is me.

Do you enjoy
all that life brings?
Or like me,
you crawl through it,
though you were born with Fire Wings.

By Fire Wings

Soccer match among the chanitzagans


(Standing from left to right): M. Chilingirian, J. Baghboudarian, K. Aynilian, H. Assilian, H. Hanneyan, H. Yacoubian, H. Demirjian, S. Churukian, H. Gojigian, M. Hagopian.
(In Front from left to right): G. Avesian, A. Torkomian, Rev. H. Svajian (the pastor), S. Ohanian.

The Role of the Layperson in the Armenian Evangelical Church

Excerpts from the Article titled "The Role of the Layperson in the Armenian Evangelical Church" By Rev. L. Nishan Bakalian

Read the Complete Article

If all our Union’s clergy and ministerial students were rounded up and taken somewhere to be imprisoned or even killed, what would our churches do? Would they continue; would they survive?
These ruminations are quite logical when considering the reformation ideal, “The priesthood of all believers.” This ideal, from which we often fall short, is one of the central tenets of the Reform tradition, and it represents a major difference between Evangelical and non-Evangelical Armenian churches - or at least it did at one time.

...

From our current perspective we may wish things could have been a bit different, so that over the years the Armenian Evangelical would not have expunged so much of his native culture from his life and worship, adopting a Western one in its place. In any event, that Armenian Evangelical of old is practically a forgotten species. The distinctiveness which defined his public behavior has gradually been forgotten, and a caricature has replaced it. Certain habits have been retained for the sake of appearance, not out of conviction. The internal drive which made him what he was are all but gone, and so most of our laypeople (here the unfortunate dichotomy enters) know neither what they believe, nor why they do. We have come to resemble the world around us, not as a strategy to win others to salvation and faith in Jesus Christ (note Paul’s words in I Corinthians 9.19-23), but in order to win society’s approval. This latter manifestation of Armenian Evangelicalism is the current norm, and it represents a collective abandonment of our purpose as a distinct group.

...

Both Armenian Evangelical clergy and laity are responsible for pushing the balance towards clergy; frequently clergy have been afraid of giving laymen authority and negligent in training believers in the responsible use of authority. Laypersons have accustomed themselves to think of faith issues as separate and unimportant, as opposed to material issues. This has led to passivity in deepening ones faith, and aggressive activity in running the church like one’s personal business. Lay people must take ownership of the church and become full members of it, fully participating in its life and mission. The present contentment with only a fragment of our Lord Jesus’ Great Commission, an embarrassing dichotomy, has become established in our churches, along with a lack of vision for all God can accomplish through us. We have bred spiritually passive laymen over the years. Armenian Evangelical families have trained their children to keep their connection to the church as tenuous as possible, and to keep their treasures and their hearts anywhere but there. We trivialize the mission and ministry of the church by arguing over irrelevant topics, ensuring the disinterest of outsiders, and making outsiders of our own youth. For effective Christian witness, God can use the pastor, who is more or less trained in what to say and how to say it, but he can often more effectively use a layman who has a good basic knowledge of what he believes, and is deeply convinced of why he believes. The pastor’s job, then, is to train laypersons to live as children of light, to stand firm against the tide of this world, and to go and relate to one or two others in his daily life in such a way that they come to faith, and likewise spread the word, in particular including their own children (see II Timothy 2.1-2).

...

More specifically, the Armenian evangelical church, especially its clergy, needs to inspire and call its members to share in the ministry of the Gospel in all aspects of life - worship, education, culture, politics, athletics, and so on. It must be a calling, training, and sending body, or else it will become a closed system, running out of energy, being indistinguishable from the decaying world it seeks to change. It will look a lot like it does today, unable to attract new members, unable to communicate a viable vision, because it lacks such a viable vision. We need to define ourselves in deeper and more meaningful terms; not as the people who do not drink, smoke or dance, nor as the people who do drink, smoke or dance (fill in your favorite prescription or proscription), but as multi-faceted and multi-talented people who follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, who study his Word, who go to all the places he went, who affect others with their wisdom and witness, yet are not affected by the materialism or unbelief surrounding them.