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.

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! 

 

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! 

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 🧡

Budapest Meetings

This formation of our Youth with a Mission Central Europe Core Circle met in person for the first time since we came together over a year ago. It was so much fun to spend time together in person! We decided on Budapest as our place to meet as it is kind of central. It also has good views! 

Here we are: Steve, Rune, Robin, me and Ema. 

We are the core team that leads the rest of our bigger Area Circle Team, and even though we meet monthly on zoom as an ACT and even more frequently as the core, it is just not the same as when you are in person! 

We met sometime at the hotel, other time at the YWAM Budapest ministry centre, but also in cafes so take advantage of out beautiful locations. We were meeting to talk through many of the things happening in Central Europe. When Steve's wife asked us "do you have enough things to talk about for 3 days" our reply was "maybe too much!". But in the end we moved forward on many things on our agenda and at least started talking about other things. 

We did some team building activities, including going to the Széchenyi Thermal Baths where in between bathing we even carried on some discussions! 

Here is our Album Cover shot: 

We did enjoy good food and also some fun icecream along the way! 

All in all, our core team enjoyed our meetings, and look forward to meeting in person with the rest of the wider Area Circle Team of around 20 in October in Poland. 

God is faithful even when it is H.A.R.D | Iron sharpening Iron

I have been putting off this topic as it is a hard one to write. I have been thinking of how to end this series, and somehow I think it is fitting if this one will be the last one. It is a hard one to write because it doesn't just concern me, and so I have struggled with even writing anything at all. However, I have come to realise that if I don't write something on it, then I am not being entirely truthful and also not celebrating God's faithfulness completely. 

One of the hardest parts of being a cross-cultural worker is working with other cross-cultural workers. Before I came to Bosnia, I thought I was a nice easy-going person, and I could get on with anyone. I learnt in my training before coming that one of the main reasons people leave cross-cultural work is because of conflicts with other cross-cultural workers. I thought, “Wow, that is amazing, well I won't have those kinds of problems, I will be fine.” [insert hysterical laughter here 😊] 

I remember when I was interviewing for a volunteer position with Samaritan's Purse. They asked me, "So tell us about your previous experience in working in teams..."  I quipped, "Well I have been on two teams and they both broke up and everyone else kind of left." They looked a bit shocked at this and leaned in and said, "Tell us more..." (Whoooooops!!!) Luckily, I was able to come back from that and have been on the Bosnian National Team for Operation Christmas Child for over 5 years now. 

Recently, I was teaching on a Leadership Development course on zoom, and I was talking about learning from your Leadership Journey. The premise is that we all need to look back on our lives and learn from what God was showing us along the way. In the teaching, I was sharing about transitions and specifically about the big transition I went through when I moved to Bosnia. I half-jokingly said, "I think in that transition time my greatest cultural stress was not with the Bosnians, but learning to work with Americans…” Yes, cross-cultural issues also go on in teams! 

All the YWAM workers in Bosnia circa 2002

Since I thought that I was wonderful and easy to work with, when I started having issues with other people, I just blamed them. I didn’t see how much I was part of the problem as well. Looking back, I see that God was using my teammates to change me and sharpen me (and me to sharpen them too!). It is true what it says in Proverbs: 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another."

Another important thing to remember in any team context is that the devil is on the prowl, looking at ways to get you to clash. His ultimate aim is for you to crash out. I think the reason I have been able to work for so many years on a team with Siniša and Ljilja (with many others coming and going over the years!) is because we keep short accounts and don’t let the devil get a foothold. Or at least we try!

Whether it is God using the iron to sharpen iron, cultural issues or the devil trying to destroy community, team conflict over the years has changed me into who I am today. Even though it has not been easy, I wouldn’t want to change anything or anyone with whom I have worked over the years. I attempt to practice Romans 18:12: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” And I think I can safely say that I have a good relationship with all of my ex-teammates.

 

Community is essential to flourish, especially cross-culturally, and I can see how faithful God has been over the years and even now in providing that community through teammates. He has also been so faithful to use them to sharpen me and help me become more like Him in the process. 

I hope you have enjoyed this series about God’s faithfulness when things are H.A.R.D. I hope you have enjoyed looking back with me and seeing that He is faithful even in the hard times, through the hard things and truly works everything for the good... Look out soon for my next series 😊 

"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. " Deut 7:9

This is the seventh and final in a series of blogposts about God’s faithfulness when things are H.A.R.D. They follow the series of 20 short stories celebrate 20 years of God's faithfulness to me in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the 16th of January 2021, it was 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!

Chaplain Chaplin

When my brother was in High School he used to joke that he would study theology and then go serve in the (then compulsory) 2 years of army in South Africa. His reasoning was that he would then be able to be a "Chaplain Chaplin". I know he was only kidding, but actually I had an interesting thing happen to me that reminded me of it when I was serving at the YWAM Together in Thailand in 2018...

I was working at the Information Desk and minding my own business when I was approached by some people who said: "Someone told us there was a Chaplain who was working at the desk". It turns out they were Chaplains who worked in hospitals and prisons and they were asking around among the 4000 attendees to find out if there were more of them around and someone kind of misunderstood and said, "There is a 'Chaplin' working at the info desk"... so we laughed and then they asked me, "Do you want to know the origins of your surname?". Always one to get useless information, because why not, I of course said "yes!". It turns out it wasn't so useless at all. Instead, I think it was a Godly encounter...

Now, to give you the background. I was always scared to be a leader. I didn't think I had what it took, even when other people saw that I had potential. My leader in YWAM Central Europe invited me to be a part of an "emerging leader's track" at the Global Leadership Gathering in 2012 in England. It was a great time with 300 leaders from around the globe, and there were 30 or so of us in our "track" who met up with Darlene Cunningham (co-founder of YWAM) every afternoon. I was continuously feeling like I shouldn't have been there and that it was a mistake that I had been invited.

One day, during worship, I don't even remember the song, but it was amazing worship, being led by Graham Kendrick, so you can imagine... I just remember feeling this overwhelming presence of the Lord and during that time saw a picture of a mantle/cloak being placed on my shoulders. I felt like this mantle was something the Lord was challenging me to take up in the future and that He was showing me that it wasn't a mistake that I was there and He was grooming me for leadership in YWAM in the future. It was a powerful moment as I accepted the mantle, little knowing what it all meant and where it would lead.

It was another 3 years before I was asked if I could pray about coming on the leadership of the Area team for Central Europe. And when I was praying, the Lord reminded me of that cloak and that He had been preparing me for this time. So, I accepted the invitation, little knowing that in less than a year the main leadership for the whole Area would be handed over to me as the previous leader transitioned out.

Fast forward to Thailand two years after that. I was feeling burned out. I was feeling that I wasn't where I should be with my leadership. It was hard. I was tired. And then these people shared the simple story of my name...the name I was born with:

Back in Roman times, there was a young Roman soldier who saw a beggar lying by the side of the road freezing cold. He took his Roman Army cloak and cut off the bottom half of it and gave it to the beggar to cover up with, leaving the top half for himself. That night he had a vision of Jesus who told him "as you clothed that beggar, you clothed me". 

After his death, he was sainted as St Martin and his half "cloak" was carried into battle, and the tent that his cape or "cappella" was housed in also became known as a "cappella" or later on "chapel". And the people who carried the cloak were "cappellano" or "chaplains". The chaplains were the ones that carried the cloak seen as a symbol of bringing the presense of God into battle with them. 

Do you see it? The mantle that God showed me? And the cloak of a Chaplain? There are no words that can describe what it felt like in that moment when I realised that the name I was born with and the picture of the cloak/mantle/cape were two images that came together without me even realising it!! God used my name in the image that He gave me back in 2012!

I also realised then that my role in leadership is to bring God into every situation I encounter. As I write this, it is also a good reminder that I am a "Chaplain" and not just a "Chaplin". It is no mistake that I am who I am and do what I do in, even if sometimes I get tired and discouraged about it. I just need to remind myself that it is the mantle of His presence that I carry on my shoulders as I go about being a Chaplain Chaplin! 

2020 started with lots of travelling...

I started mid-January in Budapest, where I was part of the week-long intensive FOCOS Foundational Coaching Skills Training. It is part of a year-long program that I am taking part in this year. There were 21 of us from all over the world learning how to be life coaches. It was a lovely group of people, and we had a great week learning together!

It was a very intensive workshop - but we did have one afternoon of seeing the beautiful city of Budapest:

Some of us went up to palace and the Castle district where I got some lovely photos:

 We also had time in the evenings to wonder around... and take in some sights:

 Or make album cover photos... (did I say this was a fun group?!)

After that, I had a week before I needed to be in Prague for a conference, so I decided to stay in Budapest for a couple of days and meet up with people there... it happened to be Edyta's birthday so I got to hang with her and Marie which was especially fun...and also got to see other fun friends there too!

Then it was time to go a bit early to Prague to spend time with David and Irena and their four girls. It was a great time to catch up with them (they used to live and work in Banja Luka), especially as it was a couple of days before David was diagnosed with Leukemia! He is busy getting treatment in hospital in Prague and the prognosis is good, but it was still a bit of a shock...for them and for me. (if you pray, please remember them in your prayers!)

Then it was time for the European Leadership Gathering - about 350 leaders from all over Europe met in Prague. Our first night we even had Loren Cunningham (below right) who is YWAM's founder. It was a privilege to hear him speak to all of us:

We also heard from all sorts of YWAM greats: here are Jeff and Romkje Fountian being interviewed on the sofa by Tove:

We also got creative: Here is Carl Tinnion (the outgoing European leader) doing a monologue as Jan Hus: a Czech theologian who was an early reformer whose thinking influenced Luther!

He was burned at the stake for his "heretical thinking": and Carl's monologue made us truly think about his premise that "Truth Prevails":

I was involved in a LOT of the behind the scenes organising but did get to be a part of the program on the last night along with Dick Brouwer, our new European Leader:

Probably my favourite moment of the whole week was when Al Akimoff (one of our long time YWAM leaders) prayed for our outgoing YWAM leader, Carl Tinnion... you can see me wiping the tears off during it, I was laughing so hard... 

During the week, I decided that we needed to get our lovely Central European area together one afternoon. It was a great time of sharing and we so enjoyed being "just us":

But my favourite part of the whole week was definitely hanging out with my buddy, Rebecca: She and I were the communication team for Central Europe for 5 years before she moved from Czech to Thailand. I recruited her to come and help at the conference and we had a great time. We also got to spend one afternoon after the conference seeing the sights of Prague:

Then it was time to head to the UK: I promised Rebecca that if she came to Prague to help we would finally make good on our promise to go visit our ex-leader (whom we worked for for those 5 years). So we went to spend a couple of days with Carmelita - we were near to Shakespeare's place of birth (Stratford-upon-Avon) so we went for the day - here we are in front of his birthplace: (not sure why I have the scrunchy face haha)

 And then we met a local who told us where to go to see his place of burial:

It was also good to meet Carmelita's husband, Derek... God told her to leave YWAM, then she met him, and got married after 50 - so there's hope for everyone! Here we are in front of the church across the street from their house: 

It was a fun couple of days of catching up and hanging out: 

Then it was time to go and visit my sister in Oxford - I did get to spend time with my niece and brother and law as well - but the only pic I got was with A in front of the Radcliffe Camera:

Then after 4 weeks, 7 different beds, a load of buses, a train, two planes, one workshop, one conference, and visiting good friends and family, it was time to head home to Banja Luka again... I love travelling, but I love my own bed just as much!!