ARMENAG: Jesus is for everybody, you know?
He was always with the sick, with the depressed, with the injured, with the widow, with the orphans.
(wings flapping) Reaching others, you know, reaching different culture, different people.
I need to be unlimited.
(Armenag whistles) Come here.
You know?
Jesus was unlimited.
(wings flapping) Different religion, different, I don't care.
Treat me like I'm a human being and that's- that's itself a miracle.
(wings flapping) (local shouts) After the genocide, my grandparents escaped Turkey to come to Syria for refuge.
I was born in Syria in a city called Qamashli.
I come from a big family, seven brothers, four sisters.
(footsteps) But we weren't rich.
They took everything in Turkey from them.
(birds chirping) (traffic sounds) MAN: How are you, Father?
ARMENAG: Good.
MAN: How are you?
ARMENAG: Oh, no, no, no.
Don't do it, oh my God.
We struggled a lot, you know?
For a big family of 11 children with your parents living in two rooms.
With parents, they don't know how to read and write but they spoke seven languages.
WOMAN: Hi, we are talking about you, I swear.
ARMENAG: You were chatting about me, huh?
WOMAN: No, we were talking about you to Joseph yesterday.
That's what's happening.
ARMENAG: Where is Joseph?
They used to speak French, Turkish, Arabic, you know?
They spoke Armenian.
Where are you from?
WOMAN: Zimbabwe.
ARMENAG: Zimbabwe.
WOMAN: And you, Israel?
ARMENAG: Syria.
WOMAN: Oh, Syria, ah.
ARMENAG: Yeah.
WOMAN: We have to pray for Syria.
ARMENAG: Of course.
WOMAN: We have to pray.
ARMENAG: Always we pray for Syria.
WOMAN: Yeah, we do.
ARMENAG: You know?
Maybe because I'm Armenian, comes from an Armenian genocide surviving families that I'm doing this.
They suffered to establish a new life and when I remember all this, how they- because of them, we are here.
(traffic sounds) There is a lot of refugees in the country now.
They didn't become refugees just because they wanted so or they wanted to come to this country.
No, they were forced, you know?
They have nobody and they don't speak the language and they are tired.
Communications was very bad because of the language.
(alarm blares) (elevator beeps) Sometimes I was in like a meeting and I get a telephone call from somebody, "Can you please translate?"
JAKLIN: Say hello, don't worry.
(speaking a foreign language) JAKLIN: Thank you Armenag, thank you Father.
(Jaklin speaking Arabic) Thank you.
(Jaklin speaking Arabic) (Jaklin and Armenag speaking Arabic) ARMENAG: Oh wow.
(Jaklin speaking Arabic) ARMENAG: Jaklin have very strong background of business, smart woman.
She still have families over there.
She's mad that her husband passed away.
The reason she's doing this pastry is because she wants to support them over there.
(Jaklin speaking Arabic) (Armenag speaking Arabic) ARMENAG: When first I met her, they called me from the homeless shelter and she was crying.
She was speaking in Arabic and I said "Okay, I understand."
(Jaklin speaking Arabic) ARMENAG: Hello?
She's waiting now.
She's in the waiting process now to get the green card.
She's really nervous.
Every day, it's like "Did you check the mailbox?"
Let's go.
"Did you check the mailbox?
Is there anything from Immigration?"
(Jaklin speaking Arabic) JAKLIN: Thank you.
ARMENAG: I've been through it, you know?
JAKLIN: Thank you.
ARMENAG: Yeah.
JAKLIN: You're welcome again.
ARMENAG: Hopefully she will get her green card soon.
(Jaklin speaking Arabic) (inaudible) (road noises) ARMENAG: When I was young, I start volunteering and we used to do all the activities in a monastery or a seminary called St. Vartan in the city of Aleppo, which is destroyed now completely.
Then when I went to Lebanon, they ordained me immediately without finishing my last paper for graduation because there is a big need for a priest.
It was I think in 2002 when they sent me to Philadelphia.
The first couple months, you stay by yourself, you know?
No language, you know?
No friends yet.
Yes, everybody was nice, you know?
(road noises) It took me a lot to learn English.
I like radio, it's like my friend on the road.
Newborn days ARMENAG: And I like country music.
In long lost times ago ARMENAG: It tells us stories, you know?
And I like the stories and I learned a lot of words from all the songs.
Baby, shine, shine, shine Shine on me (turn signal clicks) (road noises) (road noises) (Armenag humming) (road noises) KAROUN: I was born in Syria, Damascus.
My dad is Armenian, my mom is from Philippine.
I lived there for 27 years.
ARMENAG: Hi, Karoun.
KAROUN: Hello.
And I'm here now.
It's been four years, yeah.
So I have cancer.
There is no doctors there because of the war, so my dad sent me here.
So I applied for a visa and I was lucky and I applied for asylum.
People are dying there.
There's no food, no electricity, no water.
There's nothing there.
Everybody want to move.
At the same time, they can't.
All my friends are applying, like most of them, Canada, Sweden and it's really hard.
ARMENAG: You know, it's constant pain.
She just came from Damascus.
They didn't know what to do.
KAROUN: What happened is the first time when I went to the hospital, they didn't accept me.
ARMENAG: Hold this.
KAROUN: Father Armenag, I sent him an email.
He saw my hand's picture.
The next day, he called me and he said "We have to go to the emergency early in the morning."
ARMENAG: I said "Okay, "I will meet you under the bridge, "four o'clock in the morning "and I will take you to the emergency.
"At least they will give you some medication to ease the pain."
My whole point was just to put her in the system.
You know what I mean?
(both speaking a foreign language) He came with two doctors.
He asked me, "Are you her father?"
I said "No."
"Relative?"
I said "No."
"Brother or cousin?"
I said "No, I'm not."
"How are you related to her?"
I said "I don't, I'm priest, you know?
"And whenever they ask me for help, I help and if I have to drive, I drive them."
KAROUN: They're still in Damascus, my dad, my mom and my sister.
They're planning to come here but the process take like 10 years.
I worry a lot about them.
Bombing, killing, stuff like that.
Like every morning if I read something, I have to call my parents, my friends just to make sure they're okay.
ARMENAG: It's like playing a game, you know?
It's playing the lotto.
You win a visa or you don't win and because so many, they get rejected, denied, you know?
She was the luckiest one between all of them and she got a visa.
This is how she came, you know?
Because other than that, they can't.
They can't swim the whole oceans.
KAROUN: I have to stay here 'til I'm a citizen.
So I have to stay and to wait like five years more.
It's like my green card, I'm waiting for it.
Same as Jaklin.
(birds chirping) ARMENAG: Yeah, when you live for over than 20 years by yourself, you have to.
I forgot to tell you that I'm a barber, no?
You know, I am and I'm very good at it.
My father used to be a barber.
He used to work at the barber shop.
You know his partner was a Jew?
Yeah, he was a Rabbi actually.
Do you believe in ghosts?
Well, I have bad news for you.
They are exist.
We are ghosts actually.
We are, human are evil.
We say "Oh, the war is the work of Devil."
Correct?
Who's the Devil, the General's government?
National interests, international interests?
It's us.
Last time I saw my mom, it was in 2011.
That was actually when, I don't know, the called war started.
I took the risk and I went in 2014 I think.
She died of depression.
Her children weren't around, everybody scattered.
They couldn't escape Aleppo.
My brother, actually he died on the street.
No doctors.
Anybody could, if you know the basic things, you could save him but there were no doctors, it's war.
And then my other brother, seven months maybe after, died.
We had to let him escape Aleppo to go to Lebanon for treatment and he died there.
ISIS attacked our hometown.
My brother was so happy.
First time he owns a house with his family.
They attacked that neighborhood and they killed my nephew.
We lost our houses in Aleppo.
My sister escaped to Armenia.
They all scattered, you know?
Germany, refugees.
In Sweden, they are refugees.
My mom didn't know how to use the numbers, how to dial, you know what I mean?
We had to teach her, you know?
Just to keep in touch with us.
You know what bothers me?
I never did any spiritual things for my family or like as a priest at their weddings, you know?
Never.
Every time I hear I lost somebody, I lost somebody, I lost somebody and I wasn't there for them.
Even my dad, I wasn't there.
(scissors clank) (box shuts) Now you tell me how I can help those, everybody scattered.
C'est fini.
(footsteps) Manny, come inside.
KAROUN: It was Saturday, I came here.
I remember where I sat and I remember the coffee and it was like I look at him and it was like, I don't know, I felt relaxed.
I feel like there's something positive there.
ARMENAG: Hold this.
KAROUN: I feel like he is my brother, like someone close to me.
I don't feel like he's a really priest.
I feel like he's really a friend, yeah.
ARMENAG: KAROUN: ARMENAG: I know.
Up, up, up, up, up.
KAROUN: Upper?
ARMENAG: Up, up, up.
(clippers snipping) Barber.
KAROUN: ARMENAG: Mm-hmm.
MAN: Did he do a good job?
KAROUN: No.
No.
He used to do men's hair.
(clippers snipping) ARMENAG: Just give it one second, no?
KAROUN: No.
ARMENAG: No, no, no, let me tell you something.
KAROUN: He's like working six in the morning, maybe five in the morning.
Sometimes he sleep at the couch.
ARMENAG: Barber.
KAROUN: I'm always telling him that he have to go over and sleep.
He have to take a rest and he's going to school now.
There's a lot of pressure on him.
I feel like he needs help.
ARMENAG: The only thing left is the altar.
KAROUN: He doesn't take care of himself.
ARMENAG: What day is it?
KAROUN: His medication.
He doesn't eat properly.
ARMENAG: Call you back, can I go?
KAROUN: He care for people but he doesn't care for himself.
ARMENAG: Text me anytime you want.
You're welcome.
KAROUN: That's humanity.
ARMENAG: No, no, no.
It's gonna happen, I have the feeling because you deserve it actually.
KAROUN: When someone is suffering and is like having bad days, hard times, anything, you help him not because of his religion or because his race, you help him 'cause you're human.
(bird caws) (birds chirping) ARMENAG: I was mad when my nephew was killed by ISIS.
I was very mad.
But if I think about it, it's like my madness gonna create another bloodshed and we, here you go, we preach justice.
We preach peace.
You can't treat hatred by hatred.
This is not Christianity and this is not the Christ and this is not the church.
It's all about love, where is the love?
You know?
(sniffles) (birds chirping) I told you I never finished my- my diploma.
I want to have a diploma.
That's why I was looking for a program about Islamic studies and finally I found a program at Fuller Seminary.
I love to write, you know?
And when the professor ask you for 500 words, I go like a thousand, and it just kills me.
I really like the program.
I'm just checking whatever I wrote is okay because this is the final, I have to submit it, you know?
I'm studying Islam because I think it's very important, you know?
At the end of the day, we're all human beings, you know?
Culture is so rich and we need to understand that if we really want to live in peace.
If we don't understand the culture, there is always killing.
We have to understand and we have to communicate.
KAROUN: No, usually I put it like Sunday night, Saturday night and then Sunday morning, it's still there.
ARMENAG: We are getting ready for Palm Sunday.
8:30 after my mass at the morning.
KAROUN: Southeast.
ARMENAG: I was sitting having my coffee there and I know there is a palm tree behind the church and I stopped.
Then I looked up and said "Oh wow, I can use this to do make arches and make an entrance."
You know, just give it a little bit of touch.
It's just something moves you, you know?
I don't know, they look nice, no?
(footsteps) (Armenag chanting) People now, they die because of stress over there, not because of bombs.
Hi.
Whatever dreams they have, it's all gone.
It's all vanished.
WOMAN: Happy Palm Sunday.
ARMENAG: Happy Palm Sunday.
(rhythmic clapping) ARMENAG: Hello.
MAN: Hello, hello.
(speaking a foreign language) ARMENAG: This is very good, huh?
(singing in Armenian) Oh my God.
(attendee laughs) (rhythmic clapping) (singing in Armenian) (birds chirping) ARMENAG: Everything I did, I always said "Oh God, if it's bad idea, just let me stop.
If it's not, keep pushing me."
(phone buzzes) (door shuts) (footsteps) ARMENAG: This is for Jaklin, no?
I don't know what's this.
Wow, this says there is a card in it.
I'll have to call her.
(exhales) (birds chirping) (tea kettle clanks) Why do you have to do MRI?
KAROUN: Because I have to see if the tumor is shrinking or not.
ARMENAG: I know, how is it?
KAROUN: Good.
ARMENAG: Shrink?
KAROUN: Yeah.
ARMENAG: Oh yeah?
Wow.
It's good.
KAROUN: Look here, it's like- (phone buzzes) Sorry, it's my doctor.
Hi, it's Karoun.
Okay.
Yeah, it's okay.
9:00 p.m. and when's my treatment?
Wednesday?
(Armenag's phone buzzes) Okay, so I'll pass by tomorrow morning for my blood work.
(Armenag's phone buzzes) Okay, thank you, thanks.
(Armenag's phone buzzes) (Armenag's phone buzzes) Bye.
(Armenag's phone buzzes) ARMENAG: Jaklin.
(Jaklin speaking Arabic) ARMENAG: Okay.
Bye.
JAKLIN: Thank you.
(door opens and shuts) (Jaklin and Armenag speaking Arabic) (Jaklin speaking Arabic) (Armenag speaking Arabic) (Jaklin speaking Arabic) (exhales) ARMENAG: Okay.
(Armenag and Jaklin speaking Arabic) (Armenag laughs) (Jaklin weeps) (Armenag and Jaklin speaking Arabic) (Karoun and Jaklin speaking Arabic) (Karoun and Jaklin speaking Arabic) ARMENAG: Thanks for the coffee.
(Karoun speaking a foreign language) ARMENAG: (speaking a foreign language) Cheers.
Don't tell me you are a Christian, show me Christ in you.
Be Christ-like, this is what I believe.
You don't have to be a monk or a priest to show Christ, you know?
You don't have to be Christian to show Christ.
(Armenag's phone buzzes) (Armenag's phone buzzes) ANNOUNCER: Major funding for this program was provided by: Additional funding was provided by:
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