Tracts For The Neighbors!

When little Marash Girl arrived home from church one Sunday afternoon with a pile of religious tracts clutched in her hand, tracts which she intended to distribute to her neighbors, her father stopped her in her tracts . . . whoops, rather her father stopped her in her tracks!

"Has anyone ever asked you why you're so different?" he asked.

"No," answered little Marash Girl.

"Well, until they do, you don't preach.  The best way to spread the good word is through the way you live.  Live that life, girl!"

 

The Little White Church On Plum Island

Marash Girl woke up today remembering . . . no, not the Little Brown Church In The Vale, but the little white church on the island . . . Plum Island! Is this the church she remembered?

Or was it this one?

Marash Girl must have been 7 or 8 years old -- or younger -- when the family was visiting Plum Island for a week and she first saw the little white church. She remembers asking her father why they weren't going to church there . . . it was Sunday, after all. She doesn't remember his answer . . . all she knows is that because it was not THEIR church, she couldn't attend!!! She was so disappointed. Marash Girl thinks that that was probably one of the only Sundays in her childhood that she had not attended church, or at least, one of the only days in her childhood she had not attended Sunday School! N.B. Images taken from the internet.

"Prosecute Now!"

Photo by MarashGirl©2022

Photo by MarashGirl©2022 Photographed above are parishioners and friends of the Eliot Church of Newton, Massachusetts, yesterday, January 6, demonstrating during the evening rush hour in front of Eliot Church on Centre Street in Newton Corner on the anniversary of the January 6th attack on the White House. The demonstration occurred following the church service, parishioners and neighbors holding placards and signs calling for the government to "Prosecute T... Now For Sedition!"

"Pennies From Heaven" or . . .

Visiting Blogger John Harutunian writes . . . My late mom, Karmille [Der Sahakian] Harutunian was a young pupil of about ten years old in Soviet Armenia around 1924. One day in class, the teacher, intent on brainwashing her pupils, suggested, “Why don’t we all bow our heads, close our eyes, and ask God for candy?” They did--and of course nothing happened. The teacher then suggested, “Why don’t we try bowing our head, closing our eyes, and asking Lenin for candy?” Unfortunately for the teacher, my mom was not only a bright little girl, but her father, Rev. Mardiros Der Sahakian, was a Congregational Protestant Minister. So little Karmille must have sensed that something was up. She sneaked a peek up to the top of the classroom. And up there she glimpsed a man -- raining candy down upon the children! Author's note: My mom was from Hayastan, indeed from Yerevan. My parents met in the USA; my father, who I think was living in Watertown at the time, started attending Rev. Der Sahakian’s church services in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Of course it’s possible that he might have noticed Karmille at some social gathering (perhaps at Tremont Temple in Boston) before that--so his interest wasn’t only in my grandfather’s church!

I'm So Happy And Here's The Reason Why. . .

When Marash Girl was a little girl, she attended Sunday School at the United Armenian Brethren Evangelical Church in Watertown, Massachusetts, a church established by those who had survived the genocide of the Armenian people which occurred between the years of 1915 and 1922. The preacher of our church, Rev. Vartan Bilezikian, was himself a survivor the Armenian Genocide (see yesterday's blogpost). Students from Gordon College were Marash Girl's Sunday School teachers. Young, enthusiastic, and committed, they taught her and her classmates to love Jesus, to live according to Jesus's teachings. But that's not all they taught. They taught wonderful Sunday School choruses, many of which Marash Girl remembers to this day. and here's one she finds herself singing often! "I'm so happy and here's the reason why, Jesus took my burdens all away; Now I'm singing as the days go by, Jesus took my burdens all away." "Once my heart was heavy with a load of sin, Jesus took the load and gave me peace within; Now I'm happy and here's the reason why, Jesus took my burdens all away." An upbeat (children's) hymn written by Stanton Gavitt . . . a hymn Marash Girl loves to sing as she takes her morning walk. Check out the song on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKA_jOdxEH0. You'll be so happy because Jesus took your burdens all away AND because you will be able to sing along with the pianist. Happy Palm Sunday!

It's Not The Hymns . . .

It's not the hymns that stayed with Marash Girl all these years, but the children's choruses that she learned from her Sunday School teachers at the United Armenian Brethren Church in Watertown, Massachusetts, teachers who were young people, students themselves, attending Gordon College in Beverly, Massachusetts. And here's one of those choruses! Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me . . . Thy great salvation so rich and free. N.B. According to research on the internet, the music and lyrics were composed by Mr. and Mrs. Seth Sykes.

I'm So Happy, And Here's The Reason Why . . .

The lyrics of one of the first Sunday School choruses Marash Girl learned as a child are recorded below. Marash Girl and her sister and brother and cousins and Sunday School friends would stand on the pulpit at the front of the Armenian Brethren Evangelical Church of Watertown, Massachusetts, and sing out the words with great gusto, big smiles and genuine joy! Marash Girl remembers the lyrics and sings the song to this day, all these many years later!!! Sorry she can't record the tune here, but she's sure you can find the music somewhere out there on the internet . . . so here goes . . . I'm So Happy Words and Music by Stanton W. Gavitt © 1936, renewal 1964 by Stanton W. Gavitt I'm so happy and here's the reason why - Jesus took my burdens all away; Now I'm singing as the days go by - Jesus took my burdens all away. Once my heart was heavy with a load of sin. Jesus took my sin and gave me peace within, Now I'm singing as the days go by - Jesus took my burdens all away.

We Will Worship The Lord!

During the Corona Virus, Pastor Regina Walton conducts services on the front lawn of Grace Church. Photo by Marash Girl

Remembering . . .

Growing up attending Watertown's Armenian Brethren Church every Sunday, the church in which her great-grandfather's son preached (her great-grandfather was the first Protestant minister in the Armenian Protestant Church in Marash), Marash Girl saw many little old Armenian ladies all dressed in black . . . little because they had little nutrition during World War One when they survived the Armenian Genocide . . . little old ladies who had lost their homes and their husbands . . . singing hymns to their Lord God . . . singing with hope, singing with prayer, singing with faith, singing with love, singing with gusto, singing with all their energy . . . If they could sing then, their children's children must sing now . . . must sing with hope, must sing with prayer, must sing with faith . . .

Stockingless in the Early 1960's!

A bright young man from MIT,

(Armenian he, oh, glory be!) 

Begged Marash Girl, “Go out with me!" 

But when no stockings he did see, 

He fled right back to MIT!

N.B.  Mary Auntie would have commented, "Abris, dghas!"

Emily Dickinson Visits Newton Corner's Grace Episcopal Church

An Old Country Story for the New Country

A visiting evangelist, thinking to get the attention of the men and the women in the congregation, asked all men who were afraid of their wives to stand.

All men stood save one.  The evangelist pointed to the man who was seated and asked, "Are you the only one in this congregation, then, who is not afraid of your wife?"

The seated man answered, "I cannot stand because my knees shake so badly at the mention of my wife!"

Marash Girl thanks her father who heard this story many a time while he was growing up in Marash.

On Throwing Stones . . .

One day, Peter was driving up to the little Armenian Protestant church in Watertown, the church in which his uncle, Rev. Vartan Bilezikian, preached, when he noticed several boys throwing stones at the front of the church.  "What are you doing?" he asked the boys.

"We're throwing stones at this church."

"Why?" asked Peter.

"It's not Catholic.  It's bad.  It's a Protestant Church," the boys answered. 

"Who told you that?" Peter asked.  No answer. "I'll tell you what," Peter went on.  "You go to your priest and ask him if it's alright to throw stones at a Protestant Church. If he says it's okay, then come back, and   I'll help you throw the stones next Sunday."

"Okay, Mister," said the little boys.

The boys (who most probably did not live in glass houses) were never again seen throwing stones at the little Armenian Protestant Church on Arlington Street in Watertown, Massachusetts.

The First Protestant Church in Aintab, Turkey

"Arkada çanı görülen ve uzun çatısı olan bina Antep birinci protestan kilisesi..."