Three Days in Herzegovina

We've just returned to Sarajevo from three days of travel through the southern province of the country, Herzegovina. Compared to Bosnia, Herzegovina is dryer and hotter, and it's really only about 3 hours away. So even for a small country, Bosnia / Herzegovina has a surprising number of landscapes and climates within its borders.

The destination was the ancient city of Mostar, apparently founded in 892. This is the largest town in Herzegovina and is known for its Old Bridge - in fact, Mostar means Old Bridge in Bosnian. But on the way there, we stopped at a small Serbian Orthodox Church in a small, rural village.



This church has roots in this village since at least the early 1800s, but during the war, the Croats and Bosnian Muslims destroyed the church and all the ethnic Serbs in the community were run out of town. Many went back to Belgrade, but many others were sent to Serb strongholds in Bosnia in cities like Srebrenica or Banja Luka.

If you'll remember in my last post, Srebrenica was in Eastern Bosnia and was a site where Bosnian Muslims were being forced out of their homes to fill them with displaced Serbs from other parts of the country. Now here it is the total opposite situatoin. So population displacement affected both sides severely. In this Bosnian War in the early nineties, the lines never seemed to be very clear cut.

We stopped at this church because Week of Compassion, the Disciples of Christ outreach and development wing, has helped walk with them on their way back into normalcy. Normally, Week of Compassion tries to work with minority populations since they are the ones with the least social/economic resources in a conflict area. So while the Serbs are normally thought to be the aggressors in this conflict, in this particular situation and in much of Herzegovina, it was the Serbs who were getting the short end of the stick and being forced to relocate across the country.

So as this church tries to restart after total devastation and begin the process of helping the Serbs who used to live in the area return home, Week of Compassion has donated money to them. With the money raised by Week of Compassion from us in normal, everyday Disciples of Christ churches, this church has been able to rebuild, construct a new fellowship hall, build a playground for the youth, and now they're working on building a soccer field for the local youth to enjoy. They are now back up to about 100 in worship, but of the 2,000 Serb homes originally in this area before the war, only some 300 have returned. So there is much work left to be done!

They new we were coming, so they arranged for all the children of the church to come out and perform a local Bosnian dance called the Kola. It was absolutely adorable!
The women's group in the church prepared us an excellent meal and we had time to sit the with priest, Njeman, and discuss his church's long road to recovery. He was very engaging, and very enthusiastic to THANK all of us in local churches back in the U.S. who have shown his people the love of Christ and helped them to return to their ancestral place of worship.

There's so much to say and so many little stories that I'm afraid my short time here with the computer won't allow me to tell them all. But that is fine, as I know I'll be able to share much more when I return home. But let it suffice to say that this visit with Njeman and his little church in the northern suburb/villages of Mostar was a really moving experience for me as a young minister - he and I seemed to have a lot in common with him (even down to our stories of how we were called to ministry).

Here is Njeman speaking to us in his church with Amy translating amongst us.

We proceeded on to spend the afternoon at a Serbian Monastery with a certain monk, Lazar, whom if he had not taken a strict vow of celibacy, most of the women on the trip would have been happy to move to Bosnia for him. But he was immensely hospitable to all of us, and we spent several hours eating and visiting with him. His monastery was built in the 16th century, but had been destroyed several times by Croatians. He told one poignant story in which 8 monks were killed by Croatians in WW II. They found their bones in a nearby cave, and the remaining monks buried them and built a memorial. Then in the 1960s, another conflict began and a Croatian shell exploded on the memorial of the 8 martyrs killed in WWII, so Lazar said that the monks were "twice martyred".

They've since picked up the pieces and built a new memorial for the twice martyred monks inside the monastery, hopefully where they may now rest in peace.

That evening we had an absolutley incredible experience that I'm not even sure I have digested yet, but I will tell you the bare bones of it at least here. We traveled to our hotel, which is in the city of Blagaj. Here in Blagaj is a Tekke, or a Sufi house of prayer. In Islam, there are Sunnis and Shias, and the Sufis exist outside of those "denominations" and are the most mystical sect of Islam.

Dzevad, our guide (and a Muslim himself) brought us to this house of prayer that evening and asked the members if we could come up to the second floor of the Tekke and watch as they prayed. After a little haggling and discussion, they decided to invite us in!

This is the outside of the Tekke. It is set back under an overhanging cliff - Hard to see in the picture though.

What an incredible experience. The women were asked to "cover up", as you can see in the picture, and we all went up the stairs to a small room filled with about ten men sitting in a circle.



They went through about an hours work of prayers, some of which I was able to discern with my very basic Arabic knowledge. But it was just beautiful beyond words. In Sufi tradition, you pray by continually repeating God's name over and over or by repeating phrases from the Quran over and over, until some type of mystical state is reached. The rhythm started very slowly and then began to build and pick up speed, and when the imam was ready he would ratchet the prayer up a notch and chant the phrase in a higher pitch (kind of like a Key Change - or at least it had that affect). We were all in awe of this experience, and Dzevad said that if we thought it was amazing with only 10 Sufis, we should experience the same prayers where there hundreds of Sufis gathered. The experience, he says, is unforgettable. I know this one was, even with only 10.

Afterwards we had time to meet with the Sufis for tea. Dzevad and I joined the men and the women went into a separate room with the women Sufis. The people were incredibly hospitable and engaging. Many were fluent in English and one even spent some time in the U.S. But the most amazing encounter was this - the imam and I were discussing this sect of Islam, and he told me this story -

"Our sheik's sheik, back in the 18th century, said that if someone comes to the threshold of your Tekke, a visitor, do not ask them about their faith. If you see that they have a soul from God, give them bread and tea, and invite them in."

I responded, "You definitely have done this for me tonight." And he shrugged his shoulders and said, "That's what we do."

What an encounter - I am still processing it all, but it was really powerful to be there and hear him tell me these things.

OK, so I have to go eat breakfast, but I have uploaded more photos, so I will go into lightning mode to describe the next two days :)

We spent most of the next day in Mostar, a beautiful old city. This is the famous bridge, which was built 500 years ago, but destroyed in the war. We watched a documentary on how the village reclaimed the stones from the river and recently rebuilt the bridge to its original splendor.


This is me cheesing it up from the top of the tallest minaret in Mostar. You can see the bridge in the background. A minaret is the tall tower from which the Muslim call to prayer is offered. Amazing view isn't it!

Fast foward to Tuesday. We traveled to Canton 10, the poorest section of Bosnia, to check out the Week of Compassion Partners in Bosansko Grahovo. We paired off into 2 and visited local beneficiaries of the money we Disciples send to the region. I have so much to say about it, but I will just say here that it was really amazing to see the end result of Week of Compassion's work. This first image was taken at Boro and Brankas house. They are Bosnian Serbs, run out of their land during the war by invading Croatians, and WoC has helped them to not only return to their home, but through Church World Service, WoC has given them small loans with very low interest to help buy new cattle, sheep, and to even dig a well.

This is Diane Faires, a recent grad from Vanderbilt Divinity School, walking with Boro and two representatives from the local non-government organization with whom we partner.


And this is me staring into a brand spanking new Milk Freezer! This is another real-life blessing that Week of Compassion has been able to provide the villages surrounding Bosansko Grahovo. By creating a milk cooperative, the villagers are able to send all their cows milk to this container and freeze it within 24 hours of its production. Then, by pooling it all together, they can sell it on the European market and create an income for their families.

Now fast forward to the city of Rama and Schit. We spent the night and the next day (Wednesdsay) at the Franciscan Monastery in Rama, which might actually be the closest thing to paradise I have ever seen. Check out this view!

If you stare really hard, you can see my fellow seminarians' shadows in the foreground. And if you stare really really hard, you can see the monaster that we stayed at. It is the big church building right in the middle of the lake! Absolutely incredible!!

We spent time at this site because with all the action and crazy traveling around Bosnia / Herzegovina, Amy and Dzevad planned this time at the monastery as time for us to do some contemplation, prayer, reading, and simply time to just "Be still and know that God is God" as Pslam 46 says. It was lovely, and much needed!


This cross was on the grounds of the monastery, and the sky that evening was breathtaking.

Wednesday morning was overcast, but this view (from the monastery island and, more exactly, from my room's window) would require a lot more than a little clouds to take away its splendor!

I feel I've just given you a skeleton of the experience in this one. There were three days to cover and just not much time to write. But at least now you know that I'm alive and well, and that we are all having an incredible experience seeing how our local Disciples churches in the U.S. are impacting those who have suffered so much in Bosnia and Herzegovina. More to come!