Hope

The sky was gray the day we drove up the winding trail to the collective center that houses the women and children of Zepa.  Unlike the sophisticated city women we met in the business enterprises, these women, wearing traditional Muslim head coverings, shawls, and pantaloons, had been farmers in the rural regions of eastern Bosnia. 

When the U.N., unable to protect the scattered farmers, gathered unarmed rural Bosnians into the three cities they called safe havens, these women welcomed the protection.  But one by one, the “safe” havens fell to Serbian guns; Zepa was the last to go.  With their husbands and older sons killed and their farms located deep in what is now Serbian territory, the women and children of Zepa escaped on foot across the mountains.  With skills rendered obsolete by their forced move to the city, they now wait in a cold, damp dormitory for a little bit of hope.

Sometimes hope comes in strange packages.  Despite their dismal surroundings the women of Zepa embraced us as sisters and laughed as they posed with one of the boxes of new underwear that had been sent to them by a group of World Vision women in Orange County.  Such a small thing, it seemed to us, but it is these small, practical gifts of love that give hope to the women of Zepa.

A Fitting Response

In Bosnia I saw far more than I could describe in one brief article.  In addition to the human carnage of war I saw the pervasive destruction of property.  I walked through the rubble of Mostar and Sarajevo and was sickened by the senseless obliteration of art and architecture, of culture and history.

In Bosnia I saw the evil called war.  I saw it up close and personal, and I learned to hate it

But it’s a hatred that moves me to action.  It moves me to try to overcome evil with good and live out the mandate of love.  Fortunately, the women of Bosnia are similarly moved.  As we left the tiny workroom in Fojnica, I noticed the motto for the sewing group printed in neat letters on a green chalk board:  NEK ZIVI LJUBAV.  Translated, it reads, “Let Love Live.” 

That, for the women we met and for those of us who follow in the steps of a compassionate Christ, is the only fitting response to our broken world. 

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