My time with this team is into its third month this month. For the men on this team it is another month like Uganda. It will be very similar to what we did when we visited different ministries and recommended them for sending teams in the future. It will be a little different because we do not have a list of ministries to visit. This will depend completely on the Lord and how well we commune with him. I see a lot of freedom and room for God to move but it can also be a time that will test the unity of this team.
For month seven my team in particular will be in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bosnia-Herzegovina is a place where real professing Christians are very few. Just by using Google, one can see the absence of ministries and churches and it becomes clear just how much a barren spiritual place this is. This country is a war-torn place where barely over 20 years ago endured a civil war that left 200,000 dead. The effects of the atrocities that happened and destruction of infrastructure are still being felt. The countryside is littered with destroyed buildings and thousands of landmines are still hidden waiting to go off. To see the scars of the war still lingering due to a not-so-great economy is something that makes me marvel and really makes you think.
This country is the collision point of three faiths. Catholicism from Croatia, Orthodox from Serbia and here in Bosnia, Islam. This is the geographic center where all three of these meet. The Balkans is no stranger to a troubled history. Due to ethic and religious sources, there is a tension here. Here it seems that each ethic group is often tied to a particular faith. This place has been conquered by the Ottoman Turks and then later the people living under their rule rose up and pushed out their overlords and then fought each other. That is the familiar pattern of history here. When ethnic groups, family, or even religion is elevated to the place that only God can possess this is the result. The fallen human nature being felt in systems of government and religion is very present.
