The Community Journal, MA
Dec 31 2008
Local missionary departs for Armenia again
"God is giving me the opportunity to use all these lessons and
experiences in His service." ‘ KAARINA A. HAM
Kaarina A. Ham
Dr. Kaarina A. Ham is spending the next weeks or so getting ready for
her new term of service in Armenia.
Ham, a native of South Ashburnham, is focused on extending youth and
young adult ministry programs to schools and churches in both the
urban and outlying areas of Armenia. Ham has ministered in the
Republic of Armenia since 2004.
"It’s a matter of diplomacy. ¦ With proper respect for the leaders,
they’re welcoming," she said in a 2006 interview with the Journal.
Ham said there is great openness to learning the basics of the
Christian faith in Armenia. She has served as a missionary to the
former Soviet Union since 1979. She worked with the Slavic Gospel
Association, first, and then worked with Youth for Christ
International.
In 2006, she became the founder and general director of HOPE Armenia
Ministries. This new mission focuses on youth evangelism and young
adult discipleship in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia; and on biblical
training seminars at the Lighthouse Training Center near Lake Sevan,
in North Central Armenia.
"God is giving me the opportunity to use all these lessons and
experiences in His service," she said in the 2006
interview. "Pioneering, directing, teaching, training, evangelizing,
discipling. He’s even adding a few: establishing, administering,
renovating. Isn’t this just like the Lord?"
Once an empire extending from the Black to Caspian Seas, the present
Republic of Armenia is a semi-arid, land-locked, mountainous nation in
the lower Caucasus region comparable in size to Maryland in the United
States.
Today Armenia is bordered to the west by Turkey; to the north by the
former Soviet Republic of Georgia; to the east by the former Soviet
Republic of Azerbaijan, and to the south by Iran.
Over the last 30 years, she has focused her efforts first in the
Soviet "satellite" nations of East Central Europe, then in Moscow and
Samara in Central Russia, to provide Christian discipleship and
leadership training for teenagers and young adults.
Like each of the 15 former Soviet Republics since the demise of the
Communist system, Armenia has struggled to move forward politically
and economically, according to Ham.
Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, thousands of Armenians of the
Diaspora (primarily the U.S., Canada, France, Russia, Lebanon, Syria,
and Iran) have flocked to the homeland each year to assist in
religious and cultural philanthropic ventures.
In the wake of the failed Soviet experiment, with its Marxist-Leninist
atheistic ideology, Ham noticed a great interest in Christian faith
among young people, who are eager to learn more about their historic
status as the first Christian nation, according to Ham.
In 301 A.D., King Tiridates III declared the Armenian Apostolic
Orthodox Church to be the national religion. 1,700 years of Armenian
Christian faith were celebrated recently in 2001, according to Ham.
Ham graduated from Oakmont Regional High School and then went on to
educate herself at Eastern Nazarene College and Fuller Seminary, in
Pasadena. She earned three Master degrees and a Ph.D., steeping
herself in theology, counseling, adolescent psychology and cultural
anthropology. Her foctoral thesis explored the way Protestants are
perceived in Eastern Orthodox lands, a fitting study for her future
endeavors.
Ham is also the daughter of the former pastor of the Peoples Church in
Ashburnham.
A service of dedication will be held on Sunday, Jan. 4, at 10:30
a.m. at Peoples Evangelical Congregational Church, 56 South Main
Street in South Ashburnham, to which the public is invited.