Our Chanitz Riddle Winner

You can find the riddle here: http://www.chanitz.com/2008/04/riddle-me-this.html

7 people participated out of which 6 people had answered correctly. 3 were from outside Lebanon and 3 from Lebanon.

We had to pick a winner and we had a ballot just yesterday during mother's father's day event. We asked Mrs. Pauline Aynilian to pick a name out of the closed ballot and Mrs. Sevan Balabanian (USA) came out as the winner.

Congratulations and we hope many would participate and will become winners.

The prize is from Sulahian Super Store. For 20$ the winner will be able to buy anything from the store.

General Knowledge Contest on the Book of Acts

The General Knowledge Contest event, that has become an annual event, took place on Saturday 10 May, 2008. Despite the alarming situation, almost everyone came to church, where the contest among 5 groups were to take place.
They were:
Junior Youth (M. Hagopian, J. Kozman-Ohanian, M. Ibitian, H. Gojigian, R. Chilingirian), Youth (S. Ohanian, S. Demirjian, A. Kazezian, M. Jertidian),
Sunday School (A. Kazezian, M. Chilingirian, A. Torkomian, A. Tahazian),
Ladies (digin Ani, digin Sossy, oriort Shake, digin Bakalian),
HokaKhnam (Mr. S. Svajian, Mr. A. Churukian, Mrs. A. Mazmanian, Mr. G. Aroyan),
and this year the new thing was the coming together of a new group to form the Free Group (Ms. M. Markarian, Ms. A. Markarian, Ms. S. Boyajian, Ms. V. Kalousdian, Mr. H. Avedanian).

The pastor Rev. H. Svajian opened the contest and after presenting the jury (Ms. V. Balkjian and Ms. A. Baboghlanian) and the host (Ms. Sh. Geocherian), the clock started ticking and the questions starting pouring, and the teams started to feel the adrenalin. It was a heated and very close competition, specially between the Youth and Ladies teams for the 1st and 2nd place, and between the Junior Youth and Free Group for the 3rd and 4th place. In the end, the Chanitz Youth team snatched the first place, and they deserved the victory, since they were able to answer almost all the questions.














Emails and Messages...

Mr. Mihran Jizmejian (Canada): "Dear Friends: I was greatly impressed that quite a few of Armenian Evangelical Youth leaders had taken part in the leadership program provided. May I suggest that those leaders are provided with a copy of my recently published book, from the office of the M.E. Union, titled Արթնցուր Ներսիդիդ Գտնուող Առաջնորդը "Artenxour nersitit kednevogh arachnorte" Awaken the leader within."

Bob Shackelford (USA): writing about Rev. Varkes Kassouni, "Greetings to a wonderful fellow I first met in college in the 1950s."

Len Titizian (Kessab, Syria): "Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, thank you for adding me as a reader to your important news. May God thourougly bless your mission."

Houry Dora Apartian-Friedli (Switzerland): "I have missed alot being around you, and i am glad you always keep me updated ... thank you and God Bless You All."... "I am glad you found this way of keeping us all in the family from near and far."

Philip Tavlian (USA): wrote to us about their event and Rev. AghabalOghlu's visit to First Armenian Presbyterian Church.

Anahid Artinian Jamgotchian (Saudi Arabia): "Thank you for the Blog. Thank you for including the April 24. Միացեալ Պաշտամունք՝ Հայոց Ցեղասպանութեան 93-Ամեակին. The message was very profound. It was almost like being there in person.
Keep up the good work."

Dr. Gevork Kherlopian (USA): "Dear Editors: I read you paper with great satisfaction.It carries me back to my childhood and youth. It also nourishes me with religious and intellectual values. I pay special attention to articles dealing with the issues our churches are facing today. I think we need to be more cautious and with more understanding of the contemporary problems all Churches and Christianity is forced to face all over the world."

Haig Darakjian, commenting on the article title "The Role of the Layperson in the Armenian Evangelical Church": I definitely agree with God's sovereignty and his power. But I think Rev. Bakalian is discussing something else. He is pointing out the problem that the "clergy" does all the work of ministry when the Bible clearly says that the ministry is for every single Christian to do. We just went over this in one of my classes! Ephesians 4:11-12 says, "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ." The job of the pastors is to "equip" the saints so that the Saints can all participate in ministry. Thank God for that...or else pastors would be completely burnt out. What a great system God has created. Thank you for this article, Rev. Bakalian.

Sevan Balabanian (USA): "I check the blog about 2-3 times per week. I feel part of your ministry. God bless you, you are brave Chanitzagans. God bless you."

Sunday School teachers participate in World Vision Training

On 2, 3 and 4 May, Mr. M. Chilingirian and Mr. A. Torkomian, who serve in the Sunday School as teachers, participated in the 3-day seminar in Adma, that was organized by World Vision, YFC and Grain de Blé. Also, Ms. N. Shanlian and Mr. S. Kelougian (from Armenian Evangelical Ashrafieh Church), and Mr. Vazken and Ms. Tunberian (from Armenian Evangelical Anjar Church).
We remember from the teachers, Ms. K. Chennozian and Mr. J. Sagherian who gave lectures.













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.