Chuck W. and Bruce C.

“At the last minute, my work calendar cleared, and the next thing I knew, we were on a plane and off to Armenia.” This began Bruce’s journey along with Chuck and some other men to build a playground with Kids Around the World. Here’s what they experienced:

We began our time in Armenia in the village of Sadunts, which sits at about 7,000 feet of elevation in a fertile valley. The people of the Yazidi villages that line this valley live a simple life, mostly in farming, working hard to live day by day. This is still a part of the world that burns their animals’ dung for heat – we hope this gives you a picture of where we were.

We found immediately that language was our biggest barrier. They speak no English and we speak no Armenian. This made for lots of hand signals and pictures drawn on the ground. But despite this, we felt very welcome in the community.

We started off the project as we always do, with a blank canvas. The problem with this canvas was that it was a lot smaller than expected! Only by God’s grace did we learn that the playground would fit “exactly” in the space. With much hard work digging and assembling, we were able to accomplish our goals.

The highlight of the afternoon was an unexpected invitation to a 3 year old’s birthday party. One of the boys that attends the kindergarten at the church where we were building wanted to celebrate with his class, and we were fortunate enough to snag an invite! It was great to be able to share this special time with the children.

In addition to the playground build, we were blessed during our time in Armenia to visit Mt. Ararat, join in worship at a vibrant evangelical church in Artashat, and participate in the ordination of five pastors that will serve and administer at that church.

Bruce commented, “What a privilege and joy it was to be able to participate in the project with a fine group of men! God gives each of us gifts. There are times when you can apply those gifts with a simple effort – perhaps the simple effort of digging holes and building a playground for children.”