Citaonica

On Monday the 19th of November we officially opened up our Citaonica, which literally translated means, "reading place". Basically, we have Christian books to give for free and some for a small donation. We have an attractive and comfy area where people can either read books or have discussion. For the grand opening we offered free coffee and homemade cakes and cookies as well as a drawing for a painting that a local pastor made. On the first day we were able to sell about a dozen books and gave out others. We had quite a few visitors, and in general were very encouraged by other believers who came to check out the new place. Another encouraging thing was the neighboring shop keepers who came and brought their friends to look and even buy some books. We also had sign-ups for English and Portuguese classes which we are hoping to start by December.


The idea for the reading room came out of a summer ministry that we had where we put Christian literature on a table in a central area in town. Because of the great conversations we had there on the street, we thought it would be a good idea to put a roof over the book-table. The Bosnian winters are fairly harsh, so we searched for a place to have an outlet to give these books out to the community during the cold months. We came across an empty hair salon, and promptly contacted the owner. Some weeks later we made a deal with him to rent the place. The experience so far with the landlord, the renovation, and the grand opening has been very encouraging and we're praising God for the resources that he's provided so far.