Dear Reader,
Our last email shared a gripping letter by 27-year-old Bob Finley describing his experience of first arriving in India not long after the partition. From the end of September through mid-December 1948, he preached and evangelized in youth gatherings in Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, and India.
A few weeks later, in a January 14,1949, letter to his supporters, he wrote:
By God’s grace I hope to leave behind me at least one convert in every country who will dedicate his life to the preaching of the gospel. Thus far this has been realized almost 100%. In some countries there are several. Vartkes Kassouni, a high school senior in Cyprus who accepted the Lord as a result of our conversation and prayer together, has already started preaching. He writes that he is now leading a gospel team up and down the island, holding forth the Word of Life.
He is to graduate in June and has no place to continue his studies unless he goes abroad. There is no college in Cyprus. In faith, I have told him to definitely plan to come to the USA to attend a good Bible school or Christian college. And since he has no money (his relatives were all exterminated by the Turks in their massacre of Christians) I have promised to be personally responsible for all of his expenses. This may sound like a foolhardy promise coming from an unemployed preacher in the middle of the Pacific Ocean without enough money even to get himself home; it is – just as rash as Peter jumping out of the boat to walk on the sea. And I know that if I should start to go under, our Lord will raise me up before the waves close over my head. As you read this I hope you will pause and pray a few minutes concerning Vartkes. I believe he is a chosen vessel unto the Lord to spearhead the evangelization of the Middle East. He is unusually intelligent and speaks four languages, Greek, Turkish, Armenian, and English. Under God he can do more among Turks and Arabs than a hundred Americans…
Our team reached Vartkes Kassouni recently by phone in California, and he relayed that he had been a senior in high school in Larnaca, Cyprus, when the principal, Mr. Weir, recommended Bob meet him. Vartkes and others were playing tennis and Bob showed up at the courts. The story then takes an interesting turn, according to Kassouni:
“He [Bob] met me and began to talk with me about my relationship with Christ. The key question he asked that led me to Christ was not ‘are you going to go to heaven when you die’ which is the typical question put to people. But the question was, ‘does Jesus Christ have any role in your dreams and hopes for your future? What place does He hold in your mind in that regard?’ I thought well this is unusual. I had heard enough sermons about hell and heaven that I was inoculated against a response to that one. But this was a new angle completely and I was soon going to graduate. And I was facing my future, and it was a key question. So when he asked me, I said ‘not much.’ And so he began to witness to me at that point. And . . . that led me to a point of decision to have Christ as my Lord and Saviour and be the key guide in my life. That’s what led me from that point on.”
Finley kept his promise to Vartkes, who later that year attended Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, where he roomed with Bob’s younger brother, Allen Finley. Kassouni fondly remembered spending school breaks with the large Finley family in Free Union, Virginia. Today, he can look back on an entire lifetime of serving the Lord in pastoral ministry—in particular to diaspora Armenians. Don’t miss the description of his service HERE.
Have you ever stepped out in faith to support a Christian young person in ministry? We’d love to hear your story if so.
Thank you for your partnership in the gospel!
Sincerely,
https://robertvfinley.com/
Charlottesville, Virginia.
