Quick update

Just wanted to give you a brief update on our first two days of our "regular schedule." VBS has gone remarkably well thus far, a big answer to prayer. It became evident on Sunday when we met with the church plant pastor (Arman) that their expectations for our role in VBS were higher than we had planned on, but everything has gone quite well. We had 40 children yesterday and about 75 today. They are all quite enthusiastic and cooperative. They never seem bored in the slightest and clearly enjoy interacting with us Americans. For example, a group of girls was wildly entertained today by trying to teach a few of us to count from 1 to 10 in Armenian.

Following VBS, we spent yesterday walking around town in Sevan, distributing some tracts and interacting a bit with the people. Today we had four appointments to meet with people in their homes, so we split up in teams of pairs with translators. Emily and I went with Lucy, one of the translators, and her husband, Albert with the wife of a friend of Arman's and her mother. Emily and I shared for a little while, but it was a great encouragement to then hear Albert speak with them. He has been a Christian for only a couple of years, but is passionate about the Gospel and a true evangelist. Lucy translated some of what he was speaking with them about, and before we knew it he was leading them in prayers of repentance. One of my initial reactions was to wonder why we as Americans were seeking to see people in their homes when our translators are such fabulous testimonies and evangelists and already know the culture and speak the language. But then I realized that Lucy and Albert probably would not have been there to meet with these two ladies and the appointments would not have been made if we were not there as a "draw" of sorts. It's exciting to see that we are being used of God even if it's not quite in the way that we may expect.