Worship and then Trip Home

From Bosnia Youth Workshops 2009

Sunday

We worshiped at the evangilical church in Capjlina and gave greetings to the believers there.

From Bosnia Youth Workshops 2009

Split

We then were driven to Split, Croatia by Bernard. He once lived in Split and was an excellent tour guide and showed us the places to see. We went there to stay the night since we had such and early flight the next day.

Home

We got up at 5 AM, Split time to catch a 7:40 flight to Zürich. We were afraid that the alloted 45 minutes to make our connection would not be enough. It turned out to be plenty. We changed flights in less than 30 minutes. We were back in Atlanta by mid-Afternoon.

We are tired and glad to be home.

Concluding Night and Dubrovnik

From Bosnia Youth Workshops 2009

End of Workshops

We had the end of the workshops and showed all three of the kids videos on the square. They drew quite a crowd. All of the kids were excited to see their work shown on the side of the Cultural Center. A number of kids are pestering Mick and Ali about their next projects that they want to work on.

Dubrovnik

On Saturday, we went with the Holstead family to walk through the ancient city f Dubrovnik. This city is hundreds of years old and had many shops. It was a very hot day but we had a good time.

Sunday and then Travel

Sunday we are attending Bernard's church and then driving to spend the night near the Split, Croatia airport. We have a 7:40 AM flight out of the country.

Video Stories Complete

From Bosnia Youth Workshops 2009

Three Teams - Three Stories

All three teams got their stories done today. Tonight we will judge them and give prizes out. We will setup the bounce house once more and when it gets dark we will project the three stories out on the square!

Mostar

The team took a quick afternoon trip to Mostar today. We had a good lunch and then walked over the famous streets. We also got to visit the Mostar Bible School. We met with old friends there and met new friends. It was a good visit.

Workshops Continue

From Bosnia Youth Workshops 2009

Tell me a Story

The three teams took many pictures of their town yesterday. Today, they wrote the story to go with those pictures. Each team worked independently but some tried to spy on other teams to get ideas. The teams then recorded their story. All three teams got their story recorded. Tomorrow they will bring it all together and create their finished projects.

Festival on the Square

Tonight we will bring out the bounce house we brought last year. We will set up on the square with the fountain and have other activities.

Starting our Workshops

Digital Story Telling

Bosnia Youth Workshops 2009

Today we started the Digital Story Telling (DST) workshop. The Novi Most staff broke the 20 to 25 kids into three teams. We explained that this will be a competition between the teams to see who can make the most interesting story. The title of the story's will be loosely "What is Important to Know about My HomeTown." They were given a list of idea-generating questions and they brain-stormed what places were important to them.

Then each team went with one of the adult volunteers to shoot the pictures of their places.

Tomorrow they will start writing their story and will record it as the video's narration.

Am. English vs. Br. English

Tonight we will conduct a workshop with the older kids. We will go over different terms that Americans know and use against what British use. An example would be a "windshield" vrs a "windscreen."

We are There

Airplane, Airplane, Airplane, Kombie

We had a LONG day of travel. Actually it was two days but since we really didn't sleep, it seemed like one day. We have met with Bernard for dinner last night and are at the Novi Most center planning our time here.

Pictures? Watch this space...

We will be posting pictures soon.

On our way

Airports

We are heading out.

We first get to go through the fun at Altanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport. Nine hours later (early tomorrow morning) it will be Duesseldorf. From there it is to Prague and the last segment will be to Split, Croatia. Friends will pick us up and drive to Capljina just in time for dinner.

Our next update will be from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

[comic courtesy of xkcd.com]

One week to go

Next Sunday

We will be heading out Sunday afternoon for Bosnia. We are getting excited about going back where each of us have been before and renew old friendships. We are making final preparations and support raising.

The most needed thing

Prayer is the most needed thing we have now. Please pray for:

• wisdom in deciding what to take and what can be left behind
• safety in our journeys
• all our luggage arriving complete
  

We appreciate all you who are praying for us!

Photo courtesy of Big Happy Fun House

Digital Storytelling

By Patrick Bartkus

Definition

From Ohio State's site: "Most basically, a digital story is a short (3-5 minute) movie which uses images, voice, and music to tell a story. There are a variety of media that can be used to create digital stories and a variety of reasons for creating them. ... Digital Storytelling is a way of talking about something that conveys not only information, but emotion and significance as well. "

An Example of DST

My Bosnia Story from Patrick Bartkus on Vimeo.

I made this story after I took the Center for Digital Storytelling's Basic Workshop last September. I took another training class this past June that told the tools and techniques to facilitate a workshop.

We will be teaching this method of storytelling as a workshop to the kids. We want to facilitate the kids to create some projects. These we will submit these projects to the My HERO PROJECT Short Film Festival.

God - Co-Facilitator

I believe that the enthusiastic response that we have received from the Novi Most staff has been confirmation that this is what we are to teach. But this will be the first time that I've taught these principles. I know that God will be with us - and I know that we will need much prayer. But we really will be leaning on Him to make things work right. We will be prepared and we will be facing many challenges.

More Links

Stories for Change - online meeting place for community digital storytelling facilitators and advocates.

Digitales - Digital Storytelling in Vocational Education & Training

University of Houston - The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling

Center for Digital Storytelling

Four Weeks To Go

Workshop Planning
Plans continue for the workshops. We know that we plan and God directs our steps.

Sending the Team off
North Point is planning a combination Bosnia update meeting and send-off for our team on July 29 at 7 PM at the Café at NPCC. Please come, meet the team, and hear about how the relationship with the church in Capljina is changing.

Who is Novi Most?

Novi Most Video

This is a 7 minute video that describes the group with which we will be partnering. Enjoy!

Less than Six Weeks

T-minus Six weeks and counting

We take off for Bosnia and Herzegovina in a little more than five weeks from now. Our team has consulted with the group we will be working with there and planning to facilitate the following workshops.

Digital Storytelling

First, Patrick will be conducting a Digital Storytelling workshop. We will be working with the youths to create their digital stories. These will be three to five minute first-person narratives with pictures. Their communication skills will be improved by doing this and with and their skills in working together will be enhanced. And it may also promote healing from the wounds of the wars.

Patrick has taken a couple of workshops and has made a couple of stories (send him an e-mail and he’ll send you those links). From the beginning, this has been one of the items that the missionary couple in Capljina, Bosnia has said they would like us to do. He excited and nervous about leading a workshop. But with God’s help, we know it will be good.

How to Speak Southern

We will also be conducting a workshop on the difference between the Queen’s English and the real (Southern) English. We will help them to recognize American idioms and sayings. We may even get them to be saying “y’all” before we leave.

Ljeto Sports Camp

We will be supporting the Novi Most staff in putting on a summer sports camp. Instruction will be given in basketball, and "football" (soccer to us Americans).

City Square Festivities
We also plan to again go out to the city squares one night to bring attention to the Novi Most center. Last year this was very effective in helping Mick and Ali get recognition as legitimate youth workers in town.

All in All
So we will be busy while we are there. We have a lot to do to prepare for the trip before we leave. We will be meeting as a team a number of times to firm up what each of us is to bring and prepare.

Wooden Hourglass 3 photo by S Sepp Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license

Joe Padilla

Joe Padilla Bio

Joe Padilla is making his second trip to Bosnia after helping with last year’s Novi Most Youth Festival in Capljina. A native of Long Island, New York, Joe works as a commercial real estate agent in Atlanta, and has attended North Point Community Church since 1997. He and his wife, Emily, have a 2-year-old daughter.

Patrick Bartkus

Patrick Bartkus Bio

Patrick Bartkus is returning to Capljina, Bosnia after being a member of the GlobalX team trip there last year. Last year's Novi Most Youth Festival was a big success and the center received great local exposure.

This will be Patrick's 4th short-term mission trip having served on trips to Poland, Costa Rica, Haiti, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Patrick became widowed in 2007 and currently is employed at Primerica Financial Services in Information Technology.

Jim Robinson - Team Leader

Jim Robinson Bio

Jim Robinson is serving as the team leader on the August 2009 trip to Capljina, Bosnia-Herzegovina (Bosnia). This is his fourth trip to Bosnia, and the second trip in which he has led.


Bosnia has been on the heart of the Robinson family since Jim’s oldest son Cliff spent a summer there as an intern to a missionary in Sarajevo in 2000. In the intervening years, Jim’s wife Leslie and daughter Elizabeth have also been to Bosnia on a number of mission trips.

We're Off and Running

The GlobalX 2009 Bosnia Youth Festival

This year, the team is quite a bit smaller but we are excited to see where God leads us. We are Jim, Patrick, and Joe. We are forming our plans, developing our team, and imploring Heaven to guide us.

Prayer

Please pray for our team as we ramp up our preparations. We specifically need prayer warriors to pray for each step of our journey.