June 17 - 23, 2012. Banja Luka/Varazdin

On Saturday we drove to Banja Luka, Bosnia. The Erickson's are a support to the group here. Not a branch, as there are not enough members. On Sunday we attended church which is held in the house that the Erickson's live in on the weekends. The young Elders live on the ground floor, the church is on the 2nd floor. And the Erickson's live on the top floor. There was 18 in attendance. The church is just taking off in Bosnia. They have a group in Banja Luka, Sarajevo, and "soon to be" in Tuzla. Tuzla is going to be opened up by the Winters. We are going to be going to Tuzla next week to look for housing and a place to hold church. We have heard rumors that there a two young boys who are members of the church living there, we shall see.

On Monday we visited the Red Cross in Banja Luka. We confirmed that we would be attending a closing for a clean water project that the Erickson's| developed. We also visited a rehabilitation hospital. There is a  difference between the hospitals in Croatia and Bosnia. We were also able to visit another great project. The church provided the materials to remodel the attic area of the New Generation children's shelter. The space provides a play area for the children in the shelter. The church also provided toys and hygiene kits with the help of some local church members.

On Tuesday we visited a Muslim soup kitchen. The church provided a new oven for the soup kitchen that provides daily meals to the needy in the Muslim population of Banja Luka. The oven will provide 3 1/2 times more than their current capacity. We also visited a hospital in Prijedor. The church recently had a NRT (Neonatal Resuscitation Training) there.  Another one is planned for November. Here we visited "The Baby Box" which is their nursery. It was interesting. They had 13 babies in the box at the time we visited. There were lots of empty bassinets, all 13 babies were in 4 carts. There were two who were brand new - they each weighed over 4 kilos (8.8 lbs). The mothers stay in the hospital 3 days and get one year off work with pay.

At the| "Baby Box"

Wednesday we attended the closing of a clean water/sanitation project for a local school in Banja Luka, Bosnia. The church purchased supplies so the school could be connected to the municipal sewer system which eliminated a unsanitary septic system.

Thursday we returned to Croatia (a 3 hour drive).

Friday we visited a garden project in Karlovac, Croatia. Here the church helped with materials and supplies for members to plant and care for their community garden. This provides fresh vegetables to needy families.



Us with the Žarko Sikirica (Branch President)

The garden is narrow and very long

Saturday the Erickson's |took the car and returned to Banja Luka for their last sacrament meeting there before returning home on the 2nd of July. This left us on foot in Varazdin. We were able to walk to the town center to get Gary a haircut and buy fresh vegetables. We returned home, cleaned the apartment, washed and ironed our clothes and basically got ready for Sunday.