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... 

Toledo, Sarajevo, Budapest and Tallinn

As I am part of the Bosnian National Team for Samaritan's Purse's "Operation Christmas Child", this year I went to the IConnect conference held in Toledo, Spain with 3 of my fellow team members. Here we are below with our colleagues from Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia. Yes, we went all the way to Spain and hung out with our local colleagues :)

This year was also Elvira's first time and she asked me to also dress up in National Costume so she wouldn't be alone. this was meant to be for the first night along with everyone else, but our flight was delayed and then our luggage lost, so we didn't get to do it then... but we were determined to do it anyway and it was really fun: 

Here are all of us from Bosnia and Herzegovina together with the OCC mascot! 

The conference was huge - over 500 people from 60 nations. We had corporate sessions in the morning and evenings and then workshops in small groups the rest of the day. It was long days, but we had a great time! 

One evening we were able to go to Toledo - and we took the little train up to the hill overlooking the city and got some great views of this Unesco World Heritage City, before exploring the city further and then having a little adventure getting lost trying to make our way back to where we could catch the taxi home! But we made it back safe and sound in the end...

After the conference, we all flew back to Sarajevo, and as it was my birthday the next day, everyone arranged to stay on and celebrate with me... Yay!! We were joined by Carolyn (and Elvira opted out) for the trip up the mountain on the newly redone Cable Car:

Here I am in one of the old cars - the original Cable Car was made for the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics and then unfortunately it was destroyed in the 1990s war, so it is nice to have it up and running again. 

Then, instead of travelling from Sarajevo to Banja Luka (5 hours by train) and then onto Budapest (12 hours on bus and train), I just flew on a Wizzair cheap flight to Budapest... and stayed with my friend Marie (and got to hang out with some other people as well which was great - but I don't have pics of that).

The reason for going to Budapest, was actually to take advantage of cheap flights to my next destination, Tallinn, Estonia, another Unesco World Heritage City!! (I should call this post from Toledo to Tallinn, seeing World Heritage cities across Europe!)

But you can see why it is a world heritage site... above is the Russian Orthodox church and below is one of the city gates that is still there - they have more that 80% of them, which is amazing for a medieval city!

 A view from the walls out... so pretty:

 This was part of the walk from where we were staying in the middle of old town to the place we were meeting... 2 years ago when I was here, I could barely make it up the hill... now 15kgs lighter and little bit fitter, I was able to make it up, sometimes twice a day, with no problem... so I was happy about that :)

The reason I was in Tallinn, was to spend time with these great people: The European Leadership Learning Community. I was part of the staff team for this event which was so fun. I love this group!

We had two very different, but amazing teachers. One was Ben Fitzgerald from Awakening Europe: He was more inspirational...

The other Oivind Augland from xpand Norway: He was inspirational, but also so very practical. Loved it!

We did have time for a little RnR... playing games in the park. There were some interesting ones like the one below... It was so much fun! And if you want interesting games, get a Dutchie to organise it!

During the week, I also got to hang out with my Estonian/Bosnian friend, Jael. She lived in Bosnia for 17 years and left last year in October to return to Tallinn. She took me to the medieval restaurant "Old Hanza" which was amazing...

The sausages were bear, moose and wild boar!! All the food are things that they would have eaten in medieval times... such a fun experience!

After 3 weeks, 1 5 hour hour train trip, 9 flights ranging from 1 to 4 hours, 1 5 hour bus trip, and many other forms of transport including the Cable Car, I met up in Zagreb with Ljilja and Sina and we hung out for a bit before Sina left... and then Ljilja and I picked up my MOM for her to come to stay with us in Banja Luka... but more on that in another post :)

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!

Faith and Conflict Experience

After 18 months of planning and hard work, the 2014 Bosnian Faith and Conflict experience was held successfully in Banja Luka and Sarajevo, with a day trip to Srebrenica. There were just over 30 participants from 15 different nations, mostly working with YWAM, but also some others came along for the ride as well. And what a ride it was...

This is a conference that usually happens in Northern Ireland, run by YWAM Northern Ireland and I attended one of the Northern Ireland versions of the conference last year in May (read more here). The main speaker was Jonny Clark, leader of YWAM Ireland, and it really was great to have input from him and his team from YWAM Ireland.

We were in lectures some of the time, but also heard from local people, both in Banja Luka and in Sarajevo. Below is one of my friends, Ceca, who works with a local NGO, sharing on the different things they do in the area of reconciliation: (we were using the nearly finished Church building in Banja Luka - doesn't it look amazing!!! I can't wait until it is completely finished and we can really start using it!)

But it wasn't inside all of the time - both in Banja Luka and in Sarajevo we took a tour of the city. I did the Banja Luka tour, and below is Aida (in blue) doing the tour in Sarajevo: She did a fantastic job! Wrangling 30 people plus children is not easy!!

Below is most of the group in front of the library in Sarajevo. It really was a great group of people, and I was really sad to say goodbye to them all...

 As I said, we had a great tour in Sarajevo and here is Jonny at the place where 100 years ago Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, and this led directly to the start of WWI:

And no tour of Sarajevo would be complete without cevapi with kajmak  :) (and in fact, the food was also a highlight - we had local ladies who did most of the cooking, and it was great and mostly local recipes, meaning they got to experience local homemade food that way! And everyone really enjoyed the food!)

We also had a series of workshops with local believers in Sarajevo - here is Jonny speaking with Pastor Sasa doing the translating. Although we could have had more people, it was still great for those that did attend.

On the last day we took the long drive (and as we got lost, even longer...) to the memorial to the biggest massacre since WWII in Srebrenica. It was REALLY hard, but I am glad we did it. The memorial is poignant and the tour guide was excellent. He only told me in confidence that he had actually been there the day that men and boys as young as 13,14 were separated out, and only through some miracle did they think he was took young (even though he was also 13) and his life was spared...

It is also good to remember that many people were killed in those days by Serbs, but so were many Serbs were killed before that in the surrounding areas by Muslims. War is never clear cut and easy to understand... with one side in the right and one side in the wrong: but one thing is clear: everyone suffers. And everyone needs to learn how to get passed it and forgive... Reconciliation is only possible if both sides forgive and learn to move forward together again: otherwise it is not reconciliation.

All in all, I think it was an amazing experience for everyone involved, and we are already talking about having it again in two years time! It was hard work for me as I did all the logistics for 30 people in two cities, but I also think it was worth it as not only did we all learn more about reconciliation, but they all got a taste for Bosnia Herzegovina, and who knows, maybe they will be back here one day!!

It was an extremely exciting ride, and one that I will gladly do again: so...  see you in 2016??