Bosnian Bulletin #14

March 5, 2000

Greetings Friends and Family,

Every day here in Sarajevo looks more and more like spring, as the piles of snow from December slowly melt away (but still refuse to disappear!).

I'm overdue in writing this letter. I'd hoped to postpone writing until I could confirm that everything is set for Pontanima's tour to the U.S. and make the official announcement that, indeed, we're coming. However, as time passes, and many obstacles continue to present themselves, it seems necessary to update you and ask for your prayers.

We've been working, in earnest, on this tour since early fall. Everything has slowly been coming together and we've become very excited about this adventure (and so has the choir!). At the end of January, just as we were preparing to apply for our visas, we made (what we thought was) a final clarifying visit to the U.S. Embassy. Almost by accident, we discovered that there is a small law that was introduced by the National Performers Association (?) which requires professional performers of any kind to obtain special status to enter the U.S., if they are to do any performing. Even though Pontanima is not a professional group, will not get paid, etc, there are 6 members of our group (including our director) who are employed by the National Opera. To make a long story short, we now had to apply to U.S. Immigrations and Naturalization service. John and I were not excited about that, as we've had plenty of experience of our own with U.S. INS in the process of acquiring John's green card. (Not fun.)

After frantic e-mailing, faxing and express mailing, and with the help of MCC, we submitted an application. After breathing a sigh of relief, the application came back to us a few days later needed a letter of recommendation from a U.S. Labor Organization in a related field.(!!?!?) More frantic e-mails, faxes and express mailings were sent, and again, the application has been made. Currently we are still waiting on a decision. If we are approved, we can apply for visas. If not, our tour will be cancelled.

In the meantime, we are being pressed by the deadline on our plane ticket reservations. We don't want to lose those reservations and not have tickets to get to the U.S., but we also don't want to put down all the money to purchase the tickets when we are still uncertain that we will be allowed in the U.S.!

As I write this, we are to leave in 24 days.

In addition to these complications, we have also been made aware of some controversy that has arisen in some communities in the States around our visit. It seems the interreligious nature of our group is threatening to some Christians/Christian groups. While we are sorry to hear that some people are not open to the message of our group, we hope that our coming will stimulate an open dialogue in these communities about interreligious relations, diversity, tolerance and understanding. To be clear, we are NOT promoting a "one-world religion" or a blending of religious differences into a "new-age type open religion" Far from it! We are simply trying to promote the importance of dialogue and interaction between different religious (or ethnic or racial or otherwise diverse) groups. There are too many places in this world, where wars have been fought, and continue to be fought, in the name of religion. If we, as people of faith, can communicate with each other out of a security in our own faith, we can begin to reduce xenophobia and hatred. In fact, we can not only prevent negativity, but we can positively develop in our own identity.

So, we ask for your prayers. 1. That we will be quickly approved by the U.S. INS, 2. That other preparations (obtaining visas, plane tickets, etc) will go smoothly and 3. That our hearts and minds and the hearts and minds of those whom we will meet in the U.S., will be open and ready to meet each other.

If all goes as planned, here is a basic outline of our concert schedule:

Thurs. March 30 7:30 pm
Concert in Memorial Church
Harvard University, Boston

Fri. March 31 7:30pm
Concert in St. Mary's Chapel
Boston College, Boston

Sat April 1 12:00 pm
Sing during service at B'Nai Jeshurun Synagogue
New York City

Sun. April 2 2:00 pm
Concert at Hofstra University
Long Island, NY

Mon April 3 6:00pm
Concert on John F. Kennedy Center Millennium Stage
Washington, D.C

Tues. April 4 12:30pm
Concert on Capital Steps
Washington, D.C.

Wed. April 5 1:00 pm
Concert at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Washington, D.C

Wed. April 5 8:30 pm
Participate in Taize service at Parkview Mennonite Church
Harrisonburg, VA

Thurs. April 6 9:30 - 10: 15
Chapel at Eastern Mennonite Seminary
Harrisonburg, VA

Thurs. April 6 ??
Possible evening Concert at Eastern Mennonite University?
(to be determined!)

Fri. April 7 10:00am
Chapel at EMU?
(waiting for confirmation)?

Fri. April 7
Evening Concert in Little Washington, VA
(time and place to be determined)

Sat. April 8 7:00 pm
Concert at United Church of Christ at Kent State
Kent, OH

Sun. April 9 10:45 am
Sunday morning worship service at First Christian Church of Disciples of Christ
Kent, OH

Mon. April 10 7:00 pm
Concert at Yoder Recital Hall, Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH

Tues. April 11 7:30 pm
Concert at College Mennonite Church
Goshen, IN

Wed April 12 10:00 am
Chapel service at Goshen College
Goshen, IN

Wed April 12 7:30 pm
Concert at Sermon on the Mount Chapel
Elkhart, IN

Thurs. April 13 7:30 pm
Concert in Hammerschmidt Chapel at Elmhurst College,
190 Prospect Ave.
Elmhurst, IL

If you want anymore details about the itinerary, please e-mail and I can send you the more detailed version. Please call all your friends and family in these areas to attend the concerts. We are really hoping to have good audiences to welcome our group.

Other than the tour...well, is there life outside this tour?? We continue to try to engage in life here. The office is as busy as ever with people coming and going for various reasons.

A CD of the "Bosnian Te Deum" performance in December is currently being printed. We hope to have it in time to bring it with us to the US.

In January we were visited by Debby Martin-Koop of the MCC Europe office. We had a few busy days with her as she tried to get a clearer picture of what life is like for us. She came to the office and got a good taste for how busy (verging on chaotic) it can be there! She also conducted our mid-term evaluations, which she's still processing.

At the beginning of February we reluctantly left our work for a few days in Switzerland at MCC retreat. It turned out to be a very good break and a nice time of relating to our fellow MCCers. Fra Ivo (director of Face to Face) also joined the group for a few days to talk about his vision for Bosnia and to learn more about MCC's programming in Europe. It was a nice connection for us. Overall, this felt like the best retreat for us thus far. It was good to have engaging work to talk about and discuss with other MCCers. It was a much needed time of renewal.

Since then, we've been very busy at work. I've started a yoga class on Tuesdays and Fridays for some stress release and physical activation. We also have a Thursday night Bible Study with our church group (now studying wisdom literature) and Pontanima rehearsal on Wednesday and Sunday evenings. Somewhere in between we manage to get together with friends and take in other events in the city. That pretty much fills up a week!

So, once again, we ask for your prayers and we'll keep you informed when we receive official news of our status. We hope to see many of you soon!

In God's Love and Peace,

Karin & John

Face to Face Interreligious Service
Splitska 39
71000 Sarajevo
Bosnia-Herzegovina
home tel: 387 71 207 860
office tel/fax: 387 71 442 468
home: jandk@bih.net.ba
office: ociuoci@bih.net.ba
http://www.progressive-bih.com/ociuoci


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