Winding down and finishing up

Wow, we can't believe we are here at this point in our mission. We have two weeks left so we have been doing things for the last time and starting to say our good-byes. We have made many dear friends and have come to love the people here in the Balkan countries. As we were driving the other day, we were talking about how we never thought we would live in a Muslim country with beautiful mosques but also one that is still very war torn from a recent terrible war. The contrast between the beauty of Bosnia and ugliness of war is hard to comprehend. The resilience of the people here is so amazing. Many still suffer from physical and emotional wounds but they are doing their best to cope with the past and look forward with hope.

We went to one of our favorite cities Mostar, to see our wonderful friend there, Ljubica Blazevic. I sit back in amazement when I see her and Helen get together and visit. Neither one speaks the other's language but that doesn't slow them up. They both talk as fast as they can and by some miracle they both understand what the other is saying. It was hard to tell her good bye.

We have been to Dubrovnik (The Pearl of the Adriatic) three time with family and friends but never just by ourselves. We really wanted to see the beautiful clear Sea one more time. Since we were only about 80 miles away we ran down for a couple of days. It is the best preserved city on the Dalmatian coast and the most visited. Luckily we are still before the heavy tourist season. It is famous for their ice cream stands everywhere throughout the city. We stopped at one and Helen just order vanilla, the lady serving got very cranky with her and gave her samples of other flavors. When Helen said thank you but she just wanted vanilla, she got grumpy and couldn't figure out with all the wonderful flavors why anyone would just order vanilla. The city is so beautiful and the weather was perfect.

These five countries are all so beautiful. Yugoslavia was an amazing country when it was all together (except for the politics). The country was very self sufficient and diverse. They had lots of natural resources and land that was very productive. They can grow everything from grains to citrus to olives and figs. I hope that they can find a way to put off their prejudices and start looking forward to a brighter future. The Gospel of Jesus Christ can truly help them with that to find a perfect hope.