nConnect 2024

Every year in the autumn we are part of an nConnect somewhere in the Balkans. This is for the volunteer teams who help make sure that the  Operation Christmas Child "shoebox" packages are given out in the correct way. This year it was our opportunity to host the Croatia and Montenegro teams here in Bosnia Herzegovina. Last year it was held in Serbia with 7 countries, and I was at the conference, but got sick after one day, so I missed out on much of it 😞 

So, I was so happy to have the opportunity to be a part of this conference and get to know the teams from the other countries, and to hang out with the Bosnian team. Here we all are: 

Here is our Bosnian team around the "map" of Bosnia: 

And all standing on one of the bridges in the Ethno Village where we were staying: (Our team adopted Mila who came from Croatia with her mom as she was super cute!) 

And here are some more pics from around the place where we stayed...

It really is very quaint - and you feel like you have gone back in time: 

And it also has some fun quirky details - like these loving lamp posts! 

Besides being able to connect with others, and learn some of the new ways of reporting and helping in worship, I was also priviledged to share the devotion on the first day (we were in a bigger room as the smaller was being used on the first morning by another group). Everyone seemed to enjoy it and it was a good way to kick off the conference! 

The best part about it being in Bosnia is that we only had to drive 2 1/2 hours - the last two were in Montenegro (11 hours drive) and Serbia (9 hours drive), so this was very nice 😁 Now we are ready to start the next season of giving out shoebox packages!! 

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! 

 

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!! 

Easter Week 2022

This year, "Western" and "Orthodox" Easters fell one week apart. If you don't know why there are two Easters you can check out this article

On the Saturday of "Western" Easter weekend we went to the town of Celinac, which is about 20 minutes away to put on a couple of workshops there. Some of the children in our sponsorship project are in Celinac, so we first had a longer workshop with just the 20 or so of them which included them playing games and making crafts. Here is Ljilja with them showing the Easter Story: 

They were all then given "shoebox packages" before it was the turn of two organisations we have great cooperation with - one for families with 4 or more children, and the other focussing on helping those who left during the war and have returned. We again started with a song:

And then the Easter story with them as well. They have to put the pictures in order, and then tell what happens in each of them... And then it was time for them to received their shoebox packages too!

On "Western" Easter Sunday we had a meal after church for those who were there. And our friend Dragana (in red in the middle) surprised us by visiting us from Germany! 

On the Monday we had a workshop for our sponsorship children at the church. We started with a song: 

Then also worked through the Easter story: 

Before moving on to two workshops: One group was downstairs with Kate and Haley making objects with "hama" beads: 

While the other was upstairs with me painting flower pots (which we planted seeds in): 

And then they got to switch around so in the end they got to do both activities: 

Before all receiving their shoebox packages: 

Later in the week, we managed to go into the Children's Home and hand out packages. We handed out 105 packages by family units and it was so much fun to see our children again, some after 2 years. One of them said "hey Aunty Belinda, I remember when you were taller than me." Now he is a foot taller than me!. Here is one photo of one of the family units that I can put online as it doesn't identify the children: 

For "Orthodox" Easter, I had an unexpected guest. He is a friend who lives in South Africa, but is originally from the Phillipines.  I did show him some sights: 

And we went out for Banja Luka cevapi: 

He also came just in time to celebrate Orthodox Easter at my friend Ankica's: 

So even if he was here only for 26 hours, I think he enjoyed himself! 

I hope you enjoyed a little look into my Easter week 2022 😀

Easter Workshop

Last weekend, we held a workshop for our sponsorship children to celebrate Orthodox Easter (on May 2nd). We were originally planning to have it at the park, but then the weather was very unpredictable, so we decided to have it indoors at Ihtus. At the LAST minute the weather was good enough for us to be completely covid-safe and have it outside. We had two workshops back-to-back so we didn't have more than the 30 people allowed to gather and everyone had a great time! 

We started by playing some games, and then painted eggs: 

We had two groups - one younger and one older, here are some of the older kids: 

And some of the younger ones with their eggs: 

The youngest particpant in the first group (his mom stayed with him and helped out as well!)

We talked a bit about the Easter Story and they started to colour these in - and took them home to finish off: here is one of the finished projects: 

And then it was time for the main event (in their minds!) the "Easter" (Christmas) Packages. Because of Covid they came too late to give out at Christmas, so we are doing them more now at Easter! 

 And the youngest participant in the second group (who came with her older sisters) - so excited! 

And Alexa, one of our wonderful volunteers, made a lovely video so you can see more of what went on... Enjoy! 

As you can see it was a lovely workshop and the kids enjoyed themselves!!! Thanks to our wonderful volunteers, and to the mothers that also stayed and helped. Despite so many changes in plan along the way, everything worked out so well in the end!

Celebrating God’s faithfulness | Story 19: A Giraffe and a Nativity scene

Each year our church gets involved in distributing Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child shoebox packages. Siniša was doing it even before I arrived on the scene. We have done so many different programs along with the handing out of packages – ranging from using puppets to plays to Vegetales videos. So many different fun ways of creatively telling children that actually the Greatest Gift is not the box, but Jesus.  

Once we had the church building, we decided to do the Christmas package distributions from there. I can remember thinking that I didn’t want to do the traditional Christmas play as that had been done (and really well) by my Finnish colleagues each year until they had left. I took Max Lucado’s “You are Special” as the main message, but with the help of a local friend, we managed to add the Christmas story into it. I found kids in the sponsorship project or from my friends who were interested in being a part of it, and found that I actually loved being a director/ script writer/ set designer/ costume designer/ everything. 

So, over the next few years, I would find a script and adapt it, or sit down and write one with our actors in mind. And then we would get together in October and start rehearsals with the kids. By December we would be ready for the slog of 3-4 performances per day on the weekends and the joy of seeing so many children enjoying the play and of course receiving the shoeboxes! 

One year, I remember writing the play on a train on the way to Budapest. It is amazing where God will strike me with inspiration. Another year it was already September and I was just not sure what the play would be about. Some friends in another city in Bosnia had done a play the year before with a giraffe costume. I asked to see the play and asked if I could use the costume. They were happy to lend me the “costume” (basically a giraffe “onesie”), but the play had too few parts and needed some adapting. At the same time, I was given a beautiful nativity set by a friend of mine and as I sat down to adapt the play inspiration hit. 

I took the Giraffe suit and the Nativity set and put them into a story that shared the powerful story of Christmas. The poor lost giraffe was taken home by a girl to get warm, and he would spot the nativity set and ask about it. The parents would then explain the whole story of to the giraffe (who miraculously could not only speak, but speak the local language!) and we would learn the true meaning of Christmas.

It worked really well, and the only person who didn’t like the play was the actor I made be the giraffe as he didn’t like being the only animal. He was happy the following year when everyone was an animal – all in the barn learning the story of Christmas from Mama cow 😊 

Now, all my actors are no longer children, some are no longer even in high school. It has been so great working with them each year, and each year I think they won’t want to do it again next year (it is hard work!) but they kept coming back. 

I am amazed at what God has done through this ministry – it is kind of like the Giraffe and the Nativity set – we need to take what we have and work with that, and God is the one who is faithful to create something beautiful every single time. 

This is part 19 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!

nConnect 2020

The nConnect conference for Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child was, like so many things in 2020, very different than originally planned. We were supposed to be in Croatia with the teams from Croatia and Serbia, but in the end due to Covid, it was decided for us to meet each in our own countries in our own teams. We ended as only 8 of us in Bosnia Herzegovina, but we had a great time: 

We had a great time of planning for the next season of distribution of shoebox packages, during corona times and also encouraging each other. We did have some sessions on zoom with OCC regional staff located in Slovakia, Poland and North Carolina. A fun fact is that our new Regional Coordinator, Jason Hinton, used to be on a leadership team with me here in YWAM Central Europe! So that's fun! 

And besides working hard, we also enjoyed the thermal waters at Terme Ozren: 

The best part was that as hotel guests, we were able to use the pools in the evenings when it wasn't open to the public... (and after long days of meetings, it was fun to relax in the pools!) 

The sunset was so stunning, we ran out in the cold to jump into the warm sulphur pool... you can't see the steam rising, but it was :) 

And I even made it down the slide (just the once...). I was going so slowly as I braked most of the way down, Jelena got a great pic of me at the end... 

Whereas Eldina went quite a few times and super fast and so this is what every photo looked like: 

I also managed to fit in zoom meetings with YWAM leaders from all over Europe during the time we were there - why does everything have the be scheduled at the same time?? And going to two conferences at the same time is really not for the faint hearted... 

I think this week with good friends and colleagues both near and far was just what my heart needed as we head into another lockdown with Covid cases rising, our church shutting down, the Children's Home closing their doors... 

PC: Jelena Milicevic, Eldina Grabovac

Operation Christmas Child 2019

This past weekend, we managed to give out over 600 packages in five different presentations. It really was "OPERATION Christmas Child"!!! I already explained about the play we used this year in a previous blog post.

Each time, we would start with Sinisa saying a few words and then introducing our play:

Afterwards we would come out and sing a few songs - with Bojan (whom Fady on the Lausanne team taught to play guitar) playing along with me! We had a great time singing the local version of Jingle Bells, a song about Christmas and then "You are Precious" which was written by my Finnish colleague. It fit in with the theme of the play where all the animals had their special gift for Jesus, so we decided to sing it as well...

Before the main attraction, Ljilja would ask them what they learned from the play and the songs... and the children were right on the ball with their answers! They were all paying attention! And then of course the main attraction - the Christmas packages:

Our actors and other volunteers helped us with the handing out of packages:

 Here is Ljilja with some of the kids and the actors:

And another one of the three "younger" actors as they are so cute - they are actually all cousins, and Lena (left) and Marija (right) have been in our plays already for 5 years - but their other cousin, Lana (middle) wanted to join in - and she was also very good!

Here we all are with our shoebox packages!!!

And then repeat 4 more times over 2 days and that is how it is done!!! Hope you have a great Christmas everyone!!!