WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO FOLLOW THE VISION?
I want to share my testimony about God’s inexhaustible love and faithfulness and about fulfilment of a vision that seemed delayed and impossible.
In summer 1997, the whole Ministry Team of the Word of Life Church in Armenia went to Tsaghkadzor to have a rest. After a tiresome season of work, all of us waited for this ten-day leave. I have just got off the bus and was going to get the keys of my room, when I was told that Pastor was looking for me. Leaving my suitcase in the corridor, I went to his room. With no foreword, he held out a book and told me that we were going to start a program for homeless people. I tried to remind Pastor that all of us were very tired, and it would be better to have a rest for these ten days, and then, when in Yerevan, we could talk about it. He listened to me, but still said, “Read it; it is a very good book. And after we finish the program for homeless people, we will start another one for children on the streets.”
I took the book and went away to get the keys of my room. I left my suitcase in the room, took my Bible and my notepad and went to look for a convenient place for prayer. I went away from the hotel area as far as I could; I needed a quiet place, where no one would disturb me.
As a rule, when Pastor gives me an assignment, I leave aside all my important work and separate myself for prayer to receive from God how to do it correctly. And this assignment was much more important than all the others; it was a new vision from heaven about changing the lives of the homeless.
At that time, there were hundreds of homeless people in Armenia. They searched litter bins for food during the day and spent nights in front of shut doors of metro stations, in underpasses, at the rear part of the Conservatory Building and at the house-tops of apartment buildings. They grew in numbers. Armenia was under blockade, and many people from remote villages came to Yerevan hoping to find some work. Besides, hundreds of people in Yerevan sold their apartments and moved abroad, but some of them, who had no success, had to return and landed on the street level. As a result, there was a huge mass of people in the city who were homeless because of their hard character and wrong mentality.
I prayed and asked God to give me a word and leading to fulfil that vision. Praise the Lord, He did not let me stay at that place for long, but gave me a word and a plan for that vision. The new program would be called “The Third Divine Way for the Homeless,” and it would be carried out in three years, starting from 1998. This program was called “The Third Way”, because the homeless have two ways: either life full of dangers and premature death, or an entire life without shelter until their old age. The Lord was going to grant the third way – accommodation, work and opportunity to start a new life. The Scripture that I received was exactly about that: “He turns a wilderness into pools of water, and dry land into water springs. There He makes the hungry dwell, that they may establish a city for a dwelling place” (Ps. 107:35-36). It is unlikely that anyone reading these Scriptures could conclude that through them, the Lord told me that those people would have their own apartments. This is exactly what it means to receive a vision. The Lord gives you a word, and the Holy Spirit interprets it and opens our spiritual eyes, showing the way of its fulfilment (in this case, how they would have their own apartments and how their lives of wilderness would turn into “pools of water”).
By the leading of the Holy Spirit, I was promptly writing down the process of fulfilment of the program. During the first year, we would visit the homeless, study their behavior, find out why they ended up on the street, and hear their opinion about our program. We were going to include those whom the Holy Spirit would show. For the first phase, we needed 16 people. In order not to write much, I will omit the details, but will describe the program in general.
The First Phase of Restoration would be conducted in Yerevan, where they would undergo medical examination and if necessary, receive treatment, and with the help of a team of specialists, – psychologists, social workers and godly teachers, would overcome their stress.
The Second Phase would be conducted in Agarak Village of Talin region. Here they would engage in farming and cattle breeding, get accustomed to order and work schedule and live by their own work.
During the Third Phase, we would return to Yerevan. They would study in the Bible School to come to know the Lord and His will better in order to escape trials in future and live in a way that would please God. During that time, they were to find a job, and we were going to provide them housing.
After receiving a word from the Lord and the process of fulfilment of that vision, I returned to the hotel. During the days of my rest, I had anxiety inside: how would we find so much money to carry out that program? One day at midnight, I went up to the roof of the hotel. Many used to go there to enjoy the starry sky. But that night, there were almost no stars. There was absolute silence there. I prayed and asked for a way to finance the program. And the Holy Spirit told me, “Look at the sky. It’s dark, isn’t it? You see nothing, and there is not even a hint that the sun will rise in a couple of hours. However, you know that it will surely rise. In the same way, today you see no ways of financing, but I tell you that I will finance it till the end.” I calmed down, because I knew the Promiser.
When we returned to Yerevan, I received a very unexpected invitation from England to attend a training course on helping the homeless. I knew the inviting party, because they had already funded a study for me in London. This time, they were going to cover all my expenses again; I only needed to give my consent.
That training course was more than important for me. I did not like only one thing; they taught that if even one of ten homeless people changes, you can consider your program successful. I thought that all should change. How naïve I was…
I returned to Yerevan, and together with my assistants, we started the research stage. Once a week, at night, we visited them. The biggest group of homeless people used to gather at the back of the Conservatory building. Together they felt safe, because stray dogs were a big danger to them. They were also wary of police. Our visits helped us to understand their mentality and character. To our amazement, not everyone agreed to be enrolled in our program. They said, “Why shall I leave my free and independent life and live under your control? If you want to give me a flat, do it; what is it to you how I am going to live?”
We started the program in October 1998. The list of the beneficiaries was already made. We agreed with a group of medical doctors for their medical examination. We needed money to rent a place and for food, medication, clothes and utilities. I received the list of expenses for the First Phase, and that night, the Holy Spirit woke me up. By His leading, I opened my Bible and read the Scriptures He was showing me. To tell the truth, I was terrified; I said, “Lord, I hope these words are not about the program that we are starting. I believe that You are not going to finance it in this way.” In order not to write much, I will not add those Scriptures. Moreover, I am going to write a separate book on the subject of “Vision and Its Fulfilment,” in which I will describe all this in detail. The Lord gave no answer to my concern; instead, in a vision He showed me a building and ordered to make a contract to rent 12 rooms in it based on the word, which I received from Him.
In the morning, I went to that place, found the people who were in charge of the building and asked them to show me the rooms. Inside everything was the way I saw in my vision; the only thing I had to do was to make a contract. We made it for one year, and I said that we would pay the rent at the end of each month. I could offer nothing else, because at that time, I had no funds; I only had a word received in the middle of the night, according to which, the Lord would not leave us ashamed. At the very next day, we cleaned the place and brought the homeless.
God took care of clothes, food and medical expenses, but the month was nearing to end, and I needed a big sum of money to pay for the rent and utilities. I needed great boldness to enter that building, gather already former homeless people and tell them, “Let us pray for the Lord to give us means to pay for electricity today, or tomorrow it will be cut. And if we are not able to pay for rent in 2-3 days, you will end up on the street again.” How could I tell that, when, enrolling them into the program, I promised them that in three years, if every one of them had exemplary behavior, according to our agreement, each of them would receive an apartment? They did not have enough spiritual maturity yet for me to tell them, “The Promiser is faithful, and I promised this to you because He promised this to me.”
However, I did not have another choice. I entered the building and asked everyone to come to the hall. I alone was a believer there; the rest were in the restoration phase. I asked everyone to form a circle, take the hands of one another and listen attentively to what I was going to say. When we formed a circle, I said:
“You know that I serve God, and that this program is launched by the Church. God has always been faithful, and the Church has completed every work, which they had started by the will of God. It is up to you whether you will attend the Church or not, but now we must believe that God has told us to start this work. We believed in God, and now you must believe and pray with me. Together we must ask our God to take care of our needs and help us pay for the electricity and rent of this building.”
Praise the Almighty, they believed and prayed with me. The prayer was short, but full of faith. I went out of the building and went to the office building of the Church, which was nearby. I just went in, when Pastor Artur saw me and said:
“Gayane, go to the Accounting Department and tell them to give you as much money as you need.”
Since 1991 when the Social Ministry was founded, and to this day that is for 28 years, Pastor has never told me anything like that.
As a rule, every Ministry in the Church submits its expenses to the Accounting Department at the beginning of each month, and we receive the financing in parts during the month. I had not submitted the rent and electricity costs, because the Lord promised me that He would certainly pay them. As I have already mentioned, He promised it when He woke me up in the night. And that night, I was terrified, because He ordered me to start the program and make a contract and promised that during that time, He would show His faithfulness. I was afraid, because I thought, “What if it is not the Lord speaking? What will I tell the owners of the building and how would I explain everything to the homeless then?” But the Holy Spirit gave me assurance and helped me to take a step of faith. Because of that, I had not submitted those expenses to the Church budget.
Praise the Almighty God! By speaking to the Pastor, He showed me that the Church has started that work according to His word, and He would stay faithful until I was faithful to Him and to that vision.
Right then, the Accounting Department gave me money to pay for the electricity, and in two days, the bank account of the Social Ministry received a sum of money enough for the first year of “The Third Divine Way for the Homeless” program. Afterwards, I received a letter from the person who sent that large sum of money, in which he suggested to submit the complete program, so that in future, they could send the remaining part of the total sum.
During those three years, we went through many trials. By the end of the program, only 7 of the 16 beneficiaries remained, along with a woman, who was in an old people’s home. She was the mother of one of the participants, and because her son ended up on the street and was homeless for 8 years, he took her to an old people’s home. From time to time, we visited her.
During the three years of the program, I understood more and more why in England they taught us that if even one of ten changes, the program can be considered successful. During those trials, the whole team of volunteers that went to Agarak village left the Ministry. Two of them had valid reasons to go, but the rest left because of inability to withstand the pressure. Many convinced me to leave the work I started; they told me, “They are not worthy to spend so much time, means and health on them…” Only the Lord knows how many times I was in police listening to rebukes especially because of two beneficiaries of the program.
Because I was the only one left out of the team of 12 volunteers, I moved to Agarak village from Yerevan. I thought that it would be better to stay with them for a while. I managed the Social Ministry and other work from Agarak village, and one or two times a month, I went to Yerevan to check the work done.
The Lord is faithful, when you are faithful. I lived with them for one and half year. I can’t say that it was easy, but we had good days as well. We had a big garden of fruit trees and a field where we sowed wheat. We had chicken, turkeys and pigs. By the leading of the Holy Spirit, I managed all that work. In 2000, we returned to Yerevan, so that they could study in the Bible School and start an independent life based on the Rock – Jesus.
When only 5 months was left till the end of the program, the bank account of the Social Ministry had enough money to buy apartments for 8 people, including the woman from the old people’s home. All the documents and folders, which have to do with these three years, are kept in the archive of the Word of Life Church in Armenia. The volunteers and beneficiaries – former homeless people who are with us today, can tell about those years.
We bought apartments in Yerevan for each one of them. By the way, they decided themselves which type of apartment they wanted to have and in which part of Yerevan they wanted to live. One of the beneficiaries married a volunteer of the Social Ministry, and today they have three wonderful sons.
Paul the Apostle says, “…I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision… for these reasons the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great…” (Ac. 26:19-22).