Sunday September 7, 2014 a busy Sunday at St. John Armenian Church.  Following the Divine Liturgy and a thoughtful spiritual message by Rev. Fr. Mesrop Ash about Christ's Ministry of Restoration, the congregation gathered in the Paul Family Hall Fellowship Hall.

Fr. Mesrop welcomed everyone and expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the Arabatyan Family, especially Chef Raffi Arabatyan for preparing soup for the entire congregation. Two weeks ago, during St. John’s Annual picnic Raffi approached Fr. Mesrop and offered to make soup one Sunday during coffee hour, and he wanted to serve it to more than 100 people. Raffi’s wish was granted and on September 6 with his family and friends the soup preparation began. The next day, everyone enjoyed the delicious soup, and even got the recipe from Raffi. A Medz Thank You to Chef Raffi, and his helpers, brother Zare, and sister Areni. Gayane would have helped, if only she was a little bigger.

While people were enjoying the fellowship hour, Sunday School Students were practicing Armenian dance, traditional Shourch Bar, under the direction of long serving and talented dance instructor, Carol Kazarian. They will perform during our Annual Food Festival.

Following the luncheon Fr. Mesrop invited sDn. Nshan Kesecker to do a special presentation about King Tigran II the Great. sDn Nshan presented summarized version of the three hour presentation that he lectured to the University of Chicago,  on King Tigran II. He emphasized on why King Tigran II has a special place in Armenian  history and how he unified all of the Armenian speaking people for the first time under the rule of one king, despite powerful imperialist neighbors. It was indeed a very interesting and educational  presentation. Q&A followed the lecture. Currently Nshan is a graduate student at University of Chicago at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Meanwhile, our ladies were working hard to prepare the meatballs that would be the por of the Kufte that they will be making in the coming weeks.

The third event of the day was the season's second honey extraction. Yer. Annie Ash has been working diligently throughout the summer, with the support of volunteers, to care for the parish's bee hives. The result was more than 50lbs. of honey, harvested since July, which will soon sold to our community to help support our parish's activities.

We would like to extend our gratitude to Chef Raffi and his team, sDn. Nshan Kesecker and Yer. Annie and Carol Kazarian, and all of our children and parents for making this Sunday an interesting and fun day.