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
