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February 24, 2002
Dear Parent,
My name is Kurt Morrill and I am the director for InterVarsity’s 2002
Global Project to Sarajevo, Bosnia. Your son/daughter has expressed some
interest in being a part of this year’s Global Project. Because of feedback
from students and parents from last year’s project I wanted to write a
letter to parents as an introduction/explanation about this Global Project.
You may have experienced a certain amount of apprehension when you
heard that you child was interested in our Bosnia project. Is it safe? Is
there still conflict there? What diseases are rampant? Why Bosnia? Will I
ever see my child again?
It is my intention to inform you about this summer as best as I can to
help all of us to have the best summer experience possible.
The basic outline for this letter is like an FAQ (Frequently Asked
Questions) sheet. I have tried to include as much information as possible
although in a letter of this sort I cannot offer every answer. You will
find my contact information at the end of this letter if you wish to
contact me personally.
1. Who will be going? What adults will be there?
I am in my 5th year working with college students with InterVarsity
Christian Fellowship at UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College.
Karyn, my wife is a foreign language teacher here in Santa Barbara. Last
year we led this same GP to Bosnia. We had a great summer last year and we
deeply enjoyed the project and the 10 students we took with us! We are
looking forward to what this summer will present.
Leslie Stuckey will be co-leading this team with us. Leslie has been
on staff with InterVarsity in San Luis Obispo for 4 years.
I (Kurt) got involved in InterVarsity as an undergraduate and was
attracted to InterVarsity’s efforts to develop students who integrated
their commitment to following Jesus with every other aspect of their life.
The opportunity to help the next generation become thoughtful, mature,
Biblically informed people of leadership caliber is why I passed up a job
in the marketplace and is why I am committed to the work that InterVarsity
does.
2. What is InterVarsity?
You may wonder about InterVarsity. We are the oldest and most
extensive Christian student organization in the U.S. with chapters at
nearly 700 universities with 1,000 staff. We are interdenominational and
multi-ethnic, finding our unity in a common commitment to Jesus as Lord and
the Bible as His authoritative word for us. We have been taking teams of
students into cross-cultural experiences for more than 30 years because of
the value these programs have for developing character, cultural
sensitivity, and global awareness as well as giving students a data bank
from which to make more informed career decisions.
For more information on InterVarsity, visit our website at
www.ivcf.org or call (608) 274-9001.
3. What Are Global Projects?
InterVarsity has been leading students on projects such as this one
since 1970. This summer alone InterVarsity will be sending to locations
around the globe approximately 50 Global Project groups. For more
information on Global Projects, please see www.ivcf.org/gp.
4. What Will You Be Doing This Summer?
a. Program:
We have been invited to Bosnia by a new Christian student group of 25
or so Bosnians who think that we can help them grow their organization. Our
program will be a cultural exchange project in response to the invitation
of the fledgling Evangelical Student Movement of Bosnia and Herzegovina
(EUSFBiH). A typical day will be breakfast in the morning, followed by some
time together with the American team and/or Bosnian language and culture
classes, in the afternoon there will be time to spend with Bosnian friends
and learn more about Bosnian culture, in the late afternoons each person
will assist or teach in a classroom setting, and evenings will be used to
build relationships with our Bosnian students.
Though broken by war, most Bosnian students jump at any opportunity to
improve their English skills as a chance to advance themselves. We can help
the EUSFBiH extend their reach to more students on more campuses in Bosnia
by offering to teach and by building relationships. By modeling a servant
heart we believe that there will be natural opportunities to witness to the
God who first loved us and to introduce people to His good news. We also
have a unique opportunity to serve in the growth of an indigenous Bosnian
student witness.
Weekends will be spent in the city with our EUSFBiH hosts and with
students from the program. During our time there we will also partner with
the EUSFBiH in several evangelistic outreaches as well.
We will be staying in the university dormitory, so that part of the
experience should be like a homecoming for us! We will have our meals
covered by the dormitory dining hall. We will have access to washing
machines and our living conditions will be simple but not primitive. (You
won’t need to send care packages).
On at least one occasion we will have the chance to get outside of the
city for a bit to get a more thorough knowledge of the country. We will be
sticking to main roads and will not be far from Sarajevo.
b. Orientation and re-entry
We are trying to simultaneously provide a terrific learning experience
for our your student and operate effectively cross-culturally in Bosnia. To
that end, we are providing a short orientation in the US prior to the trip
(in addition to a training session this April), and a debriefing period
immediately following the project.
5. What Are The Dates Of The Project?
Applications Due: March 1, 2002
Begin project/Orientation in US June 20
Leave LA June 23
Arrive Sarajevo June 25
Sightseeing and jet lag recovery/
Orientation to Sarajevo June 26-27
Program June 28-July 30
Leave Bosnia July 30
Debrief our project in Germany July 30-Aug 4
Return to LAX Aug 4
6. What Can You Tell Me About Bosnia?
a. Site and people:
The program will be held in the city of Sarajevo, the capital of
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bosnia received much attention during the high-profile
war that occurred there 1992-1995. Bosnia is the only republic of former
Yugoslavia established on a geographical-historical basis rather than on an
ethnic one. “Bosnian” refers to someone who lives in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, not to a religious or ethnic group. Before the war, in the
area of 51,129 square km lived 4,422,000 people, of which approximately 44%
were Muslims, 31% Serbs, and 17% Croats, along with a smattering of
Gypsies, Albanians, Ukrainians, Poles, and Italians. There were few
ethnically homogenous villages.
b. Religious background:
27.9% of this country’s people are Orthodox with 14% being Roman
Catholic and 40% Muslim. In this area, religion is connected with ethnicity
and is almost never an issue of personal choice. Both sides committed many
atrocities during recent years and tensions still run high.
7. Is It Safe?
a. GP Safety In a Post-September 11th World
The following is a copy of a memo from the Global Projects office sent
to all InterVarsity staff:
b. Our Particular Safety Situation:
Although Bosnia experienced tremendous internal destruction during the
war of the early 1990s, in recent years there has been significant
improvement, and reconstruction is accelerating. Utility service has
improved dramatically, but gas, electrical, and especially water outages
still occur. Hotels and travel amenities are available in the capital,
Sarajevo, and other major towns but are expensive. In the more remote areas
of the country public facilities vary in quality. Although street crime is
relatively low and violent crimes are rare, petty street crimes such as
pick pocketing, and breaking into or stealing automobiles are problems. We
will take precautions to protect our property from theft and exercise
common sense personal security measures such as avoiding travel in deserted
areas after dark, walking in pairs, and staying in well-lighted areas after
dark (info from State Department website).
We had the opportunity to lead this very Global Project to Sarajevo
last summer and during that time we got to know the city fairly well.
Sarajevo is a beautiful city on its way to returning to its former Olympic
grandeur. Sarajevo feels very European, though it certainly has eastern
influences. The streets are lined with shops and the streets are busy with
people. The public transportation is clean and efficient. We could find
just about anything that we needed-our first test was to find more contact
lens cleaner for Karyn and we found it quickly and without much trouble.
InterVarsity carries a supplemental group insurance policy that pays
$3,000 for each incident at 100%. Your child is expected to have a primary
carrier that provides at least $50,000 of coverage.
Regarding “larger scale” safety issues, it should be noted that the
U.S. embassy is open and active and located directly in Sarajevo. In
addition, we will immediately register with the embassy upon our arrival.
NATO does continue to maintain the peace in Bosnia and soldiers can
often be seen walking through the tourist district on leave, leisurely
browsing the shops. The NATO presence is important, but there have been no
incidents of note in Bosnia for some time.
Although many landmine fields have been cleared already, some still
exist. The city of Sarajevo is a very safe place to be in this regard. As a
precautionary measure, we still stick to paved surfaces and well-trodden
paths and, if we do go outside of the city, we will stay away from any
areas with reported landmines (www.state.gov).
One item of note: Enisa (national staff in Bosnia) has worked with
American groups before. She, along with other American contacts we have in
the city, will help us to determine the safety of taking students to
Sarajevo this summer.
InterVarsity has worked with international teams for a long time now
and we take every precaution when deciding to proceed with a Global
Project. InterVarsity’s president, the head of Global Projects, and our
risk management counsel will review our project. They will be taking this
decision very seriously and evaluating all areas of risk. InterVarsity is
not afraid to change plans for a Global Project that is deemed unsafe.
8. How Much Contact Will I Have With My Student?
We can keep touch with you rather cheaply thanks to the internet.
There are numerous email cafes in the city and last summer we made good use
of their clean, inexpensive facilities to email our families and friends,
to hear news from home and to let everyone know the news from our project.
Phone calls are not terribly expensive, though much more than email. A
100 unit phone card costs around $3.50 and will buy a 3-minute phone call
from a phone booth (located in our dorm). (I called my mom twice to say hi
last summer.)
Should you need to reach us with an emergency message, here is the
phone and email of the Bosnian staff who has invited us and will host us:
Ms. Enisa Dedi? Phone: 387-33-483030 Email: Enisad@aol.com
Final Words:
In closing let me say that I am excited about the possibility of
spending 6 weeks with your child. Like family camping trips, there is
nothing that bonds people together quite like getting outside our comfort
zone. Our hope and prayer is that in the course of experiencing all the
normal tensions of 13 people trying to live as a family, some of life’s
most important realities will be reinforced: the grace of kindness, the
gift of forgiveness, the healing power of words of affirmation, and the
ability to respect differences. These are gifts we cannot manufacture and
they will only be present as we open ourselves to God. We are not on a
mission to save the Bosnians, rather, our prayer is that the quality of
life within our community will be so winsome that it will spark questions
and reflect the Source. I welcome your prayers for us.
I hope that these five weeks will polish these diamonds in the making
and thank you for giving me the privilege of contributing to your child’s
growth.
Warmly,
Kurt Morrill
2002 Bosnia Global Project Director
P.S. Please feel free to write or call us if you have any questions or
concerns. We are more than willing to talk with you about the project. My
home number is (805) 967-9320. The best time to reach us is in the morning
or late evening. However, if this is not convenient for you please leave a
message on our answering machine, including your number and the best time
to reach you. We will stay in contact with the InterVarsity National
Service Center throughout the summer. If at any time during the summer, you
have concerns about the safety of your son or daughter, please call Scott
Bessenecker, Director of InterVarsity Global Projects, at (608) 274-9001.———————————-
In the wake of September 11th – should we stay or should we go?
In view of the terrorist acts directed at Americans, how should
InterVarsity staff view taking students out of the country?
The short answer is, “with sobriety.” InterVarsity has always taken a
relatively conservative view of short-term missions safety. While we
encourage students to make lifetime commitments to serving Christ, even in
dangerous places, short-term missions is generally not the place for us to
put students in life-threatening situations. Therefore, we will continue to
equip our staff to lead responsibly and re-direct global projects for
locations that are not safe for Americans.
Having said this, we do not believe there should be a moratorium on short-
term missions. The dangers that exist in overseas travel are different than
the dangers at home, but going overseas does not automatically imply danger
any more than staying home automatically implies safety. We are compelled
to help our student love God’s people from every ethnicity and culture in
tangible ways, and to explore his global purposes for them as individuals
and for the Church. This is often best done by taking them overseas.
We estimate the relative safety of a location with the help of a few
information sources. The US State Department provides warnings for those
locations that they deem unsafe for Americans traveling abroad. Along with
the State Department travel warnings we will listen to the advice of our
hosts on-site in the foreign location. We will also seek the advice of a
Christian consulting agency specializing in equipping American missionaries
who are serving in hostile locations called Crisis Counseling
International. At appropriate times in the year the Director of Global
Projects will call together the President of InterVarsity, our legal
counsel and other leaders to review the programs planned for locations that
are deemed unsafe. On several occasions we have helped project leaders to
re-direct their teams because of concerns for safety.
We sincerely hope that, with clear-headedness and purpose, InterVarsity
staff will continue to call our students to be responsible global citizens
and serve the spiritual and material needs of people at home and abroad. In
serving overseas, students often discover more of who God wants them to be
as they see Christ in one another, in national believers overseas and in
those whom they have come to serve. For these reasons we still feel short-
term overseas projects are a great way to accomplish our mission on campus
and in the world.
Contact Information:
Kurt and Karyn Morrill
805-967-9320
kurt_morrill@yahoo.com
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