GOD IS HERE

The team is gone for dessert and coffee. It's 9:30 pm, Saturday evening. All is well and quiet, save for my ipod sweetly playing "How He Loves" in the background. Why does it require crossing an ocean to this joy and hope deprived country for me to reconnect with this essential truth of our faith? I witness God's love in this tiny fraction of the Bosnia-Herzegovinia population who have somehow overcome insurmountable odds to worship our risen Lord and many who are battling those odds still. We prayed with a women this week who is being persecuted by her community and family because she has chosen to claim Christ her Savior. Despite the fact that her father has threatened imprisonment and even death, she stands boldly and resolute claiming she would rather die for Jesus than live any other way. Then, there is our dear friend here who has lost, not one but three, children and through these trough times found his path to salvation, because of it. Now, he states he would suffer it all again rather than losing his relationship with Christ, our Lord. This is a people, a country, a city, a community which has lost so much. It is dark and oppressive, yet there are beacons of light such as these that illuminate mountains and valleys, towns and villages sprinkled like Heavenly stardust. There is a love that is supernatural and can only come from the Holy Spirit shining within, uncontainable. How they love! Indeed, "How He Loves" It is almost unbelievable, if I were not witnessing it with my own eyes and feeling it with every fiber of my being. Like characters in a book, by stories end, they change each other. We are a team changed by this love. We have prayed with them and wept with them. It has been a highly emotional week. As we made our final walk through the streets of Capljina tonight, we prayed over many of the buildings still pock marked or completely destroyed by the war. Factories which once represented industry and a prospering economy are now drug and alcohol dens claiming Capljina's youth. We prayed intensely for them as they represent the future for this country. Upon leaving the graffiti plastered, soot marred and hallowed out shell of what once stood as a visual reminder of a thriving culture, a single, white dove soared overhead and perched atop a dead tree at the property's edge. Moved to tears, we all felt it - God is Here! Praise Him!

This will be our last post. We leave in the morning for Split, Croatia, with an overnight in Rome, Italy. One of our team members has a "connection" in Rome, so we are praying that we make contact and are able to manage a quick personal tour and dinner, before flying out Tuesday morning.

Please pray for safe travels for the team. Also, prayers to Jehovah-Rophe, our Healer, would be most welcome to relieve head colds, coughs and headaches before we take flight! For those who have been praying for our host Andrija, he has recovered! Slava Bogu! He is the happiest, most faithful man we may have ever known. Saying "Goodbye" or "Ciao, Ciao" to these passionate friends, now family, will be very difficult, but we all look forward to being reunited with each of you. You are loved!

Love,
Kathy

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him." 1 John 3:1