After another 20 hour train ride, a taxi and couple nights in Ho Chi Minh City, another taxi, a flight to Istanbul, and other flight to Sarajevo, we got to Bosnia. A place we were free. We didn’t have hosts, we didn’t have places to partner with in ministries. We had to do it all on our own.
First of all I have to as Sarajevo Bosnia is amazing, as we landed I think That was the first time in 5 months I breathed fresh air. We were able to stay at the town the Olympics where in, in 1982 I think. It was the coldest temperature I have felt in 5 months and it reminded me of a mountain town in Colorado. We only stayed there for a night.
The next morning me and my team headed to Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was 2 two hour train ride.
We planned on staying there for 2 night then going on a 100 mile hike that later turned into 50 that end up being 25 miles.
We all wanted to go on a hike to disconnect with the world and reconnect with God. At this point we were tired. We needed a retreat. Hopefully we would meet people on the hike though and be able to share with them.
This hike was stupid of us but it was worth it. I thought I was going to die on this hike. I froze to death the first two nights. (My pillow frozen under me.) We didnt see another soul for 4 days. We climbed from peak to peak. We walked on crests with massive cliffs on both sides. We almost got struck by lightening. The 3rd day we walked in the cloud that formed on the mountain all day, with every strong winds, and it was freezing.
We skipped the last 20 miles got food at a restaurant and started walking to a town with bus station. A priest gave us a ride to town and we got a bus back to mostar on our 4th day. We got to our hostel at midnight and they didn’t have our reservation. The hostel staff and owner were amazing and let us stay and helped us out.
It’s where I got to me Jon. Jon is a Frenchman who has been walking around Europe for 3 years, and he called me crazy because I was traveling around the world with one other guy and 6 girls. We all became Good friends with Jon. Me and my team invited Jon over to watch Lion King and and eat ice cream and nutella together later in the month. (Ice cream and nutella has 2 thumbs up)
Bosnia was a month of freedom. A month where I learned some stuff. I started hating the word ministry. The word ministry give us the power of turning a “ministry mindset” off and on. This month I learned I need to make life a ministry or as I like to call it being a Christian. it doesn’t matter where you are, Gods has a plan for that moment. So why as Christians do we think we can just turn off being Christians and turn it on when we want to.
It was a life forming mindset I started that month. It started a change that I will have forever. It started the change the will change my Christian walk from Mondane to extraordinary.
