The Christmas tree is still up and so are all the decorations.  The gifts have all been open and are strewn all over the living room floor or under the furniture.  We are bathing in the afterglow of a delightful Christmas and Advent season.
It was definitely different this year celebrating in a Muslim country where there is virtually no Christmas hype (except for the Coca-Cola billboards with Santa Claus on them).  It was nice not being bombarded and pressured to get the perfect gift, shop here, on sale, spend, spend, spend.  But in a way, there was too little reminders of the Christmas season–no Christmas lights on houses, no Christmas music playing, hardly any carols sung.

We did have some decorative lights in the old town part of Sarajevo–in celebration of Kurban Bajram and there was lots of sheep too (but that’s an entirely different post for another time).

Rob’s parents, Alan and Dianne, were here for 2 weeks and Rob’s brother and sister-in-law, Josh and Jennie came for 4 days–and what a wonderful time we had.  It was really special to have them with us–especially after the downer of having our car stolen.  They brought with them not only gifts but much joy, laughter, and fun times.
I could go on and on, but I think that it’d be better to show you in pictures.  We hope you enjoyed your Christmas.  Thanks again for your prayers and encouraging emails–we are so honored to have you as friends.

As many of you know, last week our car was stolen from our garage. As of today we still have not heard anything, neither from the thieves nor the police. We have been flooded with encouraging notes and that has been very helpful.

But still, it is a difficult process. As missionaries we constantly strive to be good stewards of what God has given us. We do this not only to portray a good image to those around us (who notice everything that we buy), combating the stereotype of the super-rich American, but also for the sake of those who give financially toward our ministry. Finding good deals at open air markets as opposed to the large supermarkets, rarely eating out, buying a fuel-efficient car (gas here is close to $6 per gallon)–these are just a few examples.

Things are very expensive here, and locals are barely surviving, especially if they don’t have family abroad sending money back home. It is a daily struggle to not let vendors take advantage of us because we are foreigners and thus perceived as quite wealthy. All of this to say…all of this effort seems like a waste when something like this happens.

My friend Trevor quoted Augustine to me after the car was stolen and it has really helped: “What God gives you, He will require it of you (paraphrased).” I guess this is true with all of our earthly belongings right? They are His, all of them. This experience is helping me learn that in a deeper way.

I also wanted to testify to God’s grace in the robbery: The night that it happened, I actually heard something in my sleep. It was about 4 a.m. and as I was waking, I opened my eyes to see Simeon standing next to my bed, asking me to hold him. He hasn’t done that in a very long time. Immediately all of my attention was diverted to him and I rocked him back to sleep in a room even further away from the garage. It was only after going downstairs 2 hours later that I realized that it wasn’t a dream at all. I did hear the thieves in the garage. And yet, there in my face was the only thing that could have stopped me from going outside to check it out. Who knows what could have happened? They may have been armed. Mark Duquette also wrote me to say that God wasn’t asleep during the robbery and that now I have a chance to exhibit my faith in Him. So thank you, all of you who wrote or prayed. It has helped me through this experience.

Dear praying friends,

Last night our VW was stolen from our home, locked, and in our garage. Thirty minutes ago the thieves politely called me, asking for $4000 if I wanted the car back. I have decided in my heart not to negotiate with these criminals. But the loss hurts. The personal items, my mp3 player with my entire collection of music, mix-tapes that I made for Janet when we were falling in love, 2 child car-seats, 1 stroller, and who knows what else, all gone.

All of this comes at a time when our committed monthly support is dangerously low. We are very upset and a little scared. We live in a quiet neighborhood and this was a job done by real professionals who must have been watching us for a while. Then, though the car is not even in our name, they manage to call our cell phone. It is a betraying feeling. $13,000 down the drain…

Pray for wisdom and composure,

His,

The Mezgers

It has come to my attention that most of you don’t know a thing about me. When I heard that my big brother Simeon got to write a blog post I wanted to write one too, but Mommy said that I needed more life experience before I could write one. Well, now that I’m 11 1/2 months old she says now I’m ready.

First, let me tell you how me and my brother are different: other than the age difference, of course. I’m a lot fairer than him–Mommy calls me her white baby. My hair’s lighter than Sim’s, more browner than black. My eyes are an exact mix of Daddy’s blue and Mommy’s brown–sometimes they even look green depending on what I’m wearing. I’ve also got a long torso and short legs, but I’m told that it’ll all even out when I get bigger.

Just recently I decided to start sleeping through the nights–which makes Mommy and Daddy more fun during the day. I just wanted them to work a bit more during the night so that they’d really appreciate their new bed. Mommy calls me an early bird since I’ve been waking up around 5 or 6am, but really it’s just a ploy to get some one-on-one time with her before everyone else wakes up. I’m also a light sleeper so if I hear anything I wake up and cry–I can’t help that, right?

I’m an excellent crawler, but these days I’m testing my legs and sometimes I even take a step or two.  My current hobbies include: cruising on the furniture, nursing, Oh! and anytime there’s music I like to dance, the “Baby Bounce” is what I like to call my moves. I also like to give the “crinkle nose/sniff/smile”, wins them over every time.

I’ve got 7 visible teeth–3 on bottom and 4 on top–and let me tell you, teething is not fun at all.

I also have a Bosnian girlfriend, yup, I’m a ladies man. Her name is Amra and I get to see her 3 times a week when Mommy goes to “skola”. She tells Mommy all these funny sounding words and Mommy writes them down and also says the funny sounding words. Amra’s nice because she always holds me, gives me her undivided attention, lets me play with her white board markers, sings funny songs to me, she even likes to feed me. Oh, she also gives me lots of kisses and has pet names for me: “med, medoni, secer, sladoled, cookie-boy, zivi lutka, marshmallow, sladak,” etc. (honey, made of honey, sugar, ice-cream, cookie-boy, a living doll, marshmallow, sweetie). Yeah, I think I like her.

I did have an American girlfriend, Mackenzie, but we had to say bye-bye to her. I’m sad she’s gone, she was good to me too, lots of hugs and kisses.

I’ve now lived more than half my life here, it’s nice. I guess, maybe I need more life experience to tell you more about life here. One thing I do know, every time we go into the city people always woo over me, smile, and stuff like that–I must admit I do like that.

Mommy thinks that I’m going to the strong silent type and that I will outgrow my brother, I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see if that comes true, huh?

Things I like: baby yogurt, playing with my brother, taking baths, undivided attention, swings, getting into things I’m not supposed to, snuggling with Mommy after waking up.

Things I don’t like: putting clothes on or taking them off, having my diaper changed, being left out at the dinner table, when my brother tries to wrestle with me and I’m not in the mood.

Soon my Grandpa and Grandma will be coming–I can hardly wait.  We’ll have so much fun!  And then Uncle Josh and Aunt Jennie will come too–they won’t even recognize me. 

Well, that’s all for now. I guess I don’t have much to say at 11 1/2 months old. But soon I’ll be 1 years old!  I heard that we’re gonna have a party on New Year’s Eve to celebrate my birthday too–and there’ll be fireworks, dancing, singing, and staying up late–a real party! I can’t wait!

Thanks for reading and I’ll let you know how my rockin’ New Years/Birthday party goes.

We live on a hilltop called “Kobilja Glava” which means, “The Mare’s Head”. So our back yard is steep. What else are we supposed to do when it dumps a couple feet of snow? Right, build a jump and invite all the neighbor kids out!

 

  

“It gathers and feeds at the table of our memory, stepping uncautiously among the thorns. We grieve the loss of the one we had. We grieve the loss of the one we didn’t have. Of him who was and him who might have been. The one we may now rediscover at the digging of the great root, just below the soft and hallowed surfaces of the child’s forgotten earth.” David Teems

 I echo my sister’s effort yesterday. I remember a year ago today, traveling out to the state where I grew up, to say goodbye to a friend who was like a brother. Lauren asked for stories about Nate, and I have a small one: Nate was the youngest among all 5 of us Mezger/Taylor boys, and one day we decided to climb Mt. Hogsback in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Nate couldn’t have been older than 5. All I remember was thinking that he was too little to go, and that he should stay behind. Long story short, he pretty much led the way all the way up and all the way down. We were gloating about him to the adults when we got back and I just remember his calm, peaceful grin that we all seem to remember so well.

I tried to call people yesterday, but leave it to me to neglect my internet bill–I had been cut off. I’m glad to have spent the time with you all in Oregon last year and love you dearly. We’re one year closer to glory…

I can actually remember learning in high school history class that Ferdinand Magellan almost circumnavigated the globe. Mr. Kirby told us that he didn’t quite make it because he got killed in a brawl in the Philippines. I went back and did a little research and the details were slightly different than what I remembered. In any case, ole Ferd got in the middle of a scuffle and got himself killed.

Point of the story? Don’t mess with Filipinos. Just look at this woman below.

Ok, so she caught a foul ball between the eyes… but she took it like a real champ!

It’s so hard, to say good-bye…

As a missionary one of the things that you end up doing more than the “normal Joe” is saying Good-bye. There are milestones in ones life where you say good-bye to friends and loved ones like high school graduation, then off to college so you say good-bye to your parents and neighbors, then college graduation, then to whatever city you start your career, etc. As you get older it gets a bit easier to say good-bye because you realize that often times your path crosses again with those special loved ones.

As a mother of a little one who loves people it’s been hard trying to explain in 2 ½ year old terms that we have to say good-bye to close friends and family. It gives me a knot in my throat as I prep Simeon a few days before our departure or someone else’s departure.

Right now we are in the process of saying good-bye to Mackenzie Rollins (aka: Kenz, Kenzie, Kinney, Kenzaroo, Roo, Rooza-kenz). She has been living with us and has been enjoying the adventure that is Bosnia. She is a gifted and talented phot0-journalist (see www.goodmorningsarajevo.wordpress.com), excellent cook and baker, with an exuberance for life that mirrors a childs joy. We have been so blessed by her presence here and we are very sad to see her go. We trust that the Lord will guide her next steps as she seeks His will for the next chapters in her life–whether that may include Bosnia or not.

On Monday when Sim wakes up he will tell me that “Kinney sleeping” and we will go into her room and it will be empty of all of her stuff. And for the next few days he will subtly act up, be a bit more defiant, more whiney, more grumpy as he adjusts to this change. He’ll stare at pictures of her that we have on our fridge and I’ll wonder what he’s thinking and feeling in his little heart and mind.

It’s so hard to say good-bye.

Please pray for us during this time of transition. For us as a family and for Mackenzie as well.

That’s right A HUNDRED PERCENT. A hundred percent what? Well, some of you may remember us writing about a friend having a container shipped over here with humanitarian aid. He told us there was plenty of extra room in the container and that we could ship a bed if we wanted to. We called Slumberland, bought a great bed for a great price, and they delivered it to the container in Rockford.

In order to get the bed from the container you have to pay import customs right? A HUNDRED PERCENT. That’s what we had to pay. “Oh, you paid this much for the bed? Well that’s what you owe us too.” Welcome to Bosnia.

I figure it’s time to show you around a little. We haven’t really had time to post much since moving here, and tonight we’re just laying low, and both boys are asleep (sigh).

(Thanks Mackenzie Rollins for the pics!)

 

This is our house. We are its first dwellers. We live on a hilltop called Kobilja Glava which means, “The Mare’s Head.” Lovely eh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mosque about 6 doors down from our house. Yes, we hear the calls to prayer quite loudly. It scared Simeon at first, but now he’s pretty used to it. We sing praise songs along with the singer.

 

 

 

These little shops are everywhere and we’ve made quite a few friends at this particular one. Simeon especially. Indira works at this one and he always yells her name when we go bye. We call it our “7/11″

 

 

Chopping wood is good for the soul. Have you tried it lately?

 

 

 

 

Janet and I are studying language full time and this is our teacher, the lovely Amra. She is wonderful.

 

 

 

We play softball every Saturday on the NATO Base with Spanish soldiers, Americans, and young Bosnians who love learning to play. The best part of Saturday is…

BURGER KING!

 

Sometimes we go out on picnics. This is a fresh water spring, not far from the 84 Olympic ski slopes

Turkish rug stores scatter all over the city, and our landlady, Bahra. She is very much a part of our lives, especially when we forget to lock the front door.

Hope this gives you a little glimpse of our lives here. Good night, I’m off to join my boys.