Republic of Armenia, Hayastan
February 16
Asia
Answers to Prayer
1 The survival of the Armenian Church through the centuries, and the growth in numbers of committed believers since 1990
2 The most significant turning of Kurds to Christ anywhere in the world has occurred among the Kurds of Armenia with about 1,000 believers from the Yezidi community
Challenges for Prayer
1 Armenia needs peace and good relations with surrounding nations for survival and economic reconstruction
2 The 1700 years of Armenia as a Christian nation, the world’s first, was celebrated in 2001. Pray that Armenian Christians might become a source of light and blessing to surrounding nations
3 The baleful impact of 70 years of Marxism and a century of severe persecution of Armenians have left deep moral and social wounds
4 The Armenian Apostolic Church has long been a cultural refuge in times of persecution but the old liturgy is not in modern language so is less appropriate for ordinary people
a) Complete recovery from division and compromise
b) Deep spiritual regeneration of the Church and for godly leaders
c) An appreciation of, and fellowship with, the smaller denominations in Armenia
5 The Armenian Church Loving Brotherhood is the evangelical arm of the Apostolic Church
6 The major growth of Evangelicals since the earthquake and the collapse of Communism has been through the Brotherhood and Pentecostals who have had a national impact
7 Training for leaders is lacking
8 The unresolved issue of control of Nagorno-Karabakh, nominally independent, is an open wound
9 Evangelical Christianity has thrived among the 3.5m Armenians of the diaspora, with many congregations in the Middle East, North America and elsewhere
10 The Kurds are mainly of the ancient Yezidi religion; some are Shi’a Muslim
11 Christian help ministries
a) Relief work
b) Student witness is being pioneered by IFES and others
c) Bible distribution
d) The JESUS film has been widely used in four languages
e) Christian Radio