Banja Luka to Zenica

Psalm 17:8 reads: “Keep me the apple of Your eye; hide me under the shadow of Your wings.” On Wednesday, October 3rd, we travelled by bus for over 4 hours from Banja Luka to Zenica, which means the ‘apple of the eye’. Zenica, a city of around 90,000, located 70 km/43 mi NW of Sarajevo, lies near the epicenter of Bosnia.

Little seems to have changed in it’s charm over the past two decades, and in fact, Zenica was spared the physical destruction from the Bosnian Conflict (1992-1995) that the rest of the nation faced. It was not the suffering from constant shelling and sniperfire that the citizens of Zenica endured, but from the pains of hunger & starvation, as the city was blockaded for years.

During our years living in Sarajevo (1987-1992), Zenica was the first city outside of Sarajevo that we visited on a regular basis for prayerwalks, street evangelism and concerts. Back in early 1990, even before we had a registered church, we were given permission by the Yugoslavian Communist authorities to hold the first ever Christian concerts in two prisons. The first was the maximum security prison for men located in Zenica, and the second in a women’s prison east of Sarajevo. We had a worship team from Holland called NEW WINE who performed in both prisons; words can not describe the level of grace, compassion and anointing released to the prisoners during those concerts.

Every city has a purpose and destiny on it that God wants to develop and increase. Although Zenica seemingly throughout Bosnian history has been on the sideline, it’s time to shine forth is coming and the Balkan nations will take notice.