Hello everyone! I am happy you came here today to read my post.

This week, I have done some new things. Last Thursday, we were on a visitation. We visited an elderly couple from our congregation, who couldn’t make it to church for quite some time due to illness. We had a quite nice time. It is very nice to go for visitations. You can see how the people live outside of church a spend a bit of time together. We have discussed some things that bothered them and tried to encourage them. We also brought the altar sacrament with us and had the holy supper. I was very pleased to see the couple at the mass on Sunday. It brought me a big joy, because of the courage it took for them to go back to the congregation.

This wasn’t the last thing we did on Thursday. In the afternoon, we headed to another city to give the last rites. For those who don’t know, last rites are given to those, who are at their deathbed. It was my very first time experiencing this and it left a big impact on me. We came to a room full of family members of a man who laid down in his bed. Pastor Joe knew this man since he was a boy. He worked at the local radio station. So these last rites were emotional for everyone. I could see how pastor Joe does it. When he prayed, I watched the family and you could see, how the prayer inpacts them. The man could barelly move, but he could still hear. I have a huge respect and maybe even fear from these situations. What would I say in such situation? How do I comfort the family who is about to lose someone they love and know their whole life? These are really hard questions for me personally. I am trying to find some information regarding this. If you have some tips, please let me know. The man passed on Sunday morning.

On Sunday, I had a sermon. I was preaching about Jesus’ yoke being easy and buden light. I had lots of trouble coming up a sermon. Sometimes I forget that it should be the God’s word, not mine. He gives me His words to proclaim. So what does this passage tell us? We may have many burdens in our life. Everybody gets through rough times in life, but Jesus is there and he wants to assure us about His grace. We can put down our heavy burdens of trouble and pick of Jesus’ yoke of mercy and grace and have our focus upon Him. He invites everyone to do so.

On Monday, we had the usual morning prayer and then a service at the nursery home. I played some songs with pastor Joe and preached on the same text as on Sunday. Some people fell asleep, but I hope it was beacause of their age and different conditions than because of me. THen we had a burial at the local cementary. It started raining and we didn’t have an umbrella, but fortunatelly the people borrowed us one. In the evening, we had a cementery meeting. One man would like to build an mausoleum for his family at the Church cementary, so he was invited to the meeting too. He was very nice and helpfull and also gave a few good tips for the council to improve the financial cndition of the cementery. He was very friendly and invited me to his house. I found out that Little Falls is a partner city of another city in Slovakia called Myjava. He wants to tell me a little more about the history.

Tuesday was a free day. I ordered food at the tacco truck next door and got into conversation with an elderly couple about religion. It was a very interesting talk. In the evening, I was invited to dinner by one of the ladies from our congregation. We went to her friend’s. It was very nice and we could speak about faith and the Gospel, which was really nice.

On Wednesday, we had one service at 10 am and then evening prayers at 6 pm. I had the sermon for the evening, which spoke about the calling of Levi in Mark 2. It is well known because of what Jesus said in this passage: Those, who are healthy are in no need for a physician, but those who are ill. It is always good to remember, that Jesus didn’t come because of the righteous. He came because of sinners. And each of us is a sinner. And He didn!t come to condemn us, but to heal us from sin.

And on Thursday, we had a funeral. It was also a new experience. I am a lutheran for almost 8 years now but I never went to a lutheran funeral. I read the first reading and the intercessory prayers. Funerals are bit weird. Even though it is the last goodbye and it is naturally sad, it is full of joy and hope. The funeral songs are in my opinion one of the most wonderfull hymns in every hymnal. My favorite hyns are “How great Thou art” and also “Nearer my God to Thee”. Both are Funeral hymns, but they hide so much emotion and richess in them!

This week was again blessed. I could experience many things for the first time. I also found an American beer I enjoy – Utica Club Pilsner. When I look back on all what I could experience in the past few weeks, I can only say: “How great Thou art!”

I hope you liked my post. Please, feel free to comment. I’ll see you the next Thursday! God bless!