Balkan Field Forum - Day 1: Getting There

Thanks to the wonders of technology and now having wireless capability at our Field Forum destination, I thought it would be fun to bring you along for the ride. :)

Every year my colleages from Kosovo, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Macedonia get together for fun, fellowship and, yes, business. This is the 9th annual Field Forum and I believe it's the 8th year that we've come to the same place: Bashka Voda, Croatia. The short teams who come from the US to minister joke with us that they can't share thier photos back in the States because it's just too beautiful here. But for us on the field it's a very welcomed retreat, and personally, something I look forward to each year as the time spent on this small patch of land on the Dalmation coast and with colleagues is so special.

From Skopje it's a very Loooooonnnnnnggggg drive to Bashka Voda, but it's through some amazingly diverse and gorgeous landscape (truely, I have yet to go to a place in the Balkans that didn't take my breath away in one way or another). The trip this year began at O-dark-thirty (aka 5am) for my colleagues who two hours later picked me up in Skopje. From there we headed to Prishtina, Kosovo and the Route 66 Diner to meet up with the second car in our caravan (it's always more fun to travel together). This year we also had walkie-talkies, so that made it even more fun.

On every trip there are moments and images that stand out. The first one for us was this group of goats, seemingly without a shepherd (is that was goat-herders are called too???). We'd just rounded a bend in the twisty-windy-hair-pinned road heading up the mountain above Pec/Peja towards Montenegro and saw this group. They saw us (a big Kia aka really big goat) and stopped dead in their tracks, looking hopelessly confused! Finally, after my colleague honked a few times they got it in gear and moved past us. We were laughing so hard... you can't see it in the picture, but the looks on their faces were hysterical.

The bulk of yesterday's driving was through the windy mountains of Montenegro.... some of the most beautiful mountians I've ever seen (and I'm from Northern California, so that's saying a lot). What's amazing to me are the homes and farms on seemingly uninhabitable land high up on the sides of those mountians. "Wild Beauty" is the tourism tagline for Montenegro and I think it truly fits. There are some years where we've seen this "wild beauty" up close and personal as landslides have at times covered the road, resulting in either hours waiting in long lines to be guided through in a narrow-harrowing one-lane... or other times where we had the detour of all detours: a police guided 4-hour 15MPH detour on a harrowing narrow windy pot-holed road through some very old villages.

Once out of the mountains we come to Podgoritsa fairly quickly and if we're too tired to continue we find a place to stay the night. This trip we arrived into Podgoritsa around 4pm and were still up for traveling more. So on we pressed, boarding ferry (pictured), crossing into Croatia, then Bosnia, and then back to Croatia (look at a map, it's confusing) and continuing further until about 8:30pm and just south of Dubrovnik. We found this amazing little place run by the sweetest couple ever and it only cost us 15Euro a person, had a view of the Adriatic and included breakfast.

This morning began a bit leisurely as we chatted with the couple and our colleagues over breakfast, then come 10am we were on the road again. There was a detour not too far past Dubrovnik that took us close to the Bosnian border (again) before heading back north. One of the highlights here were the fresh produce stands. After passing several we couldn't resist stopping. 4 hours later we pulled into our destination at Baska Voda. ahh.

One of the things I enjoy most about these annual road trips to Field Forum is the extended time of fellowship with colleagues. We discuss many things, laugh a lot, and encourage one another. It's really neat to see how in the five and a half years that I've been on the field how relationships have grown, strengthened and deepened. My colleagues have become like family to me. On this trip we talked about so many things, some funny, but others deeply serious. Because of the relationship of trust, built over time with lots of grace, we talked with much candor from topics of field business and the major transition ahead of us to the importance of spiritual/emotional/mental and physical health for life but also for longevity on the field. We fleshed out some application to our lives of spiritual truths or things that God was teaching us.

The time in the car was not only quantity time, but so much quality. I'm so grateful to the Lord for this group of men and women that I have the priviledge to labor with. I look forward to the days ahead where we will continue to solidify our relationships as a team as well as with our Lord. Please do be in prayer for us in these coming days especially as we will be having some serious business discussions that will affect our future. Thank you.

Last note: Todays opening was just a fun night welcoming everyone and then playing "Are you as smart as an MK" covering topics like "Kosovo Imports", "Country Flags" and "Bosnian Child-rearing." I'll try to get some of the questions and include them in a later blog as they were all pretty funny.