Rocky Mountain Region Team 2026 part 1

I arrived back from South Africa into Zagreb on the 18th in the morning, and waited 6 hours at the airport until this wonderful team of 31 Americans arrived. They are all students in colleges in the Rocky Mountain Region of InterVarsity - from Colorado to Utah and Arizona. We send a chartered bus for them, and so I helped with communication with the driver and got us all on the bus for the trip to Banja Luka. 

We then spent 3 full days doing orientation with them - from history and culture, to do's and don'ts in this culture... it also allows them to get to know us better and we have a fun time. I also managed to get all 31 names (it helps that there were returners and staff that I already knew). 

We end that week off with a fun sports day with our teenagers. Always a highlight: 

After that week, they go to different faculties to get to know the students and also get to understand more about the culture. Here we are at the English department. Because of illness, the  promised lecture on cross-cultural communication was cancelled, but I think the exercise they were given instead was equally valuable. The local students were given the task to translate some of Ivo Andric's "Signs by the roadside" which was a difficult exercise, but actually the Americans appreciated the difficulty of translating by the end and learnt a lot about the language and the culture along the way. 

Here they are trying to figure out what Ivo Andric is trying to say in different groups: 

And then each group was able to share their translation of the different texts to the class: 

Here we all are afterwards: 

More on the rest of their stay with us in another blog post!! 

Indian Christmas Eve

In December 2024, we decided to hold a special Christmas Eve celebration for our International students (mostly Indians). They are in Banja Luka studying Medicine in a special program in English just for them. And 55 International students came along despite heavy snowfall the day of the party. It was complete chaos as we had two teams cooking in the church, and of course it became a competition! And we didn't get the smell of the spices out of the church until February! 

In 2025, we decided to do it again! We learnt our lesson and just had one group of students cooking at their own home, with my wonderful colleague, Graham, making sure they kept to time. And Carolyn and Kate made flatbread to make the food go further!

After last time, we weren't scared of the amount of students who might come. And that was a good thing, because this time we had almost 70 students join us!

There was food aplenty - the dish they eat at holidays: chicken biryani. And even though they told me it was "not spicy" it was certainly too spicy for me :) 

We also had a bit of a Christmas program where we sang some carols (below) and Ljilja shared a message about whose birthday we were celebrating (and I translated into English). 

These students really lack places they can have community, and so it was great to be able to provide that, as well as share why we celebrate Christmas! 

US InterVarsity Team

We had an incredible month hosting a team of 36 from the Rocky Mountain Region of InterVarsity! This was the fourth year in a row that they have been here in Banja Luka and the partnership keeps getting better! This time there were 4 returning students who act as student leaders, and 5 IV staff and then 27 new students who had never been before.

One of my main roles with the team is to help with their orientation:

We try to help them get a better understanding of the history and the culture of the area. Here I am going through their answers for the Scavenger Hunt that takes them around all the different landmarks in Banja Luka and they have a great time finding them all! 

After orientation, the American students spent time doing life with local and international students - sharing meals, having honest conversations, walking through doubts and faith, and forming deep friendships built on trust, compassion, and Christ-centered love. Learning about a different culture, while sharing about their own - a true cultural exchange. 

They hosted loads of fun events: from Quizzes to Dance parties!

And three afternoons a week we hosted anyone who wanted to come to our place at "Cafe Ihtus"

This was all a great way to hang out and grow in relationships in a neutral space. They also went on activities organised by the local and international students - like hiking up the hill with a lookout over Banja Luka: 

Our first event with the team was a Teen Sports Workshop which brought together teens, American students, and our wonderful local volunteers for a day full of fun, games, and shared joy.

The team also stepped into academic spaces across Banja Luka: We were honored to take part in the 30th-anniversary student conference at the Faculty of Philology, where we could interact with the students in between different presentations.

We were also warmly welcomed at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics—engaging with students from across the region and planting seeds of mutual respect, curiosity, and future collaboration.

We also hosted two sessions at the English Department led by two Christian psychologists from the U.S. on "The Nature of Trauma" and "Family of Origin", sparking important conversations around healing, identity, and hope from a Biblical perspective.

We also had two more serious events at the Church. One was by the two psychologists, based on "Emotional Awareness":

 The other was called "Art for the Soul". A highlight of that evening was the powerful monodrama “Writing Against the Silence,” written and performed by Jovana, one of our local volunteers. Her powerful performance shared the story of a soul seeking truth, freedom, and forgiveness through written words. Her honest, heartfelt story of finding voice, healing, and freedom deeply moved all who attended.

The month flashed by, and we had to say a sad farewell to these wonderful students. We had a little time of sharing at the end, and it was amazing to hear their stories of how the trip impacted them, and also all those students whom they met and encouraged. We look forward to their next team coming again in 2026!

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! 

 

InterVarsity Team

After the success of the first team of 39 that came from the InterVarsity Rocky Mountain region, we had a "smaller" Global Project team of "only" 27 in May to spend a month in Banja Luka. Four students and two staff returned from last year's team and so that was so helpful for continuing on building on the foundation of last year's team!  We started with 3 days of orientation. I shared on the history of Bosnia Herzegovina and Banja Luka. I also got to translate once again for Sinisa's testimony - I will definitely need to record it at some stage so you all can get to hear it, as it is pretty amazing!

Then it was time to start reaching out to students!! The team held events at two of the faculties at the Banja Luka University to share about American Culture: They met students through these events on campus, and also reconnected with students from last year, or from previous teams. Another main way they met students was eating every day at the cafeteria on campus.

We ran many events while they were in Banja Luka to connect better with the local students: The events included things like Game Night:  And Karaoke:  There was also a more spiritually focused event with Andy Mayo (from the UK) and Slavko Hadžić (from Sarajevo/Mostar) The evening began with Andy singing some of his songs about peace, hope, and restoration. Then Slavko shared about having security in uncertain times. He spoke using poems from a famous Bosnian-Herzegovinian author, as well as Psalm 23 from King David, showing that throughout history, people have been looking for security, but real security can only be found in God. The night ended with a couple more of Andy’s songs, and an explanation of a mural brought by the InterVarsity team, showing that Jesus breathes life, purpose, and creativity into the lives of the people he met in the gospels - and into our lives as well. Another fun part of having the team here is that we then are able to have a full team for worship! We usually don't have a drummer or a basist, so it is nice when we can use those instruments. And it is an interesting experience for them to be able to play in another language!  Even though it is a lot of work having this big team around - it is so much fun as well! We look forward to next year when they will have over 40 coming along!

EUS meetings

 At the beginning of December, I was in Mostar again for meetings with the EUS (Evangelical Union of Students, which is part of the IFES - International Fellowship of Evangelical Students - movement) staff and board. It was so fun to hang out with these wonderful people and catch up on the work that is going on in Sarajevo and Banja Luka. Here we all are - staff, board and families: 

And here is just us: 5 Staff, 1 intern, 4 board members: we are just missing one board member! 

I love that I get to be a part of this fun group of people, and be supporting the work of this organisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond!