A fast trip to Zadar....

   Zadar hates us... that's all I can say, it just hates us! Twice now we have visited this supposedly beautiful, idealic, costal town in Croatia only to be met with clouds, wind and rain. Is it our timing or just that the town hates us? I'm trying not to take it personally, but really I'm a little concerned. Zadar is the birthplace of the gospel here in this part of the world and this June the mission is planning a big celebration down there to commemorate the 40th anniversary of that event. We told the President that we really didn't think he wanted us to go, Zadar hates us, if they want good weather they need to leave us up north. I don't believe he bought it, but time will tell come June 1,2, and 3. We will be there and really are looking forward to taking our youth from Banja Luka to the youth activities and celebrations that are being planned. But I still maintain it's risky to allow the Erickson’s to attend!


    Zadar may hate us, but our hearts were warmed by the gratitude that the rest home there felt for us when we gave them a 46 inch flat screen T.V. to go on the wall in their lunch/gathering room. They had one on a desk in the room but it had a mind of its own and would at intermittent times just start screeching. No funds for a new one were in their budget so they were especially appreciative of our efforts to help them get a new one! It will be a source of great pleasure for these old people who depend on it for entertainment, news and a link to the outside world. Needless to say, they do not have T.V's in their individual rooms so this is their only source of media. We have the best job in the world, don't we???

One of the cute little residents and a staff member. I think I will start the trend of wearing scarfs over my head.
I think it's a great idea for a bad hair day. What do you think?

    We took time while we were there to go to lunch with our missionaries. There are a set of Sisters as well as a set of Elders down there. Soon, our friends, Elder and Sister Tanner from Brigham City will be assigned there as well and will be an amazing addition to the branch and missionary effort in the city that hates us! The Tanners have been working in the office temporarily until the permanent office couple arrived a week ago. As soon as they are done training the new couple, they will move to Zadar. We will miss them when we stop into the office, but will look forward to seeing them again in June.

Elder Mattson and Elder Marks

Sister Clegg, Tihana (our translator) and Sister Craiger

   Zadar is a three and a half hour drive each way, so it was a long day on Tuesday. On Weds. we headed to Zagreb to visit the Red Cross and have a closing with a group called "Hope". It is the only organization in the Balkans that has been established to help those who suffer from Anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders. They wanted to set up a small counseling/ support group center so girls could come and just hang out with others that understood their difficulties and didn't judge them. We helped them buy some chairs, office furniture and a small refrigerator to get them started up. They have worked hard to paint and clean the space that they had donated to them by the city and it was really looking great when we arrived. We wish them well, they are good people trying to help a group of young people who are struggling with diseases that are still not fully recognized and understood by health, mental health and government officials here in these countries.




We gave the director a picture to hang on the wall, he was so pleased and invited us to come back and visit when we could.



Anxiously we booted up the computer Thurs. night the first thing when we got home and realized that our orphanage project that we had written up and submitted had been approved! Yeah! So this week we are staying in Banja Luka all week to start working on that project and also to hopefully close a couple of others. We were nervous because there are not really enough recipients to fit into the parameters of most of our projects, but our people in Germany must have felt like it fell into the category of, "just the right thing to do". Indeed it is. We will be shopping for 4 sets of bunk beds, pillows, sheets and mattress covers this week. I am on a shopping mission, you know!

Our good friends, Elder and Sister Taylor came to Banja Luka for the last time this weekend. They are going home in two weeks. And so this was their last visit to see the Tadic youth. They have done an amazing work with the youth here in Bosnia, Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia. They have not just run the institute and seminary programs but have orchestrated E.F.Y. attendance for the youth, temple trips and Young Single Adult conferences. Their travel has been extensive throughout these countries as they have spread their faith, testimonies but most of all their love to all the youth. They have touched many, young and old and we will feel a great loss at their departure.

One last picture of the Taylors with our Tadic family. Our cute Elders are also in this one. Wow! Do we love having missionaries in Banja Luka! We are getting new people every week to church and it's just awsome!!!

This is Victoija. She is graduating this spring and we are just finishing up her application for a grant from the Cosic foundation to help her get into an academy in Serbia. This is the picture we took to put with the application. She's just beautiful, isn't she?

It was Orthodox Easter this week end in Bosnia so we are in holiday mode today and tomorrow. It is an official time off work and school for everyone, but I think the stores are open so I'm going to go buy paint and start working on the stairways again. On Weds, we have a scheduled closing for a project with our "New Generation" project and later in the week we hope to have one for our Islamic soup kitchen.

You can tell that we are trying to wrap things up and starting to think about everything that needs to be done before we leave. Essentially, everything needs to be wrapped up by the end of May because June's calendar is looking pretty full at this point. The Zadar celebration is June 1, 2, 3. We need to clean and move out of our apartment in Varazdin from the 4-11th in anticipation of our humanitarian replacements coming in on the 9th and moving into the apartment. (We will be in a hotel in Croatia and in our Banja Luka house) We will train our replacements in Croatia the 11th through the 16th, take the Tadic family to Germany the week of the 17th, come home and train our humanitarian replacements in Bosnia the week of the 24th. That pretty much takes care of June, doesn't it? It all seems to be coming up on us soooo fast. Plane reservations are being made for us this week and then we will have an official release date. Wow! I just started getting all teary eyed! What a jumble of emotions I am, so excited to see my family again...it's been so long, I'm not even sure my grandchildren will remember me! But then again so sad to leave this wonderful place behind with all the amazing new friends and relationships we have forged. Time is ticking away and before you know it we will be back in Utah.

Live as the doctrine demands....

We had the amazing opportunity to visit an orphanage this week, and before my poor memory fades, I wanted to tell you about our encounter with our joyful new friends! We had heard from our translator for quite awhile that there was an orphanage close by, but with our travel to Germany and wheelchair training it just kind of got put off until this week. We met with the city officials that are in charge of the orphanage and heard a little about it before we went to visit it. It is a bit of a new twist from the traditional orphanage that we all think about in the U.S. It was built to give the children a feeling of "home" and "family". The city, understanding the importance of both security and love to the proper development of a child decided to attempt a new, more progressive approach. A humanitarian group from Switzerland came in ten years ago and built the buildings...there are two of them. Each house has a mother and father and up to 10 children that those parents are responsible for. We were so impressed with how loving and happy these children were. I wish every one of you could have been with us to see them run out to our car, greet us and give these strange old Americans their hearts! I can tell you they melted ours! Because they are on a rotating school schedule we didn't get to meet all of them, so next time we want to go out on a Saturday.

Our new friends, aren't they a happy bunch?

The city supplies them with food and expenses for everyday living, but any extras are just not in the already strained city budget. That means that the beds, sheets, pillows and blankets are ten years old now and in need of being replaced. The homes were not made for that many children and especially not any handicapped children, but they have both, too many children and some mentally disabled children as well. This has occurred because they accommodate sibling groups that the city feels like it's in the children’s best interest to keep together for obvious reasons. The parents in both homes are dedicated wonderful, care givers that really look at these children as "their own". You could tell by the interaction between them that the children were loved and cared for....so different from some of the other facilities that we have been in.

We came away with a desire to do a project for them, so we are now in the mists of developing something. To relieve the overcrowding a little bit, we would like to buy some bunks beds, and then perhaps see that each child, whether or not they are the lucky ones to get a new bed at least will get a new pillow and blanket. We are crunching numbers and seeing if we can get it into our budget parameters.

Okay, so here is the rest of the story....... the next morning after we visited this orphanage the missionaries, (they live here now, remember?) Asked us if we would like to sit in on a lesson they were teaching to a young man. We said, "of course" and so at the appointed time we met with them and their investigator. In my efforts to get to know him, I asked him if he was from Banja Luka, he said yes, that he lived with his brother and his grandmother. His mother, he said, had died eight years ago of brain cancer and his father had hung himself 4 years ago. He said he had 5 other siblings that were in an orphanage near here......yep! You guessed it! I pulled out my camera, and he was so cute! "THAT'S MY BROTHER! THAT'S MY SISTER!" Do you think that it was just a coincidence?? I think not, The Lord is in control and sometimes it  takes a little experience like this to really bring that into focus for us.

We are so grateful for all these little bits of learning we are gathering on this mission. What a great blessing it has been to us.

On a totally different subject, I read this statement the other day by Thomas Jefferson, "What does it matter how strictly you proclaim your belief in various doctrines if you do not live as these doctrines demand?"

 Gotta love it!

When I saw this quote I immediately thought of the above picture,  but upon a more thoughtful introspection it came to me, how quick we are to judge. I loved conference and the timely message to "Stop it" and I now have a new motto:  "live as the doctrine demands" 


I can’t wait for Easter Sunday; the Tadic kids have been learning “Hosanna” to sing in church for sacrament meeting. They sound amazing; I will try to get it on video if I can figure out how to do that on my camera. That’s the goal for my next post.

Humanitarian Conference in Germany..

We spent this last week in Germany at an area Humanitarian Conference. It was a wonderful conference, and we were so grateful to have the opportunity to go to one more conference before we go home. We especially enjoyed being with our counterparts from Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Albania, Cape Verde and The Czech Republic. We felt so privileged to be in their mists and learn from them. Topics for the conference included: New wheelchair protocol, facing challenges of working in a new country and working with government officials, major initiatives, solving problems-not symptoms, working with public affairs and media, keeping good records, and doing humanitarian service the Lords way. We also got to meet the newer members of our humanitarian missionaries group. In between all of this we ate and ate and ate! I still haven't dared to get on the scales! That might be a week or two of eating properly and exercising before I go near them! Our humanitarian supervisors in Germany, Elder and Sister Leonard put together an amazing conference for all of us, they worked so hard to make everything just perfect and we are so grateful to them for all the service, good council and love that they so willingly share with us in the different countries.

I think that we just really got our batteries charged and it gave us a much needed lift to keep us going strong until we leave in a few months. Everything seems so bitter sweet to us at this point. WE WILL BE COMING HOME SOON.......but, we will be leaving so much behind. We'll never see most of our new friends again, we will be leaving this work that we love so much and who knows if we will ever get back to see the beautiful red roofs and old castles of Europe. It's just a jumble of emotions right now and as the time grows closer I know that we will add in so many more individual people that I don't have the energy to even go there right now. So every time I start thinking about it, I quickly replace that thought with something that I need to do before I leave. The list is never ending and I'm sure that as we are walking out the door I will still be thinking of stuff to do! You can tell by my writing that my mind is a jumble and I'm in a pretty ridiculous state of emotional turmoil. Does every missionary feel this way, or am I just an old lady that thinks too hard???

This last Sunday was the first week in almost 20 months that we haven't been in Banja Luka for church. We left the missionaries in charge and I'm sure they did a great job. It was like leaving a new born baby with a baby sitter for the first time. It was a little hard for us. We are excited to get back and see how things went. Here are a few pictures of Germany.....

Saturday we went sightseeing a little and saw this wonderful, well preserved castle. There are people actually still living in a part of it, We took a tour, saw amazing art work and artifacts, but mostly realized how cold and drafty castles were. I was freezing by the time the tour was over and grateful to see the sun peeking through the trees and over the walls. We all immediately bee lined it for the sunny spots in the court yard!

More of the same castle.

I want to be Juliet and have my Romeo come visit me here!

The little town below the castle was beautiful! When I am old I shall wear PURPLE! What do you think?

This was a drive by photo op....Anne Franks childhood home.

I loved this picture of Sister Leonard, she was working the projector while Elder Leonard was talking. They both did an amazing job putting the conference together.





Jim and I with our friends from Macedonia, The Junkers, They came out with us and were in the MTC at the same time as us. They will be going home to Minnesota the same time as we will be coming home.

   

Wheelchair Training...

Wheelchair training in Banja Luka

To come into compliance with the guidelines set out by the world health organization the church is now requiring our partnering organizations to be trained in how to fit and distribute wheelchairs properly. We have been planning a preparing for this training for some time now. We hosted our wheelchair specialists from Utah who were being sent here to do the training for both our partnering organizations, The Red Cross and the Banja Luka Rehabilitation Hospital in Bosnia and the Red Cross in Croatia. Here is a little back ground that I found on the World Health Organization web site.


"The wheelchair is one of the most commonly used assistive devices for enhancing personal
mobility, which is a precondition for enjoying human rights and living in dignity and assists people with disabilities to become more productive members of their communities. For many people, an appropriate, well-designed and well-fitted wheelchair can be the first step towards inclusion and participation in society.
  The United Nations Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and World Health Assembly resolution WHA58.23 all point to the importance of wheelchairs and other assistive devices for the developing world, where few of those who need wheelchairs have them, insufficient production facilities exist, and all too often wheelchairs are donated without the necessary related services.
   When the need is not met, people with disabilities are isolated and do not have access to the same opportunities as others within their own communities. Providing wheelchairs that are fit for the purpose not only enhances mobility but begins a process of opening up a world of education, work and social life. The development of national policies and increased training opportunities in the design, production and supply of wheelchairs are essential next steps."



Our Specialists were Elder and Sister Schnebley from Bountiful, Utah and Misti Timpson from Salt Lake City. Elder Schnebley and Misti are physical therapists and Sister Schnebley is a nurse so they are well qualified to teach these training seminars.

    At first thought you might ask, “So how hard is it to give a wheelchair to someone, you sit them down, maybe adjust the feet rests and send them away”. Well, we learned that there is A LOT more to it than that. We learned things like, pressure sores, balance, diagnosis, core strength, and other health problems are a big part of determining a proper fit for a wheelchair.
We spent a delightful week with our students and our specialists. Here are a few pictures that I thought you might enjoy seeing.

Our students in Banja Luka were for the most part professionals that worked at the hospital.

Some of the newer wheelchairs that are now available from the church require some mechanical know how to put them together, but they can be adjusted better to fit the individual.  This was all covered in the class and they got hands on experience at putting the chairs together.

The last day of the class the students had an opportunity to fit patients who needed wheelchairs. I found this man just standing out in the hall. I asked a translator to come help me and asked him if he was waiting for one of the patients and would he like to come in and sit down, he said, "No I am here for a wheelchair". Okaaaaay, I must have looked surprised because he at that point lifted up his pant leg and I realized that he had a prosthetic leg. Alrighty then, come on in. He was fitted for a new active wheelchair so that he could get to his dialysis center without getting so tired. He looked so good that I wondered if he really needed one, but with his declining health a chair will be a blessing.

This is Stephon, not the first time Jim and I have met him. He lives at the hospital and goes to school there so we have seen him in the play room, (usually on the computer). His aides thought he needed a larger chair that he had grown out of his so they brought him to the class. As it turned out, he was in a chair that was too large for his skinny little behind. The hospital staff makes inserts to put in the chairs to make them appropriate for kids with CP.  His old chair must have been one of the first ones brought into the country; it was looking pretty well used.

I stick this one in just so my children still know they have a mother. I have two new granddaughters however. The young lady on the right was from the Red Cross. Vicky Tadic and I told her that I was Vicky's Grandma, We almost had her convinced, but the other translator started to giggle and I think she gave way to her supensions that we were pulling her leg. Later she told Vicky, "I understand that you and Maja were teasing me, but her????  She's an old lady!! I guess old people are not allowed to have a since of humor in Bosnia.

Sister Schnebley and I escaped one afternoon and visited the play room at the hospital. We encountered these two precious faces. Yep! She's in a church wheelchair.

I think this is my favorite picture of all the ones I took this last week. It just shows all the love and emotion that these people feel when they get a wheelchair. I wasn't the one who fitted her or spent time with her to make sure she got the right chair, but I told her she was beautiful and asked her if I could take her picture. Somehow, I think because of my badge she connected me to the chair and I got this heartfelt kiss. Ohhhh... how I will cherish that memory.

This man came in with his one leg almost up to his chest. His wheelchair was just not fitted for his long lanky leg. He went out with a much better fit and a happy camper!

This man had to give his wheelchair back....his diagnosis was that he need to get out and walk more!



On to Croatia and our training with The Red Cross. Misti taught me that my camera had a timer on it! Yeah! Who would have thought I had a such an amazing camera.

They practiced on each other. Have you ever seen such a cute smile!



Elder Schnebley with our traslator, Ana.






We found a great Chineese place to eat in Zagreb.
 Sister Tanner from the office came to enjoy dinner with us, Elder and Sister Schnebley, Me, Jim.
In front is Vicky Tadic, Tihana Rendic, (our translators) and Misti Timpson

 
Before I quit blogging for the day, I wanted to just remind you that without your donations, there would be no wheelchair projects. Our humanitarian funds come from YOU! Everytime you put something in that little gray envelope and mark that the funds inside go to humanitarian, that is where we get our money. Our budgets do not come from other church funds. We love you all and wish that everyone of you who have ever donated to the Church Humanitarian Fund could see the lives you touch.