Hello guys! How’s going? I hope you’re all great and enjoying your summer.

I apologize for not writing my blog last week, I had so much going on here. So, in this post you will be able to read what I have been doing for the past two weeks.

The week started as always, with meetings and planning things for rest of the week.

The sixth week here was my moving week. Now I live on a Christmas tree farm in the countryside and I’m here until 20th of August. The farm belongs to a wonderful, loving couple, Ron and Gretchen. The house was built a long time ago, but it is quite large and nicely decorated. They have a small pond in the yard where ducks like to hangout. Corn fields and forests are around us, so it’s very peaceful.

On Sunday, 30th of July, we had Rag Time Rick service. This was my first time attending a service like this one, because in my congregation we do not have services with jazz, modern music. It was incredibly interesting. Music was awesome, songs were nice and I think everyone enjoyed it.

After service, we went home and made dinner because we had guests from Austria. Gretchen’s cousin Corina lives there with her husband Stefan and four-year-old son Carlo.  We spent the whole afternoon together, chatting and laughing. Also, I played with Carlo his favorite game, hide and seek. It was so much fun. Carlo speaks Austrian, which is different from the German language, so  sometimes we had hard time to understand each other because some words are not the same. However, we had great time and I am so happy that I made new friendships. Oh, almost forgot to mention, I finally found and bought the coffee I drink in Serbia, strong, black coffee.

From Monday July 31st to Thursday August 3rd, every evening, we had Vacation Bible School for adults. I cannot tell you how much enjoyable it was.  It was neat to see how adults were having fun and how entertaining it was for them to play and do interesting things like children do. Every day we had meal, lecture, songs, games and crafts. I was in charge of crafts, so it was cool figuring out what we would make for every day of VBS. Stories and lessons were amazing. Really instructive and people could relate to them. Lovely lady from church embroidered little sheep, Jesus and other things that we used in our lectures. In that way the stories were more interesting and people could understand and remember them more easily. We had positive comments and I am looking forward to the fact that this will be held next year as well.

On Wednesday I visited Toledo Zoo with pastor Brenda, Gail, Cindy, other Brenda, Izzy and Turner (according to Turner crazy, cool friend group). This zoo is one of the best zoos in the USA. It is enormous but well connected and organized. We saw various animals, even some that we don’t have in the zoo in Serbia. Animals aren’t in cages, they have huge space outside where they spend time and also they have big indoor space where they can be. They are free which is important and I like that. Besides animals, this zoo has part where little kids can hangout and play. They have big playground with one part where kids can go and run between water sprinklers and cool themselves down. Turner and I ran between sprinklers a couple of times. It was so much fun. I spent wonderful day with wonderful people.

My adventures continued by going to the Jeep Fest. We went to the Monroe Chrysler/Dodge/ Jeep Superstore to attend the Jeep rally. Over 100 Jeeps of all sizes and shapes where there. We even got invited to ride with some Jeep owners over the Obstacle Course, with hills, turns, ruts, bumps, logs and even mud. What a rush that was.

Then, on Friday night we enjoyed a meal and a breathtaking sunset cruise with ex Pastor of Grace Lutheran church, Pastor Merlin, and his wife Ann. I even ‘captained’ the sail boat for a time. This was my first time on the lake Erie. It was just perfect.

On Saturday, we visited Jim and Cathy Martin who have traveled many times to Serbia on behalf of Synod Global Mission Board, to nurture companionship with the Slovak Lutheran Church in Serbia. We talked about people we both know in Serbia and it was amazing to hear so many kind words about their staying in the cities of Serbia. I am glad that they enjoyed themselves while they were in Serbia and I hope that our companionship will continue to exist.

While we were with them, we attended the Defiance Hot Air Ballon Fest. We arrived in time to see many balloons flying above us. The view was stunning. I had chance to “go up” in a ballon, incredible experience. We also visited city library and saw some historical monuments. Jim and Cathy showed us the city in the best possible way. 

And in the end of our adventure, Jim had a surprise for me. Sitting in the shop garage was a 1994 red Chrysler Viper. Powerful, beautiful car, and of course Jim took me for a ride. One of the best rides in my life.

I am so grateful and blessed that I’m part of this program and that I have the opportunity to meet indeed nice, kind people. I am glad that I’m in this congregation because we have a lot in common and I’m glad that we can share and talk about experiences together. People’s experiences while they were in Serbia and my experiences while I’m here.

I hope you enjoy reading my blogs. For more adventures and stories, stay tuned…

Have a blessed rest of the week and see you soon!