Super Saturday part two...

I know, I know! I am WAY late getting this written! I still have pictures to sort through as well but I'm really not going to worry about that now, I must finish up telling you about Saturday...

We left off at Ljerka and Tiho's home where we had gone to talk with them and pray with and for the two of them as a couple and for their teenaged children 14 year old Ivan and 12 year old Marija. When we left their home we went to the church to help Nada and Veronika finish up preparing for the women's gathering taking place that evening and then headed "home" to Andrija's to freshen up and change into more presentable clothing for the women's meeting.

This meeting was no small thing. Nada had spent many months preparing for the event and all her hard work was about to pay off! Vikica, the pastor's wife from the Evangelical Church in Split, Croatia had been invited to come speak on The Five Love Languages. The women of the church had been talking up the meeting with their friends and co-workers and many baked fabulous desserts to serve at the meeting. Veronika had been practicing a new song that she planned to sing that evening. Tables were laid out with candles and vases and red tulle scrunched just so. The women began to arrive and many of the women from our "mom's night out" jewelry party came and quite a few church members brought friends and co-workers so the place was packed!

Since there was no interpreter and I don't yet speak or understand Croatian very well I didn't know much of what was spoken but found out later that one woman said that she and her husband had been headed for divorce but that she saw that she was at fault and realized she had not been speaking the correct love language to him. She said this meeting probably saved her marriage! Vikica and her companions said if their coming was just for that one lady it was worth it. God is so AWESOME!

After the meeting we headed out to dinner and I got my last taste of sopska salat for a while then we headed to the house to grab a couple hours sleep since we needed to leave for the airport at 4:00 AM. Yes, an ungodly hour for sure but I would not have wanted to miss the evening's events for all the sleep in the world.

Super Saturday part one...

Saturday morning we got up and prepared to head to the church for breakfast. Andrija was outside and we got a chance to chat with him for a few minutes and say goodbye since he'd be long asleep before we returned to hit the hay ourselves. I'm so glad that Tony was there to interpret for us. Trying to communicate with Andrija speaking a combination of Croatian and German gets a little bit frustrating sometimes since one of us may only understand every 7th word or so. He's such a sweetheart and I cannot imagine him being the mean man that Marica described him to be before Christ. He seems to be in good spirits and content these days which is a real blessing since Tony said he cried for months and months after Marica went home to Jesus last Winter.

After breakfast at the church we had the most spirit filled time of worship and prayer of the entire week! The Holy Spirit flowed through to Tony's fingertips to his guitar as he played throughout our prayer. Several people prayed and Veronika and Pastor Bernard let the Spirit use their voices in song and it was an AWESOME experience. We all knew that the Spirit was there to intercede for us and to usher us into Worship that morning.

We headed over to Novi Most (New Bridge) after this to see what goes on there on Saturday mornings. Since it was pouring rain outside they had to play indoor games and not too many kids were there. Jill and I had fun playing Jenga and Uno Spin with the girls and we all enjoyed chatting with the kids, Eleanor, Becca and Ivica. From Novi Most we went back to the church and met up with the evening's speaker and her companions who had driven from Split, Croatia and chatted with them for a bit before a pizza lunch arrived. Did you know that they put ketchup and mayonnaise on pizza in the former Yugoslav countries? Strange but true fact! when we'd eaten we had the ladies follow us to the house so they could rest before the big event and then we headed to Ljerka & Tiho's place.

I had known that Ljerka was related to Marica but didn't realize she was her niece and almost as close as a daughter to her. She served us the most wonderful dessert and prepared coffee for us. Deb, Jamie and B.J. had Turkish Coffee and Ljerka prepared the coffee and heated the milk just like Marica used to do which caused Deb to tear up. She told us the story of Marica's home going and it was so good to hear that all of Andrija & Marica's children were able to come home to say goodbye and that their daughter B had reconciled with M before she passed. This was really great news to all of us. We had a really blessed time with Tiho and Ljerka and it was an honor to pray with and for them.

Fabulous Friday

Friday morning we woke early and headed to the church for breakfast and a bit of prayer. Schmidt stopped by the church to pick up Jamie, Deb & B.J. so they could visit with a family at the refugee camp. Jill and I hung back and helped Nada and Veronika make some nice gifts for tonight's guest speaker and her companions. We also set up some tables & decorations in the church for the Women's Event this evening. We had a delicious lunch of "pita" which is sort of like filled bread sticks 12 inches long. There were cheese, potato and sour cherry.

Later in the afternoon we went to visit and pray with Mira at her home. Her gardens outdoors are just delightful. She has kiwi vines lining the path to the doorway and a huge persimmon tree that provides shade from the afternoon sun. She also has many varieties of roses and other plants on her property. Mira has been a Christian for a short time but her maturity in Christ was wonderful to witness and we were honored to be able to spend some time with her.

We went to the Holstead's home for dinner with the Novi Most team. Ali & Becca made three delicious currie dishes for us to enjoy, two mild and one fiery hot with rice and a cucumber yogurt sauce to cool the mouth. We all were sad that Mick is in England with his father who has been ill but it was wonderful to spend time with Ali, Sam, Chloe, Ivica, Becca, and Eleanor. Ali made a dessert from a recipe she got from an American Missionary, fabulous brownies! She also served ice cream and strawberries and we all ate way too much because everything was so yummy! It was a real blessing to hear about the ministry at Novi Most and learn about how we can pray for the ministry going forward.

Again we got back to the house and were physically and emotionally spent. God is so good and we are enjoying resting in him with our Herzegovinian Family!

Super Busy Thursday...

Thursday was a whirlwind of a day but such a blessing!

We got to the church early for breakfast and had a short time of prayer and praise and then we hopped in the van with Veronika and headed to Grude. Veronika's mom and step father live just beyond the town almost to the Croatian border on a beautiful piece of property with vineyards and a few animals. The two of them are such a blessing and all of us really enjoy spending time visiting and praying with them. They have been through much hardship but they both express complete joy in our Lord in all they do and say! After visiting with them we drove back through town and stopped at "M's" hair salon to pray with her and encourage her. Last year "M" told us that her father and husband both were very angry with her for becoming a Christian. She has suffered much persecution and even less business since committing her life to Christ but she's held firm in her beliefs. What an inspiration she is to all of us.

After visiting with "M" we drove to Mostar for a late lunch and then a short visit and prayer with Gara who has been in the hospital for the last week for physical therapy. Even though she was in great pain she had a huge smile on her face the whole time we were there and was so glad for our visit and prayer. After visiting with Gara we went to see the Bible College in Mostar and visit with David Lively and "Schmidt". David gave us quite a tour of the school and we chatted about lots of things and mutual friends.

From there we headed back to Capljina and hung out at Veronika's place with her roomate Mirija while Veronika cooked us a wonderful meal which we all REALLY enjoyed! Jamie gave Veronika permission to get married! We also skyped V's fiance Mufid while we waited for dinner and had a nice conversation while we were there. It was such a pleasure to pray with Veronika and Mirija for their upcoming marriages and their young lives here in BiH.

We got back to the house a little before 10 and most of us just crashed in order to prepare for today which was also busy but in an entirely different way. Will tell you more about today with the next entry. All in all it was quite a lovely day indeed!

Would do it all over again...

What an emotional day we had on Tuesday! We had a wonderful breakfast at the church and hung out for a little while with Pastor Bernard, Tony, Veronika and Predrag whom we affectionately call Nono. Later that afternoon we were invited to Robert & Emina's home for "lunch". Seems like most people here eat their main meal in the afternoon so they prepared an amazing feast for us. We started the meal with stuffed cabbage in a broth and then a couple of salads were brought to the table and then a huge platter of 3 meats and some potatoes that were dredged in corn meal and fried. Everything was absolutely delicious and Robert was very proud of the fact that he helped Emina prepare our meal. Baka (grandmother) Rajka was upstairs in the bed and was sleeping so she could not see us but Emina told us that Rajka was happy to help roll the cabbage for our meal and questioned who was coming and remembered all of us.

I had an opportunity last year to hear Robert & Emina's story via Emina so I was prepared with plenty of tissues. This year I was so pleased to hear Robert tell their story which is filled with much pain & adversity. Tears flowed freely throughout the telling. To hear Robert say that he would do it all exactly the same way to meet and trust Christ was amazingly uplifting and encouraging for all of us to hear; Our GOD is so GOOD! Jesus just emanates from every part of their beings and it is so evident that they trust him completely with their whole lives.

After a brief rest in our rooms we came back to the church for a prayer gathering and had an opportunity to worship with song and then divide into three groups to pray for specific things, the men prayed for the two upcoming women's meetings and for a job for one of the church members and the two ladies groups prayed for the health of specific members, the church's position in town, the receptiveness of the town people to the church and the events here. Again there were some tears but good tears.

In an hour we will gather with 12 mothers from the disabled children's center to make jewelry and visit with and love on them. We also plan to invite them to the special "Women Meeting" on Saturday. What a blessing it should be! Prayers for Saturday are greatly appreciated.

All five of us feel honored and blessed to be here with our Herzegovinian Family; one in the Spirit, unified in Christ. Please pray that we will reflect Christ in all that we say and do. Our time here is entirely too short...

We're Here!

We made it to Capljina without any major issues! Our overnight flight to Dusseldorf took off about an hour later than scheduled due to the late arrival of a previous flight. We also had to sit on the tarmac in Dusseldorf for about 40 minutes because of "messed up airspace" surrounding the airport according to the pilot. I guess the volcano has erupted again and caused more mess. Pastor Bernard pulled up to the Dubrovnik airport shortly after we retrieved our bags; perfect timing. All our bags made it, praise him! I discovered a TSA slip in the bag that I'd packed with books, CD's & DVD's and most of the jewelry wire and supplies. Of course they ripped open the plastic bags open rather than untying them to look at the contents rendering the bags completely unusable, what a waste!

Since we were there we took a stroll through Dubrovnik where something big was happening, there were marching bands and strolling minstrels in the city. We stopped for coffee's at an outdoor cafe and caught up with Bernard for a bit before the 2 hour drive to Capljina. It was a beautiful drive along the Adriatic Coastline most of the way. We dropped our things at the house and freshened up a bit and headed out for a bite and when we returned were so completely exhausted that we all crashed hard and I'm pretty sure it's the best night's sleep that we've ever had.

Yesterday was a wonderful time of worship at church and then we spent the afternoon in Mostar walking Stari Most and shopping with the merchants and then coffee & a bite of pastry at a little cafe. The proprietor of the cafe was so cheerful and friendly which is not the norm in this part of the World, turns out he knows the Lord and feels very blessed! They're coming out of the woodwork here and it is wonderful to see.

Today we will meet with Nada to plan the jewelry gathering scheduled for Wednesday and later Nada and Bernard have planned a barbecue. Not sure what else but it's an adventure and we're all looking forward to what the Lord does!

Prayers for safety and health are being felt!

In His Grip, B.J., Deb, Jamie, Jill & Tracy

A Team United

Last evening the team met for our "packing" meeting but in reality not much actual packing was done. We began our evening with a delicious meal of bruschetta, brie & crackers, a fabulous Mediterranean inspired salad and shrimp with bread crumbs and "buttah" prepared by Deb and her twin sister Bonnie. The region we're going to is very close to the Adriatic coast so we got started on the regional cuisine two days ahead of departure. We discussed the items that needed to get over to Capljina and who would be able to fit what into their bags. We also prayed for each other, the team as a whole, and our beloved family over there. It was evident that the Sweet Spirit of The Lord was in the room wordlessly praying what we were unable to verbalize.

All five of us marveled at the tightness of the team and the completely open, honest and frank conversations The Lord has blessed us with. This is a "family of choice" and we have come to really love each other over these months of preparation. Jamie was smacked up side the head with this scripture from Ephesians 4:1b-6 of The Message and we've adopted it as our theme: This is Paul talking from prison.

I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

^4-6You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.

Prayers for good health and safety are appreciated. Please also pray that we reflect Jesus in all that we do and say.

In His Grip,

B.J., Deb, Jamie, Jill & Tracy Anne

Time sure has flown by...

Wow, we're down to less than two days to departure and it's getting more and more exciting by the minute!

Tomorrow evening the team will meet for a light dinner, prayer and packing! Personally, the bed in my spare bedroom is piled high with suitcases, clothes, baubles & beads for our "Mom's night out" event and various other sundry items that need to make their way to the Evangelical Church in Capljina.

Realizing that it's been forever and a day since I last posted, I need to fill you in on some of the scoop. When I last posted I knew that I needed to bring beads, jewelry findings and components for the ladies at the church to use for future ministry events but as far as we knew we would not be having a jewlery event while we're there. The plans have changed and we will host a Mom's night out for mom's of the disabled children that the last team served in October. Basically what this will entail is a gathering of women for coffee, pastries and chat and then we'll sit down and get the creative juices flowing and everyone will make a piece of jewelry or two for themselves. I'm actually more excited about this evening than I was last year because now I know more about what to expect. I'm also excited because not only did I find some fabulous things to bring to the ladies but two women from my small group brought me some really nice things to add to the pile! Thank you Margaret & Gayle, you both ROCK!

Jamie just sent a note to the team telling us that he had "accidentally Skyped" with Pastor Bernard this morning and they are planning a Barbecue on Sunday after church at their new home! I am excited to see the house and am really hoping the weather will be nice. I looked at the forecast just now and it shows rain but we'll not let that put a damper on our fun day!

The Jewelry event will be Wednesday evening and there is a night of worship event planned for Thursday evening. We also have a ladies event planned for Saturday the 15th which is our last full day in Capljina and it sounds like it will be a "full" day indeed! Full of worship and praise for our Great Big God!

As usual we appreciate your prayers! May God bring the team to your minds often over the next two weeks.

Connections

The picture of the Evangelical Church of Capljina was taken by my friend Zivko Barbutov while he was in town to preach the Easter service last year. I met Zivko and his beautiful wife Stephanie in Skopje, Macedonia when I was there over the New Year and Orthodox Christmas 2007-2008. My personal connection to Bosnia & Herzegovina is nothing short of amazing and someday when you have time I might share the stories with you!

Here's Zivko & Stephanie:

North Point Ministries helped to buy the property and build the building you see in the photo. The church was one of North Point's very first Partner Churches around the world. The building sits on a rise on the banks of the Nretva River and is a bright spot in the city. "Nono", the Assistant Pastor, keeps the grounds so beautifully and the setting is very calming even in the midst of the bombed out building next door and the graffiti filled wall across the street. Last year's October team told us that the bombed building has been torn down since me and three of my team members were there in April 2009. A church is not the property or the building, The Church is the people who use the building and I can't wait to get there to see them all and hug them and to dig in and serve them.

Next Weekend we will have our team retreat and we will Skype with Pastor Bernard and his wife Nada. We'll discuss some of what the Lord has laid upon their hearts for us to do while we are there. To date we really have not talked much about what is expected of us and that is perfectly fine with everyone on the team. At this point the plan is to go with open hearts and open minds to serve however God leads us. Personally, I'm very excited that we don't yet have an agenda and all five of us are just open to whatever the Lord has in store!

Our Team Leader, Jill was our leader last year but this time she's handed much of the leadership responsibility to the capable hands of Deb who has led several other GlobalX trips to different countries around the World. I have not been on a trip with Deb before but I have really enjoyed getting to know her over the last year. Deb along with her sister Bonnie head up a new "Friends of Bosnia" Ministry to serve the people of the Evangelical Church in Capljina. Our other two team members are B.J. who served as co-leader of the October team and Jamie who has been to Capljina several times and is the only man on the team. Pastor Bernard baptized Jamie in the river during one of the GlobalX trips he served on.

All five of us are so excited to see what the Lord will do while we are there; our tickets have been purchased and we'll hit the air in less than 4 weeks time! As of the last dollar count we have a little over half the money we need to raise. We know we'll raise everything just in time; in His time! If you want to help, online giving instructions are here:

To give online go to: www.GOglobalX.org, click on “give” on the top right side of the page, fill in your contact info. Under global Trip Information: Select – Bosnia 1 in the “Country” drop down, type the name of the person you are supporting in the “individual” field, fill in your credit card info and then click “Review Donation Information” and finalize your transaction. A confirmation email will be sent to you and will serve as your receipt for tax purposes.

We need prayer more than any monetary support and we all five hope that you will join in praying for us now through our safe return on May 16th. We will try to keep you posted throughout. Thank you so much for any support you give! What a Mighty God we Serve!

In His Grip, Tracy Anne