Rocky Mountain Region Team 2026 part 2

After I got back from the conference in Hungary, it was time to engage once again with the team. (If you haven't read part 1 about the team, check it out here)

Twice a week the team ran fun events, ranging from fun game nights, to trivia evening and a great cultural dance night - with dances from locals, Americans and Indian students. It is such a great way for the team to learn about the local culture and for locals and International students to learn about American culture! It is also a lot of fun! Below they are learning the "kolo" or Serbian circle dance:

Michael Ots who is the Field Director of FEUER (The Fellowship of Evangelists in the Universities of Europe) and an author of numerous books came and spent a weekend in Banja Luka, where he was able to speak on two events: 

The first night was about some of his travels to 75 countries around the world, ranging from meeting the Crown Prince of Liechtenstein to sharing how he sees God in the wonders of New Zealand. It was fun and engaging and encouraged even more people to attend the next night where he shared on the topic "What makes us human? Faith and hope in the age of AI". 

At this event he not only shared more deeply about faith and the meaning of life, but he was also able to share a copy his new book "Making sense of life" to every one who wanted one. Many stood in line to chat with him afterwards and get their booked signed! Here is one of our amazing volunteers, Vlad, with his signed copy: 

Then all of a sudden, it was time to say goodbye, and we had the traditional pizza/karaoke goodbye party. And the turnout was testimony to the relationships formed over their month with us: 

So, to end off, I do have to share one of the hard parts about hosting teams - and that is when something goes wrong or someone is sick...

Team directors, Hannah and Micah (above with our team) had been staff on 2 previous teams. And both those times, someone had needed to go to the hospital... When they arrived, Hannah jokingly said that they had gotten a "name" for being on the teams that always had someone get really sick and hopefully this time would be better...

Well, this team kind of said, "Hold my beer" to the previous two teams!! This time we had 3 people need to go to the hospital, 2 of them in the middle of the night (poor Ljilja!) and one of those two was really sick and needed help multiple days. Thankfully in the end they all got better (one was a broken toe, so that is still healing...). But the good news is that Hannah who was sick most of the previous two times, didn't get sick herself this time, so we are taking it as a win!!! 

It might not always be easy to host teams (especially big ones like this one), but I can truly say that it is always worth it!

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!! 

Video: looking back at 2025

 

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!

InterVarsity Athletes and Center Church Teams

Two years ago, we had a visit from some of the leaders of the InterVarsity Surf and Turf region (they cover campuses in central California and southern Nevada).  During that time we dreamed about having a group of InterVarsity Athletes come and help us run Sports Camps for kids. Last year a team failed to come together, but this year we had a group of athletes wanting to come. At the same time we were asked if a small group could come from another church and we decided to combine the two teams, and it was a great combination! 

We ran 3 camps which were "Day camps" just coming together each day, and the kids had a blast learning new sports and playing games they had never played before! We also had many new volunteers joining us to help translate (always a blessing) and join in the fun themselves! Below is a pic of our last camp, with kids from our sponsorship project, local volunteers and the American teams: 

One of the camps was at the Children's Home and that was so much fun! At first the kids were reluctant to even start playing and making all sorts of excuses, but in the end they didn't want to stop playing when it was time for us to go! We aren't allowed to show the faces of the Children's Home kids online, but you at least get the idea: (and many of the kids didn't want to be in the photo which is their choice!)

The kids got to enjoy flag football which was totally new to them... and so fun! 

Even for the smallest kids who joined us at the home, so cute: 

The teams also held a fun "Cultural night" for students with a quiz on flags... no prizes for guessing this flag! 

The Center Church team left before we got a group pic, but the Athletes took us out for a thank-you dinner at the same restaurant where the "dreaming" started - a full circle moment! 

As usual, it was very hard to say goodbye to these wonderful teams, but I look forward to the day when we will meet again - if not in this life, then in the next! 

InterVarsity Rocky Mountain Region team

Once again we were honoured to host 28 students and staff from the Rocky Mountain Region of InterVarsity for one month. This is the 3rd year in a row, and we think this partnership will continue for many years to come. It has been great for them to have their students learn about other cultures and for us to have extra people coming to teach English and work with students. 28 is a LOT of people, but some had been previously and they are also very well organised so we don't feel like it is too many people! 

One of my major roles is to help with orientation to the country, history and culture. Here we are in the church figuring out who had won the "Scavenger Hunt" around Banja Luka! They have to go around and find answers to questions about different places in the city. It is a lot of fun for them, and means I don't have to take each team on a tour of the city! 

Here is our team with the staff team - they had 4 staff members and then 5 student leaders who had already been previously and were helping to lead the different small groups that the team was divided into. 

While the team is around, we have different events for students - ranging from Dance nights to Trivia Quizes. We also had some outside speakers come to do some 3 events while the team was here. One was on "Where is God in Suffering?" and here is a pic of that event - with our speakers Michael Ots, Andy Mayo and Piyush Jani are in the front left. 

Michael Ots has written a few books, and we also gave away copies of them, which have been translated into Serbian. 

And Andy played a few songs for us and gave away copies of his CD. 

This year, I insisted on having nametags during the 3 days of orientation, and because I could see the names, I was able to make sure I remember all of their names! I enjoyed hanging out with them here and there and after a month together it was really hard to say goodbye to all of them when they left!

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!

InterVarsity part two

I stayed on a couple of days in Budapest after my meetings to catch up with people there, but also so on my way back I could "collect" the next set of people coming to Banja Luka from InterVarsity (after the team that was here in May/June). They came into Zagreb airport and we sent a van to collect them, and this way I could be there to meet them and connect them to the driver (and travel back with them). Unfortunately because of the chaos on the airlines, two of the six didn't get in until the next day, but eventually all of them made it to Banja Luka: Here we are on our tour of the city:

This wasn't an ordinary group of people, but rather the leaders of the Central California region of InterVarsity. They have been partnering with the local version of IFES for over 20 years! There is a student team in Sarajevo at the moment, so they came here first to meet up with us, and then headed to Sarajevo. But not before we took them for breakfast at the lovely "Slap" restoran ("slap" means small waterfall which you can see behind us)

Despite the problems with their arrivals, it really was lovely to have them with us and show them a good time in Banja Luka!

InterVarsity Utah Team

In early 2020, my colleague, Ljilja, was contacted by a team from InterVarsity Utah who were supposed to be going to China, but they couldn't go because of the virus that was happening there. Things still hadn't exploded everywhere else, so they were looking for somewhere else to go... and somehow heard about Bosnia as a possibility. Even though the team was huge - over 40 people - somehow Ljilja felt it was the right thing to do to host them! Of course, then Covid happened, and they couldn't come for 2 years - but finally this summer, they came!!! 

So, at the end of May, 29 students and 8 staff (and 2 teenager children of the main leaders), came for almost a month to Banja Luka. They had a time of orientation where we helped them understand more about the country and people, and also some teambuilding... including rafting on the Vrbas river: 

Then it was time to meet local students - we held events at different colleges and other places where they could share about the states where they were from (Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Idaho) and connect with the students. Here we are at the American Corner, and Amanda is sharing about Colorado. 

We also held different fun events - here they are teaching people 2-step: 

And in true cultural-exchange style, they then learnt the Serb "Kolo" circle dance:

They held quiz nights, a Karaoke night and they and all the game nights were well attended! 

We had very full church services while they were around, which was very fun. I also had the privilege of translating into English for them: 

And they helped out in leading worship too, and it was so fun to have a bigger team! 

We know some crazy people, and no one is crazier than our friends Damjan and Tanja, who decided it was a good idea to host the WHOLE team for lunch. They made wonderful bean soup and we somehow managed to all fit outside... The team loved experiencing Bosnian hospitality (including the part where they "had" to try the local alcohol 'rakija'): 

We were so grateful to Tanja and Damjan for having us all over - here you can see how many people they fed!! 

Despite the size of the team, everything was so well organised and they were so wonderful, so when they asked if they can come again in the future, we all immediately said "yes"!! The staff (below with our team) were amazing and each of them had a small group of 5-6 students and so communication (mostly) flowed really well and we were able to work well with the team through the staff. The students were also so engaging and full of energy and so fun to have around. 

The month flew by and we were really sad to see them go!