A bridge too far?

When I was in Tanzania I encouraged the pastors to think of themselves - and the churches they serve - as a 'daraja', Swahili for 'bridge'. Here I am in an earlier blog post with my flip chart picture.
Bridges connect, and it is our sacred duty to connect the God we know and love with His world.
I'm sure many will recognise this bridge, one of the world's most famous. It was destroyed by the Croats during the Bosnian war on the 9th November 1993. This is how it looked before and after its destruction, from the same aspect as my picture above.

It divided the Croats in west Mostar from the Bosniaks in the eastern part of the city. Under cover of darkness the Bosniaks risked sniper fire to cross the bridge for drinking water. After its destruction the city was finally and fully divided. It had stood for 427 years.
Its rebuilding after the war (which ended in 1995) became a project of peace and a symbol of hope. It was completed in 2004 and is now a major tourist attraction with its divers and shops in the rebuilt old town. Far too many people now visit it, at least there were on the day we took a detour to see it! However, the personal challenge remains: what kind of a bridge am I?
Driving in Bosnia Herzegovina is not for the faint hearted. Quite apart from the poor condition of the roads and the painfully slow, but heavily policed, speed limits, the AA guidelines for driving in BiH warn against going off-road without a guide as there is a lot of unexploded ordinance left over from the war. The Satnav route took us on minor roads because we were re-entering Croatia to a small seaside town called Cibaca. The minor roads ran out and we were forced off-road for 4kms. It really could have been a bridge too far...

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