i have to say it is amazing what americans with face paint can do in the middle of bosnia (or any country for that matter). we pulled up to the roma’s village and through the windows we can here the scream of the children… “americanos”… “americanos”… and we just started to laugh.
the roma’s village is where the lower class of bosnians live. most of the people that are living there are living there as an effect of the war. after the war, they were not able to get back on their feet and reestablish there life, so they are forced to live in these conditions amongst many others just like themselves.
so… we get out of the car and all of the children come running to us and the “cool” teenage guys continue to play football (or soccer as most of you know it). they continue with their joy and laughter as they try to talk to us with any form of communication as possible… mostly bosnian and we just laugh and in english (like they can understand) we say “i dont know what you are saying”.
call us crazy… but we thought a time like this called for face paint… so we pull out the face paint and you can only imagine what happened from there, i probably dont even need to tell you. let me just say that ALL of the children and ALL of the teenagers came running to us and all walls and communication barriers came tumbling down… (well you know what i mean).
there were kids everywhere seeing who could get to us thefastest to get cat whiskers, a mustache, the italy flag with the number of their favorite player on the opposite cheek, hearts, flowers, anything you can possibly think of. i have to say it was craziness, but all of the children (and even the teenage guys) were loving it and it opened u so many doors than we ever could have done by just trying to communicate by talking.
you could still see the despair and hurt in the faces of these people. not so much the children because they were still so young or many not born yet, but to look in the eyes of the adults and teenagers tears your heart apart. to know that every single family has a machine gun in their house for protection. to know that the small village is so consumed with drugs and alcohol, but yet they look at their hope and think it is in fake gods.
what an awesome and wonderful Savior we have. He is ALIVE and we are here opening the doors to be able to share that to all of these people. there is a huge spiritual battle going on in that village and we are here to stand in the gap and claim back that land, that place, these people for the kingdom.
tonight was our first night that we got to do ministry here in tuzla, but we are expecting big things to come. please pray with us… we found out tonight that many children in that place have yellow fever and though we are not afraid of it (we have had our shot… (haha) and we also have the ultimate physician) they are worried about the children spreading it to one another. until this is under control we can not go back into that village, so please stand in faith and pray with us that the children will be healed, this disease will dry up, and that we will be able to go back in and be the light to such a dark dark place.
