Capljina, Bosnia

Mission Trip Summer 2008

Ryan and Erica Knight

First of all, thanks for your support for our mission trip. Your contribution has already had and will continue to have a profound impact on people across the world. We have provided this summary of our trip so that you can better understand how God is using your prayers and support to further extend His kingdom. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Our trip to Bosnia was a great experience – both for us and hopefully for the people we met. We left June 15, 2008 to embark on a journey full of unknowns. We knew we would be helping other Christians on the other side of the world, but we did not know to what extent. This was a trip full of anticipation and excitement.

We flew through Rome to Dubrovnik, Croatia and then took a 3-hour van ride to Capljina. Upon our arrival in Dubrovnik we learned that our luggage was left in Rome. Everyone stayed calm although we knew we may be working all week in two sets of clothing. Our driver was a man named Petrach (or something like that) better known as Nono. We learned that he is a member of the church we were going to help, and he was very nice and helpful despite his limited English. We arrived the first night in Capljina exhausted and we slept well. We knew there was a lot of work ahead.

On the second day, we saw the Church and found out more about what we were going to do and we also heard that our luggage had arrived. This was a small answer to prayer and it was great to know that we would have a change of clothes after working in 90 degree heat all day. The small bridge we were going to rebuild was to a river bank that the government was about to rebuild. Thankfully the government had decided to inform the church that the bridge would be torn down in a few weeks thus making any work by us pointless. Of course, the church had plenty of other work for us to do. The four guys in our group would work on the church backyard and the four girls would begin painting a community center called Novi Most. Sarah and Erica also helped with the landscaping and building the last two days.

The rest of the trip was a culmination of physical labor, new relationships, history lessons, and God. Instead of taking you through the day by day activities, we want to introduce you to the people we met and how each one of them impacted us and benefited from your support.

These are the stories of the people we met in Bosnia

The Mikulics: Bernard, Nada, Loren, Petra.

Pastor Bernard and his family have been completely committed to this church since it started about 9 years ago. They have been steadfast in prayer and have been blessed with their two children, Loren (8) and

Petra (6.)Loren wants to be an actor someday and is very dramatic in the many simple situations of the day. Petra is a fun adventurous girl as well and she and Chloe like to play and laugh together. We so enjoyed being around these joyful children during the week. Nada is currently working to organize the next “Pet Plus (5-plus)” program which will happen i

n September. This is a large production for children that is modeled after North Point’s “Kidstuff,” where there is fun music, learning, and life lessons. Many children have come to their past Pet Pluses, including many children who do not attend the church, so this is a great outreach opportunity. Nada is having a hard time getting volunteers to help her put on Pet Plus and asked us to pray for more volunteers to help her and the church put on the best production that they can for the community’s children. Bernard shared his testimony and he went through some tough times fighting in the war and even starting the church. Bernard is of course, still working to build the church. He becomes discouraged at time

s because he is seen as a traitor by his people, because of the church’s lack of growth, and because of the rumors being spread. He asked that we pray for him and his church and that they stay strong and that they trust in the Lord’s plan for Capljina.

The Holsteads - Mick, Ali, Sam, Chloe

The Holsteads are from England and have gotten on board with Novi Most in Capljina, providing a fun community center for all of the children in the community. At Novi Most, there are Bosnian, Serb, and Croatian children (something pretty amazing as their schools are all segregated,) and they learn things like computer skills

and English. Mick and Ali have enjoyed really getting to know Capljina and they are pouring themselves into continually building Novi Most. Sam is 10 and she loves science and more specifically animals. She wants to go to veterinary school someday in Sarajevo (she really loves Bosnia,) and she is just such a sweet girl. Chloe, 6, is a little more rambunctious as she likes to climb, run around, and cause some mischief. Her grandmother calls her “sore bits” because she has so many scrapes and bruises.

Becca

Becca is also from England and she actually first came to help out the Novi Most in Mostar 8 years ago when she was 18. She began full-time with the Capljina Novi Most last fall and is committed to be with them for 3 years. Becca helps teach the English classes and is also a fun girl to be around. She talks with the other helpers at Novi Most often and has gotten some good opportunities to talk to them about Christ when possible. She and the Novi Most staff do a great job ministering to the children as well as the adult volunteers who are involved with the center.

Ivica

Ivica is a funny guy who is about 21 and he helps to teach the computer classes at Novi Most. He has parents who are from separate backgrounds (Bosnian Muslim and Croatian Catholic) so he is still searching for what really applies to his life. Ivica sees religion as more of a culture thing, like since we were all Americans, and the English were English, we should all be Protest

ant, and if he is Croatian, he should be traditional Catholic. During our week in Capljina, he actually came to the church with us for lunch one day (he had never been to the church before,) and Bernard was actually able to share his testimony with Ivica. Bernard comes from a similar background as Ivica, being loyal to Croatia and growing up in the same culture, so this was a great opportunity for Bernard to share Jesus with him.

Sonja

Sonja is from a Serb background. She also helps with Novi Most and is 23 years old. She grew up in Capljina, but was able to get to safety when she was young during the war. I am not sure about her faith, but she and I talked a bit about Bosnian government one day. She described much of the confusion of the tripartite government and described the racism that she faces in Bosnia. Because she is Serbian and her people attacked the Bosnians during the war, she is still unable to find a job anywhere. Please be praying for her situation and for her and the community to reconcile and to begin to practice forgiveness.

Zoran, Teky, Tony

Zoran’s family is a great example of a family being brought up in Christ in Bosnia as it is not a common thing. Zoran actually went to Bible school with Bernard but does not live in Capljina. He has actually started his own church in his own town just recently and it has less than ten people and no building to meet in. He regularly attends the Caplji

na church and has spent a lot of time with guys on the landscaping project behind the church. His children Tony and Teky are even more involved in the Capljina church. Tony is incredibly talented and plays guitar in the church. One sponsor heard about him and his involvement in the band and decided to get him a brand new guitar pictured here. Tony was more than ecstatic. Lastly, Zoran’s daughter Teky was a lot of fun. She is the drummer in the band and has a fun, sarcastic personality. She enjoys being different and hates pictures, but loved getting to know more people who cared about the church. All together it was great seeing a family working together to develop the church and encouraging them in what they do.

Emil

Emil is a fun, hard working, and heartfelt guy. He is a member of the church and was very dedicated to helping us while working outside. Through their time together outside, Ryan and Emil got to spend a lot of time talking together about life and the things they enjoy. It turns out Emil really loves the NBA and actually stayed up until at least 4am watching Boston beat L.A. This was nice for Ryan since he wasn’t going to stay up that late but wanted to hear what happened. More importantly, though, Emil got to take some time to talk with Ryan about more personal obstacles in his life. Carried over from a rough life before he became a Christian, Emil still struggles with an addiction to smoking. He has been able to successfully give up other drugs, but smoking has been a challenge. He’s also dating a girl who’s not “in Christ.” She’s Catholic, but in the cultural sense and does not see the need to personally devote her life to Christ and ask for forgiveness for her sins. This has been a challenge for Emil, but he does desire that she becomes a Christian and that he can marry her soon after that. Please pray for Emil and his smoking addiction as well as his relationship.

Nono

One of the most inspirational people we met on the trip was Nono. His nickname is actually from his grandmother who gave him the name after hearing him sing as a little boy. Anyway, Nono is full of everything you could think of in terms of reasons to respect a person. He works incredibly hard and serves the church as the landscaper, janitor, maintenance worker, lead singer of worship, head of production, and children’s ministry volunteer. Nada jokes that he should just live at the church since all he does is work there. His testimony is full of highs and lows and was the ultimate example of how the church is impacting Capljina. In brief, Nono grew up knowing little about Christ and his fondest childhood memory is the one time it snowed in his entire life. He grew up and ended up fighting in the civil war that has left many scars on the people of Bosnia. After the war he found out his fiancé had left him for another man, and he entered a life of depression. Drugs and a rough community didn’t seem to help and he began searching for something larger. One day he cried out to God for help knowing little of what he was asking for. Sometime near then it also snowed and he remembered being a happy kid again and felt touched by God because of the snow. Somehow while walking through Capljina one day he saw the church and decided to walk in. The church did not get many visitors since most people thought of an evangelical church as a cult. Nono decided the church could maybe help him out or possibly teach him English to help him in the rest of his life. Pastor Bernard wasn’t quite an English teacher but knew enough to decide that he would do anything he could do get a rare visitor involved in the church. Since then Nono has learned from Bernard about Jesus and what it means to be a follower. He has embraced this in the fullest sense and has dedicated literally every hour of his life to building God’s kingdom. In a country full of tension and prejudice, Nono has learned that the most abundant life is still in Christ – a testimony to us who are rarely oppressed for being Christians and sometimes take for granted God’s many blessings.

None of these relationships or stories would be here today without your support. We are so thankful that God inspired you to be a part of our trip. Please continue to pray for the people and for Christ working through people in Bosnia.

We have some additional pictures posted on Picasa. Look to the right for a link to our pictures! >

God Bless,

Ryan and Erica Knight

home

Sarah, Mick, and Erica at the church

Andre and Ryan at the church on Sunday morning

Hey everyone,
we made it home last night. The plane from Rome was about 3 hours delayed, but we got in around 6 pm, saw the Posts for a quick dinner, and then went to pick up Burdell from the Knights. We will be putting together some more descriptive information soon with all of the friends that we met, the things that we learned, and how your support and prayers have helped and can continue to help this community in Capljina.




-Erica

Friday

So today both Ryan and I are at the church working outside and it's a hot one so we are making sure to drink water and take frequent breaks. Today we will be laying more tarp and more gravel underneath the playground. We are also working on building a roof structure over the sandbox so that the children can play in there and not get too hot. 

We have continued to build relationships with the locals and I am so enjoying learning about their lives and history. I have gotten to know a girl named Matea, or "Teky" is her nickname. She is currently taking exams at college and is 19. She and her brother Tony are both involved with the church. Their father Zoran has also been working hard with us this week. Zoran was actually saved in Mobile Alabama, back in the US- how cool how God works in peoples' lives. I have also met Becca, who comes from England and works at Novi Most, and Sony, a local who also works at Novi. Ivitsa has also been around a lot. He helps with Novi Most computer classes and is "searching" they say. He has a parent who is Croation(Catholic) and one who is Bosnian, so I think he is trying to figure out where he belongs. Last night, we also met some people from the Novi Most ministry in Mostar ( it is a bigger operation than the one here in Capljina.) They did a prayer walk around the city and then we went back to the church's backyard and sang some praise songs which was pretty cool (although they were all in the local language, so we didn't really know them.) 

Please be praying for Bernard and his church. They are having a hard time as the rumors in the town are just so strong and they have had some members leave in the past few years because of it. We know he is doing such a great job leading the people here, but they become discouraged as so many people have a bad attitude about the evangelical church and they really just want to love and reach out to them. We have also talked with Emil (not sure on spelling.) He is 30 and he and Ryan have had a fun time playing foosball and working together. He asked that we pray for him in his effort to quit smoking, so if you all could be praying for him in that, it would be great. He also has a girlfriend, Sonya in Serbia who "is not in Christ" as he says. He hopes that she will get to know Jesus and hopes to marry her someday. So you can also be praying for Sonya and their relationship too.

I have also met a really cute little puppy at the place where we are staying with Andre and his wife. The puppy seems to be a mix of chihuaha and jack russell terrier maybe. They don't really let their dogs inside here, so she wanders all day. Aaron and I picked off probably about 50 ticks from her a few days ago, and I did it again yesterday. Paul now calls her "ticky". I threw the ticks in the water, so the waterbugs and fish got to eat them for dinner. We also met the chickens and wild turkeys at the house today, and Andre showed us some fish that he caught. Andre is really funny and we try to communicate with him how we can (he doesn't know much English) so I have used some animated expressions and stuff to get through- we're working on it. Andre's most common phrase is "Slava Boga" which means "Praise God!" Someone told me that he came from a pretty rough life before Christ and now he is just living to worship Him- how great!

Tomorrow, we will get to visit Mostar with Bernard and Sunday we will get to worship here and then begin our journey back home. It is crazy to think it is already Friday! We so appreciate your support and prayers and we pray that we are truly being effective and loving the locals in assisting this community as it continues to rebuild. 

Day 4 in Bosnia

The Evangelical Church of Capljina

Today is the 4th day we've been here.  It's Thursday afternoon and we've been busy since Tuesday landscaping the church and painting at Novi Most.  Our original bridge project has been postponed for a later group due to the government working in the area to help the river bank.

So far we have done a lot.  Our main goals while we are here are to build relationships with the church leadership and encourage them in what they are doing and we also want to help with manual labor that they can't do on their own.

In terms of encouraging the church, things are rather difficult for them right now.  The local community sees the evangelical church as a cult since they aren't one of the three traditional religions here - and Protestantism is a cult to them breaking off from the Catholic church.  There are rumors that the church has heard including ones saying they are sacrificing babies and posting pictures of kids all over the internet to sell them to other people.  The persecution is extreme but the pastor's heart for the people is ever stronger.

On the manual labor side, the guys have been busy tearing down weeds and bushes that have grown into the backyard and playground.  Also, the trail to the river where they are doing baptisms is mostly overgrown so we are cleaning that out.  The girls are painting at Novi Most which is where kids go to play and learn more about a variety of subjects including English, computers, and the church.

In addition to the work, we had a worship morning where we sang different songs in English and Bosnian.  Hearing songs in another language that we still recognized was pretty cool and it's great hearing people worship God in other languages.

This morning, Nono also gave his testimony.  He grew up in the area and was always an outsider.  His life was tough, but right before the war things were getting better and he was ready to get married.  Right before he proposed to his girlfriend the war started and they got separated.  By the end of the war she was married to another man and between that and the state of the county after the war he went into depression.  He then started drinking a lot and doing drugs to get through the pain and said days would go by and he didn't know what happened because of the state of his mind.  In the depth of depression, he cried out to God who he really didn't understand and begged for a way out.  Then one day he was walking by this church we are at and asked if he could come and maybe learn English (I'm not sure why he wanted to know English).  The pastor was so excited that someone had randomly come up that he said he would help him and find a way to teach him English.  The pastor though had  already scheduled a trip to Atlanta to visit his sponsors and thought that when he returned to Bosnia he would not ever here from Nono again, but they day he returned Nono was waiting for him.  Then Nono started attending the church and after the first sermon he asked to be baptized.

It was an amazing story and great to hear that the church is helping some people in need.  Nono is now an employee at the church and one of the hardest working men I've ever met.   He sings in the band, is in charge of production, is in charge of maintenance of the church, and he maintains the grounds around the church.

Thanks again for your prayers and for taking the time to read about our trip.  It's been amazing to see how tough it is for the church here to reach out, but we can tell that it's slowly catching on and people are opening up to the idea that church can be relational instead of just cultural.  Hopefully our work will continue to fuel the staff here and provide them with confidence in what they are doing and maybe the manual labor will help them provide a comfortable environment for the community to come learn more.

Thanks!

Ryan

p.s. - after speaking in broken english for days it's amazing how hard it is to write.

Here!

here we are at the Evangilical church. We have met Pastor Bernard and a family from England named Allie, Mick, and their daughter is Sam. That family helped to start Novi Most, which is a ministry down the street for children. They have Serbs, Croats, and and Bosnians come to the ministry. We actually ran into a little trouble with the bridge building, but they definitely have plenty of projects for us to keep up with. The bridge area is actually getting overrun on the sides and the government will be repairing the shoreline since it is washing away, so they say that we can not build the bridge. Projects that we may do are painting the rooms at Novi Most along with possibly building a wall there. We may also help out the community with small construction projects. . 

Our luggage did get misplaced when we arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia so we were a little concerned about that, but prepared ourselves to just re-wear our clothes for the week. However, we got news this morning that the luggage showed up and we should get it this afternoon. 

The Croatian coast that we drove up to get to Capljina from Dubrovnik (it took about 2 hours) is beautiful! It is mountainous with many rocks and beautiful coastline. We are staying at a building that also has beautiful plants in the backyard where we ate breakfast this morning. There is a really cute puppy that lives close the the house too. We walked to the river quickly this morning and saw the beach where may locals hang out. Soon, we girls will be going to Novi Most and planning the paint job and other construction and the guys will go to pick up the baggage. 

The church is really cool here and they have nice environments and do a Kidstuff-type environment that Ryan is now watching videos of with "NoNo." Nono picked us up from the airport yesterday and mostly speaks Bosnian. 

Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Erica

Leaving for Bosnia

Today at 7:30pm we are leaving Atlanta for Bosnia. We will be traveling for almost 24 hours before we reach our destination so we will surely be tested in our endurance upon arrival. Please continue to pray as we travel for safety and next week while we are in Bosnia for clarity in what we are doing and for a loving heart as we reach out to a recovering nation.

Thanks to all our supporters. You have all made this trip something extremely big that will touch lives here and abroad. It's amazing to see so many people coming together to support those in need.

We will continue to post exciting news as it happens in Bosnia.

-Ryan

Update #3 - 3 Weeks Away

Hello friends and supporters!

Thanks so much for all the prayers and support we have received over the past few months. It's amazing what a blessing this process has been for Erica and I and we're so excited that we can share it with all of you.

The preparation process for our trip is coming along very well. Last weekend we had a retreat at Nancy's house where we spent some great time bonding and learning more about our trip. Everyone did some research on Bosnia prior to the meeting and we discussed a lot of different topics from culture to economics to politics and religion. Erica and BJ also shared their testimonies with the group and it was amazing time to learn how God has uniquely touched each of our lives.

Some of the key points from the research projects are:

Bosnia History

• Bosnia and Herzegovina is the full country name
• Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia in December 1991
• Croatian and Serbian Presidents want to spilt Bosnia which led to civil war and ethnic cleansing campaigns
• In the late 90s, peace was slowly restored
• Corruption weakened the government between the late 90s and early 2000s
• In 2006 and 2007 a Tripartite Presidency approved reforms set by Parliament

Religion

• Serbs are mostly Orthodox which is very ritualistic and includes a lot of prayer, chanting, and hymns in its services
• Bosnians are mostly Muslim and believe that Allah is all knowing and all-powerful and that Muhammed is his prophet and founder of Islam
  
• Croats are mostly Catholic
  

Other interesting information

• Bosnians love drinking turkish coffee and spending time with their families
• They also love playing soccer among other sports

We also learned a little about the history of the church we are supporting. It's quite amazing and has gotten me very excited about our trip. It all started with a lady named Mara Prce in 1948 in Slavonija, Croatia. At that time Mara attended a worship service while visiting her aunt. After hearing the pastor speak, she knelt and prayed and when she got up there was a pool of tears on the ground.

As a new Christian she moved back to Herzegovina and was alone in her faith. She was encouraged by the pastor she had heard and received letters every 15 days encouraging her in her faith. A relative of hers named Stana accepted Christ eight years later and the two began sharing the gospel in her village despite the lack of interest from their neighbors. They also started praying for 50 years that the city of Capljina could have its own church despite the "seeming impossibility of the request." Finally the Evangelical Church of Capljina was started recently and the two now attend.

The story is amazing to me because I take it for granted that there are so many churches near me where I can go worship God and be in fellowship with other believers. I can't imagine what it would be like to only know one other Christian for 50 years in your town. It's amazing how God rewarded their faith.

We also learned that the church has been a great place for the three different cultural groups to come together. I found another blog online from someone who went to support the Capljina church a few years ago. Here's a quote from that blog:

[We] found out the Serbian guy had called the church earlier and asked if he, being a Serb, could attend the classes. [We] told him he was completely welcome, and he was brave enought to attend. Now, both a Muslim and a Serb are in a little church in Capljina, Bosnia commenting on how they both feel welcome and safe. It's pretty amazing that in that culture, the church has created an environment where that can happen. Wow! - click Here for more

Please continue to pray for us as we prepare. We'll try and get some more information out on some specifics of what we will be doing soon.

Finally, I recently came across a verse in Philippians where Paul is thanking the church there for supporting him on his trips to Thessalonica. He mentions that God would have provided him everything he needed with or without the church's help, but he wanted the church to be involved in his trip so that they could be blessed by God. In the same way, I am very thankful to all of you for supporting us and not because we need it, for God will always take care of our needs, but because it is a blessing to share this experience with you and I hope you will be blessed because of it!

Philippians 4:10-20

Thanks and Love,
Ryan Knight