Central European Staff Gathering

After settling in the team, it was time to head to Vajta, Hungary for our YWAM Central Europe Staff Gathering. I was on the planning team and so arrived a day early to help, and my main role was to help with the organising of the workshops in the afternoons. Here we all are: See if you can spot me! 

The main speaker in the morning, Dave Ginn, had previously worked in Romania and Hungary and he was so good. It was good to have good solid Bible teaching. In the rest of the sessions we had a variety of interesting topics and speakers, and I loved the conference overall. 

The workshops were many and varied, and everyone's main complaint was that there was too much choice! So I think I fulfilled my role well! I also ran a workshop on "Selfless Self Care" which I think everyone who came enjoyed. 

After helping to run the conferences for so many years, it was really great just to have limited responsibility, and enjoy the main fun at the gathering, which is catching up with friends from around the region - below I am with Ema from Romania and Andreja from Slovenia. I didn't get many other photos as I was too busy enjoying good conversations!! 

It is always a blast to spend time with friends and enjoy good times away from Banja Luka. And since we started going to Vajta in 2012, the distance has stayed the same, but the time travelled has changed considerably! Before, I would need to go on public transport and via Budapest where I would need to stay over on the way there and back... Now with all the newly built highways, it took me under 4 hours in the car! 

What have I been up to!?

Here is a little video which shows more of my ministry in Banja Luka, Bosnia Herzegovina and beyond... Enjoy! 

 

YWAM Central Europe Leadership Meetings

I just got back from in person meetings of 4 of the 5 of our Central European "Core" team. I have been in YWAM Central European Leadership for almost 8 years, and so after lots of prayer and deliberation, I am stepping out of my role in the "Core" team by the end of this year. I will rotate back into our bigger "Area Circle Team" and remain a part of that. Transitions are never easy. I am trying to do it in a good way! 

This is the only picture I have of us during our time together in Budapest! We were so busy meeting we didn't get any better pics. Rune, Steve and Robin will remain on the core, and Ema (not present) and I will step off. We are now in the process of adding new people to the team as well. 

YWAM Central Europe Leadership Meetings

Another set of meetings for me in October, was our Central European leadership team in Krakow, Poland. We hadn't met in person since 2019 (we are zoom experts though!) and had added a few new people since then, so it really was great for us to get together again! Here we are in one of the parks in Krakow: 

We spent a lot of time meeting together and engaging on various important topics. 

We also spent an evening with the YWAM staff from all over Poland, getting to know them and also spending time praying for them: 

It wasn't all work and no play - we did get to enjoy a lovely tour of the city with John Hess, who has lived in Poland for over 30 years! 

And after our evening sessions, we would head out to the pub to hang out and enjoy each other's company in a relaxed way... sometimes too relaxed 😜  It is good to laugh though!! 

A few people had later flights on our final day, so we made it to Schindler's Factory Museum and here we are in front of the last piece of wall for the Krakow Ghetto: Alket and Reli from Albania and Ema from Krakow. I am glad I got to see a bit of the historical side of the city: 

It really was such a great time to catch up and all get on the same page, laying the foundation for good working relationships for our continued monthly zoom meetings and interactions in between... We are overseeing 16 countries and about 30 locations and 200 people in YWAM, so it is good to have our foundations right! 

Budapest Meetings

This formation of our Youth with a Mission Central Europe Core Circle met in person for the first time since we came together over a year ago. It was so much fun to spend time together in person! We decided on Budapest as our place to meet as it is kind of central. It also has good views! 

Here we are: Steve, Rune, Robin, me and Ema. 

We are the core team that leads the rest of our bigger Area Circle Team, and even though we meet monthly on zoom as an ACT and even more frequently as the core, it is just not the same as when you are in person! 

We met sometime at the hotel, other time at the YWAM Budapest ministry centre, but also in cafes so take advantage of out beautiful locations. We were meeting to talk through many of the things happening in Central Europe. When Steve's wife asked us "do you have enough things to talk about for 3 days" our reply was "maybe too much!". But in the end we moved forward on many things on our agenda and at least started talking about other things. 

We did some team building activities, including going to the Széchenyi Thermal Baths where in between bathing we even carried on some discussions! 

Here is our Album Cover shot: 

We did enjoy good food and also some fun icecream along the way! 

All in all, our core team enjoyed our meetings, and look forward to meeting in person with the rest of the wider Area Circle Team of around 20 in October in Poland. 

Croatian trip

After being back in Bosnia for two and a half weeks, it worked out that I needed to go to Croatia to visit the YWAM team there. They are all leaving Croatia for good over the summer, and this was the only time that they would all be there and I could go before they left. Here is a pic of them: Danny, Jarod (with Amariah), Bexi and Ana carrying Rosie (Jarod and Bexi's dog).  

Yeah, my shoulder is doing really well, 4 months on from the surgery, but the 4 1/2 hour drive took me 6 hours as I was stopping along the way to stretch out. It did start to hurt a bit more than it has been, but it is just a mark of how good things are that my "bad days" now are better than my "good days" were last year! And now I know that I probably need to not drive as far for a while still...

I made the effort to go and see them as they are the closest YWAMers to me, and they have been in Croatia since 2013/4 so we have done some fun (and not so fun) things together over the years. We spent some time looking back over their time there and the things that we have done together. It was so good to be able to go and do an intentional goodbye to them all, even if it was hard.

I stayed with Ana and Danny who were dog sitting Fluffy, who is a brother to Rosie, Jarod and Bexi's dog. We went up on the mountain the one day for a picnic and you could see for miles... as far as the island of Korcula. It was amazing! Another good memory together! 

And this is probably one of my favourite pics ever - Fluffy living the life. It is my favourite as Ana managed to get it despite the fact that he is NEVER still for a MOMENT! And here he looks like his actually posing for it... he almost looks like a sheep enjoying the meadow 😊

It is always hard to say goodbye, but I have made the decision in my life that it needs to be done well and where possible in person. And I know it meant a lot to them as well! 

Easter blog (for kids)

This is a special edition Easter blog.You can use it to have some fun Easter activities (and if you want with your children 😁) over Easter - either in April or for the Orthodox one that happens in May. I originally did it for our Central Europe blog on ywamce.com/blog and also because we are working on an Easter event for our children here. I hope you (and/or your kids) enjoy this as much as I did putting it together!

THE EASTER STORY

When we look at the story of Easter in Matthew, there are a few scenes that stand out... Here are 6 of them for you to enjoy (and colour!): 

The first scene happens on Palm Sunday where Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. What a strange way to enter if you are a King?! But He did it deliberately. If He came into the city on a horse, it would have been a sign He was coming to overthrow the Roman Government. Coming on a donkey showed that He came in peace. 

What did the people shout out? What does it mean? 
A: They shouted out "Hosana". It literally means "Save us"! Jesus is our King and Saviour!
What did the crowd put on the ground in front of Jesus?
A: Palm branches and their coats! Isn't that wild?! 

Task: Find a branch which can help you remember that Jesus is King! 

Then, on the Thursday night we see that Jesus had a dinner with his 12 disciples. Did you know that this dinner is where we get communion or the Lord's supper from? It was first just a part of an ordinary meal. 

What do we take when we take Communion and why? 
A: The bread which symbolises Christ's body and the wine which is for His blood. Ordinary things which symbolise something extraordinary! 

Task: Every time you have a meal, remember to thank Jesus for it and for His sacrifice for us!

Also on Thursday night, Jesus went with some of his disciples to pray in the garden.

Do you know what Jesus's disciples did while he was praying? 

A: They went to sleep! Even they found it hard to pray without going to sleep... but that doesn't mean we should pray. Jesus taught us how and we need to keep it up! 

Task: Every time you go to bed, remember that Jesus loves you!

On Good Friday, so many things happened... but the main event was that Jesus was crucified on a cross. 

Do you know why He had to die? 
A: To pay for our sins once and for all!! Isn't that amazing? Jesus, the Son of God paying the price so we don't have to! That is God's amazing grace - God's Riches At Christ's Expense.

Task: Every time you feel sad and lonely, remember that Jesus felt sad and lonely on the cross too. He knows what you are going through.

But, the cross was not the end of the story! After Jesus died, He was put in a tomb, and then amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, on Easter Sunday, He rose again!! 

What do we say on Easter Sunday when we greet each other? 
A: He is RISEN! The stone was rolled away and He is no longer in the grave. 

Task: Find a stone to remember that He is RISEN: He is no longer in the grave! 

When He rose again, He showed Himself to many people! He always showed love and grace towards them. 

Who were the first to find Him alive?

A:  Matthew tells us it was Mary Magdelene and "the other Mary". It is so amazing that women would have been the first to be shown God's glorious resurrection! 

Task: Remember to thank Jesus for all that He has done for you

Easter is such a good time of year to remember all that Jesus did for us. These are just some of the highlights out of Matthew. I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into six scenes from the Easter story! 

Click HERE for all the pictures for you to colour in one document. (You can also cut them out and try and match them to the right verses and put them in the right order.) 

Here is another great reminder of the whole week in one go: From Sunday to Sunday so much happens! You can click HERE to download this to colour. 

Happy Easter everyone! He is Risen Indeed!!

(and thanks to Children's Ministry Deals for some of these pictures)

Celebrating God’s faithfulness | Story 17: Peugeot

One of the things I tell people about the difference between South Africa and Bosnia is the fact that it is so much more secure here. The crime situation in South Africa is quite bad, and I do have to switch on my security brain when I go back to South Africa. So, it is definitely the definition of ironic that I have had not only my car, but also my bicycle stolen here in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both from behind a fence. 

We were away at camp when my landlady called to tell me that my car had been taken during the night. When we went to report it stolen, the detective literally laughed when he heard that it was a Peugeot 206. He told us he had been working in car theft for 10 years, and this was the first stolen Peugeot he was dealing with. He knew for sure that it was some sort of inside job, because no one in their right mind would steal a Peugeot, let alone from behind a fence!

He asked us who had access to the key and who knew we were away. My mechanic had had access to the key, and he had called me when we were on the way to camp so knew we were gone. They brought him in for questioning. 

It turned out that my mechanic was heavily in debt to his loan shark and so gave him access to make a copy of the key and gave my address and then told him we were out of town. In the end the loan shark was found guilty of the car theft, and my mechanic who was from Montenegro skipped town and never came back. 

The Lord provided for my housemate/colleague to buy a car, and we managed to make that work for a while, but after a few years it became clear that I needed to get my own car. Ljilja was looking to sell hers and so I offered to buy it off her. Unfortunately, the first time I drove it anywhere it blew its gasket on the highway in Croatia on a SUNDAY leaving me stranded on the way to a conference in Hungary. 

But God was so faithful, I got taken to a great little hotel and the manager helped me get the car to the mechanic the next day. And others coming from Bosnia to the conference were heading right passed me, so they picked me up, which was good as I was the one running the whole conference. The organising team did well without me, but they were happy to see me once I got there!

However, when we got the estimate from the Croatian mechanic, it was about what the car was worth to fix it. Luckily, Ljilja organised for our (new!) mechanic in Bosnia to go and collect it from Croatia and fix it at 1/5 (yes, 1/5!!) of the price. But from then on it kept giving issues. Never buy cars from friends! Ljilja felt so guilty.

After years of lugging it to different mechanics, and none of them able to figure out what was wrong I realised that I was done with it, and really needed a car that was more reliable. Here the second-hand car market is a complete rip-off and so I was really praying for enough money for a new car which would be under warranty. 

Ironically, after I had made that decision, I managed to find a mechanic that could fix my old car, so I got a decent price for it in the end. And then others gave me donations specifically towards me buying a car! And guess what I ended up buying – another Peugeot, this time a 208! It really felt like things came full circle. God was faithful to provide for me a NEW version of the car that was stolen. Now, hopefully for a few years, the only mechanics I will need are the ones who do the service for my car!

Nala - which means "gift"

This is part 17 of a series of 20 short stories to celebrate 20 years of God's faithfulness to me in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the 16th of January 2021, it will be 20 years since I arrived in the country "for 2 years". I hope you will enjoy hearing some of the ways that God has shown me that He is faithful over the past 20 years!

Zooming around...

I have been using the Zoom meeting app for about two years already for various different meetings, but during Covid-19 everyone seemed to discover its usefulness and ability to be a platform for keeping in touch with one another when we were social distancing. I have spent soooo much time on zoom in the last two months! 

Here are some of the groups which I used to meet with regularly before Covid-19. Firstly with the guys from YWAM in Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia - we meet once a month to pray together, and we met more frequently during covid-19, love these guys:

Then with the leadership team or Area Circle Team (ACT) for YWAM in Central Europe: we meet every other month or so. I also meet regularly with our "Core team" of four of us (not pictured).

Another (temporary) group has been since September as I have been involved with FOCOS coaching training which is online every month and then we had the one week intensive which was held in Budapest in January.  It has been fun to see the interaction online after the intensive as we are much more connected than before we met in person!

Another group which met before, but during Covid met more frequently is the YWAM Field Circle Team for all of Europe. As I am one of the core leaders in my Area, I am part of this group as well. It is such a privilege to be a part of this amazing group of leaders. 

I also joined the Editorial team for an initiative called the European Leaders Learning Community which we are starting up officially in September. In the meantime we have been running Facebook Live interviews with various leaders in our organisation in what we call the "leadership lounge-lockdown edition". It has been such fun working with a team of great people to put all this together... 

And yes, you guessed, we met each week on zoom to do so!

Then, we as a YWAM Central European Area decided to meet altogether on zoom. We had never done it before, but we had an amazing time together - We had about 200 people joining on 100 unique connections representing 13 of the 16 nations in Central Europe. You can read more on the ywamce.com/blog 

In order to make this meeting go smoothly we treated like an "event" and had a team to coordinate it - Great bunch of people!:

In the two hours we had many elements: A talk that I did on pruning/sabbatical: Click below to watch it :)

Two times of worship - one on the zoom meeting at the beginning, and one on Facebook live to end off with.  We shared together in small groups for some of it and also had some feedback and sharing from the audience. We saw that it was such a good thing that we believe that we will do it again in September!!

Another exciting element of zoom is the ability to run courses online for people around the world. In May, YWAM Craiova planned to have a 3 week Pioneering and Leadership course - but in the end because of corona, instead of cancelling completely, they decided to take it online. So instead of the 25-30 people who would have joined in, they had over 100 people from all over the world - I was in breakout groups with people from Brazil and Bangladesh! And over 60 of those finished the assignment that went with the course to get the credits from YWAM's University of the Nations.

I enjoyed taking part in the course and learning along with many other people. And the breakout groups were a great way to meet people (or reconnect with those we knew already) along with learning from each other. 

Another use of zoom in this time was to connect with my family who are in 4 different countries - it was so great to connect with them all a couple of times... and I hope this is something we will continue in the future now that we have discovered how easy and fun it is! (this photo was taken at Easter - please note that my Mom is sitting with the Easter bunny with a mask on... what can I say?)

And then I did try to Zoom with some of my local friends, but in the end they couldn't get on, so we just did Messenger Chat which turned out to be much more fun... but would be very distracting for meetings!!

Beside all of these things, I also did sessions with 3 coaching "clients" on zoom - all to get the hours I need for the coaching course I am finishing up. Including two other local clients, I have now already done 25 sessions out of the needed 30, and so will finish up in  a couple of weeks already! I don't have any pictures of those sessions as they are all confidential :)

But I have to say that I am really enjoying doing the coaching... much more than I thought I would. I am also so glad that I decided to go ahead and get as much done while we were in lockdown as now I can relax a bit! And looking back, I don't know how I would have been able to meet the September deadline for finishing up the coaching hours without all the extra "corona time", so I am glad for the virus for that at least!

As you can see, I have definitely been zooming all over Europe and around the world over these last two and a bit months of "lockdown" - all while staying in the comfort of my own home! 

Covid-19

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! 

Faith and Conflict 2020

This is the fourth Faith and Conflict which we have run in cooperation with YWAM Ireland... There were 23 people who came from YWAM in Switzerland, Albania, Greece, Serbia and Ireland. We also had some other lovely people join us from Sarajevo. We started in Sarajevo for 3 days and then moved to Mostar for the last 2 days. We listened to local stories, and learned from Jonny Clark and Alex Atwell from YWAM Ireland. Below is Alex sharing with us on the opening night:

 We also had a wonderful tour of Sarajevo with Sasa who is an amazing guide:

Even during last year's Faith and Conflict, the guys from YWAM Davos in Switzerland were talking about coming back this year, but during their "lecture phase" for their Discipleship Training School. We ended up running the F&C in February so they could come and do a snowboarding camp with the youth in Sarajevo (the DTS school focuses on snowboarding and free skiing). They also decided to come the week before to Banja Luka where I spent the week sharing my story and lessons I have learnt along the way - it was great fun!

Besides the YWAM Davos guys coming to Banja Luka beforehand, a team from YWAM Ireland came to Banja Luka afterwards. We had a great time with them...

Until they had to leave early because of Covid-19... More on that in this blog post