On February 14, 2012, priests of the Armenian Church’s Eastern Diocese gathered from across Wisconsin and Illinois at St. John the Baptist Armenian Church, Greenfield. They came to celebrate Ghevontiants.
One of the most beautiful promises in the Scriptures is in Psalm 92:12: “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree.” Palm trees are strong and resilient, standing tall no matter what comes their way. The palm tree has a unique ability: it can bend, but it doesn’t break. When the storms come, the winds may howl, and the palm may sway, but when the storm passes, that tree stands back up, tall and strong, as if nothing ever happened.
There are times in life when the winds blow hard against us—winds of disappointment, winds of struggle, winds of change. And we feel like we’re bending under the pressure. We feel the weight of what we’re going through, and it’s pulling us down. But if we’re rooted in God, if our trust is in Him, we’re not going to break, were going to bounce back to stand tall again.
Atabek Khenkoyan, also known with the pseudonym of Khenko–Aper, was considered one of the best authors of Eastern Armenian children literature after Ghazaros Aghayan and Hovhannes Tumanian.
He was born on October 19, 1870, in the village of Gharaboya (now Khenkoyan), in the district of Pambak. He first studied at the parish school, and in 1880 he continued his studies in Alexandropol. After graduating from high school, in 1890 he started working as a teacher for the next 35 years in different places of Armenia.
