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