Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

We are finishing up our time working with refugees in Indonesia. The last couple weeks have been incredible and I had a huge shift in perspective toward the refugee crisis. More to come on that soon…

After our time in Croatia, we bussed to Mostar, Bosnia and Herzgovina (BIH). Before researching BIH in Croatia, I did not know this country existed, its been a while since world geography class… However, the week and a half in this small country in the Balkans was one of the highlights of the race so far…

BIH was the first country we saw with our own eyes the effects of the war that had ravaged the region more than a decade before. As we walked around Mostar, we saw old rundown and abandoned buildings with bullet holes in them. The city is divided into two sides. There is a muslim side and a catholic / orthodox side. In years past, the tension in the city was great and the locals would not cross onto the other side of the city. One of the struggles the locals were telling us was due to the divide, nothing can get done politically.

In our research we came across a church in the area and reached out to them. That Sunday we made our way to the other side of the city to find the church. As we were walking up, we ran into Clare who we had corresponded with and she showed us the rest of the way. The church we attended was an international evangelical church that most of the missionaries in town attended. We met missionaries from the United States, England, BIH and Germany and got plugged in with different ministry activities for the following weeks.

We met Craig and Stephanie, missionaries that were finishing up 8 years in Mostar and they invited us to coffee and shared their story and knowledge of Mostar with us.

During the weeks we filled our time with working at the student center where we met many college students and helped them practice their english through conversation, lessons, board games, bananagrams and guitar hero. After the classes and time at the student center we were invited to coffee after and were able to build new relationships and get to know their stories more.

Wednesday morning at 9 am was the weekly prayer meeting where the missionaries in the city gathered to pray and share what the Lord has been doing. This was one of my highlights of my time in Mostar. As the missionaries trickled in, they began to share what God was doing in their lives and their ministries. They also shared prayer requests and we began to pray about the different things spoken. I enjoyed this time so much, because the people doing the work in BIH were right in front me sharing their lives with us. I had prayed for missionaries in foreign countries without knowing them or their faces, but sitting in the circle and knowing them made it pretty special to me.

We also served with the church’s youth groups a couple nights out of the week with different age groups. We led games and shared our testimonies, and Rodolfo had his own drum classes going.

The students had been learning about The Prodigal Son and I shared part of my testimony when I was like the prodigal son. During my college years, I lived for myself more than I lived for God. Like the son who left home to squander his father’s inheritance in the world, I looked for validation and identity in things of the world. I idolized success and my reputation. I put my identity in being a good student, athlete and member of society so that I would be able to acquire a good job after graduation. These things are all good things, but not when they’re the final end goal. It was after those three years of striving for success by the world’s standard did I look back and reflect and realize none of this mattered in the long run. I couldn’t take my gpa, awards, money and success with me after this life. What good was all the success and money, if my relationship with the Lord wasn’t where I wanted it to be. I desired a change and to restore my relationship with God.

Like the prodigal son, I wanted to come home.

My favorite part of the story of The Prodigal Son is Luke 15: 20. It reads…

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”

The lost son wasted everything, had nothing to eat, but thought about going home to work for his father. At least, then he would have food to eat. So with that he started going home. What always gets me is…

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him…”

His father saw him while he was still a long way off. The father was looking, waiting for his son to come home. He was scanning the horizon waiting to see his son to come into view. This was God, when I had turned my back and gone my own way. He was there, waiting to celebrate my return.

The next Sunday, we were asked if we wanted to help pick potatoes the next evening. Monday evening came around and Dalibor, the worship leader took us outside of the city to a property the church owns and uses for ministry. For serval hours we picked potatoes from the ground and bagged the good ones and tossed the not so good ones. At the end of the night, we filled serval wheelbarrows and a pickup truck bed with bags of potatoes.

The vision of this property is to have housing for people who don’t have a place to stay and these people have the opportunity to work the fields and introduce them to farming. The church sells the potatoes to a home for the elderly for a discounted price. He explained the difficulty of farming, especially in this area because the cities control the prices of sale. In the stores bags of potatoes sell for 1 euro.

After doing all the work and seeing all the equipment, time, laborers and labor that went into bagging one bag of potatoes my mind was blown. So much work for 1 Euro of reward. He told me if I ever become a politician, remember the village people. Don’t know if being a politician is whats next for me, but I am thankful for the lessons I learned from picking potatoes and I won’t forget the what those outside of the city have to do for a bag of potatoes.

Montenegro and Serbia blogs coming soon…

Please be praying for…

The missionaries in Mostar and the work they are doing…

Craig and Stephanie as they transition back into the United States after 8 years in the mission field…

For political unity in Mostar and employment opportunities…

Dalibor and the potato ministry…

Traveling mercies to Jakarta and then to Kuala Lumpur…

Health of team…

“For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate.” Luke 15:24