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Chapter 31
AROUND THE MIDDLE EAST
Armenian folks who were
providentially spared from the massacres found refuge in cities such as
Beirut, Aleppo, Cairo, Alexandria, etc. Many of them had known Haralambos
and more were acquainted with him through his books. They kept inviting
Aneta to visit them. Her first destination was Beirut, Lebanon, where the
bulk of the Armenian refugees had found a new and pleasant home. Their
enjoyable and prosperous life there continued until 1975 when Beirut became
a center of bloody conflict. Many of those refugees or their children moved
out once again, this time to America, Canada and Australia.
At her arrival at
the airport in Beirut she was met by a group of people who had known
Haralambos. Immediately meetings began in various homes. Most of these
people were refugees from Anatolia. When they got together with Aneta,
there was no end to the topics of discussion. Their common suffering in the
past carried them back to the Anatolia they still longed for. Now that
Aneta was with them, she could add her own experiences, share the memories
of the flourishing work in Aintab, and the poignant account of Haralambos’
arrest which led to his eventual execution in Marash. Most of these people
had not known Aneta previously. But the warmth with which they welcomed her
and took her into their hearts was proof of their devotion to the Lord and
to the blessing of Haralambos’ ministry in their lives. She had numerous
opportunities to go from house to house and share with friends. She met one
brother by the name of Jacob Halepian who was especially delighted to meet
her. He hung on her words as she related her and her late husband’s
ministry. Remembering Haralambos’ early martyrdom never ceased to be a
wrenching experience to all who had known him or had heard about him.
Aneta longed to
visit Jerusalem, but didn’t know how she could plan for such a trip. Right
at that time, an old friend in Philadelphia, Dr. Balian, wrote to her that
he and his wife were taking off on a group tour to Jerusalem and that they
could meet her in Beirut. This was a God-sent offer to be with a group of
believers to visit the Golden City. In Jerusalem she was the guest of an
Armenian minister who was a convert back in Aintab. For Aneta who had
studied the Bible for years and was familiar with all the events relating to
the City of Zion to at last see the place where Christ taught and was
crucified was a highlight of her earthly pilgrimage.
Following their
return to Beirut, the group flew back to the U.S. Aneta once again was with
old friends. Among them was Sister Katerina of Marash, whom Haralambos had
led to Christ in the prison just before his execution. The many services
Katerina had offered to Haralambos in his last hours flooded Aneta’s mind.
The two women had never seen each other before, so to meet at last was a
touching experience. Katerina’s financial condition, as it had been
throughout the years, was mediocre. So the first thing that came to Aneta’s
mind was to offer her some monetary assistance. But Katerina adamantly
refused to accept any gift. She said she was already enjoying the reward of
eternal life extended to her through Haralambos before he died. Katerina
was living in the reality of Christ and His salvation.
From Beirut, Aneta
sailed over to Cyprus, an overnight voyage. There, too, her many friends and
acquaintances offered her hospitality. Even a family from her own home town
of Zinjidere was now on this beautiful island. The mother of the family was
the youngest daughter of Pastor Stephanos Sirinides who had performed her
and Haralambos’ wedding back in 1914. Once again, house meetings among
Greeks and Armenians were the order of the day. After Cyprus, she went on
to Egypt where she visited Alexandria and Cairo. Again she was among
friends and a few relatives who had settled there. People remembered
Haralambos’ messages and how they had been helped in their time of great
trial through his writings. So they took Aneta into their hearts and truly
cherished her, giving her a sense of belonging to a loving family.
Aneta had always
wanted to go to Baghdad and events so developed that she almost got there!
In 1964, after she moved from Katerini to Athens a man who was visiting
from Iraq was trying to get in touch with her. He looked for her until he
finally found her. He related that he had been converted through her
husband’s’ early ministry in Adana at the time when Haralambos was still at
Tarsus College. When he was ten years old, he was working in a coffee house
of rather good repute, having been hired for a pittance to serve customers
one Turkish coffee after the other. To this day, little boys are hired for
this job. Men spend hours in these places playing backgammon and cards,
smoking and drinking coffee. One day a tall man with a strong voice entered
the coffee house. Everyone’s attention was immediately riveted on this
commanding stranger. He held a Bible in his hand and started talking about
the Day of Judgment with great passion. He invited people to repent and
believe in Jesus Christ. All games stopped. People nodded their heads in
agreement to the evangelist’s vibrant message. The young boy was standing
at the counter. He stepped forward closer to the evangelist so he wouldn’t
miss anything of what was said. Right then and there he met the Lord
Jesus. The smoke-filled room had become an evangelistic center. After so
very many years, the Iraqi visitor was telling Aneta how blessed he was to
be the errand boy at the coffee house that day! He later experienced his
faithful Lord’s strength to face the agonies of the deportation and the long
death march. Throughout the years, he stayed true to his Lord. Before he
went back to Iraq, he asked Aneta to visit the believers there and help him
in the ministry to the transplanted Armenians. But this was a desire not to
be fulfilled.
One especially
touching visit was in Istanbul where she spent a whole month with the
believers, among whom was Vahram Tatikian. God had raised Vahram to be an
effective colporteur and evangelist in Anatolia to follow in Haralambos’
footsteps. He was a Spirit-anointed evangelist who led many men and women to
Jesus Christ. The house meetings he conducted in the city became a legend.
People heard him preach; they sang, testified and had earnest prayer
sessions afterward. This unrecorded revival took place in Istanbul. In
those days Christian reading material in Turkish was very rare. One could
say that the Bostanjoglou books were a provision from God for many old and
new Christians. These books in Turkish with Armenian characters circulated
widely among local believers. Vahram would often suggest to Christians that
after the Bible they study these books. Many were fortified in the faith
and entered into a deeper life with Christ. Among the numerous house
gatherings in Istanbul, one of particular meaning was in remembrance of
Haralambos. Of course, Aneta spoke extensively. There was hardly anyone in
the group who had known Haralambos personally, but everyone could give a
testimony about some blessing received through reading his books.
Here she was in a
land where her husband had offered himself entirely to proclaim Christ, to
travel tirelessly from city to city and town to town, to bring people to the
knowledge of the Savior and build up the Church. Old memories were shared,
and there was prayer for revival and broad evangelism in Turkey. Aneta said
that she left Istanbul with a different feeling than in the other places she
had visited. Here she enjoyed the fellowship of Christians who continued to
live in the land of her husband’s birth and martyrdom while faithfully
carrying on the witness of Christ.
There were places
Aneta would have liked to spend the rest of her life — in Beirut, among
those beloved friends, or in Katerini with God’s people around that great
tabernacle. But old age and poor eyesight made no provision for such
aspirations. Her younger sister Andriana Seraphimidou became God’s chosen
deaconess to care for her in the eve of her life.
Aneta related that
her earthly sojourn had been a series of exciting experiences. Though
confronted with the valley of death and many other sorrows, the Good
Shepherd did not abandon her for a moment. His peerless sustenance and
matchless grace carried her through every storm.
Old age brings into
focus His many benefits as brilliant roses stand out in a field of thorns.
As she relished the certainty of her Lord’s return, sadness at all past
reminiscences gave way to gladness. Since the days of the Apostle Paul
whose origin was in Anatolia, the message of Jesus Christ has been
persistently declared in that land —regardless of the earthly government in
power at any given time. In the days of Rome, Christians were persecuted
and like Polycarp of old, gladly laid down their lives for the Lord Jesus
Christ. When the Muslim Ottomans made their appearance in the thirteenth
century a different form of hostility developed. This also stymied the
progress of the Gospel in varying degrees, but the testimony of Christ went
on. Haralambos and numberless others laid down their lives under the
intimidation of the Crescent. Today Anatolia continues to be swayed by
Islamic Turks. People are still hated for their faith in Christ. However,
for the first time in the long history of Turkey, national believers are
appearing on the scene courageously declaring their faith in Christ the
Savior.
What does the
future hold for Anatolia? While we don’t know any detail, we can be very
certain that the Lord Jesus Christ and His truth and sovereign design will
prevail in this land overcoming every usurpation and oppression. Today
Christians in Turkey are living and testifying with this certainty. We can
pray, “Lord Jesus, you gave your precious life for the people of Anatolia.
Speed the impact of your message in this country where so many throughout
the centuries believed in you and died, not few in martyrdom.”
EPILOGUE
In the Church calendar,
Christmas Day is followed by St. Stephen’s Day, likewise a significant
commemoration. A life born to save other lives was faithfully emulated by
one who was benefited from the supreme gift.
T. S. Eliot
(1888-1965) in his classical historic drama, ‘Murder in the Cathedral,’
(1935) envisages Thomas A'Becket, (1118-1170), Archbishop of Canterbury,
delivering his last sermon. His execution had been ordered by King Henry II
and was carried out on Christmas morning at the Cathedral. The conjectured
masterpiece is narrated as if Thomas A'Becket himself gave it four days
prior to his murder:
"Beloved, we do not think of a
martyr simply as a good Christian who has been killed because he is a
Christian; for that would be solely to mourn. We do not think of him simply
as a good Christian who has been elevated to the company of the Saints; for
that would be simply to rejoice; and neither our mourning nor our rejoicing
is as the world's is. A Christian martyrdom is never an accident, for
Saints are not made by accident. Still less is a Christian martyrdom the
effect of a man's will to become a Saint, as a man by willing and contriving
may become a ruler of men. A martyrdom is always the design of God, for His
love of men, to warn them and to lead them, to bring them back to His ways.
It is never the design of man; for the true martyr is he who has become the
instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, and who no
longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of being a martyr.
So thus as on earth the Church mourns and rejoices at once, in a fashion
that the world cannot understand; so in Heaven the Saints are most high,
having made themselves most low, and are seen, not as we see them, but in
the light of the Godhead, from which they draw their being." |
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