 |
| The team going to Zenica, Bosnia |
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...
No comments:
Post a Comment