THE BOSNIA PROJECT Jonathan Trousdale

At long last, this is a new podcast episode! In this episode we address a couple of basic questions about what we do here in Eastern Europe, including:

* Who are you and what do you do?

* Why make a podcast?

* Why is Bosnia "strategic"?

* Why is important to "bring people together"?

Here are the notes / script for the episode -- you can read here, or just plug in the earphones and listen. Enjoy!

It's been eight months. I have finally uploaded a new podcast. This one is epic, long, dark -- it's the story of Herzegovina and how it got its name. I hope you enjoy it. The transcript is below. Have a great day!























Podcast transcript: what is Hercegovina







Hi I’m Jonathan, and this is The Bosnia Project podcast. The Bosnia Project is the chronicle of my life as a world traveler youth worker father and husband. 







The Bosnia Project is the story of how I came to live and work overseas in a country called Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s my blog, the Bosnia Project dot com, this podcast, and our Facebook community, and email updates we send out to our supporters and followers.







“The Bosnia Project” is a process and a product, all wrapped up into one thing, and this podcast, the blog, and everything else is a way to catch all that work, write it down, record it and preserve it, so that it can be of use to someone. This is the Bosnia Project, and it will continue for a good while longer. 







This is the second episode in a series that will attempt to answer several of the questions that people ask about Bosnia, Sarajevo, Mostar, and Eastern Europe in general. We are going to talk about Communism, America, Atheism, Religion — there’s going to be a lot of issues thrown together here. I hope you like it. Today’s episode is called “what's in a name” it's the story of Herzegovina and how it got its long interesting and confusing name. 







What’s in a name?







Why do we name things? All of us do it, we name our children, places that are memorable to us, period of our lives that we remember for one reason or another. If you have a place where you had a difficult experience you might refer to it as a terrible place. If you had a good experience somewhere, you might come up with a positive name for that particular place, and then in the future when you talk to your spouse about it you might just use the made up names you've assigned to these places instead of the band used by everyone else. It's a way of asserting your point of view on the world, according to your experiences. 







I've done this before -- there is a certain beach in Croatia that my wife and I refer to as "our beach", rather than using its actual name. We've vacationed there for four years in a row and we enjoy it. The name denotes pleasure, ownership, experience. 







The ancient Romans called the Mediterranean Sea "our Sea", because they had conquered the land all the way around it. The felt, obviously, that they were the owners of the entire thing, and that's what they wanted to communicate with the naming of the sea -- their accomplishment of taking dominion over the sea, not a small feat in their time. 







Other people had different names for the Mediterranean, calling it The Syrian Sea, the Sea of the Philistines, or just the Great Sea. The Arabs sometimes called it the White Sea. All of these names communicate something different about the sea, and also something different about how ppl viewed the world. A lot of the names imply ownership, which in turn implies that that group of people obviously viewed themselves as quite important. To call the sea, which most people call the "great Sea", "ours", means you want people in your country to know that you've reached a certain level of significance. 







Name of Bosnia







What's in a name? A name denoted IDENTITY. 







In the country where I live, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA, there is always this question ppl ask about the name. Why is it so long? And what is it, exactly? 

This is the first podcast in a while. :-) I apologize for the radio silence. Things have been busy. The recent holiday season gave me time to put this together, and I hope you like it. It's a mishmash of stories having to do with winter in Sarajevo -- the land where it's often winter, but never Christmas.







The transcript is below; here are some helpful links mentioned in the podcast.















"Beyond the Gold" - Network broadcast of the 1984 Winter Olympics with John Denver







Christianity Today article on the Trans-siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12.24" Christmas medley







Sarajevo Bobsled video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uhrOnHY3Yc







The podcast is completely free -- we enjoy making it. If you would like to help us keep the lights on, you can do so by making a donation of any amount at this link. Thanks for listening.Donate online here.















Podcast transcript:







Hi I’m Jonathan, and this is The Bosnia Project podcast. The Bosnia Project is the chronicle of my life as a world traveler youth worker father and husband. 







The Bosnia Project is the story of how I came to live and work overseas in a country called Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s my blog, the Bosnia Project dot com, this podcast, and our Facebook community, and email updates we send out to our supporters and followers.







“The Bosnia Project” is a process and a product, all wrapped up into one thing, and this podcast, the blog, and everything else is a way to catch all that work, write it down, record it and preserve it, so that it can be of use to someone. This is the Bosnia Project, and it will continue for a good while longer. 







This is the first episode in a series that will attempt to answer several of the questions that people ask about Bosnia, Sarajevo, Mostar, and Eastern Europe in general. We are going to talk about Communism, America, Atheism, Religion — there’s going to be a lot of issues thrown together here. I hope you like it. Today’s episode is called “Winter but never Christmas — Stories of the holidays in Sarajevo”







Winter but never Christmas







When I think of doing a podcast about Sarajevo, it’s hard to know where to start. This was the first place that I lived outside of the US, and it’s a place of so many “firsts” for myself and my family. This is the first podcast in a series that will touch on many things that people ask about Eastern Europe. This series is the essence of the Bosnia Project — giving people in my homeland, the United States, a feel for what’s happening in the rest of the world, educating people about issues people care about here, and weaving my own story in where it is appropriate. I hope you enjoy it. 







Intro







Sarajevo is a incredible place. It’s not a large city by Eastern Europe standards. The metro area boasts a population of about 500,000 — good enough for 10th place on the list of the biggest cities in the Balkans, depending on who’s counting. But there is enough history and culture in this place that one could spend a whole career, and still not come to the end of all there is to learn or do or see. That’s the reason I felt like it would only be wise to start off a podcast called “The Bosnia Project” by doing an episode about Sarajevo. 







Now, you should know that There are many other cities in Bosnia and Herzegovi...

It has been quite a while since I've recorded a new podcast, and I hope that you haven't fallen into despair while waiting for this episode. This time we are focusing on culture, something that we think about often, and something that I think is very important. I hope this episode is useful and helpful as you think about your own culture and how you can be a positive influence on those in your community.







Notes: many thoughts were influenced by Dr. Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, NY, USA. To see what he had to say about this same idea, you can view his talk at the Q Ideas conference on YouTube.



 







Podcast Transcript:

This is Jonathan, and this is The Bosnia Project Podcast. We have taken quite a while to get back into recording podcasts — last time I spoke to you, I was in the US, it was July, and I was in the middle of a long visit to my home country, enjoying time with family and with all of you. We are going to try to make podcasts a more regular thing, but it has been busy.

The team has arrived, and the new ministry year has begun.

We have a new team of six women and myself, kicking off the year now. We are getting ready, making plans, and putting things together for a great year of work with young people here in Mostar. We have English classes slated for the month of October, there is a new church in town that we are working with, we will have a big academic seminar at the end of the month, and a service project. There is a lot going on, and having a team of seven is a lot different than having two or three, which is what we had the past two years here.

All of this we are planning, always mindful of the fact that we are all foreigners reaching out to people who are part of another culture. And because of this reality, I think about this thing called culture a lot. And that’s what we are going to talk about today in this podcast.

What is culture and how does it affect us, and why should we care about it, why should we think about it, especially if we are people who want to impact the world and the culture around us, for good.

The big question: how does culture affect us?

Doing what I do, culture affects me all the time. I live in a culture where I am the foreigner. Every day, there’s a reminder that I don’t really belong, or that I do things differently. Different things are important to me.

Being present in a foreign culture has helped me see my own culture more clearly. I can see how the things I believe are heavily influenced by the culture I grew up in. And as I talk with people every day about eternity and the meaning of life in general, it is very clear that our opinions are all shaped by the cultures we know.

The big idea: It is necessary to understand culture in order to be a productive and effective citizen of this earth.

You could say that trying to observe your own culture is like a fish trying to observe water. You’re always in it so it can be hard to see it.

The purpose of this is to show why someone should care about culture, and to show why it is something we should be thinking about as we go through life on this earth.

How do we observe culture? How do we say “this is an example of my culture?”

Culture is a set of obligations, expectations, and customs that gives a group of people purpose and meaning. It is a set of judgments about the world, judgments about what is good and what is bad.

That’s a definition that can seem really dense or hard to unpack. What are our expectations? What are our customs? We just sort of do things. We don’t really think about what they are. We just say things — we don’t think about how we say them.

One of the easiest ways to think about is to think about the things you do to spend time with someone.

Finally, here is the long-awaited third episode of podcast. The audience has been clamouring for the next instalment, the press has been calling, and time has been tight, but I have managed to finally bless my listeners with the sweet sound of my voice again ;-)



As you listen, keep in mind that this episode is meant first to inform you of the situation, since it has become an important current event in the country where I live. Second, it is meant to raise questions that I believe we need to think about, especially those of us who claim to be Christians. I have tried to refrain from voicing any hard and fast opinions here, as I know this can be a controversial issue.



Notes and links for the information discussed in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post.



Enjoy.



=== Podcast transcript ===

Podcast 3: Refugee Question

Hi I’m Jonathan, and this is The Bosnia Project podcast. The Bosnia Project is the chronicle of my life as a world traveler youth worker father and husband. Today is episode three, and we are going to talk about the Refugee crisis in Bosnia and how it affects us as believers.

The Bosnia Project is the story of how I came to live and work overseas in a country called Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s my blog, the Bosnia Project dot com, this podcast, and our Facebook community, and email updates we send out to our supporters and followers.

“The Bosnia Project” is a process and a product, all wrapped up into one thing, and this podcast, the blog, and everything else is a way to catch all that work, write it down, record it and preserve it, so that it can be of use to someone. This is the Bosnia Project, and it will continue for a good while longer.

I often say that we are building a community where people can belong, believe in God, and become the people he has created them to be. It all starts with belonging. My personal path to where I am today began with a community that made me feel that I belong, that I had a place in their fellowship. That eventually gave me the tools that I needed to believe and become the person I am today. That’s why I believe that belonging is an essential part of becoming a believer and seeing meaningful life change.

There are lots of groups and ministries that are based on this principle. Alcoholics Anonymous, depression recovery, and many other kinds of mercy ministries are effective because of the community they create for people in need. These communities create a kind of social framework that helps lift people up out of the places they are in, so they can reform their lives.

When people fall into destructive lifestyles, they often find camaraderie there. There are often lots of other people who help them descend into places they otherwise wouldn’t want to go. And when people are finally able to recover, it is often because of the help they receive a community. Very few ever recover in isolation.

For you and me, in a very similar way, I think community is essential if we are serious about becoming the people we are created to be. Any kind of small group, men’s group, women’s Bible studies — they give us hope and focus us, and help us know that there are other people who care about us and want us to advance.

Introduction

Today in Bosnia refugees have begun to show up on our doorstep. These are people who don’t belong anywhere. They’ve been driven from their homes and literally have no place to call home, and they’ve started to show up in great numbers in the country where I live now. We often think of the refugee crisis as something akin to serving the poor in the places where we live. It’s a very complex thing.

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Driving back from meeting

In Bosnia and Herzegovina you have the capital city of Sarajevo, where I lived for a total of 7 years altogether, and then as you go west, towards the border of Croatia and European Union,

This is the second episode of THE BOSNIA PROJECT podcast. This one came out pretty well, and I hope you enjoy it -- it is a rehash of an old blog post, with a few new comments added by me. You can read the old list here, or just listen to this episode via your phone or however you listen to podcasts.



The music in this podcast is mostly from former-Yugoslavia artists. If you'd like to check them out, here is a list:



* "Posoljeni Zrak i Razlivena Tinta"



* Artist: Gibonni (feat. Damir Urban & Maja)

* Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiYrp2H6lUc 





* "Mišići"



* Artist: Dino Merlin

* Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2kh9gIde5s





* Burek



* Arist: Dino Merlin

* Youtube link: https://youtu.be/0tLwvxsVvWI







 



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Podcast transcript



Hi I’m Jonathan, and this is The Bosnia Project podcast. The Bosnia Project is the chronicle of my life as a world traveler youth worker father and husband. Today is episode two, and we are going to share 10 ideas that help give us a balanced life, and they work if you live overseas or in your home country.



The Bosnia Project is the story of how I came to live and work overseas in a country called Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s my blog, the Bosnia Project dot com, this podcast, and our Facebook community, and email updates we send out to our supporters and followers.



“The Bosnia Project” is at least two things. The first is obvious — it’s a project. This life in Bosnia is a project that takes up all my time and talents. But then the second thing is the thing that is produced - the product is me. So The Bosnia Project a process and a product, all wrapped up into one thing, and this podcast, the blog, and everything else is a way to catch all that work, write it down, record it and preserve it, so that it can be of use to someone. This is the Bosnia Project, and it will continue for a good while longer.



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The big idea in the last episode was that belonging changes everything. Belonging is often the key that opens the door to meaningful experiences and lasting memories. If you want to have any kind of influence on someone, you need to try and find some way to invite them into your life. But when you do, you have to be ready - they might influence you just as much as you influence them.



It is also helpful to see just how much we are influenced ourselves by the things two which we belong. We belong to families, and they influence us, forever. We belong to churches, schools, organisations, companies, and they influence us immeasurably.



If you want to change anything about yourself - if you want to experience meaningful progress - you should look for a group of people who are going to help you change in the way you want. If you want to lose weight, if you want to gain a new skill, if you want to become a better parent - it’s always best to find a few people who also want that thing, and go in that direction together. You’ll get encouragement, you’ll get motivation, and you’ll get that sense of belonging that will help you leave your old habits behind and take up new ones that you want.



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Today I am going to share 10 things that I do to try to lead a balanced life overseas. The thing about this is, as you listen to this list, you gain new perspective about living in the United States, or wherever you happen to live. Because really,