New Jersey Bible Church celebrates Armenian Christmas

by Ani Janbazian

Published: Wednesday January 18, 2012

Celebration at the Hackensack church.

Hackensack, N.J. - As most people were taking down their Christmas trees and decorations and finishing up their holiday leftovers, Armenians around the world were still celebrating the birth of Jesus. On Saturday, January 7, the Armenian Bible Church of Hackensack, NJ came together for a Christmas celebration that included singing, a play portraying a powerful message and a memorable Christmas sermon.

The program began with an opening prayer and welcoming words from Rev. Dikran Youmshakian followed by a skit and beautiful nativity scene by the Sunday school children. The youth and the adult choirs offered a good selection of worship and praise songs including Christmas carols. An Armenian poem, "The Christmas Star" written by Rev. Samual Bakalian was recited beautifully by Tamar Kalachian afterwards.

Rev. Youmshakian then came up to give the Christmas message, which was about our post Christmas activities. He observed how we all put away everything, the Christmas tree, the Christmas decorations and return to our daily activities.

He then presented a picture through his words of what perhaps happened to Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus after all the shepherds and the Magi came and left. They put away the gifts from the Magi, took care of the newborn baby and went on with their daily activities until Joseph had a dream that changed the course of events. Rev. Dikran described what Joseph did using scripture from Matthew 2: 13-15, where an angel told him in a dream to take the child and his mother, escape to Egypt and to stay there until advised because Herod was to search for the child and kill him. Joseph could have easily not listened to the warning in his dream; he could have said that Jesus was not even really his child and that he could have continued with his daily activities dismissing the angel's instructions.

Yet he submitted immediately, and in the middle of the night, when it was the most dangerous time to travel alone with Mary and a newborn baby, he left for Egypt and faithfully obeyed the Lord. Rev. Dikran ended the Christmas message by emphasizing the significance of doing the same as Joseph-"accepting Jesus, taking Him, leaving our worldly lives and going where God directs us to go and waiting until His return with full glory, for the world will try to distract us and like Herod will try to ‘kill the child.' "

Following the Christmas message, the drama team gave a powerful play about the life of a young man named Raffi who came to accept Jesus through an encounter with an angel he had while he was in a coma from a car accident. Following the play, Asadour Ghoughasian and Antionette Kassas sang a beautiful duet in Armenian and the program ended with a closing song and prayer followed by refreshments downstairs in the church.

The Armenian Bible Church is an independent fellowship of Armenian Christians who come together for worship and praise. The Church has an active Sunday school and a dynamic youth group. Worship services are held on Sundays at 12:30 p.m. at 67 S. Prospect Avenue, Hackensack, NJ. Ever since its establishment in 2008 the church has experienced tremendous growth as many young families have joined. Sunday worship services are also broadcast on cable TV on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m.

For more details please visit the church website: www.armenianbiblechurch.com.