Update From Vareš

Hello from Vareš!

After weeks of prepping Andrea and I were finally able to see our plans come to fruition. Today was our first day of kids camp up at Mario & Dejana’s property in the mountains- named Emmanuel, which means God with us. When I came to Bosnia three years ago they had just purchased the property and were getting it ready to use with their kids program. So, for me, it was extra exciting to come and use the property the way they knew God had called.

It is against the law to evangelize here in Bosnia, so we prepared lessons on Compassion for the younger children (this character trait is a foreign concept in a shame based culture) and how to maintain a healthy body for the teenagers. The younger students loved making their buckets and filling them with kind words to each other, while the older kids had a great time learning to do burpees. They were very impressed that I could not only do a full push-up on my toes, but I could do a push-up and then clap coming off the ground. I definitely earned some respect from the teenage boys. ;-)

The only flaw in today was the HUGE rainstorm that hit as the camp began. Bosnians don’t like to be wet or cold, and in fact we had many families cancel this morning when they saw the weather report. When the rain hit we turned to Plan B, which was to use the old hiking lodge up the road. So, instead of playing games outside we played games inside. I taught the kids how to play Go Fish, or Idi Pecaj in Bosnian, and they loved it!

Pictures of the children aren’t allowed at camp, so you won’t see their beautiful faces in these photos, but you’ll still get the gist of our day and see Mario & Dejana’s property.

Thank you for your prayers- keep them coming for no rain tomorrow!

- Becky