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

Update #2

So we had another meeting with our team where we learned about each other's strengths and spiritual gifts, along with learning a bit more about our trip. It was a great meeting as we all began to open up more and share more of ourselves and share what God has taught us through our lives. Our retreat will be this next weekend on the 16th where we will watch a movie about some of Bosnia's history and the war. We will also share our "research" with the team and have some Bible study segments. Ryan and I have gotten a little information from my friend about the culture, and will of course gather more before the retreat, and update you all on that. My friend Katie in Sarejevo emailed me some things about Bosnian culture which are below:

Traditional food: Cevapi which is beef and bread, also Another food is Pita stuffed with spinach cheese, potato, and meat. The popular alcohol that they are proud of is Rakia. It is like moonshine. You take a shot of it to confirm a deal (like signing an agreement), and you offer it to guests

They love football/soccer, which is like most of Europe. They drink tons of coffee and smoke a lot. They love relationships with others and like to play card games and ride bikes. They listen to a lot of the same music that we do, but have traditional "folk" music, which includes the accordion and lots of dancing with swaying hips. They also listen to turbo folk, which is the folk made into techno music.

Katie says that ethnicity and religion are the same. If you are Catholic you are Croation (even if you were born in Bosnia) If you are Muslim you are Bosnian. They typically don't actually practice the religion.

Something that has been on my heart lately is a situation with girl who went to my high school. She grew up in Bosnia which meant she grew up in their civil war. She was in my English class and was always such a positive girl, encouraging me and others in our school work. Anyway, she pretty much lived through the war in Bosnia which meant that she had some horrible memories of war. I think she dealt with this personally in dreams and thoughts which led her to take her life in February of 2001. Her name was Azra Jamakovic and we all were deeply saddened by the situation at the time, but her life just comes back to me now that we are going to Bosnia to meet others who were scarred by the war. Her story plays back in my mind and motivates me to work as hard as I can to help restore hope and to introduce Jesus' love to this country by working with Pastor Bernard and his church. Please be praying for Azra's family and her brother, Amel, as I am sure they still think of Azra often.


Thanks again for all of your support and we hope to talk with you soon!

Love,
Erica

Update #1

Hello everyone! We are so grateful to all of you for supporting us in our preparation for our Bosnia trip. Here we will be updating you all as we continue to prepare for and to serve in Bosnia. This time, I will give you a little more information on our trip. So, here goes . . . Our group that will be going on this trip consists of 8 individuals:

Paul Jones: he is our leader for the trip and has served Pastor Bernard's church 3 times in the past, so he is by far the most knowledgeable about Capljina. He lives in Woodstock and has one teenage daughter and he works for the corporate office of an Auto Parts store.

John Morgan: John lives in Alpharetta and he works as a manager for a golf course, so he gets to enjoy the outdoors all week long! John is good friends with Paul, and he and his wife adopted a baby girl this year!

Aaron Melton: Aaron lives Woodstock. He works at Philips(really close to our apartment :).) He is dating Sarah

Sarah McClure: Sarah went to FSU and lives in Midtown really close to my old apartment. She sometimes sings and acts and she works at a talent agency

Elizabeth Burgaller (most people call her BJ): She lives in Alpharetta with her husband. They are originally from New Jersey, but moved to Georgia about 5 years ago. She enjoys gardening and is good friends with Nancy.

Nancy Smith: she lives in John's Creek with her husband. She and BJ are good friends. She has children who are in their 20's.

Ryan and Erica Knight: that's us! We live in Dunwoody and Ryan works at Carmax Auto Finance as a risk analyst. I work at Slingshot Product Development Group as an Industrial Designer.

So, a little about Capljina that I got from Wikipedia:

Not much is known about this city but it was founded by Romans in the 5 BC where it got its name from. The name is the same as it was 2000 years ago.

In WWII Ustashe committed atrocities in Čapljina and nearby villages, as mentioned in the Croatian nationalist song Jasenovac i Gradiska stara. Among these was the Prebilovci massacre, in which as many as 4000 people including 600 from Prebilovci may have been killed.

Since World War II it has been an important road and rail transportation link, connecting the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the port of Ploče in Croatia. During the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina the city was taken over by the Croatian Defence Council who expelled the non Croat population and set up concentration camps for Bosniaks in Gabela.^[1]

During the Summer of 2007 wildfires caused extensive damage
throughout the rural part of the municipality.

To the right is Capljina's Coat of Arms, along with a map of Capljina's location.

When we go to Bosnia, we will be working with Pastor Bernard and his church. We will meet his family and spend a good bit of time with them along with other church members as we work to revitalize their site, build the bridge, and to get to know the local citizens.

We have our next team meeting this upcoming Wednesday and our retreat is coming up too. Ryan and I are researching Bosnia's culture for the retreat, so we will update you with that once we gather all of that information. I also have a friend from my sorority(Katie) who is currently in Sarejevo with a team who is working to reach college students in the city. I am enjoying reading their team's blog and getting to know a little more about Bosnian culture. We hope to be able to catch up with Katie while we are there, but will not be sure until travel plans are finalized.

We thank you again for all of your prayers and support!

Signing off,
Erica