1,000 Armenians Turn to Christ Through the Efforts of One Church
Members of the Glad Tidings Congregation deeply imprinted the mark of Christ on an otherwise unreached city in Armenia. 21 members of the Decatur Illinois church, traveled to Armenia to present a church play, with the hopes to change the hearts of the Armenian pastors, but within 3 days, 1,000 villagers who viewed the show accepted Christ as their Lord.
"We performed 'The Greatest Story Ever Told,' a production we do at Easter time at our church," B.G. Nevitt, pastor of Glad Tidings said.
Initially, the play was not expected to receive such a standing ovation. Instead, the pastors in the capital city of Yerevan expressed thankfulness for the effort, but encouraged them not to set high hopes.
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“They encouraged us not to get a large building as not many people would come -- every night the crowd would get smaller,” said Nevitt.
Nonetheless, according to Nevitt, the congregation “pressed through and did three nights.
"Every night, the crowd got bigger and bigger. There was no standing room, people in the aisles -- everywhere you could possibly squeeze a human being in! It was an incredible atmosphere charged with expectancy,” the excited Nevitt said.
By the end of their three day performance, 1,000 people had accepted the Lord into their hearts.
"Pastor Sedrak is incredible," says Nevitt. "He has been here for 15 years. He has been imprisoned for his faith, lost his home, his family cast out of the village . . . after seven years of ministry, there were only eight believers in the village. After 15 years, there were 1,000. Now, instead of one out of six being a Christian in this village, two out of six are," exclaims Nevitt. "One thousand people accepted Christ in two days!” exclaimed Nevitt.
Encouraged and changed by the experience, the Glad Tidings group plans to set out for other missions opportunities in the world.
"We just want to go and be used of God -- anywhere," Nevitt says. "We want to see this world won for Christ!"
