Welcome to Sarajevo

We have safely arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina where we will stay for the next week and a half as part of our short term mission team from Grace Bible Fellowship. I wanted to give some short blurbs about what has happened in the past few days so you can better understand what we have encountered so far which has led us to where we are now.

Thursday, June 20

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7:30 PM – After having some Chinese food and prayer with both sets of parents, Candice and I tucked our kids into bed over at Nana and Papa’s house and said our goodbyes for the next week and a half. We appreciate everyone who was praying for us. So far I think that God has given us great comfort and the kids seem to be having a good time.

11:15 PM – After cleaning up the house and finishing packing our bags, Candice and I lay down in bed for a short nap. Candice woke up just over an hour later while I awoke about 2 hours later.

Friday, June 21st

2:00 AM– Dee picked us up at our house and we drove to the church.

2:30 AM – We had a good send off from the church and made our way to the Eugene airport. No problems on this leg of the trip which meant we had plenty of time to wait at the gate for our plane to depart.

5:45 AM – Liftoff! We left Eugene and headed to Denver.

9:00 AM – We arrived in Denver and had a little bit of time to get a few snacks. Our next flight was to Newark, New Jersey and I think many of us assumed that on the flight we would either get a meal or at least a snack to hold us over. So, a few of us bought some snacks.

10:45 AM – Our flight to Newark departs and no snacks are served! Why didn’t many of us pack hardly any snacks in our carry on luggage? I was dreaming of the pound and a half of Jerky in my checked bag that was on its way to Sarejevo.

3:30 PM – We arrived in Newark and went straight for the food. Candice and I had some realy good Pepperoni Stromboli.

6:00 PM – Damon taught us all how to play the cards version of “Golf”. We sat on the floor next to the gate. I learned that James would be a very bad golfer in real life.

8:30 PM – We boarded our International flight to Munich. Candice and I sat next to a guy that we chatted with throughout the flight who did marketing for BMW out of New Jersey and was on his way to a big conference in Germany. Anne Marie, James, and Maria sat behind us. I shared my berry skittles with them. Anne Marie chatted it up with a lady next to her the whole flight.

Friday, June 22nd

9:00 AM – We arrived in Munich. It was kind of fun walking through the airport and seeing how different the German airport was from the American airports. Germany has some “luxuries” that America doesn’t such as glass smoking rooms and fake flies in the urinals.

11:00 AM – In Germany we were shuttled on a bus to the plane to Sarajevo. This was the first time that I was not able to sit next to Candice but many of us were scattered all over the plane. It wasn’t too big of a deal though because the flight from Munich to Sarajevo was just over an hour so it went by really fast and enjoyed some great views of the Alps.

12:30 PM – We touched down in Sarajevo as planned. When we arrived the weather was really warm! We entered seamlessly through the Passport check where ALL our luggage was there waiting for us. This was a huge answer to prayer. Vanja and Mladen were there to pick us up. So far, so very good.

1:00 PM – Though we had eaten a sandwich on the flight to Sarajevo, Vanja took us to a great restaurant in the heart of the city. We were dying of heat in out van with no AC. It was about 90 degrees outside! I think Candice was a bit startled by the aggressive driving in Europe. I intentionally let her have the front seat to experience this first hand

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2:00 PM – Vanja then took us up to a café that overlooks the city. She gave us some good background about the city and its history. The view was breathtaking. I personally was elated and was surprisingly not tired one bit. This may be that the coffee was starting to kick in. I think that today I had somewhere around 8 cups of coffee.

3:00 PM – We bought some groceries and dropped James, Damon, and Charlie off at Slavko’s church in downtown Sarajevo. For the rest of us, we ventured out to Breza, a much smaller suburb of Sarajevo. It was fun seeing the little things as we travelled, like hay stacks, and bullet-riddled houses throughout the countryside.

4:30 PM – We arrived at the church much later than expected due to getting lost a bit. But when we did arrive we were able to get showers and visit outside with some Bosniak Christians who were living at the church. They served us some more Bosnian coffee and we sat outside until the sun went down. We got connected with the rest of the world due to the Wifi access they have here at the church. What a blessing to be able to communicate with our kids half-way across the world!

9:30 PM – The sun is down and Anne Marie and Maria point out that there are lightning bugs outside. They thought this was pretty cool. Glad they are having a good time. Everyone is healthy, safe, has all their luggage, in great spirits, and of course a bit tired. So now it is off to bed.