Bosnian Bulletin #6

March 29, 1999

Greeting friends and family,

We are back in Banja Luka for what might be a short time, and we wanted to send all of you a quick update on the situation here and on our lives. We didn't send an update last month because we felt "nothing new had happened". Now, we have more happening than we ever wanted. March has gone by so quickly. On the 7th of March, (two days after John's 26th birthday) we left BL for a few days with our MCC colleagues in Croatia. From there, all of the MCC workers in the Balkans (including Dan & Evanna Hess who had just been relocated to Belgrade from Vladikavkaz in South Russia) traveled together to our MCC Winter Retreat in Karlsruhe, Germany. The retreat was a good time to "unload" our hearts and "repack" some energy. We were able to have several meetings with MCC about the future of our placement. However, no decision was reached.

After retreat, we spent a few days travelling with our good friend and colleague, Amy Gopp (MCC Sarajevo). We first spent a few days in Wetzlar, Germany visiting another MCCer, Terri Miller. We also stopped in Munich on our way back to towards Croatia. Amy is completing 3 1/2 years with MCC in May and we will be very sad to see her go. She will be travelling around the States/Canada speaking about her experiences. We encourage you to take the opportunity to hear her, if you can.

Being aware of the increasing tensions in the region, we made several phone calls from Zagreb before determining it was generally safe to return to Banja Luka on March 22nd (in time for Karin's 26th birthday on the 23rd). By the evening of the 23rd, we were advised by MCC to follow the instructions of IOCC, MCC's local partner, which was to evacuate to Bihac, Bosnia (in the Muslim/Croat Federation). We reluctantly packed a bag and left BL at 5 pm on the 24th. By 8 pm that night, bombs began to fall in Yugoslavia.

We've talked to our good friend, Vesna, who is from Novi Sad and is living in BL with her husband starting a church. She was home in Novi Sad when bombs fell very near to their apartment shattering all the glass and knocking everything to the floor. She described how screams could be heard everywhere and people began running to the bomb shelter -trampling people on the way. She took her one-year-old son and her mother a nd ran to the shelter where they stayed for a while. When she thought it was all clear, she went back up to the apartment where her father was (he had refused to leave) as another bomb fell. The next day she returned to Banja Luka. When we talked to her the following day, her voice shook as she told us. It's difficult for us to know what to say.

Here, in Republika Srpska (the Serb-dominated half of Bosnia) the situation for internationals has been very tense. In Banja Luka there have been demonstrations every day. The US and British embassies, the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and WFP (World Food Program) buildings have been totally trashed. We haven't seen them yet.

....I just received a phone call from IOCC that we are to leave again within the half hour, so I must bring this to a close (no time to proofread, either!). We'll be going back to Bihac (BEE-hach second syllable rhymes with "watch"), Bosnia. Unfortunately, there we have very little outside news, no e-mail, etc. Very frustrating.

We have very mixed feelings about having left (and again having to leave). We don't know how this will affect relationships here.

Please don't worry about us. God is watching over us and we are here to be faithful. Please do pray for the people here and for peace.

Love and peace, Karin & John


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