Now that we have settled into our new ministry in Prishtina, Kosovo (more on that later), we wanted to reflect on our time in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina and share that with you all. (Also, check out our recap video of the month at the bottom of this blog post.)
Mostar is truly a fairy tale town. From the stone bridge, to the cozy houses and cobblestone streets, to the blue-green Neretva River flowing through it, everywhere you turned there is beauty to be found. It’s unbelievable that this unique, one of a kind place was almost completely destroyed by the devastating war that Greg talked about in his last blog post. But what captured our hearts during our time in Mostar was not just the beauty of our surroundings, but the relationships that we were able to build and invest in during our time there. When we left, it was one of the hardest goodbyes from our time on the World Race so far.
We we able to really get to know the friends that we made in this city — share meals with them, spend time with them at their workplaces and homes, encourage and uplift them, and just have fun living life alongside them! But most importantly, we were able to share the love of Christ with them. Since we were all of different faith backgrounds — from Christian to Muslim to Agnostic — we were able to share with them all about our faith and how Jesus fills our lives with hope and grace and joy and peace, and how we want the same for them as well! The conversations that were shared and the memories that were made with our friends from Mostar are truly ones that we will never forget.
We also partnered with an organization called “Nasa Djeca” or “Our Kids” during our time in Mostar. Our Kids is an organization that works to improve the lives of orphans upon leaving the orphanage as well as young people with special needs. Their strategic approach provides long-term sustainable improvements for the lives of these young adults. It also creates employment opportunities for them and contributes to the wider post-war recovery process within the country. One of the projects that helps sustain the work that “Our Kids” does is their very own second-hand shop that they run in Mostar. We were able to help out this organization by going through the massive amount of donations that they have received recently and sort through things that could be sold in their local second-hand shop.
Now we are in the country of Kosovo and serving at a church here in the city of Prishtina. We will touch more on this country in a later blog post, but right now, to give you a glimpse into what we are currently doing, we are at an evangelism event called Impact Kosova. It is a week of outreach with groups from all over the world, who have the same passion to bring the Good News to the people of Kosovo. So far this week, we have met and served alongside people from Sweden, Finland, Brazil, Italy, Germany, United States, Macedonia, Albania, Iran, Belgium, Croatia, Montenegro, Switzerland, Netherlands, Romania, and of course, Kosovo. It has been such a pleasure to join hearts with the people of all these nations this week and worship and serve our great God together! Please pray for boldness and unity for all the groups here as we continue to share the Gospel with people that we meet, and for those that we meet to be receptive to the message of Hope that we have to share with them!
