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! 

Roundtable meetings in Mostar

I was supposed to have a week at home between Copenhagen and my next trip to Poland, but then the opportunity came up for us to go for 3 days to Mostar to take part in a Roundtable of local pastors and missions leaders. The topic was on how to work better together as locals and foreigners. It was such a great opportunity that Sinisa, Ljilja and I decided to go together. Here we are with the 40 or so delegates: 

Even though we decided to go last minute, Sinisa and I were both asked to take part in the "panels" where we gave our thoughts and suggestions, lessons learned in a short 20 minute talk which would be the fodder for the discussions afterwards altogether and in groups. Here I am sharing:

And here is Sinisa: 

I ended up going last in my group of 3 and the others had gone long, and it was just before coffee break, so I thought "oh boy, this is going to be fun!" I had planned to do it in English, but that was being translated from the front and the translation into the local language was similtaneous into headsets, so I thought it would be better to just do it in the local language as it would give me more time... and thankfully it went way better than I thought it would... I could see people were tracking and I am so glad I had the opportunity to share my heart and contribute to this important conversation in this way! 

Thanks to the Evangelical Bible Institute in Mostar and Organisation "Good News" for organising such a great event! 

Celebrating God’s faithfulness | Story 9: Journey of Understanding

Part of my vague idea when I first came to Bosnia and Herzegovina was to try and bring needed reconciliation to the people of this country. This is a much-needed area in this post-conflict country where Muslims, Croats (Catholics) and Serbs (Orthodox) have a deep-seated hate and mistrust for one another. People here are often not able to distinguish between their ethnic identity and their religious background, so the mixed-background Evangelical/Protestant models a unity that is so needed in this country.

During my time in Zenica, I participated in a ministry with women who had been taught how to quilt by a Dutch lady. Once I left Zenica, and moved to Banja Luka, I continued my relationship with the group in Zenica, thinking I could maybe use it as a vehicle for reconciliation between the predominantly Muslim city of Zenica and the predominantly Serb (Orthodox) city of Banja Luka. 

Zenica Quilting ladies

Taking 3 of the ladies in our church in Banja Luka who had experience with sewing, but did not have steady employment, I started up a group here in Banja Luka. Our two little groups started marketing themselves under the motto “Peace Crafts: ‘sewing’ the seeds of reconciliation”.  The group in Zenica mainly worked on quilt production, and we tried to produce little Bosnian dolls for sale to markets overseas.

Unfortunately, over time, the ladies in Banja Luka eventually all dropped out for various reasons, and although the group in Zenica kept going, we decided to shut things down in Banja Luka. The group in Zenica work successfully for another 3 years or so, but in the end the 2008 financial crisis put an end to what they were doing. It provided employment for those ladies until it ended, but it didn’t really do much in the way of reconciliation. I was of course disappointed by the way things turned out, but trusted that the Lord would continue to guide me, and He did... 

A few years went by, and in 2014, an opportunity opened up for me to facilitate the first Faith and Conflict conference in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Youth with a Mission (YWAM) Ireland came and brought the content, and I facilitated the local speakers and logistics. 

Now we have run four of them, and over time it grew from us trying to teach reconciliation to the local people and instead has become a vehicle for foreigners to come in and learn from local people. We take people on a journey of understanding, listening to locals’ stories of faith in the midst of conflict and learning from them the true meaning of forgiveness. And each one has been unique and wonderful. 

Faith and Conflict 2019 in Mostar

And these Faith and Conflict journeys of understanding are an echo of my own journey of understanding since I came to this country. Coming as a white English-speaking South African, I thought I had learnt so many lessons through growing up in South Africa and how we overcame apartheid. I came with a sort of “white saviour” complex, thinking I would save the Bosnians from each other. My experience with the Peace Crafts group and then the Faith and Conflicts showed me that instead I had a lot to learn from the incredible Bosnian people. 

And the lessons I have learnt about reconciliation and forgiveness come straight from the heart of God. He is the one who forgave us first so we can be reconciled to Him. And He is the one who is faithful to teach us lessons if we are willing to learn from Him!

This is part 9 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!

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

Faith and Conflict 2019

Three days after finishing the Central European Staff Gathering, it was time for my next conference... yes, organising two conferences back to back was not a clever plan, but thankfully it all worked out!!

This is the 3rd Faith and Conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first one was held in 2014 and then the next one in 2018, but now we actually aiming to run them every year! This is a conference that is run in conjunction with YWAM Northern Ireland and they run them in Northern Ireland, Lebanon, the US and South Africa.

We started off in Mostar and we had over 30 people, because a team from Albania that was there joined us for our time there, it was great having such a large group of people who want to learn more about Faith and Conflict in this beautiful place. Here we are at the new "Old bridge": (the old one was destroyed in the 1992-1995 war and it was rebuilt in exactly the same way as the old one, finished in 2004):

We also went up to the "cross on the hill" over Mostar. The unfortunate truth is that the cross which should be a symbol of love and grace is seen as a provocation. The city is divided between Croats (Catholics) and Bosniaks (Muslims). The mortar shells which destroyed the Old Bridge during the war were shot from this mountain... and now the cross is standing on it, overshadowing the city and in a way, a visual reminder of that fact... we loved learning about the symbolism and hesitated to take the group photo, but felt it was a lesson learned that needs to be remembered - symbols can be provocative and we need to be careful what symbols we use in our lives...

During our time in Mostar, we were treated to a concert by one of the YWAM Ireland staff, Alex Atwell. He shared his songs and stories from Northern Ireland... about peace and reconciliation. It was a lovely evening:

The main speaker for the conference was Jonny Clark, leader of YWAM Ireland, and it really is great to work with him and his team from YWAM Ireland. Here we all are enjoying some of Jonny's teaching in the beautiful Kairos Centre in Sarajevo.

Here is a pic of Jonny and I enjoying the Bosnian speciality "čevapi" together in Sarajevo at the end (we took the photo to send to our mutual friend in Ireland "the other Belinda" to make her a little jealous as she looooves čevapi!)

In Sarajevo, besides great teaching and cevapi, we were also treated to a great tour of the city's war history with the pastor of the Dolac Malta Evangelical Church, Sasa Nikolinovic. One of the places he took us to is actually in the top 7 of beautiful abandoned places: the bob sled run from the 1984 Olympic games: (and I think this photo should be our album cover... we are too cool for school!)

In Mostar and Sarajevo we had local people come and share stories in segments we call "Local Voices". Some shared their stories about being in the war, others shared how they are working now in some area of peacemaking. I love this part as there is such a depth of wisdom here, and people who have gone through so much have a lot to teach us, and I love giving them a platform to share! And for many people, this is the part that impacts them the most.

The group was fantastic, and it was with heavy hearts that we said goodbye to one another, we truly became a pilgrimage community in our week-long journey through this wonderful land... 

Faith and Conflict 2018

We ran a Faith and Conflict in 2014, and Jonny Clark from YWAM Rostrevor has been on me ever since to run another one. I never felt it was the right time until this year. This year, the Discipleship Training School (DTS) that is being run in Croatia is focusing on Bosnia Herzegovina and Serbia as well, and so we decided that this week long conference would be part of the DTS and we would also see if anyone else wanted to come along for this journey of understanding... and they did!

Even though Jonny couldn't come at the last minute, and he was supposed to be the main speaker, everything still turned out OK. We had great local input from different people telling their stories, from how they were in the army from the beginning to the end of the war without having a gun to dodging bullets in Sarajevo, to becoming a refugee. We also had two great speakers from Northern Ireland fill in for Jonny: Walter and Alex, and they shared more about the topic of reconciliation and the key role of forgiveness.

We physically (as well as mentally and spiritually!) went on a journey through Bosnia and Herzegovina, starting in Banja Luka: Here we are in front of the Orthodox church.

 Then moving to Sarajevo - where we enjoyed some better weather :)

We finished off in Mostar, and were so impacted by how divided the city still is. One of the people telling their stories said "here the war hasn't ended yet". It just brought home how much still has to change here.

For me, it was so impactful how we kept taking the BIG picture and then making it personal. So, conflict happens between people groups when there is an "us" and a "them" and the same thing is true in our lives. How much do I make a difference in my own life between a group I am part of and a group I am not part of. A silly example was when one of the girls started bragging how much better it was to be on the top bunk (we were sleeping in bunks in one of the churches in Sarajevo) and those people on the bottom bunks were all losing out... There was the us and them!

In our lives, we need to be living not with us and them, but just us... we are all in this together and need each other to get along. It is easier to build walls than bridges - but we need to build bridges to survive!!

It was a fantastic week, and even though there was a lot of work to organise all the logistics in 3 cities, it was worth it to show everyone the riches of beauty in this country - not just in the physical geography, but also in its people!