Covid-19 has hit so many places hard... and even we in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been badly affected. Mainly by people coming back from Italy, Germany, Austria. So many people are now in quarantine that it is hard to keep track, but they are keeping on trying...
When cases started to happen in Banja Luka, we had already decided to have a craft evening with some of our lovely volunteers, so we wore the masks for the photo as a joke kind of... now it isn't so funny anymore as more and more cases are found.
The team from Ireland came a couple of days after the Faith and Conflict to spend time in Banja Luka...until the coronavirus meant that they had to leave early to try and get home - sad faces: (well except Alex who was still catching up - the photos were taken early in the morning to give him grace)
We were sad to see them go, but in the end it was definitely the right decision as they would have been stuck with me in Banja Luka indefinitely as borders closed and flights were all cancelled. Now, the teams that are supposed to be coming in the next couple of months are also probably going to be cancelled. I have been so busy since January, and it wasn't really going to slow down until July and I was thinking "how am I going to survive"... so things have changed so much in the space of a week!!
I have been wanting to go to see Ljilja's new apartment in her home town (it is actually directly above her parents place), but I hadn't had the chance. Now with her being unexpectedly free (the conference she was supposed to be at was cancelled) and the team gone for me, we decided it was time to take a break in Trebinje. We are social distancing - including with the Grand Duke of Herzegovina:
In the meantime, I managed to help organise a prayer day for the 250 or so YWAMers in Central Europe on Friday. We had 24 hours of slots filled by people all over our area...
And those of us in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia prayed together on zoom for one of the slots... Each in their own homes :) It was great!
In this new time of uncertainty and unknown, one thing is sure, that God was not surprised and He knows what He is doing. We just need to take each day at a time, take measures to protect ourselves and others, and help those that we can. We decided to go now and have a break in Trebinje, because we fear that it will get much worse in Banja Luka before it gets better (so far 45 of the 90 cases in Bosnia Herzegovina are in Banja Luka), and so we want to get back when we will be most needed to help those that are more vulnerable. Stay safe out there and enjoy this unexpected "downtime" if you are able. If you are a health worker know that you are being prayed for!
