Just Go is a ministry that is run by YWAM in partnership with Soul Survivor. It is aimed at GCSE and A-level leavers who have an extra long summer, but not exclusive to them. Just Go aims to give them a taste for mission and an opportunity to put their faith into action in a new way. This year we had 5 teams altogether, going to Serbia, Moldova, Czech Republic, Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. My team was made up of 6 people in total, 4 English, 1 American and 1 Canadian. We connected with a local church run by a couple (Robert and Sandrina) who have been missionaries in the country since before the war in the 90’s but were forced to flee during the conflict and returned a few years ago. They also work with a lovely English lady called Gina, she has been in the country for just over 2 years, and hosted us.
We heard from God to go into the city centre and ask people what their hopes for Sarajevo were. We got such a mixed response from people, some said they had no hope and just want to leave, some not really giving serious answers and others taking time to really think, mostly desiring change in politics and mindsets. We asked people to write on pieces of cardboard that we had set up and we used their responses in our times of intercession.
Our host, Gina, came to Sarajevo having heard God tell her to build a ‘mercy seat’ and take it to the people. She had a simple seat made and we got to spend a couple of days taking it out into the city. We set it up, asking people if they wanted to come sit and receive prayer. We always started with worship wherever we set it up. On one occasion we had a guy who was a child in the war come and join us. He came from the other side of the park as we were worshipping, sat down with us and started to talk. He was desperate to find freedom, having lost family and friends, so we listened to his story and were able to share that our freedom comes from Jesus and pray for him. He left his contact details with Gina so people from the church are going to continue that journey with him.
During our time we did quite a bit of work in the parks with local kids, making balloon models and face painting, etc. as well as doing some litter picking. These gave us such great opportunities to have conversations with parents, to bring joy and help the church build relationships in the community. We all got very good at making balloon animals over our time, but we had to be careful of how much we verbally shared with the kids because there is a law in Bosnia against evangelising minors, so we did the best we could to show the love of Christ through our actions. We also led the Sunday service, sharing testimonies of where we have seen God move in our lives and others lives. At the end of the service we were able to pray for the people in the church.
Over the last couple of years the church and others in the country have been working on something really exciting, the first Christian Bosnian film. The film ‘Sabina K’ follows the story of a muslim woman who becomes pregnant and shortly after her fiancee leaves her. She then loses her job, her home and her family disown her. It follows her journey of growing in hopelessness until she tries to commit suicide twice. The second time she has an encounter with Jesus and her life turns around. It is such a powerful story, first because it is true, and second it deals with taboo subjects in the country and displays so well the contrast of the hope of Jesus to the hopelessness that many people feel. The film was accepted into the Sarajevo Film Festival, one of the biggest festivals in the calendar and not easy to get into, at which it will be premiering in August. We were able to preview the film, which is amazing and very high quality, and features a number of the most famous actors in the country. The church want to be able to use this as an evangelism tool, to show it to small groups then spend time asking questions afterwards, the film is really well set up for this. We were all greatly impacted by it and it opened up our eyes to more of what was going on around us in Sarajevo.
All in all the team was amazing, and the trip was life changing. We got to see God do so much and had the opportunity to come along side long term missionaries in the nation, to help and encourage them in what they are doing. God has certainly used this trip to challenge my heart on how I look and interact with people in hopeless situations. Thank you for helping me be able to invest in others lives and to share the hope and love of Jesus.
