Pre-Bosnia

The team going to Zenica, Bosnia

(Note I shared on facebook on 9/9/09)

Dedications
Hey friends!!! I just wanted to share with you guys my experience in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia.I'm not good at summarizing (yes I admit this note may contain a "little" too much info) but I've separated the note into small sections so you could read the section(s) you want. Enjoy! (try to or atleast learn something :)

Prologue
I am part of an organization called InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in my university. We usually have Small Group Bible studies once a week, Large Group meetings, conferences, outreaches on campus, and local projects as well as global ones each summer (in Bosnia).

I heard about Bosnia from people who went there last summer. I thought of applying but I was iffy since I was in the process of applying for a summer internship. Melissa, one of the InterVarsity Staff and Bosnia project leader, kept on encouraging me to go. I told her that I wasn’t sure and gave her all the reasons why (excuses). She told me to pray about it and I later told her that God hadn’t told me anything so she was like if He hasn’t said no then just say yes and go. I liked that response so I decided to close my summer internship application, stop making excuses and go to Bosnia. I knew that if God wanted me to go He would make a way for me in spite of all the obstacles. And that’s how my adventure begun,...with me saying,"ok, I'll go" :-)

Fundraising
Once the team going to Bosnia was finalized we started working on fundraising as a team and individually. As a team, we sent out support letters to everyone we knew, we had a car wash at a local church, we also made chevapi (yummy Bosnian sausage-shaped meat :) and sold them after church, we also made calls to InterVarsity alumni and we prayed for God to provide. Personally, I knew that it was a lot of money to raise in a short time and I didn't know too many people in the states but I still knew that God would provide if He wanted me to go, and I didn't see why He wouldn't. I was surprised that the people I didn't expect to give me anything (since we weren't that close) were the ones who gave me the most. And by the time we were leaving, He had provided enough and when we were in Bosnia, we were all fully funded! =)

Passport and Travel Document Drama

As you may already know, I am not a US citizen so that meant that I needed to get a Bosnian visa. So as soon as I decided to go I had to start working on the visa application. That's when I discovered that my passport was going to expire a month after the arrival date back to the U.S. (for some countries your passport has to be valid for atleast 3 months after your arrival date). I was planning to renew my passport then but the Kenyan embassy said that the process took 2-3 months but that would be cutting it too close; so my sis Flo adviced me to call the airline we were going to be using and ask them whether those rules apply for Bosnia as well. So I made the call and they told me that those rules did not apply for Bosnia and that as long as my passport was valid, I was all good to go. I was glad to hear that because I could just focus on applying for a visa only. I thought that I would be working on the visa application myself but some of the InterVarsity staff said they'll take care of it. All I had to do was give them my info then keep on calling the Bosnian embassy to see if they received it. Sounds easy right? but it turned into a more complicated process than that due to some miscommunication. In short: I thought that they sent all the paperwork to the embassy but when I called I found out they was still a lot that wasnt done so I got to it because it was just one month before the trip. After I finally sent all they had asked for I had to wait like for 2 weeks to find out whether my application was approved and if it was I would have to fly to Chicago to get interviewed and hopefully fly back with a visa. Crazy huh?...Meanwhile, I was preparing for my final exams.

After the two weeks I called hoping to hear good news but I got bad news instead. The embassy guy told me that he "could not issue me the visa because my passport was going to expire in September!" I told him about the call I made 2 months ago but he told me that I had been given the wrong info and that my passport had to be valid 3 months after the trip. After that disappointing call I felt mad, confused and a bit helpless." After all that work how can it end this way," I thought to myself. I was in my dorm room at that time studying for Chem I think. I couldn't study at that time because of the bad news. I was just about to have a pity party but I realized that that wouldn't help my situation at all so I decided to do something crazy. I decided to sing songs of praise to God ( I had recently heard a sermon about the power of praise in all circumstances plus I'd been reading Psalms and David did it a lot). So I closed my books, stood up, clapped my hands, danced around a bit and sang a praise song to God. I think at one point I laughed at myself thinking "this looks crazy,...I get bad news, I'm sad and I'm singing a happy song." I still knew that God is good and nothing is impossible with Him. Anyway after the odd praise session, I was less negative and focussed on getting a solution instead of whining over the problem. I called my sis Flo and she gave me the idea of contacting the Kenyan Embassy and applying for a travel document. I then called Melissa and gave her the bad and good news.
Then another process began....the Kenyan embassy said they could issue me the travel document only if the Bosnia embassy could accept it. So I went back and forth between both embassies until the Bosnian embassy finally approved, the Kenyan embassy issued it to me ( I had to get it from LA) then I sent it to the Bosnian embassy in Chicago. Fortunately I didn't have to go there for the interview, we did it on skype instead :) Finally! I got my travel document just a few days before orientation, a week and a half before our flight. (Thank God!!!)

Orientation in Santa Barbara

During Orientation, we made some more calls to fundraise for the trip since we were all not fully funded. We learnt about the history of Bosnia: it used to be part of former Yugoslavia then... to be continued...

Bosnia!!! ( Journal Extracts!!!)

Camp

Croatia!!!

Back to the US

BEHOLD!

Tis the season to see wholly falalala-lalalala :-)
Awareness trends at UCSB and globally.

*Behold= To direct the eyes to, or fix them upon, an object; to look; to see clearly; to comprehend.

*Awareness of= Knowledge of, understanding of, appreciation of, recognition of, attention to, perception of, consciousness of,  enlightenment with, realization of, familiarity with, mindfulness of.



At the beginning of Spring quarter I was organizing an event for the screening of Nefarious: Merchant of souls, a really awesome award-winning documentary on the global sex trade (check out the-> trailer <-). I had seen it over winter break and I really loved it. I saw on their facebook page that they were doing tours in California in Spring so I emailed them and found out that they were going in our area the 2nd week of April which was awesome since they could make it to UCSB on the 12th. So April 12th was actually a perfect date for the event since April is Sexual Assault Awareness month as I found out (we co-hosted the event with Men Against rape and the Human Rights Board).

I went to the Human rights board meeting and also to A.S. finance board meeting to request funding for the event and it was at those meetings that my eyes were opened to something that was happening on campus. It’s like all groups/clubs decided to take a day to spread awareness about an injustice, to expose myths or to correct misunderstandings about a particular issue or just for the sake of appreciation. And for many groups, one day wasn't enough, they picked a whole week in order to focus on the many different aspects of the issues they were exposing. For example, there was black culture week and 6x awareness whereby they focussed on the various issues affecting the black community at large; Rahel was putting on Health Disparities week to expose issues in healthcare faced by underserved populations; there was human rights week; middle eastern awareness week; a group of Jewish students (Santa Barbara Hillel I think) was having a week to celebrate passover and other aspects of their culture; and many other events by different groups.

So it looks like Spring is awareness season. Awareness of what? Millions of women and children are victims of sex trafficking (modern day slavery), thousands of black people are victims of racist, unjust laws, millions of people without access to healthcare, millions of children starving to death, billions of people suffering under corrupt governments, various forms of discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, culture, sex, age... the list goes on and on. Frustrating and depressing right? In short, it is awareness of how messed up this world is; familiarity with the breadth, depth and height of the mess. So I was thinking... spreading awareness is great but after all's been said (the world is messed up) what can be done? But first, there are different categories that we may fall under:

• Ignorant- a.Those that don't know what's going on in the world around them- we don't know everything so we find ourselves in this category all the time. "It is a myth that ignorance is a solvable problem. Ignorance is not a solvable problem; it is rather an inescapable part of human condition. We cannot comprehend the world in its entirety." (David Orr) b.Those that don't know and don't care to know or pretend that they know- This is a bad category to be in because like someone said, the only hindrance to truth is a presumption that you already have it. *To do: seek knowledge or be found by knowledge.
• Aware- People who have either sought out knowledge or it has been presented to them. So they know the problems. To do: Seek out solutions and act on them. “You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” (William Wilberforce)
• World-changers- Were ignorant, then they sought out or were found by knowledge (aware of problem), then sought out solution or were presented with solution, act on solution and make a change. Best category to be in =)

Time to Behold, Time to Know

So yeah, spreading awareness is really important since we cannot change what we do not see as a problem. So yeah we need to see, not just to see but to see clearly, to see wholly. 

“We need “wholesight,” a vision of the world in which mind and heart unite...Only as we can see whole can we and our world be whole.” (Palmer)

*We need wholesight/ unity which brings about true vision (seeing clearly) which results in true and lasting change.

The world is becoming more aware of the necessity of wholesight, for example, there's a big shift occuring in healthcare, as I found out through my underserved medicine class. Healthcare in the West is shifting from disease treatment to preserving wellness (looking at all aspects of life such as nutrition, exercise, etc).

What I loved about the Nefarious documentary is it's holistic approach to the problem (sex trafficking)- it didn't just look at the surface of the problem but it digs deep and exposes the roots ( It looks at how systemic issues such as: mafia, government involvement, economic hardships, cultural issues, family issues are fueled by spiritual issues such as lust and greed). It also takes a holistic approach at solving the problem. It shows how just educating people doesn't solve the problem, just giving money doesn't help either. If the roots of the issues (spiritual aspects) are ignored the problem will keep popping up, lasting change will not result. Exodus cry, the anti-trafficking organization headed by the director of the film, takes a comprehensive approach: political action, social action as well as spiritual action. (I have a copy of the movie if anyone wants to watch it :)
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Awareness of The Solution. Awareness of The "Real Jesus"

More than anything we need to become aware of the solution instead of just focussing on the problems. You really should watch the film for your self because I'm not doing it justice (I have a copy if you wanna borrow). If you've seen the trailer, at the very end Jesus is mentioned as the hope for change. Majority of the former sex trafficking victims even after years of counseling do not go back to living a normal life and the ones in the documentary share their story of how an encounter with Jesus changed their lives, an encounter with unconditional love. This is probably the part where you wanna tune out since I mentioned Jesus and you think you know him or you don't know and don't care, or you don't know but you think you do or you know him and are satisfied with what you know. Wherever you are in that spectrum, since he claims to be The hope for change, I think he deserves the time of day (or night lol). By the way this post is addressed to everyone, including Christians. It's "wake-up-and-open-your-eyes-wide" season for everyone :)

"Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." (Psalm 24:8)

Jesus is the most misunderstood person in the world (among non-christians and also among many christians). That's why awareness needs to be spread about His real identity, His full identity as He has revealed Himself; who He really is, what He actually did, what He is doing now and what He is going to do in the near future. To know the real Jesus we need wholesight/unity which brings about true vision and results in true and lasting change. [I have more posts to share concerning this: Jesus and the Love and Justice combo and yes it is pertinent and urgent]

As we have established, the world is messed up. We are in over our heads and we need a Hero and His name is Jesus. He will not only save our souls but also make right this wrong wrong world we live in. He shall reign and He is coming soon! =)

(Click this link for the lyrics if you can't hear them)

"For to us a child is born, 

    to us a son is given, 

    and the government will be on his shoulders. 

And he will be called

    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, 

    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

Of the greatness of his government and peace 

    there will be no end. 

He will reign on David’s throne

    and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

    with justice and righteousness 

    from that time on and forever. 

The zeal of the Lord Almighty

    will accomplish this."

(Isaiah 9: 6-7)

So since Jesus claims to be The remedy if we want to see change then let's seek Jesus for ourselves, His love is what transforms us and equips us to change the world. (A dance we did at InterVarsity's dance off after common ground lol)

“Everybody wants to change the world. Nobody wants to change themselves.” ~ Leo Tolstoy.

*Let's change the world (the world is made up of you and me), let's start with the man in the mirror =) (A dance we did in 2010 at the city clean up kick off)

"Lift up your heads, you gates;

    lift them up, you ancient doors,

    that the King of glory may come in.

Who is he, this King of glory?

    The Lord Almighty —

    he is the King of glory."

(Psalm 24: 8-10)

K that's enough for one post lol. This was like an introduction, there's more stuff I wanna share so stay tuned! Feel free to share comments or questions :)

Things to Behold:

1. LOVE! (post: I Have a Father)
2. The King of Glory! (posts: King Like Mine, Quick Testimony: FREEDOM! and Pimp My Ride) 

3. A New thing! (posts: REAL Identity and Africa ARISE!)

4. One New Man! (posts: Be ONE and I Have A Dream)

MAJESTY

Psalm 8

1 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants You have established a stronghold against your enemies,to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

5 You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

♫ Hakuna kama Wewe! [There is none like You!] ♫ =)

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I've always loved nature and science (the study of creation) since I was younger. The beauty of creation  has always pointed me to the beauty and reality of The Creator :-)

"...what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:19-20)

Check this out if you have 15min to spare. So cool! God is an awesome artist! THE Original. THE Creator :)

Lol this was me in freshman year during a "study break". (I think that's the quarter I failed Chemistry Hahaha :/ )

"I will sing to the Lord all my life;

    I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

May my meditation be pleasing to him,

    as I rejoice in the Lord." :-)

(Psalm 104: 33-34)

At the Ledge

My eyes can see as far as the horizon.

Strong wind beats against my face,

Penetrates into my head,

Mixes and flows randomly

With the confused thoughts inside.

I am at the ledge.

Wonderful view, beautiful scenery.

I have come this far, now what should I do?

“Forwards ever, backwards never!” the achiever’s motto.

Wise words of folly, where would they put me!

But what difference would there be, a step forward

Or a step back, the world will still be dark.

There’s pressure here,

Pressure there,

Pressure everywhere.

But once more I retreat,

Clinging onto the hope of some light

At the tunnel’s end, whenever that will be.

(Poem I wrote on 7/23/2008)

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:10) :-)

Tomorrow is a better day! God is by your side to stay. Keep on moving! Don't you dare give up! =)