We’ve been able to meet with some pastors and missionaries in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. They were kind and welcoming and expressed excitement that having more workers in the region would be an answer to prayer. We’ve been trying to work around the kids adjusting to jet lag, along with sickness going through our group too. Right now, Patrick is the only one who hasn’t had any cold symptoms (and we’re hoping it stays that way). But both our drivers are sick now. We could use prayer for healing and energy as we continue
We left our home around noon, to begin our 26+ hour journey to Čapljina, BiH (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Vivian had an even longer travel day from Wichita, with two more layovers, and met up with us at the Istanbul airport for our last flight to Sarajevo.
Meanwhile, Patrick had already made it to Sarajevo, nine hours ahead of us. So, he got to explore the city while he waited for us. Patrick is a last-minute addition to our team after plans changed and Stan would be staying home to care for his family. We miss having Stan with us but are glad to have Patrick join us and help us in this discernment process.
We finally made it to Sarajevo and met up together as a team. After taking this picture we went to get our rental van from a kiosk near this sign, only to be told that the office is inside the airport on the 2nd floor (3rd floor in American terms). So, we trekked back up to find out the office had closed for the night. We paused for a moment to pray and ask that God would help us now in this last leg of travel and we got a call from the office right after that, with the manager telling us he lives five minutes away and would come back to rent us the van.
We struggled to get the car seats installed in the van, especially due to a misunderstanding of where we could stop to load. While we were trying to get the kids situated a line of cars built up behind us. It was stressful, but we got it and made it safely to Čapljina that night.
The next day (Sunday, June 9) we went to the church in Čapljina. It is a small Evangelical Church of about 12, and the building was just built 20 years ago.
The pastor was at a church in another city that day and a pastor from Mostar preached. We stayed after for coffee and went to hang out with a missionary family who told us about the church activity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On Tuesday we visited three pastors in Mostar, at one of the Baptist churches. They shared what they were doing in Mostar especially, and again have church sizes of about 12.
The kids have done great. Alex is adjusted to the time change, but Jael is still struggling at night. They have quickly taken a liking to Vivian.
We visited a group of pastors in Croatia and the GEM missionaries for the region, in the church in Dubrovnik. They were very nice, and the meeting was very helpful in understanding where the needs and the opportunities are in this region.
Here is Alex showing the GEM director his dinosaurs. The GEM missionaries told us that they felt Orebić was a key spot for a new work, and the pastor from Vela Luka concurred. We plan to meet that pastor in Orebić on Monday to discuss this more.
May God be glorified,
Fred
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