Croatia/Bosnia 2008

'Take a deep breath. Clear your head. You can do this…'

I want to THANK ALL OF YOU for all that you gave so that I could go on this adventure!! Thank you for your prayers, they were definitely felt! Every step we took we felt as if the Lord’s Angels were around us, protecting us and opening opportunities to minister.

WOW.

...Ok, can I stop there?...

I honestly don’t know how to start this…much less do the deal…or even how to finish it.

I don’t know how to sum up my two weeks in Croatia and Bosnia.

As I sit here, memories flood my head, pictures flash before my eyes, sounds ring in my ears…and honestly, my eyes have started to brim with tears.

How do you sum up the two most impactful weeks in your life? How do, how can you start normal life again? How can you keep that fire inside of you burning? What is normal life?

So I am going to attempt to give a recap of my two weeks, focusing mainly on the highlights…

Hang on and enjoy.

The Team…

First, just a picture of the team…please look at it closely because I will say people’s names and you will want to know who I am talking about…

Front row (L-R): Asaélle; Steven; Geoffrey; Alice; Josias; Noéline.

Middle row (L-R): Robert; Stephen; Thierry (team leader); Philippe; Alexandra; Sandra;

Josiah (me); Laura; Sam.

Back Row (L-R): Carlo; Myriam; Ben (team leader); Christophe and Chantal; Déborah;

Doris; Christelle.

Photographer: Yann – husband of Alexandra.

The Two Weeks at a Glance…

August 15^th: I arrived, by train, in Albertville from vacation in the North of France. I dashed home and packed my suitcase, ate some McDo’s, and then spent the night at Thierry’s house with Robert and Steven.

August 16^th: We woke up at around 3:30 in the morning so that we could be at the meeting place at 5am. A small portion of our group, actually a family, was already in Croatia, so the remaining 18 of us pulled out around 6am in the morning. We drove the whole way, a lot of hours for all I know, and arrived at 11 pm in Gracac, Croatia.

August 17^th: We spent the day sleeping, holding a worship service as a team, and then looking at, for the first time, Kamp Fokus (or Fokus Kamp according to Sam…). Kamp Fokus is about 15km from Gracac. Eva, Danjiel, Vieko, Emilya, and Robby work at the Kamp all summer. Right now, it is at stage one – meaning there is one house standing and everything else is in the process of or waiting to be built. We helped put the walls on the second house and also do some ground work.

(L-R) Vieko, Robby, Emilya, and Eva. The house after we enclosed most of it with walls

August 18^th: The work began. Each day we would leave the apartments that we were staying in and drive to Kamp Fokus. We would eat breakfast there, have a little devotional with some worship and then begin to work. The work was fairly basic. Digging trenches for water pipes, building walls, clearing forest away, treating wood (notice the green color of the house above, it is not paint…), laying down new gravel on the road, etc. We would eat lunch and then have a 2 hour siesta every day. Really, really nice. The afternoon consisted of a little more work and then some more free time, in which the guys usually played soccer, while the girls…wait what did the girls do? Watched us, I guess…Next was dinner – And can I just say that the food there was superb thanks to Emilya and Eva! After dinner the girls would head back to the apartments to take advantage of the indoor showers, while we, the manly-men, braved the cold outdoor showers at the Kamp. The evening, until midnight or so, was spent at the apartments playing Mafia. No joke, that game became the game of the trip. We played it so much! (and a little poker as well…)

August 19^th – 21^st: These three days were spent pretty much like the above. It was a whole lot of fun to work as a team and learn about each other through that. Nothing brings a team closer than a good dose of teamwork.

Here we are playing Mafia. Deb, in green, to my right, was one of the Mafia…even though she swore she wasn’t…immediate sign that she was...

Stephen, Thierry, and Steven putting up a wall…the boards we had to work with were often warped and difficult to, well, work with. Hence the sitting on it.

August 21^st: The girls, with Ben and Chantal, left for Stolac, Bosnia. There, they ran “un stage du français”. Basically they taught French to kids from ages 5 to 15. They stayed there till the 25^th. From what they told us and from the pictures we saw, they were very impacted by the kids and just the opportunity to reach into the lives of so many young ones.

Needless to say, all of us guys wished they had stayed with us…we kind of got edgy with each other after several days… :)

We, the guys, stayed at Kamp Fokus until the 23^rd. A team from Spain arrived the 21^st and joined us in working at the Kamp. On the 23^rd, a Saturday, we drove to Split, a large town on the coast of the Adriatic.

August 23^rd – 24^th: Split is a beautiful city. Situated on the coast of the Adriatic, sunny all the time, and very touristy friendly, which is what we were in a sense. There were 12 of us, 11 guys and Sandra. Sandra stayed with the girls from the Spanish team, while the rest of us split (haha) up into two apartments. I was with Thierry and 4 others (Phil, Sam, Rob, and Stephen). We stayed with, Ivan, a single guy from the church. I will talk a little more about this guy later…

Anyways, we went to church on Sunday. I almost thought I was back in America because it was so much like an American worship service, except that everything was in Croatian. Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon/evening we toured Split and went swimming in the Adriatic. The Croatians love to stay up late and keep their shops open late, and this we took advantage of. J Pizza at 11pm, anyone? That being said, I am absolutely in love with Split and would love to go back!

The city of Split, Croatia.

(right) Envious? Well, you should be...

(above) ALL THE GUYS.

August 25^th: Monday morning the guys packed up and left Split at 9am. The girls, meanwhile, also packed up and left Stolac. We met in Mostar, Bosnia.

(Above) the river that separates Mostar in two, on the left, the Catholic side and on the right, the Muslim side. The Mosque on the right side of the river is the one we went into…

That afternoon was spent in Mostar, sightseeing. What was sad was that this city still bears plenty of marks of the war that was 15 years ago…very, very moving. Below are some pictures just to give you an idea, but also look at the Picasa web album marked ‘Mostar’…

A building in the middle of town…

The deal with Mostar was that during the War of the Balkans, one side of the river in Mostar was Catholic and the other side was Muslim. Thus, here it was more of a religious war if anything…the atrocities that passed in this city between the two parties were horrific beyond imagination. While you can only see the effects of the war on the buildings, there still rests the tension between the two religious groups.

August 26^th-27^th: Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in Mostar. We stayed in the dormitories of a Bible institute there. Tuesday was spent doing door to door evangelism – passing out packages that the church and Bible Institute had pre-prepared. Some of us, me being one, were designated the night before to run a sports camp for the local neighborhood kids. That morning was spent playing soccer amongst ourselves because no one showed up and the rest of the team didn’t have places for us in the cars. We did go into Mostar with Ben and visited a Mosque and a several French language centers -- the Bosnians have a love for the French language (don’t know why….) ….And visiting the mosque was just eye opening – here we were inside a Mosque, had to pay a whole 2 €uros to get in, and it was just odd to be inside it, I almost felt like we weren’t supposed to be there…kind of like, “what will happen if they find us, Christians, here?!?!” Granted the Bosnian Muslims are fairly low-key compared to the radicals of the Middle East…but just the thought gave me shivers up my spine…

That afternoon we prepared the worship service that we were going to do Wednesday night in Split. A group of us prepared the worship and another group of us prepared the “Everything” skit done to the song by Lifehouse. It was a little stressful that afternoon, but the Lord gave us grace and understanding and we weren’t forced to play Mafia to settle our differences.

That evening the “kids” showed up for the sports camp. Turned out to be every teenager under 30 in a 2-mile radius showed up determined to teach the French boys a lesson or two in soccer. Just for your info, we held our own, despite the circumstances…

(first) -- Dalibor, the pastor of the church there in Mostar – the church is located in the Bible Institute. Alice and Alex are also shown in the picture…

(second) – The French team after a hard night’s work of soccer…we played on a sweet outdoor, concrete court…really gives a nice dynamic with bouncing it off the walls and such…

August 27^th: Wednesday morning we got up, packed the vans, and hit the road. We were headed to Split to do the Wednesday night service there at the church….

On the way we stopped at The Falls of Kravica. It wasn’t a very necessary stop, but we had to eat lunch somewhere, right? So we spent 2 hours or so eating lunch and swimming in the sub-zero degree water.

We arrived in Split with about an hour and a half to spare before show time. Honestly, with the French (sorry everyone) that is not a whole lot of time.

Nevertheless, we got set up; instruments hooked up, ran through the skit several times, and even did a little shopping as well.

I must testify that everyone was really nervous. I think that the idea of leading worship for a group of people that don’t speak your language thus you are leading it in a second language for you (English) was very nerve racking for some. Those of us that were doing the skit, just prayed, because never in my life had I seen a skit be ready to go on “air” after just one day of practice. But then again, there is a first time for everything…

The service began with the Croatian worship team opening it up with a little worship. Right after that, we did the skit.

I have never in my life, seen a more well done skit for the amount of time given to practice for it. I am not saying it was us, at all, it was God. It was just very simple, we just followed the several YouTube videos of the “Everything” skit and prayed that it would be understood. When I think back on it, I still get goose bumps…there were people crying!

After the skit, we moved into a time of praise and worship. We did 4 English songs and one French song. It was probably my first time to really lead worship, through a mike, lead vocals and all that. Yes, I was a little nervous. I don’t know how many of the Croatians could speak English much less French, but that auditorium has never been louder. If they didn’t know the English they joined us in Croatian. It was like a picture of heaven! Many tongues joined together to make one, in praise of our God. I was the “worship leader” and yet I stepped down from that platform more impacted than I have ever been impacted. I honestly wanted to cry…and I have when thinking back on that time…

After our worship time, Ben shared a message on missions.

Immediately after that we grabbed our things, left our vans, and walked down to the port to catch a ferry…

Across the bay from Split is the Island of Brac. We spent our last two days there just as a team, resting.

Wednesday night we caught the ferry at 9pm and got to the island at around 10h30pm. We ate dinner, pizza again, at 11pm. I have never been so tired and yet as hungry as I was that evening. It was truly an experience, not really a cultural experience, just an experience.

On board the ferry – Deb, me and Thierry – it was a little cold…

August 28^th-29^th: We really were tourists here, but we deserved it.

The island of Brac is big island in the Adriatic in between Croatia and Italy. We stayed in the city directly opposite Split. I am not exactly sure what the name of it was, but it was all on the water front, many shops, many restaurants, and other touristy things to do.

We spent most of our time on the beach. The stony beach….sand didn’t exist there -- either that or playing soccer, shopping, or eating. I mean what else do you do?

Thursday we had a team meeting during lunch. This was really a special time because we got a chance to share our hearts, our favorite moments and just debrief a bit. I think what originally was planned to be a rather short meeting turned into several hour meeting. But it was needed. Thierry also used that time to share a few words with each team member – share what he most admired or found most encouraging about each person throughout the trip. This type of “meeting” is something that I hadn’t experienced for a year, and I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I was there.

On a different note – the Adriatic is very salty. The saltiest water I have ever tasted. But we still enjoyed it…due to the ridiculously low prices we were able to rent paddle boats for an hour. It was truly amazing!

Below are just several pictures that sum up a little of what we did those two days – pictures speak more than words.

In the Adriatic with the paddle boats!

(Top) – A little Mafia on the beach, a must have!

And little soccer….another must have.

(Below) – Bonne Appetite!!

August 29^th -30^th: We left the island around 4pm on another ferry. We went back to Split, ate our last pizza dinner, picked up our vans, said good bye to the Danjiel, Eva, Robby, Emilya, and Vieko, and hit the road. It was, I think, around 9 o’clock in the evening.

I thought at first that Ben, Carlo, Christophe and Thierry were a little crazy deciding to drive through the whole night…but they did it! Most of us got some sleep…using one another as pillows or grabbing sleeping bags and bundling up. Or we did random things when we couldn’t sleep – like playing chess at midnight. Ever heard of that? You have to be really awake, trust me.

We crossed the French/Italian border at around 8 in the morning. At about this point everyone realized we were actually back home…and no one liked the idea.

In Closing:

I have never experienced 2 weeks like these 2 weeks. I still don’t know how to sum up what I experienced, how I feel right now, or what’s ahead for me. Here is the last journal entry that I made, as we drove back the last night.

“In the car on the way home…NOOOOOO!! This has got to be the best 2 weeks of my life. Nothing could have been better than to spend 2 weeks with youth that all have missions in mind…I feel part of a youth group again. Oh and the past couple of days were awesome! They were spent on the L’Ile de Brac. Kinda the vacation part of the trip – spent most of the days on the beach – tanning. J But Wednesday night, our last day in Split, we did the church service at the church there in Split. We did a skit (everything skit by Lifehouse) and then did 4 English praise songs and one French. Probably most of the Croatians couldn’t speak English but that auditorium was never louder! I seriously wanted to ball my eyes out….it was so moving and yet I was leading it…honestly, I’m sold on missions. What else is there to live for? What is more moving than to see people worship the Lord? And yet what is more faith building than missions? I’m sold….overseas, or in my own backyard…I don’t care…it’s a life…and I’m willing to live it.”

“And He said to his disciples, ‘the Harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into this Harvest.’” Matt. 9:37-38

“And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Matt. 10:38-39

I want to THANK ALL OF YOU for all that you gave so that I could go on this adventure!!

Thank you for your prayers, they were definitely felt! Every step we took we felt as if the Lord’s Angles were around us, protecting us and opening opportunities to minister.

Here are just some quick prayer requests that you can be praying for:

• Pray for the team there in Split as they manage the church and Kamp Fokus. God has richly blessed them with courage and determination, so pray that the funds and people will flow in!
• Pray for Ivan. He was the guy that several of us guys stayed with in Split the first time. He is an ex-druggie and has lived a rough life. Right now though, the Spirit of the Lord flows through him!! He has rooms full of New Testaments in Croatian, just waiting to get into the right hands. Please pray for him and many others there in Split, as they work in the Lord’s Harvest!
• Pray for our team, as many of us are looking to go again to the Balkans and/or Nepal this coming year. We don’t know how, at the moment, but we have faith that if God wants us there, He’ll get us there!

Again, Thank You and May the Lord Bless!

Here is the link to more pictures – I would look at them if I were you!!

(okay, so no link. Go to the right on my page and find the link that says 'Croatia/Bosnia'. Takes you to our Picasa web album.)