March 1999 – 2010 — Belgrade, Banja Luka, Niš, and Čačak
On March 24, 1999 — the opening day of NATO's Operation Allied Force — Dr. John and Kaywin LaNoue were caught in Belgrade alongside IMB missionaries Ben and Meredith Hanna as the bombing campaign began. A twelve-hour mountain escape, guided by IMB missionary Randy Bell, carried the group out of the city over a single remaining bridge. The chapter then follows the LaNoues' subsequent ministry across Republika Srpska (Banja Luka), Niš, and Čačak, Serbia, over the following decade.
In Banja Luka, the LaNoues undertook sustained prayer-walking, covering roughly ten miles a day. In Niš and Čačak, medical clinic work and a hospital equipment donation — two 40-foot shipping containers — materialized within 24 hours of evening prayer at a refugee camp housing an estimated 30,000 people. The chapter also documents the reappearance of Dr. K.P. Walker, the same Tyler, Texas engineer involved in Amigos's first-ever mobile clinic in 1967, thirty-two years earlier.
Chapter 24 is the only chapter in Walking with God in Broken Places set inside an active NATO combat zone, and it captures the LaNoues in genuine physical danger — Dr. John's own words describe encountering "strong presence of evil" during the escape. The chapter's pairing of Bosnia and Serbia reflects the same personnel and continuity of ministry across both regions, as Dr. John notes explicitly in the source text.
The reappearance of Dr. K.P. Walker, thirty-two years after his role in Amigos's founding 1967 mobile clinic (HEC-001), is the longest single institutional thread documented anywhere in the memoir — a direct throughline from the organization's earliest days to its ongoing international work at the turn of the millennium.
Dr. John La Noue — Leads the ministry across Belgrade, Banja Luka, Niš, and Čačak throughout this decade-long chapter.
Kaywin LaNoue — Kept the pedometer record of the Banja Luka prayer-walks; cared for the Hanna children during the crisis.
Ben & Meredith Hanna — IMB missionaries evacuated from Belgrade alongside the LaNoues; Meredith's emergency brain-tumor surgery is documented in the chapter.
Randy Bell — IMB missionary who guided the twelve-hour mountain escape from Belgrade.
Karl & Julie Bannert — Serbia/World Net missionaries who led ministry work in Čačak.
Jered & Kay Sellers — First Baptist Plains, Texas; Jered improvised the transmission of Meredith Hanna's MRI scan to enable rapid U.S. diagnosis.
Dr. James L. Furgerson MD — San Antonio cardiologist, retired U.S. Army colonel, and TCU School of Medicine physician involved in the medical response.
Dr. K.P. Walker — Tyler, Texas engineer; the same figure from Amigos's first mobile clinic in 1967 (HEC-001); reappears here thirty-two years later to broker a hospital equipment donation.