Eric Mock with Slavic Gospel Association explains, “It seems like a territorial discussion — a discussion of finance and economics — and certainly the peace plan was born from economics. But that masks the polar-opposite dynamics of Azerbaijan and Armenia.”

Azerbaijan is predominantly Muslim, while Armenia is a long-standing Christian nation. Armenians also carry the deep trauma of the genocide that killed 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire more than a century ago. Today, strong ties between Türkiye and Azerbaijan revive fear and caution among Armenians.

Armenian cross and text (Photo courtesy of Frederico Machado via Unsplash)

Mock adds, “So what has been made as a peace agreement exists, in part, as a détente between the nations, while the deeper roots — ideological and theological — remain.”

Despite political tensions, Mock says the Gospel transcends borders. SGA partners with indigenous churches in both Armenia and Azerbaijan to advance God’s Kingdom. As Mock notes:

“The Church of Christ is a beautiful thing that is about the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of men.”

In addition to its other efforts, the ministry focuses on training and supporting national missionaries, as well as assisting churches in both countries during outreach initiatives, including Christmas programs.

He adds: “Human preferences, human desires, go away, and you, when all is stripped away, all you have is the Gospel and the hope of the kingdom to come. And it unifies the people towards a common heart.”

As both nations pursue a fragile peace while still grieving their losses, uncertainty about the future creates space for deeper questions. In that space, the church gently walks alongside people, helping them seek answers.

“We’re aware of the tensions between the two countries,” says Mock. “But what I’ve seen is that when those tensions spike — when they’re at their peak — people seek Christ in much greater numbers.”

Please pray that the Armenian and Azerbaijani churches would respond faithfully to these challenges. Ask God to make them a source of hope for their nations.

Visit Slavic Gospel Association website to learn about their work in both countries!

Header photo courtesy of Mart Production via Pexels.

“These pastors are gathering together to be encouraged and refreshed,” Mock says. “Together we see that the best we can do in our world today is declare the eternal hope that we have in God, which has been afforded to us through Jesus Christ.” 

The conference comes as Armenia and Azerbaijan sign a US-brokered peace deal aimed at resolving conflict rooted in a regional dispute ongoing since the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

Historically Armenian but officially recognized as part of Azerbaijan, the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been fought for and ruled by ethnic Armenian forces for decades. Azerbaijan regained full control of the area in a 2023 offensive. Since then, Mock says SGA has been supporting Armenian churches as they minister to refugees fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh. 

“We have seen a constant tension: the fear of sending young men to war, the fear of losing men, the fear of losing more cities and towns and villages,” he says.

Mountains in Nagorno-Karabakh. Courtesy of Unsplash.

For this reason, the peace agreement has brought easier breathing to many families on both sides of the conflict. The 99-year lease involves a 27-mile stretch of land within Nagorno-Karabakh, known as the Zangezur Corridor, which will be developed as a trade route for oil, natural gas, and commodities. 

“What is established now is a roadmap for commerce and prosperity for both nations,” Mock says. “What you have is a situation where now everyone is a winner, including Europe, as they are now securing access to oil, natural gas, and commodities coming through Central Asia and Asia itself.”

Relief from decades of fighting, however, does not dissolve centuries of ethnic and religious tensions. The conflict in this region dates back to the fourth century, when Armenia recognized Christianity as its national religion. 

“As Islam grew and Armenians were seen as dissidents, the war of religious differences grew,” Mock says. During WWI, the Ottoman Empire carried out a mass genocide of Armenians. Armenia was then ruled by the Soviet Union until gaining independence at its collapse. 

All the while, Mock says churches have continued declaring hope to the hopeless in the form of salvation through grace alone.

“Whether there is a war going or there is a ceasefire, they continue to do the work that God has raised them up to do,” Mock says. “And so there is the political scene: there is the tragic reality of both the genocide and the pressure that exists between these nations, but in the middle of it there is the freedom that we have in Christ.” 

Praise the Lord for the cessation of fighting, and please pray for the continued work of the church in Armenia. Pray for pastors as they remind their congregations of the brevity of life and the assurance of a savior, and pray for believers as they hold grow in the knowledge and grace of their savior, Jesus Christ. 

Beyond historical losses and present gains, Mock points out: “Our hope is in Jesus.” 

Read more about Armenia’s history here. 

Bus stop in Armenia. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Featured image: President Trump brokers peace deal with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinyan. Screenshot courtesy of the White House.

Eric Mock with the Slavic Gospel Association says, “Armenia was a central point for us as teachers from SGA-supported schools in Russia, Poland, Moldova, several countries in Central Asia, even as well as Israel, gathered together to mutually encourage each other, to strengthen one another, to teach one another.”

Mock says that rather than feeding that competitive spirit that can exist between different schools, the members of the conference were able to learn and grow together. They came together on their common goal of effectively training up more church leaders. SGA helped foster a time of learning and growth as well as solidifying basic Biblical foundations.

Training for Gospel Outreach in Difficult Places

After a week of intensive time in the Word for teachers, a second conference was held specifically focusing on pastors and church leaders in Armenia.

Of the 100 men who attended, 20 were pastors in Armenia. This training served not only to refresh their hearts in the Gospel but as an encouragement as they face the many pressures of living in an area often plagued with unrest.

(Image courtesy of SGA)

Mock says, “The tensions are fairly high in Armenia. They have always struggled to try to sort where their future is going to go. You have the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia that is always on the edge of reigniting. You have the pressure from Turkey. Then the southern border of Armenia is Iran. So they are in this sense, surrounded by a sea of those who would not want them here. So there’s always that tension. Yet in this constantly changing world for them, they are a group of faithful ministers, pastors, missionaries and lay leaders.”

This constant onslaught of outside pressures weighs on the Christians as they serve their congregations. So SGA’s goal is to point leaders back to Christ and serve them as they minister to the Church. “We love God’s Word,” Mock states. “We exalt God’s word, but we also love the Church. We’re not beside the Church or in the distance of the Church. We want to serve the Church that God has raised up. Then finally, God has raised up the Church to be His ambassadors of the gospel. So it is these churches that have been here for generations and generations who are faithfully taking the gospel.”

A Call for Prayer

The Church in Armenia can feel distant for Christians in the West. However, the Church must stand together, even across the world. Mock asks that people get involved by praying for leaders in Armenia and other parts of Asia.

(Image courtesy of SGA)

“Pray that the pastors would stay on task, that they would continue to be focused on the gospel – focused on bringing the gospel to their people. It’s easy to be overwhelmed with all the events, and some of the pastors express that they’re fearful that their sons are going to be dispatched back to the front lines and to the border to prepare for possible other hostilities that could come in the future. So there’s this constant tension. All of these things can serve to wear out pastors and ministry leaders. So ask them to pray, first of all, for the pastors to be focused and resolute in caring for their congregations and advancing the gospel. The second is we would pray for a balance and peace in Armenia.”

If you want to discover more stories about what God is doing through SGA or join them financially click here.

Header Image courtesy of SGA.

The difference in date comes from two calendars systems. The Eastern Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar created by Julius Caesar in the first century BC. However, most Western countries follow the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced more than 400 years ago as a reform of the Julian Calendar. 

(Photo is a representative stock photo courtesy of Mateusz Butkiewicz via Unsplash.)

Regardless of the historical details behind this difference in Easter dates, this week is another moment the global Church can stand together.

“It’s such an important time to be praying for our brothers and sisters in parts of the world where the celebrations are still going on,” says Denise Godwin with International Media Ministries (IMM). 

The West has celebrated Easter already, but Godwin encourages you to “continue to remember our brothers and sisters who are either in a country that’s Muslim, and they’re trying to live out their faith in great distress, or the Orthodox countries. You think of Russia, Armenia, Greece, (places) that are having a lot of stress, culturally.” 

Godwin says that even among cultures that don’t widely honor Easter, it’s still a time where many people think twice as the holy day comes. 

Another spiritually significant fact in 2024 was that Easter in most Western countries (March 31) and Ramadan for Muslims (March 10-April 9) overlapped. They don’t always do so.

Now that you know, would you take this moment to pray? 

“Whatever differences we can have amongst the different traditions inside Christianity, it’s important to encourage one another, build one another up and stand together for the cross of Jesus Christ and the truth of that,” Godwin says. 

IMM uses media to bring the hope of Christ to Europe, Eurasia, Africa and the Middle East. You can learn more about them and their cross-cultural, multi-lingual resources here. 

Header photo is a stock image courtesy of Ch P/Unsplash.

This line stands out to our friends at Slavic Gospel Association. SGA supports the Church in several war-torn nations of the world such as Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Israel.

SGA’s Eric Mock says, “Let us remember the government is on His shoulder. Let us remember that He alone is the Prince of Peace.

(Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association)

“Therefore, for SGA, it’s okay for us to serve churches in Russia. We’re not affirming Russia. It’s okay for us to serve churches in Israel, to serve churches in Moldova, Poland, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and all these other countries — to serve the ones that God is ready to.

“Why? The primacy in these days is God’s Church, God’s people, and His message through His people. So there is our uniting factor.”

Looking to the year 2024, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by war and rumors of war.

Isaiah 9:6 reminds us we don’t need to despair over the fate of the nations before a sovereign God.

Mock says, “Ultimately, our joy is found in Christ. Ultimately, our hope and peace is in Christ. He is the Prince of Peace.

“Let us have that as our focus in ministry and ministering to others in a world filled with wars between nations, social issues, and the things of the day. Let us find our peace in Christ, for the government is upon His shoulder.”

Learn more about SGA’s critical ministry supporting the Church here.

Pray for trust in Jesus as SGA advances the Great Commission in every nation. Pray for the Lord’s will to be done in the hearts of leaders and rulers. Ask God to open the eyes of suffering people to the comfort only found in Christ.

Header photo courtesy of Greyson Joralemon/Unsplash.

Roughly 150,000 Armenians fled the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in late September after Azerbaijan attacked. Azerbaijan now demands that Armenia hand over eight more villages in the region. Armenia has, so far, refused.

Eric Mock with Slavic Gospel Association explains, “The area of Nagorno Karabakh — or as Armenian people would call it, Artsakh — is really a sacred area. In fact, the people that live there go back many, many, many generations. It is been at a flashpoint for especially the last year because there has been this blockade that has meant no food [and] no resources coming to…that region of about 150,000 people.”

(Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association)

This conflict, which has its origins in the early 20th century and was reignited in the late 1980s, centers on the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The two nations, Armenia and Azerbaijan, have engaged in multiple military clashes and full-scale wars, resulting in significant loss of life and instability in the region.

Mock says SGA has had a relationship with Armenian churches since the 1990s. “We have been supporting their missionary pastors. We’ve been helping them with their Orphans Reborn program and children’s Christmas program. Of course, Immanuel’s Child is coming up, and training now as well. So all aspects of SGA’s ministry have actually been engaged in the country of Armenia since the fall of the Soviet Union.”

SGA has supported three Armenian churches in Nagorno-Karabakh specifically with food aid and spiritual encouragement. Now, Mock says, “Those churches fled. They lost everything — their building, everything, their livelihood — but they re-gathered outside of Yerevan, Armenia, so I was able to spend time with them.

“The three churches that fled have already reformed and have grown by 40% [from] other refugees coming and trying to ask for those messages of hope. So what God has done, much like we saw in the crisis in Ukraine, is He has provided a circumstance by which these churches are now flourishing even though they’ve lost everything.”

A refugee family in Armenia. (Photo courtesy of SGA)

Churches already established in Yerevan are also housing refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Story after story, we hear refugees that have come and have heard the Gospel,” says Mock. “Several of them would have been antagonistic to the Christian appeal, the Gospel.

“The thought of even walking through a church, their context was the Armenian Apostolic Church. So they had been taught the Protestant Church was against the faith, against the good of the country, against all the people. But they found that those were the churches that were actually trying to take care of them. Those are the churches from which they heard the message of grace and people are coming to faith!”

Please pray for Armenians to know they are not forgotten by the Church! Ask the Lord to add fuel to the Church in Armenia and for the Gospel to change hearts across the region.

Learn more about SGA’s ministry here!

Header photo of Yerevan, Armenia. (Photo courtesy of Levon Vardanyan/Unsplash)

On Tuesday, Azerbaijan launched an offensive against separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh – an ethnically Armenian region in Azerbaijan that wants to unite with Armenia. Over 200 people died, including civilians and children. Just a day later, ethnic Armenians in the region agreed to a ceasefire.

A refugee family in Armenia. (Photo courtesy of SGA)

Tensions have been building for months since Azerbaijani troops cut off the only road between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia in December.

Slavic Gospel Association’s Eric Mock says, “The people were literally blocked off from getting any food.

“In fact, what SGA has been doing is working with four churches in that region…that were crying out with need, so we were helping get aid. It’s very unique because you can’t get food in so we were actually assisting the churches in purchasing potatoes from farmers.”

Locals are concerned about further conflict. “They don’t want to see war again. Many of their sons were lost in the fighting so they’re brokenhearted over the idea that conflict would start again.”

Mock says Armenian churches are praying for peace and Church unity across borders. Please pray with them.

“You can be unified in the Kingdom of Heaven, and that’s where we stand with them. So that’s why the Gospel truly is a peacemaking Gospel.”

Click here to learn more about SGA’s ministry.

Header photo of Shushi, a town in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) mostly destroyed by war with Azerbaijan in 2020. (Revised caption, photo courtesy of Sarin Aventisian/Unsplash)

Eric Mock says that’s largely due to the pandemic: “Maybe a parent’s been lost due to the pandemic. Parents have lost jobs due to the pandemic, as a whole range of complications have affected these kids. In fact, some of the kids that are in orphanages have actually said they are the lucky ones since they got into the orphanage. Because a lot of the kids that are in these homes suffer incredibly.”

Mock calls these kids “social orphans.” Many live in single-parent homes, typically with the mother. But even the parents these kids do have may not care for them well, due to alcoholism or drug use.

The love of the local churches

The government has no support for these kids, so local churches often provide the only help. You can help this work by supporting SGA’s Orphans Reborn program.

Mock says, “I was just in Ukraine in the war zone. One thing that I noticed was the women. It was these widows or single moms raising children, who are in this arduous journey of providing when the man’s
not around.”

Ask God to strengthen and comfort these women. And pray these families will find hope in Jesus as the local churches care for them.

Life won’t return to normal in these areas any time soon. COVID-19 case numbers remain high in many parts of the former Soviet Union.

Mock says, “Be praying for the churches as they also are at risk. But they seem to labor with no fear. They know the pandemic is there. They know that COVID-19 could take their lives. But much like in the
years of communism, and the threat against them advancing the Gospel, they see it as just one more enemy that they have to fight.”

Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association.

Years of conflict

Open war broke out for six weeks in 2020, killing more than 7,000 soldiers. At that time, Russia brokered a ceasefire and sent peacekeeping troops, but they have not prevented flare-ups in violence since then.

And the invasion of Ukraine has exhausted Russia’s focus and resources. Azerbaijan gained territory during the 2020 conflict. With Armenia’s major ally, Russia, occupied in Ukraine, Azerbaijan’s advantage grows even stronger.

Eric Mock with the Slavic Gospel Association says, “There are cultural, religious, and political issues that manage to keep the situation in constant tension, constant fighting. Even though there is a ceasefire, the word ceasefire, much like what we see in Ukraine today, means a status quo in the middle of the fighting.”

“There remains a difficulty between these countries over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.”

Local churches

SGA serves churches in both Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Mock says believers rush into embattled areas, bringing help and hope in Jesus’ name. “It’s very easy to get into the habit of choosing geographical or political sides, but we who are in Christ have chosen the kingdom of heaven as our side.”

Many civilians caught up in the war suffered greatly, especially those who lived in the disputed territories. Their homes switched hands from Armenia to Azerbaijan as the latter gained territory during the 2020 war.

Pray many will find comfort and peace in the love of Jesus. You can support these local churches through SGA.

The header photo shows a missile that landed in an Armenian village during a September bout of violence. (Photo courtesy of the Official YouTube channel of Ministry of Defence of Armenia, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Armenia and Azerbaijan

Earlier this week, fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia killed hundreds of soldiers on both sides. Eric Mock with the Slavic Gospel Association says, “The sons of some of the leaders there have been lost in the fighting. So they are feeling the pain and the difficulty.”

Last Wednesday, a ceasefire agreement ended the fighting. A delegation from the U.S. House of Representatives announced plans to visit Armenia. Mock says, “There are, of course, the disputed territories they’re fighting about. But I think it’s even deeper than that. Armenia tends to be Christian where you see Azerbaijan predominantly Muslim.”

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan

Friday, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan agreed to a ceasefire after a round of fighting at their shared border. Mock says, “Centers for helping children in these more impoverished communities were hit by shells. They’ve had to remove the younger families and their children to safer locations.”

Some clashes were still reported after the agreement. SGA works in Tajikistan, ministering to poorer communities near the border. The boundary between the two countries has not been well defined, leading to conflicts since the Soviet era.

Ukraine

Meanwhile, Russian forces retreat from a counter-offensive in Ukraine. Ukrainian forces have approached the city of Kherson, taken by Russia earlier this year.

Mock says, “Previously occupied territory is being returned to Ukrainian control. We’re seeing very deep humanitarian need there. We’re seeing the destruction. But mostly, what we’re seeing is how people in the churches have stepped up. They’re actually traveling into these regions and helping the people there.”

Through SGA, you can send help to each one of these countries. Mock says, “As we face winter, people are already beginning to ask for wood and coal.”

Pray the love of local Christians will draw many to Jesus.

The header photo shows now of the first Armenian towns to come under attack during the recent fighting with Azerbaijan. (Photo courtesy of Armineaghayan, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)