The team at Alaverdi finished up the basketball court painting and hosted their fellow youth from Stepanavan for a dinner together (13 Aug. 2018)

Today the teams of youth are spending their last night at their sites, and so it was a time not just of work, but also farewells and touring. Here are some of today’s highlights from each group. So much happened today! Remember, they have been doing much more than what is listed here:

Vartenis – The group took a day off to travel with the pastor to Karabagh to visit Tativank and Gantzasar church.

Choratan – After three days of rain and cold weather, the team was able to work in dry clothes. Finished the cement flooring of a granny’s house.

Choratan: An elderly woman raising her three grandchildren alone offers her garden’s fruit to the team working to refurbish the house (13 Aug. 2018)

Berd – Another day of VBS, then they invited the Choratan team for a campfire worship night.

Margahovit – A sunny day, they went to Marmashen to clean up fields and river beds of trash, visited Gyumri church as well as the Hrant Dink Memorial Forest.

Visiting an impoverished family in Gyumri, the team shared not just the gospel, but also the essential human touch (13 Aug. 2018)

Gyumri – The mayor Samvel Balasanyan received the group for a meeting, and they paid visits to elders in extreme poverty.

Avedissian: A pause in the heavy work, preparing planters on the roof of the Avedissian School in Yerevan (13 Aug. 2018)

Aintab: Cement work around the church building continues (13 Aug. 2018)

Marmashen: The team went to Marmashen to pick up trash left by visitors to the church and picnickers (13 Aug. 2018)

Aintab – Among other activities, they prayed for a young soldier, Babgen, who is leaving for his military service. The team continued the cement work around the church building, went into the garden to pick figs and make jam.

Stepanavan – Did home visits, then the pastor took them on a tour of the 12th century Fortress of Lori, followed by a barbecue at the Haghpat monastery.

Madenataran: The House of Hope team took a break from the VBS and the basement cleanout to see the statue of Mesrob Mashdots, creator of the Armenian alphabet (13 Aug. 2018)

House of Hope, Yerevan – The teams continued their cleanup of basement, helped with VBS, visited the Mesrob Mashdots statue in front of Madenataran.

Noyemperyan – Helped with VBS outdoor games at a nearby park, taught coworkers to sing a table prayer in French.

Children at Yerevan’s Shogh Center each wrote this important prayer and reminder of God’s love: “Lord, thank you for my talents.” (13 Aug. 2018)

Yerevan, Shogh Center – In the VBS program, they reminded the children to pray, “Lord, thank you for my talents.” They also cooked fruits for jam and dried and sugar-coated other fruits… for Gaghant Baboug?

Artashat – Continued helping with the VBS program, then joined the Aintab team for a barbecue at “Pardineri Pourag” (Poplar Grove)

Hankavan – They swept up the volleyball court and did painting work (and ran out of paint). The group paid a visit to the Tsitsernakaberd memorial – some of them hadn’t arrived in time to see it at the beginning of the conference.

The team swept and weeded the surface of the volleyball court (13 Aug. 2018)

Avedissian School – Continuing work on rooftop planters: filling them with soil, readying them for vegetable planting that the students will tend.

Alaverdi – After more hard work, the church hosted their team and the Stepanavan team for dinner.

Ijevan – The team continued preparing and presenting VBS lessons, as well as visiting historic sites.

Yerevan – Joining AMAA social workers at the Nigol Duman center, the team did more vistations to supported families.

Tilijan – Ongoing renovation work.

Tumanyan – Finished the inside painting work, today they painted the intricate iron work on the gate in front of the church.

Vanatzor, Shogh Center – Visited homes and did some housecleaning for the elderly, along with helping with the VBS program.

But what is the meaning of all of these seemingly disjointed projects for the youth? Meghmik Khosrovian (Iran) shared her thoughts, which puts it all into perspective:

“We consider our participation in this conference a miracle from God. We offer heartfelt thanks to him for giving us this opportunity to participate and get to know our spiritual family. We have all come from different countries, but we all have one Father, Christ; and that is a great joy. Also, we witnessed the limitless power of the Holy Spirit at work in the various locales to make us youth into one family.”

– Rev. Nishan Bakalian