Instant Coffee and Shawarma: The Lifeblood of an Expedition Racer

Our Squad Leaders stood before us less than seventy two hours before we were supposed to be at the airport and announced that we would no longer be traveling to Uzbekistan and they had no information for us on where we would be traveling as an alternative. We began to pray as a squad that God would give wisdom to our leadership and logistics team in the States as they navigated this change. This wasn’t a new situation for us. We were informed about halfway through our time in Costa Rica that we would not be headed to Peru after our two months there. Having open hands in regard to our route is a discipline that our squad has been well acquainted with over these last months on the field. 

In the meantime, we were given a few extra days of ATL in Tbilisi, Georgia. These days allowed for us to get a feel for the personality of our new teams that we’d just been assigned to. My team chose to spend the majority of our time together sharing life stories and once we’d been informed of the decision to send us to Armenia, we began to ask God what He would have for us there. Our leadership set expectations right off the bat based on their conversations that we would find ourselves in border towns digging deep roots and building strong relationships. We were entering this country after “the one.” Think the lost sheep in Luke 15. So that’s where we started to pray. There was no lack in vision from the Lord for what was ahead, but what we didn’t have were specifics in regard to where or how God wanted to accomplish the things he spoke to us. Here’s a look at what we were given: 

• Sleeper train

• The Armenian Revival of 2021 

• God put the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia on our hearts and whispered, “How close can you get?”

• Partner

• Nourishment

• People WILL say YES! (SALVATION) 

With all of that, we took to prayer again to see if God would reveal any more to us so that we could plan accordingly. Theoretically we have the entire country at our fingertips and we needed to get a move on. Jerome quickly remembered that his aunt has worked with an organization that provided relief aid for families affected by the Armenian conflict with Azerbaijan. So we hung up our hats until we heard back from her and we booked train tickets to the first stop across the border with Georgia, so that we didn’t end up further into the country than we needed to be. 

Before we got too deep into planning, our leadership provided a map for us that had a restricted zone for our safety. We wouldn’t actually be allowed to get into the conflict zone, so it makes complete sense to me that God gave us the question, “How close can you get?” instead of sending us into a region that we wouldn’t actually have permission to enter. 

Next stop: Vanadzor, Armenia.

We hopped off our sleeper train around 3:30 am with one other team in a small town about two hours from the capital of Armenia, Yerevan. That’s where the rest of our squad was headed. To our dismay, there was nothing around the train station, our Air bnb had not yet responded to our request, and the station actually closed down, so we set ourselves up under the stars on the platform and drifted off to sleep. 

Waking up the next morning, we immediately set our sights on finding a cup of coffee. Big packs and everything we own in tow, we packed up our makeshift campsite and ventured into the city and found some instant coffee and then settled into a plan to get brunch at a shawarma restaurant across the street and figure out what was going on after we had some food in our systems. (Little did we know that instant coffee and shawarma would be our lifeblood during this next month. tehehe)

Upon reaching out to Jerome’s aunt, we were given the information to contact a church just outside of Yerevan, Armenia and it happened to be a church that was affiliated with an organization that I’d previously done research on when searching for potential partners. At one point, we were also entertaining the potential of serving at an orphanage and the majority of the opportunities that we found were in the capital, so we scarfed down our shawarma, found transportation and rode off into the distance. 

New Destination: Yerevan, Armenia. 

Finding housing was no problem for us in the capital, so we booked an air bnb, and we wandered around to find a place for dinner. There we made the plan that the team would split the next day to cover more ground, Jerome, Jenn, and Sarah would head to the church that we’d been connected with and Jenna and I would do some more research to ensure that we were taking a look at all of our options. 

Long story short, after two days of scouting and meeting with the staff at the church, we were sold on partnering with what we could already see the Lord doing in the city next door. They had the space to host our small team because they had recently been a housing site for a large number of refugees from the war and there was an incredibly sweet Russian lady that was living in the church that would be willing to provide meals for us and the associate pastor would take responsibility for setting up our ministry opportunities. Get this, their lead pastor was in the United States traveling and speaking at Armenian Revivals. HOW INSANE IS THAT!?

This was a partnership that was facilitated by the Holy Spirit and every person involved knew that deeply. We were unsure of how we would see all of the words that the Father had spoken to us become reality, but we stepped out in faith that this was what He was inviting us into and we committed to serve with them for our month in Armenia. 

Final Destination: Abovyan City Church, Abovyan, Armenia. 

 Folks, there is much more to come. I honestly don’t know how I’m going to be able to put my experience in this country into words, but I’m gonna do my best to give you an accurate depiction of what God is doing in this region of the world. 

COME ON LORD. I’m already getting teary eyed thinking back on all the stories of God’s goodness and faithfulness during our time here. 

Thanks for tagging along with me always. I really appreciate you. 

I love you, 

AWM