Bosnian Bulletin #28
December 20, 2002
Greetings family and friends,
With just a few days before Christmas, I am trying to get
caught up on correspondence. We've enjoyed getting some Christmas
letters from some of you and hope we'll hear from more of you throughout the
holiday season. Here's a short update from us:
Ramadan
As I mentioned in our last update, John and I decided to
hold the Ramadan fast from November 16 through December 15. We did
indeed manage to make fast the whole month and found it to be a very rewarding
experience. Though it might not seem difficult to fast during the day
considered you can eat every day after sundown, but it was harder than we
thought to go without liquids. We celebrated Bajram (Idul Fitr),
the Islamic 3-day feast that follows the month of Ramadan, with our Muslim
friends. It was a special experience to be with our friends during
their most holy holiday.
This time of fasting was additionally special for us as we
entered the advent season. In our Western culture, Christmas has become
a season of consumerism and indulgence. This fast was an excellent
way to change our focus from those kinds of activities and prepare our
hearts and minds for the birth of Christ.
Pontanima's 5th Anniversary Concert
After months of preparation, we celebrated Pontanima's
5th anniversary with a celebratory concert on December 15. It was a big
event! The chamber orchestra, ARION, came from
Banja Luka the day before the concert and we held two joint rehearsals
before the concert. The only disappointment was that the orchestra was
not properly prepared and did struggle at times during the concert. The
choir sang very well though and the church was packed and overflowing.
During our final dress rehearsal, our "Amazing Grace" soloist
decided she would be unable to sing due to a bad cold, so Pepi asked me to
fill in. I was very nervous to sing it with only one rehearsal, but it
went OK in the end. The Bosnian crowd loved the song and the orchestra
accompaniment was very nice. The concert was followed by a very nice
reception and celebration. It is amazing to look back just five
years and see how much the choir has accomplished and the influence it has had
on the lives of individuals and on the peace process in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Fra Ivo Markovic (the founder of the choir) wrote an interesting article on
the history of Pontanima which was printed in the program. I will be
posting it on the Face to Face website (http://www.progressive-bih.com/ociuoci)
next week if you are interested in reading it.
"The Power of Diversity" CD
Pontanima's 3rd CD is final published! It is a
significant improvement over the other two. If you are interested in
receiving one, let us know and we will try to get some to the States in
January and mail them from there. We are asking a $10 donation (plus
postage) to help cover costs of publication.
Peacebuilding course at EMU
I am very excited to be going to Harrisonburg, VA at the
very beginning of January to take "Fundamentals of Peacebuilding"
with John Paul Lederach at Eastern Mennonite University. I'd forgotten
how expensive books are!! The course is an intensive five days (Jan.
7-11). John will be staying in Sarajevo.
Christmas plans
It has been colder than usual in Sarajevo (-5 C, 24 F
during the day, -18 C, 0 F at night) and as I write it is snowing heavily
(with no wind). It looks like we're going to have a beautiful, white
Christmas.
We are anticipating spending the holidays with our friends
Rod & Holly Kind (MCC Germany) who will arrive in Sarajevo tomorrow and
stay through January 2nd. Rod and Holly visited us for Christmas in 1999
and liked it so much they're coming back!!
Pontanima will perform a Christmas concert sponsored by the
local government on the 23rd. Our small English-speaking church group
will hold an evening service on Christmas Eve and then we'll move directly to
midnight mass at the Franciscan Catholic church. Pontanima will also
sing for that and afterwards the Franciscans always supply a small feast for
us. The eating, singing and fellowship will go on until dawn. It's
always a very festive and memorable evening.
We will be thinking of you during the holidays and wish you
all a blessed Christmas and a new year filled with God's hope, love and peace.
Merry Christmas!!
Karin & John
Face to Face Interreligious Service
Splitska 39
71000 Sarajevo
Bosnia-Herzegovina
home tel: 387 33 207 860
office tel/fax: 387 33 442 468
home:
jandk@bih.net.ba
office:
ociuoci@bih.net.ba
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