W I N T E R 2 0 1 5 THE JARA S JOURNAL We can do all this through him who gives us strength. Phil 4:13 2015 what a year for us In the diversity of our ministries!!! Along this year God has been incredible allowing us to be part of His team working in different assignments; First of all we want to sing praises to Him for His faithfulness and because along the year we could feel He was in every step leading and showing us the way. We come to the end of this year with very grateful hearts. As pastors in our small church God gave us a fruitful year with lots of activities; kids clubs, youth ministry, language café and a little by little growing family. Serving as district superintendents in a small district we experience a lot of activities such as leadership training workshops. Visitors from Point Loma Loveworks, Paxan from Germany. We also had the blessing of organizing the field NYI conference besides summer camps, VBSs, Regional Conference and our economic development activities.
VISITORS Along the year we had several visitors coming to bless us with their presence and fellowship; On June we had the visit of Matt and Kadee Smedley from Canada. They are planning to come as volunteer missionaries to serve with us in 2016. Beginning of June we had Ron Zimmer from Sacramento district coming and investing time with our district leadership working in camps planning and programming; great time with our district pastors and youth leaders! We also hosted Mr. Joerg Eich from our Eurasia Regional Office during a week of planning and training as the new NCM regional coordinator. We praise God for the many friends we have supporting our ministries and us. A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity; Proverbs 17:17. POINT LOMA LOVE WORKS During May 2015 we hosted and worked together different activities with Point Loma LoveWorks team. It was wonderful to minister children, youth and also elderly in different communities in Armenia. The team also gave a huge push to our economic development projects through their fundraising project; Chickens for Armenia aimed to help poor families to raise chicken to produce eggs. 2
PAXAN TEAM VISIT Last August we hosted another youth team. This time was the PaXan team coming from Germany. The team came to support our poultry project helping to build a chicken hen for the local church as well as incubators so beneficiaries could improve their reproduction of checks and in this way helping to increase the production of eggs. PaXan also participated supporting the VBS in the local church. NYI CIS YOUTH CONFERENCE It was a privilege for us to host 120 young people from all over the CIS countries for the CIS youth conference that was held in Armenia on July 2015. 16 local people presented our district. REGIONAL CONFERENCE We had the opportunity to attend the Eurasia Regional Conference in Turkey in which we had the opportunity not only to help to facilitate some of the workshops NCM programmed but also to meet hundreds of leaders and friends committed as we are to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a very special time fellowship under the theme of reconciliation. 3
KIDS AND YOUTH CAMPS At the end of July and beginning of August we had 2 weeks of summer tent camps, children and youth camps. In the children camp we had 122 participants and youth camp with 92 participants. Both camps were a time of blessings and full of different activities like games, small groups, handcrafts, art time, fellowship, swimming and of course great food 2015 ARMENIA VBS Right after the tent camps, we had a full month of VBSs in all the districts (4 communities). In the VBSs we had 214 children participating and 45 volunteers who willingly served the children for the Glory of our Lord. Praise God for more than 250 children and teenagers attending our four VBSs during the 5 days. 4
OUR OTHER MINISTRIES Child Development has been a ministry God has entrusted us in Eurasia Region as well as globally. Through NCM generous sponsors through the global Church of the Nazarene have sponsored thousands of children; actually more 19,640 children being served through 156 Nazarene CDCs globally. Our responsibility has been to support our field leaders to ensure each child is nurtured and protected; more important we advocate because each child is disciple and enrolled in the active life of the church. Several trips were done this year as part of our work; Last April we had the privilege to participate in the mission orientation in Kansas City that allowed us to visit our church headquarters in Kansas City and learn about the mission work the church does as well as receive training and encouragement to continue with our ministry in the different assignments we have. We also had the blessing to meet new friends also engaged in mission work. This year God gave Trino the privilege to be part of the board of trustees of NCM Inc. and this gave him an incredible opportunity to visit some of the NCM ministries in USA such as Breeze Institute in Kansas City and some of its outreach ministries. God has assigned us another task along the year. Middle East has been hit by civil war displacing millions of people to neighbor countries and beyond. In our small country we are ministering to Syrian Armenian families, which have migrated running away from civil war. Last September Trino traveled to Croatia to work with the mission team in their response to the migrant crisis affecting different countries in the region. It was a time of mutual learning and sharing ideas and vision. The missionary team from Hungary and Croatia are doing an incredible job responding to the situation. We felt God heart is broken as He sees thousands of little children drowned in the waters of the Mediterranean sea or stranded in the borders under the rain and cold. During the months of October and December we had the chance to travel to Argentina and Mexico and work with our NCM teams, working with the regional NCM and Child Development teams with issues related with holistic child development, child sponsorship, child protection, migration and others. In Mexico we worked with the Mexican NCM and Compassion International teams in issues concerning holistic child development as well as migration. Mexico is the main transit route for thousands of Central American citizen running away from violence and poverty in their countries. Unfortunately for many; the trip becomes a hell due the abuse suffered; up to 82% of women trying to cross though Mexico to USA are sexually abused along the way. 5
PRAYER CHANGES THINGS AND WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS IN 2016 * For our family and future plans. We are praying and working hard to add a child to our family. We hope 2016 will be the year! * For our ministry in the country in which God and His church have entrusted us to do ministry. There are several challenges; church legal registration, property transfers and registration; pastoral and leadership training. *We are praying and looking for some new places to start our ministry of reconciliation and restoration through the preaching of the message of holiness. We are praying for two new places along this New Year. *We need lots of prayer for our pastors and leaders for them to overcome any fear to preach the Gospel of Jesus among their people. *For our small fellowship in Yerevan. We need urgently to find a larger place for our ministries. *For our regional and other global assignments God have entrusted us. We need His guidance and wisdom to continue doing our job without neglecting our family and time of rest. * For our global child development program. We need many sponsors willing to bless thousands of needy children! WE WISH YOU A VERY BLESSED MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS YEAR 2016!