Last Juan

Hello friends and family! Our last two weeks in Sarajevo were amazing!

Each of us were able to meet up with our friends from the city and God did some powerful things through each one of us. We also spent lots of time at the skatepark hanging out with all of the skaters. One thing that I noticed was the difference in unity of the skaters. At the beginning of outreach they had their own little groups and crews and since we have been there everyone starts to hang out and interact together which is sick! We always said hey to everyone, and when the skaters noticed we didn't hang out with only one group they realized they could do the same! God has brought some really amazing changes in the atmosphere of the skate park and around skate culture. 

We also had to say goodbye to our amazing friends Kip and Erica Copland and their kids. They were our hosts in Sarajevo and they are some of the most amazing people I have met! Their house is filled with the Spirit's presence and is so peaceful and relaxing. It felt like home even though it was in Bosnia. 

Thank you everyone for your support and prayers during outreach. God did some awesome things in Bosnia and Croatia and I can't wait to tell you more when I'm home. I safely arrived back in Switzerland on Friday and have been reunited with the other team which is fantastic! We now have two weeks left of lectures before graduation. 

We will be doing a bunch of debrief and recap of our outreach as well as all that we have learned over the last seven months. It's will be a lot of reflection and processing. 

I officially come home two weeks from today on the 19th. Thank you again everyone for the love and support you have given me. 

It's amazing how much you can learn when you specifically set aside time to devote everything to God. That is when he has all of me to work with!

See you all very soon! 

Much love, Nick 

Week 23&24

Hey friends. So the last two weeks involved preparing for kids camp, setting up kids camp, leading kids camp, taking down kids camp, and sleeping. The week before camp we planned skits and games as well as took some time to pray and ask God about what we should teach on. So our actual week at the camp was not entirely kids camp, from Monday to Thursday the kids were age 8-15 and Thursday to Saturday the kids were 15-18. For both weeks the theme was fruit of the spirit. The first half of the week was done completely in Serbian. So we did skits based off the fruit of the spirit, but they were all translated. Translated humour always adds and interesting element to things. We played lots of games with the kids which they loved because we speak English (even though they don't). I learned lots of new Serbian words this week because the kids love to listen to me speak in "Serbian". I think me speaking Serbian is funnier to them than my jokes. 

It was amazing to make friends with kids and youth from the city we stayed at because after camp we saw them around the city! 

For youth camp each one of us on the team taught on a different fruit of the spirit. I happened to get gentleness, which was actually harder for me to talk about because I have never actually thought about it before. If the fruits if the spirit are traits of who God is then of course he is gentle! It was cool to pray into what God wanted me to speak on and even cooler when he began to speak to me about what to share. Having opportunities to teach others has been something I have really enjoyed throughout outreach. Sometimes it's easy and other times it is not as easy, but I am excited for God to grow me in my intimacy with him and continue to learn and share what I learn with others! 

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support! We now are back in Sarajevo (still in Bosnia) for the last ten days of our outreach before we head back to Switzerland. 

Much love, see you soon. 

Nick 

Week 22

(I look pissed but I'm not) 

Hello all this week has been fairly relaxed as next week we are preparing for kids camp and the week after, camp starts! So it's about to get busy. 

This week we worked on a project for the church we are staying with. They had a bunch of doors and door frames that needed to be sanded and painted. So we spent a few days doing that. We also cleaned out and organized a storage container that the church owns. 

Our time in Banja Luka has been fairly chill but it has involved some cool worship times where God continues to speak to me and confirm what I have learned. It's weird that we have 3 weeks left of DTS! It has gone by so fast. God continues to speak and teach me and it blows my mind how much he wants to interact with me. Thank you so much to everyone who have been sending me messages and supporting me! I miss home lots but I am looking forward to what God will do in the last weeks! 

Much love

Nick

Week 21

Hey guys! I trust everyone is doing well! We unfortunately left the coast and had to leave Croatia behind. We are now in Banjaluka which is in the northern part of Bosnia. It's also the Serbian part, so there are less mosques and more cathedrals! We walked into one and it is SO beautiful! No photos allowed tho. 

We arrived here on Tuesday of this week. 

We have been doing some orientation and did a scavenger hunt around the city! I had to take a load of pictures of Tanner in front of monuments and random things around the city. It was good times. We also have been going to a children's home/orphanage to hang out with kids. It's amazing there! There are around 30-40 kids that I have seen, and there are more around that I haven't met yet. We did a photo booth with them, played lots of soccer, and they got to watch me fall really hard on the cement off my skateboard. They also have never really tried skateboarding so the kids lie down on them on their stomachs and crawl around. Those kids have way too much fun on them. 

They don't have a skatepark in the city but there is one main area with lots of ledges and open space for flat ground tricks. That is where the skaters congregate to skate and most definitely sit around too. The skaters I have met so far are older dudes and really down to earth. They were telling me skate culture is a safe place for them where they are free to just skate and make good friends which is really cool. They are also open to hear about what we believe which is sweet. I think God will give us some cool opportunities with them as we are here in the city for most of June! 

That is just a quick little update! God continually meets us where we are at, teaches us new things, and we love him more and more each day. Thanks so much for your prayers and support! 

Much love, Nick

Week 20

Hello friends! Sorry my blog is a little late, we have had some interesting internet situations the past week. I hope all is well in Canada! 

Croatia has been so amazing! Out if my adventures so far it's made it's way to the top of the list of my favourite places. Pebble beaches, beautiful mountains, some unreal skipping stones, and exquisite fast food! The people here are so friendly! We have met lots of Croatians and their families through church events and connections we have here. This week we were able to do some beach clean up in the little town we are staying. Even though the people we spoke to loved it, it really surprised them! It was cool to be able to tell them that we love the people here and love the town and wanted to bless them! Later that day we went into a high school English class and talked about YWAM and invited kids to a youth night that we were hosting!

We were also able to do some cool work in Split (the big city) with some churches! The youth night at one church had around 25-30 kids, Andrew our leader shared his story and it really touched the hearts of everyone there. Then we were able to tell them about YWAM, what we have been doing and of course show them some of our silly footage from last season of riding. They loved it! We played a bunch of games which was loads of fun trying to figure them out in English and Croatian. 

We also went to a church service where Aleah and myself were able to share what God has been doing in us over the past weeks/months. It was so fun to be able to tell people what God is doing in my life and challenge them to go deeper and discover more of who God is and what he has in store for them! 

We had a cool prayer time in small groups after the service that was really powerful. I love, trying, to worship in other languages...lol. It's amazing to hear the passion and excitement the Croatians have for what God is doing in the church here. The Holy Spirit spoke very clearly during our prayer times and we were able to bless the church, and they also blessed us! It was such an amazing time. 

We had another opportunity as a team to do some work for a few elderly people in a church we visited last week. We cleaned out one back yard of trash, metal, wood, massive rocks, and loads of other unknown things. It was nice to use our muscles again and get some stuff done! Then in the evening we went to anther woman's house to help her with some small projects and cleaning. Then she gave us an unreal meal at the end! Her English was fairly broken, but she was able to share her story with us and pray with us. This was really encouraging for her. Especially the fact that we were young people investing in the generation above us. 

(We found a lizard) 

Our time in Croatia has been filled with a lot of adventure and relationship building! I am most definitely coming back here some time in my life because it is so peaceful. God's presence here is all about peace and rest. This makes it pretty easy to be lazy, but it also gave our team lots of opportunity to rest and spend quiet time with the Holy Spirit. 

Thanks again for your messages of encouragement and prayers. I miss you guys tons.  It's insane how fast this adventure is going, we have 8 weeks left! 

We would love continued prayer for unity and for God to keep speaking so clearly to our hearts. 

Much love, Nick 

Week 19

Friends, I hope life is fantastic! 

This week we made it to Kaśtela Croatia on Monday! It has to be one of the most amazing places I have ever been. But it's kind of a secret, I don't want everyone to tell their friends so when I try and come back it's full of tourists... However, we are staying in a classic Mediterranean house 5 meters from the Sea. We are doing some work with Ywamers in town who are working to start a sailing dts here eventually! We went to the big city, Split, for street ministry which was really cool! We made balloon animals and gaven them out to kids as well as playing worship music. I also played soccer with a bunch of little kids, it was great to play in the middle of all the tourists! The old European men loved when the ball rolled to them so they could kick it back and re live some of the glory days. On Friday night we went to a small local church and shared our testimonies and what God has taught us throughout dts. It's so cool to see the Holy Spirit work in their hearts as they listen! 

(Found a cactus on an abandon roof) 

We have done a bit of debrief as a team this week because we are half way through outreach, just to reflect on what we have learned. It is amazing to think back to the beginning of dts and see how much God has done in me. God is always going to have something to teach me or reveal to me and I think that is so amazing! He will never run out of places for me to explore, people to meet, and truths to discover. 

This week while we had some free time we went skating in Split and Tanner and I ran into these two Swiss guys. They told us they are on a 5 month  bycicle trip around Europe! Typical Swiss people biking for days. It was cool to hear their story and pray for them. They were quite surprised that skaters were wanting to pray for them, but they still thought it was really cool. 

A highlight of the week was sailing on the Mediterranean! The YWAMers here are going to be starting a sailing dts, so today we went out on a chartered ship to pray, learn how to sail, and obviously have some fun. It was sick to hear what God has placed on these people's hearts and the vision and excitement they have for the upcoming dts. 

Tomorrow we are going to a center for kids with disabilities to bless the workers and play and pray for some kids! We are looking forward to it. 

Thank you for your messages and encouragement! Miss you all! 

Nick  

Week 18

Hello all! This past week has been so awesome! We continued working with the ywam Denver team and started off with cleaning up the fort above the city. It was sooo full of trash, and the group of us, including the Gubler family (our base leaders), were able to clean up almost 15 bags of trash. The difference is amazing! While we were up there two students who run the networking for Bosnia's top internet magazine were there chatting with our team members and took pictures! They are writing a story about us and what our teams are doing in the city. That was a pretty cool connection. 

For the rest of the week we were in the residential part of the city. For three days we hung out at the park all afternoon playing frisbee, soccer, and doing crafts with the kids there! It was so fun to be able to just hang out with the kids and show them that we are care about them! Some kids challenged us "Americans" to a soccer game which we lost on the first day by one point. The second day we won which raised all our spirits! These kids were 12-15 and unreal at soccer. This was no child's play. I have some gnarly turf burn and blisters from burnt feet from the hot ground. Good times playing with children. Every morning before we went to the park we had a worship time with both teams and God consistently showed up. One morning he put it on our hearts to pray for each other, ask for prophetic words etc and it was amazing! My favourite thing about this place is how easy it is to pick out what God is doing. 

(I'm not sure if you can tell but that kid is mid spitting a loogie at my phone)

We were also able to have some ywamer bonding time last weekend. Both teams, our base leaders, and our ywam contacts from sarajevo all hit the local pool to have way too much fun. We didn't even get called out by the lifeguard which was a miracle in itself! 

The ywam Denver team left on Friday morning and our team is now preparing to leave to Croatia for a couple weeks of debrief and ministry. We have an apartment by the sea and are looking forward to hopefully some warm weather, meeting some new friends, and bringing God and his amazing character along the way! Our time in Sarajevo has been life changing to say the least. It really changed my outlook on who God is, how he shows up, and how powerful he really is! I'm so thankful for everyone's prayers and support. I miss home a lot, but I am so thankful for the amazing opportunities and adventures I am having. 

Much love, Nick