Bosnian Bulletin #15

March 25, 2000

Dear Friends and Family,

This message is just to update you on our upcoming visit to the U.S. with our interreligious choir, Pontanima.

As of 6:00 pm (our time) last evening, we received a phone call that the U.S. Immigrations and Naturalization department in Vermont as approved our choir to enter the U.S.!!! That is the major hurdle we've been trying to jump for the past two months. Today we received a phone call from the U.S. Consular at the U.S. embassy here in Sarajevo, who went into work today (on her day off!) to check if the fax had arrived. It did, indeed! The approval comes about 100 HOURS before we are to leave Sarajevo!! Yesterday was another frantic day calling and e-mailing between the embassy here in Sarajevo and our contacts in the U.S. It appears that it was our connections with Congressman Frank Wolfe of Virginia, and the offices of Joe Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy that helped us get approval. (But we believe your prayers to be more powerful than all the congressional representatives in the country!!!)

Monday morning at 11:00 am (as agreed with the U.S. Consular) we will take all the passports and supporting documentation to the U.S. Embassy and they will process the visas. The Consular has assured us this will not be a problem with INS approval. (We are counting on that!) We will have the visas in hand at noon on Tuesday!!

Tuesday afternoon at 4:00 pm, we leave by bus to Zagreb, Croatia where we will spend the night and fly out early the next morning.

We are relieved, to put it mildly. It is very frustrating that it has come this close to the wire despite all our advanced preparations and inquiries at the embassy (starting in September!!). I don't think there's anything more we could have done to prevent this situation -this is simply a matter of U.S. bureaucracy!!!

So, we're off! We have a busy weekend of washing clothes, packing, getting everything ready in order to leave, etc. We also need to do some (quick!) mental preparations for going home. We haven't fully allowed ourselves to get excited about going home, for fear that everything would fall through. Now that we are going, we find ourselves emotionally and mentally unprepared!!

We are looking forward to seeing many of you "enroute" on Pontanima's tour. We also hope to see many of you during our vacation time in SD and KS following the tour. Our final concert schedule is as follows:

Thurs. March 30 7:30 pm
Concert in Memorial Church
Harvard University
1200-1400 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts

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

Sat April 1 12:00 pm
Sing during service at B'Nai Jeshurun Synagogue
270 West 89th Street
New York City, New York 10024
(Not a full concert -only a few songs as part of their worship)

Sun. April 2 2:00 pm
Concert at Hofstra Cultural Center
200 Hofstra University
Hempstead, NY 11549
($5 tickets for this concert can be purchased by calling: (516) 463-5042 or the John Cranford Adams Playhouse Box Office, (516) 463-5669)

Mon April 3 6:00 pm
Concert on Millennium Stage
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC 20566

Tues. April 4 12:30 pm
Concert on the United States Capitol Steps
The Mall
Washington, DC 20566

Wed. April 5 1:00 pm Concert at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, 400 Michigan Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20017

Wed. April 5 8:30 pm
Participate in Taize service at Parkview Mennonite Church
1600 College Avenue
Harrisonburg, VA 22802
(Not a full concert -only a few songs as part of their worship)

Thurs. April 6 9:30- 10: 15 am
Chapel at Eastern Mennonite Seminary
1200 Park Rd, Harrisonburg, VA 22802-2462
(abbreviated concert)

Thurs. April 6 7:30 pm
Concert in Martin Hall
Eastern Mennonite University
1200 Park Rd
Harrisonburg, VA 22802-2462

Fri. April 7 10:00 am
Chapel service in Lehman Auditorium
Eastern Mennonite University
(abbreviated concert)

Fri. April 7 7:30 pm
Concert in Theatre at Washington
291 Gay Street
Washington, VA 22747

Sat. April 8 7:00 pm
Concert at United Church of Christ at Kent State
1427 Horning Road
Kent, Ohio 44240

Sun. April 9 10:45 am
Sunday morning worship service at First Christian Church of Disciples of Christ in Kent
335 West Main Street
Kent, Ohio 44240
(Not a full concert -only some songs as part of their worship)

Mon. April 10 7:00 pm
Concert at Yoder Recital Hall
Bluffton College
280 West College Ave.
Bluffton, Ohio 45817

Tues. April 11 7:30 pm
Concert at College Mennonite Church
Goshen College
1700 So. Main Street
Goshen, IN 46526

Wed April 12 10:00 am
Chapel service at Goshen College
Goshen, IN
(abbreviated concert)

Wed April 12 7:30 pm
Concert at Sermon on the Mount Chapel
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries
3003 Benham Avenue
Elkhart, Indiana

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

Please spread the word to any friends and family in these areas! We hope to have good audiences to welcome the choir. Again, we request your prayers that both we (the choir) and the people we meet along the way, will be open to each other and will be able to have positive, healthy interaction. It is our hope that connections will be made, that new understandings will be brought to light and that hearts and minds will be touched by God's spirit.

After the trip we will take some much needed vacation time with friends and family. We plan to arrive in South Dakota for Palm Sunday (April 16) in my home church (Salem). Then we'll spend some days in Newton, KS and even stop in Kansas City on our way back to South Dakota. Our tentative schedule is: April 16-19 in SD, April 20-26 in Newton, KS, April 26-27 in Kansas City, April 28-May 7 in SD.

We will not be able to access this e-mail account after Tuesday. If you need to get in touch with us, you can e-mail to pontanima@hotmail.com "Attn: John and Karin" or to my parents in South Dakota at gvkaufman@dtgnet.com.

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us and for this situation. We ask for you continued support. We hope to see 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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