chewing gum and Engelbert Humperdinck

Ian and me were both at church last night to hear a really interesting bloke called Vartan Melkonian. Boy oh boy he's had an interesting life.

He was born in a refugee camp for Christians in Lebanon in the Middle East. His parents died from a plague when he was about four (he doesn't really know how old he is, when his birthday is, who his grand parents were, any of that stuff). He lived in a Christian orphanage for a few years but ran away and survived by living on the streets and selling chewing gum. When he talked about his expirences of surviving as a street child he said that he felt priveleged because he knew from what he had learned at the organge that God was looking after him. He said he could clearly see the difference between good and evil in the world around him and he knew that he was under God's protection.

To cut a very long story short, he ended up as the conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra! Stroof! But his first gig in the UK was at a talent contest in Skegness (wahey Spring Harvest fans) in 1973 where he sang an Engelbert Humperdinck song (ask your grandma) and won. Good on ya Vartan!

HIn the 90's he set up a charity called the Melkonian foundation (in honour of his grand parents who he never knew) to get people from the UK to support the Christian Orphange he went to. It's called the Birds Nest orphange and it was set up in 1928 by a 19 year old girl from Denmark. Read that sentence again - SHE WAS 19! She was sat in church hearing about terrible stuff that was happening to Christians in the Middle East and God knocked her off her pew and told her to start an orphage in Lebanon WHEN SHE WAS 15! FIFTEEEN! And when she was 19 (NINETEEN!) she did it. Let's all say a communal "stroof' In honour of this achievement:

breath in, and STROOF.

click here to find out more about Vartan

click here to find out more about the Melkonian foundation
http://www.melkonian-foundation.org.uk/History.htm

Vartan was invited to speak by the Broadway Mission committee. Broadway gives some monmey to support the orphanage. The Mission committee take the money that Broadway sets aside to support Christians in other places as they share news of Jesus with people and they decide which organisations to give it to. They do a great job and last night was really interesting, so look out for the next one.

Ian and me were talking after the service and we had an idea for Youth Alpha that I'm quite excited about. You can hear about that at Youth Alpha this Sunday (2nd July), see you there.