Traveling Home

I realize that we sort of left you all hanging here as we haven’t posted anything about the last few days of our trip!

We finished up the English Camp on Friday with a program where the kids got to show their parents all the art they worked on during the week. We enjoyed getting to meet their parents and have conversations with them!

Then Saturday we drove to Tuzla for an overnight visit. We got to see different parts of the city, and meet some local christians. We heard about the things that they are doing to shine the light of Christ in this city. We also got to spend some time praying for these things.

Then Sunday morning we attended church where Shann and Angela got to share their testimonies and I (Jesse) had the opportunity to preach and help lead worship. After church we had coffee and lunch with some of the youth and then prayed for them before we left to drive back to Sarajevo. The weather was very hot in Tuzla but it was so great to see what God is doing there and meet new friends.

Sunday evening we arrived back in Sarajevo and went to dinner with our friends before packing and going to bed tired. We left for the airport at 4:30 am on Monday morning. On the way to the airport, our taxi drive offered me a cigarette and I politely declined. Then he said, “no me!” Apparently, he was asking if I minded if he smoked in the car and I misunderstood! Oops!

Our flights home all went great with no delays or problems. We were even able to make good use of our layover in Amsterdam as we left the airport and rode the train to the central station. We had a solid half hour to walk around the block, take pictures of Amsterdam and stop at a coffee shop for a quick sandwich before getting back on the train to the airport.

We arrived back in Kelso on Monday evening tired and with foggy brains. Pray for us as we continue to adjust to the time zone here at home and as we process everything we experienced on the trip. We look forward to sharing more with you this weekend at our worship gatherings! The biggest thing on my heart is to keep praying for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Pray that God would soften hearts to the gospel that many will have the opportunity to hear about the hope of Jesus.

- Jesse

Sharing Hope

Have you ever taken for granted the freedom of opportunity to achieve your dreams? I never realized until we left for this trip that I absolutely have; after speaking with a young translator who is working at the center with us. She is a beautiful, intelligent eighteen year old with a beaming smile and a personality to match. As she asked one of the interns and I about what we did back in America, she was in awe of all of the goals and ambitions the two of us had, although they were quite simple to us. I asked her what her dream job would be, and she excitedly replied that she would love to become an archaeologist or go into a field within criminal justice. She sadly smiled and told us that she wished that she could go for her dreams like we were, but she was never going to be able to. I asked her the simplest question of, “Why not?” She sat back, surprised at my response before admitting that she didn’t know why. She told us in the Bosnian culture, they tell you that you aren’t going to be able to achieve your dreams and that you simply settle into a job at a shop or something of the like. That there is no hope. I told her that no matter what others say or what obstacles were ahead of her that if she could dream it, she could absolutely do it. A lightbulb seemed to go off and she lit up, saying that no one had ever told her anything like this and that it had never dawned on her that her dreams COULD be within reach. She asked many questions about school, specifically international studies in America and we told her about financial aid, scholarships, and academic advisors-all three of which she was mind blown by as she never knew anything like this existed. We even helped her to email the school she had always dreamed of in New York for more information on their international student options. After a long conversation, she hugged both of us excitedly and thanked us profusely. It’s moments like this that make our trek overseas completely worth the immense effort. Even when we are not able to openly share the gospel, we are still providing a light of hope to at least one individual living in such a dark place. We are placing bricks in the solid foundation that is being built within connections and relationships that our full time missionaries are constantly working at. One brick at a time, one person at a time, and one life changed at a time. And this labor-intensive foundation is being built on the love of Jesus. What could be any better than that? We should never stop dreaming and praying that this foundation that is being placed here in Bosnia will eventually bring more of its people to Christ, giving them hope, joy, and purpose that they so desperately crave.

- Haley

Love For the Balkan People

We went out to dinner with a local pastor and his wife tonight. We heard him speak on Saturday night in a smaller village church. He spoke about how Paul sent Timothy to the church in Thessalonica as an encouragement and to see how they were doing as a church after Paul and his team had been ran out (1 Thess 2 and 3). We don’t know what Timothy did to be an encouragement necessarily, but it begs the question, how can we see ourselves as encouragers, or Timothy to the church here? Paul speaks to the church with so much love and he reflects on their relationship with joy and such pride in how they accepted the word of God.

I have my own love and joy when I think of the Balkan area and this short term visit here has been a reminder that God has placed a special love for the people here on my heart. The difficulty and hardness of the soil here is heard in the pastors description of the ups and downs of church attendance or steadfast faith of the attendees and it pains me to hear his discouragement. Our small team of six was equal in number to the believers sitting in church next to us on Saturday, and tonight, he asked us, "How big is your church?" A common question from believers here, but not the time to exaggerate. Even an honest and underestimated answer can feel braggy.

The pastor spoke and asked about ways that Satan discourages the believers and you might guess that they are much the same as we experience: shame, doubt, bitterness, anger, resentment, laziness, fear...you name it. Add that on to years of human rights atrocities, oppression, recent war trauma, poverty, genocide in the name of religion... Things get difficult really quickly. We must be praying for Bosnians to be released from Satan's grip in these areas and that there would be spiritual breakthrough in the hearts and minds of the unreached.

Paul shares his desire to see the Thessalonians face to face again and this is my prayer for the Bosnians tonight as I write this:

"Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints."

“In no other way can the believer become as fully involved with God’s work, especially the work of world evangelism, as in intercessory prayer.” — Dick Eastman

- Kadie Warner

Exciting Things!

Time lapse video in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Today is our first day of the English camp. I woke up super early this morning and never was able to get back to sleep. So, I finally decided to get up and do what anyone would do in this situation: process some thoughts through a blog post and capture a time lapse video of the city waking up, from the perspective of my hostel window! 

Yesterday was Sunday and we got to go to church where we got to see old friends that some of us have made on previous trips here to Sarajevo. We also got to pray for the Pastor and his family as they are going through a pretty stressful season with many things going on including their son preparing to leave for America where he’ll be doing an internship in Michigan. We also prayed for a teen girl who is planning to be baptized this week at a church camp she is attending. She was a translator for us last year at the English camp and so it was so great to get to see her and pray for her as she takes this step of faith this week. 

After church we had lunch with the pastor of the church. He told us his story of coming to Christ shortly before the war, which happened in the early 90’s and how he began to help lead a Bible study with believers and was recognized as a pastor by the time the war ended. I really enjoyed his humble heart and hearing about his desire for unity among the believers here in Sarajevo.

After lunch some of our team went sight-seeing and a couple of us went shopping to get more supplies needed for our camp. 

As we’ve been here for a couple of days now, I’ve been processing some of the things we’ve been learning and seeing. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been hard place for the gospel to reach for many, many reasons. It’s been so great to see how dedicated and sincere the Alliance team is. They truly minister in a very wholistic way. They are here for the long haul and I think that will prove to be very beneficial. You can’t just scatter seeds on hard ground and expect a harvest next fall, it takes some effort and dedication to break new ground and make it grow a fruitful crop (I learned this growing up on a farm! See Dad, I was paying attention!) I’ve often been very proud of the work they are doing here and I’ve been feeling that way again on this trip. It is a joy to be able to help them in any small way we can while we are here. 

As a church we’ve been praying for this country to be open to the gospel and for the hard ground to be broken up, that seeds may be planted and grow. The last couple of days, we’ve been hearing some exciting news. It’s all still just a faith-filled hope and hasn’t materialized yet. It’s also a little bit hard to explain what has been described to us… But, maybe the best way to put it is that there seems to be some “rumblings” here in believer’s spirits that some amount of breakthrough is coming. This is playing out in a few ways: 

For one, there are some plans to have an internationally known speaker come and hold a large event. It sounds like this type of thing could bring many of the believers together and be an incredible presentation of the gospel. The likes of which have not been seen here. Maybe have never, ever been seen here??? It also has potential to draw many people to give their hearts to Jesus. If that were to happen, even if 100 people came to faith in Christ, that would be a break through that would truly be tremendous! Pray for the evangelistic event to be very impactful!

There have also been some shifting of believers in various leadership positions. People moving to different roles, or new or different opportunities. All of this seems like potentially God maybe opening up space or opportunities for….something…. new fruit? 

Also, the culture here can tend to be very focused on hierarchal authority. (aren’t we all in one way or another??) And the church can be no different. While leadership and authority are something that God setup, if we become hungry for power or if leaders cling to their authority in an unhealthy way it can stunt growth in discipleship and hinder other believers from stepping into their callings and seeing multiplication as God produces fruit through many lives. It sounds like there is beginning to be a greater movement toward churches becoming more “team based” with local leaders giving away authority and encouraging all the believers to function in the ways Jesus has gifted them to function. 

All of this is very exciting and hopeful. It sounds like the beginning of answers to prayers we all have prayed over the many years our church has been partnered with this field. Let’s keep praying! It’s time to lean in!

Day 1 in Sarajevo

Some of us were fighting battles to get here.  Vehicles stopped working and needed to be towed, necessary medicine didn’t show up, sinus infections caused massive headaches, but we all made it nonetheless.  After 23 hours of travel, blowing out an electrical outlet, causing two rooms to lose power in our hostel, and no air conditioning, we opened the window to get some air.  All I could think about was getting a good night's sleep and waking in the middle of the night to a rat on my chest. Good thing was no rats showed up, but I did get a good show listening to my adorable roommates take turns sawing logs.  It might have sounded like championship chainsaws competing at a festival! After a good night’s sleep we set out to meet our team and get ready for our kids camp. We quickly converted our space with all of the supplies we brought over and settled in for some pizza (second time in 24 hours), then were treated to a delicious treat of chocolate filled donuts and fruit.  Let me tell you this was a treat and the adults standing around the plates with their mouths filled with the tasty morsels was something laughable.

The afternoon brought us to Breza, where our chauffeur showed us every automobile parts store on that side of Sarajevo.  Unfortunately, his passenger side mirror fell off earlier that day and he was trying to find another one. We ended up with two small mirrors glued onto the previous mirrors place.  To say nothing less of this trip as a comical fiasco, wouldn't do it justice. Let’s just say, one of us had to use an inhaler they were laughing so hard. The service we attended was incredibly moving, listening to the way that God was working through our friends halfway around the world to deliver a message to us.  We were reminded that when we encounter struggles in life we are strengthened and encouraged through our faith in the Lord. The faster we run to God the faster our enemy runs away. Seek Him and you will overcome all obstacles. As we ended the evening with our Bosnian friends we shared a meal. Some of us had pizza...again.  I’m not naming any names. Only one day and it seems the adventure has already been many days with the trouble we have caused our poor hotel manager, we threw the breakers again in our room and had to be reset. He even gave us the key to the panel box because he didn’t trust us to eliminate power for the whole place while he was gone.  Another of us managed to get his key stuck in the door to the hostel outside. Let’s hope they let us stay the rest of the week!

Looking forward to what the rest of the week brings and the lessons we will learn from all that God wants us to gain here.

- Angela

Arriving in Sarajevo

As I write this, it’s Saturday morning around 8am in Sarajevo. We arrived last night and got settled in to our hostel around midnight. All of our travel went very well. Everything was on time and nothing eventful happened, which is what you want on a long trip like this! We had plenty fo lay over time between flights and so we spent some time in the Paris airport exploring the shops, purchasing lunch and coffee. Then we had a loooong (5 hour) layover in Zagreb where we ate pizza and finally got to drink some Schweppes bitter lemon, a drink that isn’t sold locally in America and has been a favorite for teams in the past. (actually, I got to try the Schweppes Pineapple and Basal, because I grabbed the wrong bottle. I’m blaming my color blindness. But, it was still pretty good)

Today we are heading out to get all setup for the English camp. We’ll get to do a little bit of site-seeing and then visit a local church tonight.

Thank you for your prayers! Pray for us to adjust to the time difference quickly and have all the energy we need to be fully present and ready to be used by God however he would like to use us!

- Jesse

Introducing the Bosnia Team

The 2019 Bosnia team is headed to Sarajevo on July 11th to lead an english camp for kids. Be praying for them as they prepare and check back in here to for updated info during their trip!

From left to right: Jesse, David, Kadie, Shann, Haley, Angela