Hello everyone! This week was full of music, concerts and good food. Let me share with you a bit about it.

Before I came to America, I was in contact with father Joe, who is my supervisor while I’m in the USA but also my mentor and friend. One day he asked me if I wanna go with them to a concert of their favourite band Queensryche. To be honest, I never heard of them. So obviously I said yes. The day of the concert was 14th July – that means on Friday. It took place in the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, NY. It is a Native American owned casino. The area around the casino is truly fabulous.

When we came into the casino, we went to a restaurant to eat something. The food was good. After that we went to find our spots and wait for the concert. It was very nice not to rush to get the best spots or to wait 5 hours on a hot, sunny day as it happened to me when I went to see some bands in Prague. The concert began and the band came on the podium. We had earbuds because we didn’t want to damage our hearing. They were loud so it was nice to have those. But overall the concert was good and I enjoyed it.

On Saturday, I was invited to a BBQ by local resident. He is an enterpreneur. He also invited one of his workers who is from India and just started to work at his company. We talked about plenty of things and also compared our countries to the USA. The conversation was very interesting and so was the food. After that I went to anothe concert. Only now, it was at the place where I stay, so at pastor Joe’s house. He has a band with his wife and friend and once in a while they invite people over and stream it on facebook. They are called the BarRoom Neon Project and you can find the whole concert here. Make sure to give them a like, I promissed them to make them famous in the Czech Republic. We had a really great time!

On Monday, we had again morning prayers and we started to prepare for Vacation Bible School. Decorating was in process and I saw a few decorations. The people here are doing a really great job to ensure the kids will have a great time at VBS. At 10:30 we went to the local nursery home. We had mass and I played the guitar with pastor Joe.

On Wednesday, we had church. I have preached, but I will tell you about what I have preached in the end of this post, so don’t click off this page yet. In the evening we had Ice cream social. That basically means lots of delicious ice cream, music and conversations. The BarRoom Neon project played there and they let me play one song with them! That was so cool. Unfortunatelly, there’s no video, so you need to believe me.

And today, on Thursday we had again morning prayers at 9am and then we went to Frankfort for a haircut. I had my facial hair trimmed as well. It was a very different experience for me. I always go to a salon for my haircut but today was the first time for me to go to a barber and he did a great job. Then we went to eat something and to Barnes&Nobles. I spent $70 on good books, so I am happy.

And this wraps up my… wait a minute, I promissed you something. This week, I have preached on Acts 14:19-28, where we see Paul being stoned (not stoned as in intoxicated) and surviving and the preaching again. Paul said in the churches where he already was that spreading the gospel is a dangerous thing. And indeed it is. Paul’s stoning is one of many examples. We also rember Stephan, the first martyr or Jan Hus (John Huss) who also died for the gospel. Luther almost did too.

In today’s world we still see Christians being persecuted and martyred for their faith. On this map you can see the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted. Spreading the gospel today means risk. In the west (or according to the map in the link in the north) it only means people laughing at you or hating you. For the people on the map in the link in means prison or even death. Those who hold true to the Bible and uphold the truth are persecuted and hated by the world. People who twist the Bible to what they like are loved by this world. But for us Bible abiding Christians there is no hope here. Our hope is in the future with Jesus. We are called to proclaim the truth and to fight lies because lies come from Satan who is called the father of lies. He wants people believe in lies. He wants to drown them in despair over their sin and also wants to secure people that they don’t need any forgiveness, because they are perfect the way they are. What he also wants us to believe is maybe really quite strange; that is that he does not exist. All what he needs is us to believe he doesn’t exist. And if he does not exist, hell does not exist. If there is no hell, is there any sin? And even if there was sin, there is no consequence of us sinning. Be carefull. He may twist the truth, but verbum Domini manet in aeternum – The word of God endures forever. Truth will still exist. And we should be ready to put our lives on the line as Stephan, Paul, the apostels and martyrs did for spreadin the Truth, that means Jesus and his gospel. Don’t forget, we don’t need validation from this world, but from God. In the end what matters is not the opinion of other people, but what Jesus says. Amen.

I hope you liked my post and if you did, be sure to let me know. I am happy of every comment you leave here. I will see you next week.

God bless you!