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! 

Triplet to Ireland and the UK

I was invited to go to Enniskillen in Ireland in August, to be the speaker on the YWAM Ireland gathering. I was really blown away by the invitation, but as I had already been playing around in my head with maybe making a trip to the UK to see people and also get my UK passport sorted out, it seemed like a lovely way to combine the two.

I spent 3 lovely days with the wonderful people who make up YWAM in Ireland. In reflecting for the talks I realised that my relationship with YWAM in Ireland and all the good things that have come out of it (including 5 "Faith and Conflict" conferences), started because of two conferences that I went to. One was in 2007 and on the way back from the conference I "happened" to take a train with then YWAM Ireland leader, Jonny Clark. We also happened to get lost and took the train in the wrong direction... but that is another whole story! And the other was in 2014 in Lyon when I sat next to Alex Atwell, who is now leading YWAM Enniskillen, on a flight from there to Manchester. Random? Coincidence? I think not!  

It really was a privilege to share more of my story and what the Lord has taught me along the way and I really enjoyed sharing on how to persevere and press on into what the Lord is calling you into. We are the hands and feet of Jesus here on earth which this saying from St Teresa of Avila reminds us of! 

And some other reflections the Lord has been showing me about how to bring a little bit of His joy and life and celebration even when things are not going the way we wish they did...

And a case in point - why let a little bit of rain stop us from having a fun outing to Lough Erne together... crazy people! Group pic using the car as a tripod:

Here I am warming up by the fire with my fellow South African, Musa, who was crazy enough to jump in the lough...

Along with other crazy people - Alex and Martin. In the background you can see the ruins of Devenish Island Monastery... very eerie in the fog! 

And this time a selfie-stick pic with the monastery in the background as well...

I also managed to finish up my passport by going to Belfast before the conference and fast tracking it. My old one is not up until 2026, but it is almost full! And why is it almost full?? Because silly border guards in Bosnia and Croatia mostly don't care where they put their stamps. I only have 3 in my new passport and look at how much space they already take up!! (And if I fly from Zagreb, which is my closest airport I get between 4-6 stamps each time depending on if I am going to Schengen or not!)

I used my new passport to travel to the East Midlands Airport and to hang out with my godson, Christopher and his wonderful family. 

And I say wonderful, because on the day I was supposed to get on a bus and travel on to my next place, I felt horrible and recognised the feeling from the time I had covid... and they have some old tests hanging around and I took one, and guess what!! Yip. I was positive...

Thankfully, they were ok with me staying on, and we tried to isolate me as much as possible, but Trevor and Carol had already got it from me, but luckily the kids didn't get it! So yes, not my most successful trip ever... thanks to them for being so fantastic!! 

On the day that Christopher got his A-level results, they had scones to celebrate and they sat outside in the garden and I was upstairs talking to them through the window and enjoying my portion!

Then it was time to try and figure out my further travel. I had planned on going to a few people, but with not feeling so great after covid, I just narrowed it down to my sister and her family and changed my flight to come back a bit sooner. My nephew James had returned from a gap-year trip around Asia and it was wonderful to hear all his stories in person! 

And also enjoy time with my sister and brother-in-law, and their wonderful garden!!

Then it was time to be back in Banja Luka, getting ready for the new school year! 

Leadership Development Encounter

I stayed in South Africa a little bit longer than I normally do, as my brother and his family were coming to visit and so I wanted to wait and spend time with them. And I was also able to help with an online leadership training course while I was in South Africa! This course was born in Covid times, but still seems to be very popular as we had over 50 people take part in this, the 5th one that has been run. 

It was 5 days over 2 weeks with assignments in between, and I really enjoy using my giftings to teach and facilitate the daily processing group. And I love being able to work (virtually) with a wonderful group of people. I also continue to coach/mentor people I connect with in these programs once they are finished.

New Year Goal setting

As part of my role in YWAM's European Leaders' Learning Community, I recorded this video in December for our January series on "Goal Setting for the New Year". If you want to make some goals in January, this might be a good video to watch!! But you can actually use this way of doing it any time of the year 😀

Global Leaders' Gathering Thailand

I travelled to Chiang Mai, Thailand to join in the Global Leadership Gathering for YWAM leaders from around the world. But on the way, I went to visit my friends, Rebecca and Eve in their new location in a village in the middle of Loei province in the mountains of Thailand that border with Laos. Here they are in their kitchen cooking up my favourite meal (ok, it was mostly Eve!)

Eve even calls me "Pad Thai" because I ate it so much last time I was in Thailand in 2018 for our Y Together gathering! So, she decided she had to make it for me: 

It was really great being able to see where they are and what they are up to in this season. I even got to help out with their kids program to the local kids - here I am reading "The Hungry Caterpillar" to them. 

 

And then it was time for the Global Leaders' Gathering... We drove together to the conference in Chiang Mai. We were 900 people from every corner of the globe. And it was fantastic to be able to see so many old friends and catch up with people I hadn't seen in years! 

One afternoon a few of us from Central Europe managed to have a lovely foot massage together... good way to relax and also catch up! 

I really was amazing to be a part of the gathering and I am also so glad that I managed to go and see where my friends are working in the middle of nowhere in Thailand. 

Central European Staff Gathering

It has been 4 years since we last had a staff gathering in Vajta, Hungary. Because of other commitments, this time I was only minimally involved in the organisation of it - and the team did a great job! It was weird not being as involved and I realised that I had been helping to organise YWAM Central Europe events since even at the first one I attended in 2008! We met beforehand as our leadership team for the Central European Area of YWAM. There are about 20 of us on that group and it was great to get together and share and pray for our area of YWAM before the rest of the people came:

There were over 260 people at the gathering, including over 60 children and teens! We had a great children's program for the kids - where they had their own mini-conference, being challenged to go out and be world-changers.

I am also stepping down from my role in our "Core Team" for Central Europe - 4-5 of us help lead the bigger team or ACT as we call it. I have been in this role since 2015, so it is time to step down (I will still be in the ACT) and let others have a chance to lead. Below is them praying for Ema (also stepping down) and I and the gift that we were given as a "Thank-You" - a lovely wooden box with this inscription inside!

The plan is that I will stay on the core team until the end of the year and in that time continue to hand over responsibilities to the rest of the team. It hasn't been an easy decision, but I know it is the right one! I look forward to seeing what God is leading me into in this next season.

As the conference was open to all those who had ever been in YWAM in Central Europe, I encouraged my former teammate, Janet, to come along. She has been back in the UK for over 10 years now. It was great to see her again! And the best part: I decided to drive the 4 and a half hours to Vajta, Hungary, where the conference was held. It is the furthest I have driven in 2 years because of my issues with my shoulder! And praise the Lord, my shoulder did very well!  So happy!

 

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. 

European Leadership Gathering

I travelled to the UK to help with the organisation of the European Leadership Gathering in Harpenden, England. Before the conference, I managed to spend the weekend with my sister, Astrid, in Oxford. It would have been better if I hadn't caught a cold on my travel to the UK :(

At the YWAM Harpenden base, we gathered with around 300 YWAM Leaders from all over Europe. Unfortunately because I was sick, I wasn't able to take part in much of what was going on. The below is one of the official photographs of Patrick Dixon, one of our speakers, sharing on signs of the times.

I wasn't in the chapel other than when I was on the stage for two times on the first day, one was to share about the European Leaders' Learning Community (see video below) and the other was to organise the "Unconference" which was how we did our workshops and sharing times together. I just filled myself up on cold meds and made it through... but then the next day collapsed completely, oh well. I did manage to get a bit better by the end to be able to travel on to my next destination - my friends, Trevor and Carol. 

Here is the presentation that we did for the European Leaders' Learning Community! (apologies for the sound quality for me in the beginning, it does get better! And you will get to enjoy my colleagues, Laura and Johan doing some improv scenes...)

It was so sad to be at a conference and not actually be able to be there. But I am glad I was able to serve in the background a bit and I did "attend" by watching on the life stream when I wasn't sleeping the fever off. 

After the weekend with Trevor and Carol, I travelled to visit my former "boss" in YWAM, Carmelita and I was so glad to be looked after well and completely recover from my sickness so I could go back to Bosnia fighting fit! 

November happenings in Banja Luka

During November, after all my travels in September and October, I was firmly in place in Banja Luka, but we had some lovely visitors come to stay which was great fun. We also managed to get up to a lot of different things during the month! 

Eric and Sophie (above) came from YWAM Ireland, and Jesse and Charity from InterVarsity - all in time for the events we held with Professor Emyr MacDonald, who is a Professor with Cardiff University who also is a believer. His work in nanoscience has caused him to believe even more in a creator God as he sees all the intricate details at the nano-level which couldn't have just happened by chance. He spoke at an event at Ihtus (below) and he also lectured at the Natural Science faculty. 

Sophie and Eric also helped with our weekly reading club at the Children's Home. We have really enjoyed going in each week with a different story and then doing a craft - and my favourite was definitely this one of Pinocchio: It might have taken me going to 4 different stores to find the split pins to use for it, but it was worth it! They were super cute - and yes the pencil nose can grow when he is lying! 

And we also held a "Fall party" while Sophie and Eric were still around. Based on Thanksgiving it was a great evening of fall foods and also remembering all that we are thankful for: 

The last week of November, we held the training for Operation Christmas Child ministry partners for this part of the country:

Here I am in action, doing my part of the training: 

We have to ensure that the partners will do the distribution of the 10 000 packages in the way that they are supposed to. It is so fun to be able to be part of the team that helps make sure things are done well.

Our friend, Jelena, was also coming to help with the training, so we convinced her to come early and stay on and so she helped us with our Reading Club and also ran an event for the Mothers in our sponsorship project (she is on the left): 

She talked about "Zimnica" (Preserves) which each woman here usually makes for winter - jams, relishes, pickled vegetables, you name it. But she related it to our spiritual/emotional lives - that we also need to preserve good thoughts and things we are grateful for. We each decorated a jar with little slips of paper inside with things we are grateful for. When times are hard we can take them out and remind ourselves of all the good things in our lives. It was such a good life lesson and the mother's loved it!

 Here are Emina and Vesna with their jars: 

All in all it was a busy and varied month, and a lot of things to be grateful for!! 

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! 

Ireland and Denmark

I went to Enniskillen in Northern Ireland to teach on the last week of their Discipleship Training School. It was a great week with a wide group of nationalities - they were from Lebanon, Singapore, Mexico, the UK and the USA!  It was a great opportunity for me to teach and share stories, and we had a lot of fun together! 

Where I was staying was right on a lake, and had such lovely views: 

I also enjoyed walking around the neighbourhood, and the lovely fireplace! 

While out walking I spotted looooooads of blackberries, so I may have become the "most popular teacher" not because of my teaching, but because I ended up making blackberry and apply crumble a couple of times... no need to let the blackberries go to waste 😁

Straight from there, my friend, Belinda, picked me up and we went to the Western part of Ireland, Donegal for a quick getaway. It was amazing!! This is us at Sliabh Liag (Slieve League): 

The weather mostly played along, but some of the time it was a little wet: 

But that didn't stop us getting out to see the sights: 

We spent the night in a lovely cabin in the middle of nowhere... and woke up to this sight: #onlyinireland

We then went back to Rostrevor where I got to hang out with some friends there before heading on to my next destination - Copenhagen, Denmark. 

I went there for meetings with other leaders in our European Leadership team. We haven't met together in person since 2019, so it was lovely to spend time together again. We spent a lot of our 3 days together in meetings, but did enjoy one afternoon taking in the sights of Copenhagen. And as you can see, we had a good time! 

I was lucky on this trip to find three cheap one way air tickets and the last one went directly back to Banja Luka instead of Zagreb, but from Malmo, Sweden, across the long bridge from Copenhagen. Luckily I knew that Malmo is close to Copenhagen as it made for a much nicer trip home. One hour on the bus as opposed to three! It was a good trip all in all, and it was great to catch up with everyone after such a long time of not being able to travel 🧡