Georgia on my mind

Greetings to all,

It is Monday, November 24 and I am writing to you from Tbilisi, Georgia. We just completed our first week of work and had a nice weekend of doing some roaming around the area. I am sure that most of you are gearing up for Thanksgiving this week. I believe this will be the first Thanksgiving where I won't be eating some turkey then retiring to a recliner to unbutton the top button on my pants to watch football and sleep. We are going to celebrate Thanksgiving here with other Americans from the International Church here but I don't want to unbutton my pants in front of strangers. Anyways, our first week of work was great. We are working closely with the Salvation Army who has a bunch of supplies for the refugees and an office here in Tbilisi. Our group was split up into two groups for this week. One group went to a warehouse to organize supplies that were sent here for distribution and the other went to a town of Rustavi to do some construction work at a children's ministry building. I was with the group that went to work on the building in Rustavi. Here is a picture from Day 1.

When we got there this place was in pretty bad shape. There had been a flood in the basement that left behind rotted walls with mold and a need for some serious paintchipping work. So, we ripped up the linoleum, chipped off paint, disinfected the walls with bleach, and recovered the bare spots with mud so it will be ready to paint. I only have before pictures with my camera but I will try to post some after pictures whenever I get a chance. But, that work was only the downstairs. Upstairs in one of the rooms used for the Kids ministry the wallpaper needed to come off the wall and ceilings. Unfortunately, in Georgia there isn't chemicals available to strip the wallpaper or a steamer, but we had water and elbow grease. We got all the wallpaper stripped off the wall and pretty much most of the mudding done downstairs so they will be ready to paint by the end of the week. We had limited tools and supplies but we were definately blessed to get that much done. The other crew organized a warehouse with clothes, medical supplies, wheelchairs and diapers. They also organized a few boxes of manpons. In case you don't know what those are just look at the name and that explains a lot. On the weekend, we got to go to a Monastery and out to eat at a cool restaurant just outside of Tbilisi. The picture at the top of the blog give a view from where we were at. On the food side of Georgia, once again it is delicious. I have mentioned food in awhile so Grandpa this one is for you. Mike, Chad and I like to considers ourselves meat conniseurs. Mike is here with his wife Laura and they are Missionary associates who have been working with Convoy of Hope for a couple of years. They joined us in Armenia and have been all over the world. During any down time we like to sneak off in search of good meats. We have not been disappointed. The kabob and dumplings here are great. Then on Sunday I went to this Georgian play or what we thought was a play. It was a good cultural experience. . . . .for the first 20 minutes. It ended up being eerily similar to my sister's dance recitals. All the parents in the audience were taking pictures and I felt like the same dance was playing over and over again. I can here my sister laughing at me now because she knows how much I just loved her dance recitals. After that, we went to the international church here in Tbilisi. Today, we got to deliver some clothes and a little bit of cooking supplies to some refugees housed in a building in Tbilisi. These people are from towns outside the city that were attacked by Russia. They have been there in these buildings for about 3-4 months. When they left their houses they could take nothing and they are all destroyed. We have had to here some stories from the missionaries here of what some of the refugees have told them. After the Russian soldiers would kill the Georgian soldiers they would take their uniforms and put them on. Then, they would go around town to homes and we heard some cases of the soldiers killing all the men of the house or of the sexual attacks on the women of Georgia. I walked into a room of refugees today who have literally lost everything they own. You look at the women in the room and don't know if maybe one was raped or not. I am sure all of them lost somebody close to them or maybe many. It is tough to find the silver lining in their situation. The government here is using relief money to pay the men who are refugees to work to build homes for themselves. They have winterized many buildings for the winter to house them until they are ready to move in. This week we will be delivering more to the refugees and I am excited because I do want them to know there is hope. I can't explain why they had to go through that. But I do know that God loves them more than anything and all though bad things can happen to us in this world, it is amazing to see how God can pick us up and make us anew in our most hopeless moments when we just rely on Him. May these people be in your thoughts and prayers. Have a Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

Chris

Hebrews 12:12-13

Our last days in Armenia

Dear Loyal Listeners,
It is Monday, November 17th and I have currently just arrived in Tblisi, Georgia. It is actually a suburb of Atlanta in case you didn’t know. We just arrived here this afternoon after driving about 3 hours and crossing the border from Armenia to get here. We drove through a lot of mountains, saw a lot of sheep, and my feet were sweating terribly the whole way. I happened to be sitting next to a heater under my chair and I was wearing my insulated boots. I immediately regretted that decision. Oh well, the smell wore off after I took my boots off in a couple of hours. Anyways last week went good. Our team got split up into two groups. One group was working on the water filters while the other group went and taught the Community Health Evangelism to the Kurdish village people. I was on the water filters and we stayed and did all of our work in Vanadzor where we were being housed again. I did get a chance to go up to the village for a little bit on the first day to meet some of the people our group was training. In the CHE training our group was actually training the trainers. The program is set up for the people of the community to implement the program. It is hard for people of the church to even approach peoples’ homes in their village. The main religion of the Kurdish people is actually one that actually gives sacrifices to Satan in order to please him. And they don’t particularly like the people who are Christians. But obviously in these villages there isn’t much information about how to be healthy. Things we take for granted knowing like it is good for us to brush our teeth and wash our hands after touching raw meat, they don’t know. So, we train the trainers, have them study and know the information, and they inform the community. These people are also just volunteers from the community and they seemed very excited. Also, the mountains there don’t have very many trees, that means no firewood. Very few homes there can afford the cost of gas and that leaves them with only one option for heating their homes and cooking their food. They actually use cow dung bricks for both. The cow dung doesn’t release much energy for heat and it is not the healthiest thing to grill your food with. But, they really don’t have an option. The missionary Nick Pucinni here is working on making bricks out of left over coffee grounds that puts off a lot more energy than the cow dung and not to mention is healthier. Now, back in Vanadzor we worked on getting all the rock and sand for the filter and from there we had to sift it and wash it. A couple of guys from the villages came down and worked along with us so when we leave, they can be able to construct them. This will hopefully be implemented with their CHE program as well. Unfortunately, our container is still stuck going through customs that has all of our plastic containers for the final construction of our water filter. We were never able to fully construct one for them, so hopefully we might have a couple days when we get back to show them. A fully operational filter needs barely any maintenance and can pump out 120 gallons of water a day. The only maintenance is raking the sand at the top of the filter. We looked around town for another plastic container that could work, but could find nothing. But I did find some Christmas gifts for people while we were looking for containers. By Friday, we were done with our work and got to enjoy a couple of nice days off. It had been quite chilly outside the past week so it was nice. Oh and on a side note. On Thursday, we purchased a 2 month old lamb in the Kurdish village. Saturday a couple of us from the group got up in the morning and went to a house in town where the lamb was staying. Our little lamb Manny put up a bit of a fight but died with dignity. His official Time of Death was 10:32. From there we skinned and butchered him for our BBQ that night. We had our translator Tom made sure we did everything like how the Armenians would do it. We kept everything except the head, intestines and bladder. But the chickens played with the bladder and I had to go down the river with the owner of the house and clean out the stomach and the intestines so she could feed them to her dog. The lamb was delicious and we made some soup out of it too. We had the BBQ in a park in the mountains. Oh and if you are wondering if I ate the weird parts of the lamb. . .. . . All I have to say is when in Armenia. Now, we march onward to Georgia. On a side note, I would like you all to know that I have a beard now and I am beginning to enjoy it. Joel, that one is for you. And on a personal note this trip has been great for me. I am so thankful for how God has brought me hear to where I am today. This verse kind of explains it all and I just feel like sharing with you today. It is from the apostle Paul in Romans 5:3-5, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” I am definitely hopeful for the rest of this trip and where God is going to take me after this trip. Take care guys and hope you all have a good week.

Chris

Hebrews 12:12-13

First week of November

Dear Readers,
This is a recap of our first week of November here in Armenia. Once again, we headed back to Vanadzor to do some more work on the homes. I did drywall work all week long. Also, we did work with setting up the Styrofoam bricks on another home. On Thursday, we poured the walls of that home. We got a unique experience after working there, we actually got to see the containers that earthquake refugees have actually been living in the past 20 years. I will show you some pictures first and that says a lot in itself.

The trailer we are walking into is the home of one of the workers there, David, who will be moving in there with his parents after living in this little trailer for 20 years. The homes that we are building are only for a small percentage of the people still displaced by the earthquake but David was very blessed and thankful to be getting a home. David was a really neat guy. He is working on these homes and eventually, in a little while, will be living in one. By the way he has to work free of charge on the home since he is getting one. His family had been living in this trailer for 20 years, the trailer has gone through 2 fires and all they said was God is good. Most of us, including myself, would complain about living in a trailer for 20 years. But, they just prayed and believed that God would provide them a way out and were just thankful to have a roof over their head. You think a lot of times in those situations that you would maybe just have pity for them. But after you go into their homes, they offer everyone tea and coffee, then all they can say is that God has been so good to them, you begin to realize how inspiring they are to you. Now, the guys at the work site are a different type of crew than we have worked with this whole trip. Many lead some pretty rough lives and you can see it by just looking at their faces. One of our guys had been offered alcohol, cigarettes and even some drugs while at the work site. When we first started working there they were a little standoffish towards us, but by the end of the week we had really built relationships with them. Both sides were sad to see each other go. We never preached to them or talked about God to them but hopefully our actions toward them spoke more volumes than any words can be said. God has a great plan for all of us no matter what we have done or where we are at in our lives. Hopefully this opens up a chance for David to speak to these guys and help bring them closer to the hope that is in Christ. All I know is how Christ has changed my life and how it can change theirs. Who knows what could happen. So, over the weekend we just got to hang out in Yerevan and get some well needed rest. We went out for a nice meal on Saturday and just hung out at the house on Sunday. This week we will be heading into a Kurdish village to teach our Community Health program and to also construct water filters. We will be up at about 7000 feet and it is starting to get really cold. But that is alright, because I now have a very thick beard and it adds about 10 degrees. I also have not ripped my jeans in the past 3 weeks so that is also some good news. I haven’t been able to check how the Chiefs are doing lately, but from the last time I checked it might be a good thing that I am missing this whole season. It is crazy to think that I only have about a month left. This is our last week in Armenia and then we will be in Georgia the rest of the time. Before you know it I will be back home and getting a chance to catch up with everyone. Until next time. . . . . . . .. . . . .

Chris

Hebrews 12:12-13

Halloween Time in Armenia

Dear Amigos,
Sorry, it has taken me so long to get another update out but we have very limited internet access. You know it is hard to find wireless internet access here in these straw huts we are staying in out here in the mountains. Actually that was a joke. The house we are currently in just doesn’t have internet access. To get internet access we go to the Yum-Yum donuts whenever we can find time and a ride to downtown Yerevan. We have been staying in Yerevan the past week at a house of a missionary couple who is currently out of town. It is a newer house but everything seems to keep breaking here. There has been a busted water pipe, no heat, and I have had one hot shower in the past 5 days. I am actually beginning to like the cold showers. Also, Chad and I had a hole form in our air mattress. I wonder if there is a weight limit on those things. Anyways, back to the work we are doing here. When we last talked the group was in the middle of the Community Health Evangelism training which we will be using in another week. I will explain that more during the week we are doing it because I think I will be able to explain it better after we get started and get to use it. So the day after my last blog we finished up CHE training and then we went to the Armenia/Turkey border to check out Mt. Ararat. I got some cool pictures from there but I can’t put any on the internet while here. I have to say it was quite experience to see the place where it is thought that Noah’s Ark landed. After we left there, we came back to Yerevan and had dinner with a family that lives downtown. The couple is from Sri Lanka and they have two daughters. Prassanna, the husband, works for World Vision. This is a huge non-profit organization I am sure many of you have heard of.

We had some Sri Lankan food and sat around and chatted. Prassanna got up and gave a bit of his life story and how God has worked in it. Growing up in Sri Lanka his mom was Buddhist and his father an alcoholic. He came into a relationship with God after the age of 16 when a distant relative began talking with him and telling him about Christ. Now, in Sri Lanka there is freedom of religion. But there are Buddhist sects who highly oppose Christians and have free reign to do so. In fact, the pastor of the church Prassanna went to in his hometown was just murdered by some Buddhist monks. He has worked for World vision in places like Mongolia for 4 years, another country I can’t remember for 2 ½ years, and is now in Armenia. The family was great and was so honored to have us over. The next day we were off to Vanadzor to begin work on the homes for Habitat for Humanity. This is a small town in Mountains of Armenia. We had to commute an hour and a half every morning to get there. It was quite a scenic drive. The mountains and countryside here are quite a site. The homes that we were working on are for families who were displaced by an earthquake that took place over 20 years ago. It was sometime in 1988 when a huge earthquake hit the region and left families displaced and children parentless. There are still people displaced and affected by this today. These homes are put together in a pretty unique way. It is put together by Styrofoam bricks that you fill with concrete and rebar. It is a new technology and it is cheap. It only cost $22,000 to complete one of the duplex homes. Thursday through Saturday we did drywall work and painting because the Styrofoam bricks had not arrived yet to start on some more of the homes.

The weather has been starting to get a little chilly outside. The crew we are working with there is different than anything we have worked with in Moldova. Usually, we worked with churches to help build but this time it is with a crew of workers from the town. A lot of them seem pretty rough around the edges and don’t come from very much. For Halloween we just went over to the Puccini’s home for some good food. They are the missionaries we are working with here. They have a little 3 year old son named Oliver. He was a pirate for Halloween. Nick and Olivia have been over here for 5 ½ years and are great. They have learned a very difficult language and have done some great work here. Saturday we went out to get something to eat in town at night when we got done working all day. Sunday, we got up and went to church in a small town another hour or so away. We did a few songs and Zac gave a message at the service. For lunch we went to the Pastor’s house and had a smorgasbord of food. We sang some more songs and left to relax for the rest of the day. On the way back we went took a chair lift at a ski resort to check out a cool view. That pretty much wraps up that week.

Chris

Hebrews 12:12-13