tomorrow

So tomorrow I leave BiH... for now anyways.

I spent most of my afternoon and evening today packing (and weighing out bags to make sure they meet the weight limits). I am actually pretty excited because I was able to fit everything in under the limit! Well, at least according to the scale we used - I guess we'll see for sure at the airport tomorrow morning.

Then at 10:48 Saturday night I will be in Portland!!! If everything goes as scheduled that is.

Going Away Party...

So we had our going away party for me and Allix tonight. I really enjoyed getting to see and hang out with my Sarajevo friends one last time (tear). I had an amazing time - took lots of pictures, played spoons (though not as crazy as the game we played last night, we tried to tone it down... and Bobo lost this time!! haha), ate yummy food, talked with good friends, watched Neno dance, listened to some music, got cards and a gift from everyone..... I waited until after everyone left to read the cards because I knew that they would make me cry (and they did). The boys stayed and helped us clean up (they're so good, I even made sure to get pictures so that we had some proof!)

My time here has been unbelievable and I truely am so grateful for this opportunity. I have made friendships here that will last for a lifetime I am sure. The people here have welcomed us with open arms into their family and that was just so cool. Our missionaries, the pastors, and the friends we have made - I am so happy I was able to come here and meet them for they are all amazing people. I am excited to see what God has planned for them in the future.

I really really hope to come back here (in the near future). I don't think I could stay away even if I tried!

Molitve Konferencija

So this weekend was the Prayer Conference in Tuzla.
It was amazing!!!
We left Friday morning for Tuzla and when we got there we spent some time with the pastor and his family.
Then we went out to lunch and Petula showed us around town.
It was very cool to see everything.
After we dropped our bags off at our apartment we headed over to Hotel Tuzla (where the conference was being held) and helped them get some last minute things ready.
People started arriving, and it was so cool to see that I actually knew lots of people... from all the traveling to different churches and visiting with different people!
We had dinner around 6ish and then off to the session.
The worship all weekend was amazing!!!
And every talk was great.
We were also split up into different prayer groups and met with them several times for prayer time.
Prayed for the country, for the peope (believers and nonbelievers), for the churches here, for the leaders, etc.
I really enjoyed this time.
Sara talked Saturday morning about praying with authority - how NOTHING is impossible for God and that when we pray we need to have faith and believe that.
Saturday afternoon we went on prayer walks.
We all signed up for either a section of Tuzla of different towns around the city.
The group I signed up with went to a little town about a half hour out of Tuzla.
It was raining, so our prayer 'walk' turned into more of a prayer 'drive' so we drove around the town for a long time just praying.
Then (as is the Bosnian way) we decided to stop and get coffee.
=D
When we got back we all just hung out until it was time for dinner.
After dinner I went out (or in really) for coffee with Mirja, Alden, Allix, and Bekah.
Then came the night session.
Again, the talk was great and the worship was... WOW.
Honsetly I love to worship with these people.
We spent the longest time that night just worshiping God.
It was awesome!
Sunday morning we had church service and then everyone said their goodbyes as people started to head home.
I hated this because this weekend was the last time I'll get to see my friends (other than the ones here in Sarajevo) before I leave this weekend.
We'll keep in touch of course, but I am still sad to be leaving them.
We went out to lunch and then started on the drive home.
Then we had church here last night.
Boro talked and he did a good job.
It was kinda funny because he wasn't able to go to the Prayer Conference this weekend because he had some other conference to go to, but his sermon sooooo resembled the one we got yesterday morning - about Job and how important it is to be faithful.
At the end of the service Saša called me and Allix and Bekah to come up and he talked about us for a little and then prayed for us.
This was unexpected and thankful/grateful that he did this.
I was able to understand bits and pieces of what he was saying, but it is probably a good thing I didn't completely understand everything because I probably would have started crying while I was up there (instead told us later what he was saying).
I want to say that I am so sad to be leaving in less than a week - but I am not allowed to be sad yet.
Miki told me that I can only be sad on the day that I am leaving, so I am working hard on that.
I'm not ready to leave yet.
I feel so confused...

Other side of Ministry

So they are starting a second-hand clothing shop here in Ilidža. Allix and I have helped a few times these past 2 months sorting some clothes and whatnot. On Tuesday this week a huge truck of clothes and furniture came from Sweeden, so we went to go help unload it bright and early that morning. There were about 10ish guys there, plus Vojka and Sandra (they are basically running the shop), and then me, Allix, and Bekah. While the guys were unloading the truck Bekah and I made coffee for them for their breaktime. And I took lots of pictures of everyone working (and not working). The pictures are great. lol. I will need to put them on here when I get them uploaded. A lot of the things that came off that truck were sooo nice - and lots of news things too which will be really great.

Then today we went out to Ilidža and helped out with some major stuff with the shop. There was some major cleaning to be done (sweeping, swiffer, dusting, cleaning windows, sorting through clothes and counting things...). This shop is going to look amaying when it is time for them to open it! I am so excited for them about this great opportunity. I am kinda sad that I am not going to be here when everything is finished - just gives me yet another excuse to come back here!!! Not that I need another one reason, though =)

Yesterday Marko took us to the Tunnel Museum. Before we left we were at the space in Ilidža talking with Vojka and Sandra and they were telling us all about that. The tunnel was built during the war and it was the only way in or out of the city during the war - it actually goes under the airport runway. Sandra was a little younger than me during the war and she was telling me that she had to use the tunnel to get food and supplies for her family (humanitarian aid stuff), and that there are parts of the tunnel that is only 3 feet high... the whole thing was 3 feet wide and the length was 180 meters. It just made it that much more powerful seeing things like this here and actually knowing people who where here during the war and who used this.



KATASTROFA!!!!!
So we are sitting here in the office just talking and hanging out (wasting time before English group tonight) and all of a sudden there is this loud crash that came from the next room over... the pastor's office. We went to see what happened but when we tried to open the door we found books blocking it. Saša's bookself that was hanging on the wall had fallen off, taking part of the wall with it! Petula called Saša to see what he wanted us to do, and when we finally got in the room we picked everything up - but not before I took pictures of what happened! Haha, I'm gonna show those to Saša tomorrow, because I don't think he realized exactly how it was.

Snowmen & Food... Language & Friends

Here are a few highlights from my past few days:

• Allix and I built a snowman - he is pretty much amazing!


• Alpha group went well on Wednesday, not many people there but that's okay

• We had our cooking lesson with Kathy on Thursday - we made 'Diet Cake'


• Thursday was out mentoring and language lessons with Petula (we worked on some grammer stuff). I am at the point where I can listen to someone speak and kinda get the gist of what they are saying, but when it comes to me actually trying to respond... well, let's just say that is something I am still working on


• I went out to coffee with Miki on Thursday... I now have permission to be sad that I am leaving so soon (but only a little bit sad)
  

• Mark took us to the Jewish Museum on Friday as part of our culture/history lesson


• I did some more shopping downtown for Christmas presents for people


• We had a team meeting when Mark S got to town


• Did some cooking - the foods that we could make ahead of time

• We had our Thanksgiving Banquet on Saturday for 22 people


• I was sick on Saturday and I was so sad that I might not be able to eat the dinner with everyone... but I started feeling better

• We spent the day in Zenica on Sunday; I enjoyed walking around and getting to see everything


• There is this fort a few km outside of the town and we went there and walked around


• We went to the church in Zenica Sunday evening - every church we have been to here have all been different, so it has been cool to go to so many and experience them (I think we are up to about 10 Evangelical churches here so far)


• I enjoyed getting to meet and talk with the people in Zenica

• Today was my day off, so I relaxed and did some stuff around my apartment


• We had some Thanksgiving leftovers for lunch - one of the best things about Thanksgiving is getting to eat the leftovers for days


• We are having a girl's night with Kathy... we had tea and apple pie, and are watching Jane Eyre, and we just got done using some Mary Kay products on our hands
  

OH, and today is Miki's 20th birthday... so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
(I was the first to wish him happy birthday this morning at midnight =)

SNOW

Yay!!! It snowed in Sarajevo!!!!!
Boo!!! I was in Mostar when it happened!!!!! There was still some snow when I got back, but it is basically melted by now =(
I really want it to snow again... But I want it to snow now (as soon as possible) and have it clear by the middle of December so that we can fly out on time.

I had a great weekend in Mostar, though. On Saturday we went to the market and got to walk around all the booths there. Then we went to the Old Bridge (downtown) and did some shopping and got lunch. After that we went out to Blagaj - a Muslim Holy Site. The river there flows out of a cave in the mountain. On Sunday we went to church at West Mostar. It was pretty cool cuz we actually knew quite a few people there. And the lesson was very good (Jason gave the sermon and my friend Senada translated). We went out to lunch with Mark and Viviane and then headed over to the bus station... only to find out that we missed the bus to Sarajevo by less than 10 minutes. So we bought tickets for the next bus (scheduled to leave in 2 hours) and we went back to the Shady's to wait. The bus ride was pretty good. once we went through the tunnel that separates Herzegovina from Bosnia there was mounds of snow on the side of the rode! On the Herzegovina side there was just little spots of snow here and there, and then BAM, once we came out of the tunnel on the Bosnia side.

Yesterday (Monday) was our day off... so we used it as a shopping day!!! We got food for the Thanksgiving Banquet, went to the fruit and veggie stands, looked at clothes and shoes, went to the flea market, and walked around downtown. It was a full day of shopping. We also went out to coffee with a few of our English Conversation Group students.

Today we are meeting with Petula to figure out cooking for Saturday (the Banquet). And then we have more coffee dates with students from our English Group.

Week in Mostar... Bible School + more!!!

TUESDAY - In school we looked at the parable in Luke 18:1-8 and discussed that for a bit. We also talked about how to pray the scriptures and the power of thanksgiving prayers (not like the prayers we pray on Thanksgiving, but prayers giving thanks to God). We looked at affirmation and meditation.

Then around 4:00 we went with Viviane to aerobics. This is sort of an outreach for women, they get together twice a week and do aerobics together in the West Mostar Church. I really enjoyed my time there - there was actually quite a few ladies (I think like 15 or so) and some of them were very entertaining.


WEDNESDAY - We mainly focused on the Holy Spirit and praying in tongues. I am not sure I agree with everything that was being taught, but this is where I get to really dive into the Word and really pray and ask God about things. It was a very interesting day in class though.

Then that evening we had the whole class over to Mark and Viviane's house just to hang out and fellowship and stuff. We had a grand total of 20 people here... lets just say it was very crowded. Very fun though, I liked talking to these people and the food was amazing (I love Viviane's cooking!!)


THURSDAY - Wow. Just wow. Class was good... we talked about listening prayer and being still and silent before God. We also discussed the Tabernacle of Moses. One thing I found very interesting - and this has happened a lot this week and a lot since I have come here - was that I hear people say things that really remind me of some of the things my trainers in Portland said. For example, one thing that was said was "We were created to worship God first, and all other things just fall into place." This reminded me of one of our most memorable trainings (well, they were all memorable but this one in particular kinda connected with all of us) ... the lesson was on Mission vs. Missions and how our mission is to follow God and the missions are all the little things, but the mission has to happen first in order for the missions to take place. That quote really reminded me of how true this is.

Now both out trainers have the gift of prophecy and they felt that they needed to pray over and prophosize over everyone in the class. It was just amazing when they started talking to me and praying over me. The things they said were things that I really needed to hear right now, and they also confirmed some things - including one of my Spiritual Gifts. Some things were things I have been praying about for months now. It was just wow - like everything they said really had great meaning for me and really touched me. It was cool too because they recorded it so I am going to get a copy of the audio.

Then Thursday evening Allix and I went out to dinner with our friend Mirja. Our waitress was SOOOOO rude!!! It started out with her walking into the room and when she saw that she had like 2-3 tables to wait she put her hands on her hips and groaned. It was like she was thinking 'great, now I have to work.' It was about 10 minutes after we sat down before she finally came to our table and gave us 2 menus and when Mirja asked if they had any English menus the woman glared at us and muttered something rude and stormed off. She came back and thrust English menus and turned around and left. Many many minutes later she came back to take our order. I asked her for a drink and she said "NO!" It wasn't a nice "No" it was extremely sharp, so I just said I would have water. Then she took Allix and Mirja's orders and started to leave, but then looked at Allix and said "Are you going to order anything to eat???" We all thought it was interesting cuz it seemed like she already took her order. Anyways it was like 15 minutes later before our food came. The food was good, my food wasn't what I thought I ordered but that was fine. Then when we were done eating our meal we had to flag down our waitress and we each asked for a piece of chocolate cake, and Mirja asked for some tea. When our cakes came, they were 3 pieces of 3 different kinds of cake!! And Mirja had to ask twice more for her tea. We had a really good time with Mirja though - we ended up hanging out and talking with her for 3 hours.


FRIDAY - We had our test today. I actually found it quite easy. That was basically it; we had more prayer time. They taught us how to pray healing prayers. They prayed over the class some more.

Bible School: Day 1

So this week Allix and I are in Mostar at the Bible School. The topic this week is Prayer, and our first class was today. The instructors are 2 guys from Texas (Tom and Steve) and I would say that there is about 15-20 students...
Today we focused on Listening Prayer and being still and silent before God. Back in Portland we visited a Monastery for a few days for a "Silence and Solitude Retreat" and I learned to really appreciate just being still and listening for God. I enjoyed hearing these guys talk about this as well. They teach in a way that makes things interesting and I don't mind sitting there for hours. I cannot wait for the rest of the week!

my week

I am going to cover a few days here, so I'll try and make them as bried as possible (for me).

On Wednesday we had our history/culture lesson with Marko (Mark), and that was good - he even provided handouts for us this time!!! How exciting. I love these lessons, so of course I enjoyed Wednesday morning. Then Wednesday night was Alpha (which Allix and I help out as with dinner and the coffee break), and - exciting news - I met my mother-in-law! Haha. It is kinda a long story, but it starts with me eating a pickle and Kata (Kathy) explaining to this woman (Vojka) about how these are a bit different than American pickles. Well, Vojka said that I should et used to these just in case I end up marrying a Bosnian man... "for example, I have a son..." Lol. Her son is 20, and at one point she even brought out her phone to show me his picture. All night she was calling me her daughter-in-law and announcing to the room "here is my daughter-in-law" or "my daughter-in-law made this" or "my daughter-in-law did this." And at the end of the night she was like "goodnight daughter-in-law!!" It was pretty interesting.

On Thursday we had our cooking lessons with Kata - we made sarma (stuffed cabbage)... YUMMY!!! I seriously cannot wait to go home and make all my Bosnian dishes for everyone. A little piece of Bosnia I get to bring back with me (now if I could only bring back the people and the culture and all that then I'll be set!). This is one of my mom's favorite dishes so I'm pretty excited to be able to make the Bosnian version of it. THEN Allix and I went with Petula to pick up our new roommate!!! Rebakah is here now - trying to get adjusted to Bosnian life. It is really funny cuz I have realiyed that I have really become more and more "Bosnian" these past few months, because Bekah will make comments about something or she will express shock at something and I am just like 'yeah, thats normal...' I realized that and I think it is so awesome! Hahaha. After our English group (which went pretty well) Allix and I went back to Mark and Kathy's house and watched Bridge and Prejeduce. I liked it a lot. Lol.

On Friday we went downtown with Vedrana, Jessica, and Sara. Vedrana showed us this one shop to buy some cool gifts that really are 'Bosnian' and then we went out to coffee. After that Allix and I had our mentoring time with Petula. I like these times because they kind of help me process things that are going on and changes that I see in my own life. Then we drove out to Kakanj for church. We spent some time with Mujo (the pastor) and his wife Goca a little before church, and then went out with them and their 2 sons afterwards for coffee and french fries. The service itself was really good - I really enjoyed it. We have been to several different church services here, and each one is unique and different, and yet they are the same. I love it. So all in all this day I had 4 cups of coffee and 1 cup of tea - let's just say I was up for a long while...

On Saturday (today) we went with Kathy to a lady's house and helped Kathy pick out some jewerly that young people in the States would wear (this woman makes jewerly and Kathy buys them from her and then sells them). Then we took Bekah downtown and showed her around a bit... any excuse for me to go downtown, I love it there. And then we went to Petula's house to help her get ready for the 'young women's gathering' tonight. We made chocolate chip banana bread, chocolate cupcakes with frosting, chips with salsa and guac, American candy, and a veggie platter (again, American food). There were about 12 or so of us this week. We had our prayer time again, as well as our prayer cards. We hung out and talked, and we played card games. I played Dutch Blitz with Vedrana, Petula, Allix, and Bekah. Then later I played Uno with Jessica, Mirela, and Sara. Fun times. Oh, and exciting news!!! This time we didn't stay too late so we actually were able to catch the tram and didn't have to walk a thousand miles in the middle of the night to get home! Lol.

Crazy Cold

Okay, seriously it is soooo cold - very nippy outside. It is the kind of cold that just pierces right through you. The thing in Petula's car today was around 7*C (AHHHHHHH). I am so glad I brought some long underwear with me!!!

This afternoon we went out to lunch with Mark, Kathy, and Petula and we discussed some things. Allix and I are creating this booklet for them to use to give to future interns and new missionaries and possibly teams coming for short term trips to Bosnia, so we were talking about the things we thought should be included. We also talked about the plans for our Thanksgiving Banquet - the menu, who is making what, how many people/who all is invited, ect. The banquet is basically for the students in our English class, and they can each bring a guest, then the 3 pastors and their wives, the C&MA missionaries here, and then Allix and I can each bring a guest as well. Allix and I are also in charge of making the invitations to hand out to everyone, so this afternoon we bought some paper and pens and stuff to make them.

I went out to coffee with Mirela this afternoon. We had a really good time; I really enjoyed talking with her and getting to know her better. She is pretty much amazing =) Funny cuz she is like me in a lot of ways...

Then later this afternoon we had our language lessons with Petula. We worked on how to say words (we can read any word just fine, but figuring out where to put the emphasis)... and we had a little 'quiz' on some phrases we have already learned.

Then Allix and I spent tome time cleaning our apartment - like really cleaning. Starting Thursday this week I am going to have a roommate from Indiana so we figured we'd make the place clean for her arrival. We still have some things left to do (like clean and make space for her in the kitchen, clean the bathroom, and finish washing the sheets for her bed - or should I say sheet because here we only use the bottom sheet and then just blankets on top), but we're getting there.

This evening we went out to coffee with one of the students in out English group - to converse in English. It was fun, heard some really interesting stories during that time.....