چگونگی عبور هوان عزیز از بحران سخت از دست دادن مادرش در سن نوجوانی

Hovan is the youngest son of Rev. Edward Hovsepian. He has been working with a Christian organization for the past 7- 8 years. He is also serving as an assistant pastor in the Iranian church in North London. He is married to Pegah and has two young girls and they live in London.

About 20 years ago, Hovan realized that his mum (Anahid) who was very heavily involved in church ministries was suffering from bowel cancer. it was a very progressive type of cancer. Hovan and the siblings found out when the cancer was well advanced. When Hovan realized what was happening to his mum, he was only 12 years old and was very close to his Mum. He would often accompany her when they would go to different places like shops, the church, or visiting people.

Anahid would invest a lot of time in Hovan and would help him with his studies because he needed support academically.

Anahid had to go through chemotherapy and was going through a lot of pain. it was around that time that the family celebrated Hovan’s 13th birthday when Anahid was present too which was a great blessing as it was going to be the last birthday she would be with the family.

Hovan shares how much as a family and the church they were all praying for her healing. Anahid had a great burden in her heart that Hovan would grow to be a pastor and a minister of God and she would wholeheartedly pray about it.

When she was ill, many church members shared a lot of positive visions and prophecies in line with her healing. The family including Hovan did have the faith that their mum would sure be healed. However, she passed away on Wednesday 22nd November 2001. Neither Hovan nor the rest of the family could accept this loss. Hovan was in denial to the point that he went to school the day after Anahid went to be with the Lord. Hovan’s friends upon hearing the news from the teacher were surprised how come he had gone to school straight after losing his mum.
Hovan is sharing that he felt that his denial changed into anger. For a long time, he was suffering from some type of anger against God and towards others. For a long time, he could not pray and could not go to church. For about a year after his mum’s death, he was not able to shed tears. he was not able to go through the process of mourning for a long time after losing his mum.

He kept questioning God as to how come such an active evangelist who had shared the gospel with 25,000 people had to leave this earth. However, he eventually came to terms with it and accepted that its God’s will.
Sometime after this incident, Hovan’s father, Rev Edward remarried Nazi. Nazi had a great impact on Hovan’s life as a mother figure. the whole family moved to the UK to serve Iranians here.

Hovan is pleased that despite the difficult times he went through after the loss of his mum, he managed to continue his studies in London and got his degree in worship and theology from a renowned university in London. On the day he was getting graduated, he sensed the lack of the physical presence of his mum. she would be feeling so proud about his academic accomplishments.

Even though after almost 20 years of losing his mum, he still does not fully understand God’s plan, but some verses that have comforted him much are the followings verses

“How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand —when I awake, I am still with you.” Psalm 139: 17- 18

He believes no matter what he has gone through in his life, he believes God’s plans are the best for our lives.