Hello everyone! I am back with my weekly report! Hope you will enjoy it!

On Monday we visited Pat. We visited her also last week but I forgot to tell you about it. She fell on a staircase and broke her shoulder. Last week we visited her in a hospital but this week she was already recovering in a nursing home. In the evening Garth and his brother Collin, who was visiting for a few days from Georgia, picked me up and we went for dinner. At a restaurant, we were also joined by Dan Tobik and his wife Sharon. It was a really nice evening. I enjoy talking to all of them and they are very interested in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I had a gyro for dinner so that was very enjoyable. I really miss a good European kebab so this was at least something similar.

On Tuesday morning we had our usual coffee (or at least I did, pastor drinks iced tea :D) at Duck Rabbit and talked about lessons for the upcoming Sunday. The main passage that we were thinking about was about Jesus feeding the 5000 men + women and children. This week was different because both of us needed to write a sermon on this passage – pastor Eric for this week and I for next week Saturday because I am preaching on that story in Hinckley. In the afternoon we visited Gayle in the hospital. Since we were already in Parma, and one part of Parma is known as a Polish village we needed to stop at a Polish grocery store. I had the best time ever! Since my family roots are in Poland, I speak Polish as well so I was able to speak to the owner in our native language. It was really cool and I think they were happy to hear it too. Apart from that I found many delicious Polish sweets. I felt right at home for a moment and it made me so happy! In the evening I enjoyed a bike ride around Brooklyn. I discovered one beautiful park right behind the church. It felt so good!

Honestly every week I have one day that I don’t remember too much. 😀 This week it was Wednesday. All that I remember is that we took our carnival flyer to a shop to make a lot of copies. And then of course we did our usual Wednesday lunch at Applebees. One thing about Brooklyn Applebees that I know so far is that every staff member that I met there has a Polish surname!

On Thursday we had our last official trip to Redeemer. We ended our kid’s programs last week. This week we were packaging bags to give to people in need. They were including things like school supplies, things for hygiene, some snacks, towels, etc. For lunch, we went to another of our quite usual spots – Dina’s. It is a sports pub and both pastor and I enjoy watching sports. And in the end, sports and good food…what else do you need? We I came back home Randy and Peggy’s grandkids were there. I played basketball with Henry for a while. It was nice! Then when they left I went for a walk, trying to think about ideas for the sermon.

We started Friday by picking up our carnival flyers from the copier. They came out pretty good. After that, we tried to visit Gayle again but when we arrived she wasn’t in her room because at that time doctors were taking care of her. I spent the afternoon in the office picking songs that we can play with a band and also preparing things for Sunday’s blessing of the pets and backpacks. In the evening Randy and Peggy took me to a concert of a Journey tribute band. There were quite a lot of people so we weren’t able to see the band at all. But it was fun! We were also joined by Peggy’s friend Connie.

On Saturday we had a band practice. We practice some new songs that we will be playing at a carnival and also on the morning service on the carnival Sunday. We still have some work to do but I am looking forward to it. For lunch, I went with pastor Eric to support a fellow Lutheran church at Lakewood Art Festival. They were selling their sausages with sauerkraut and other things. We also walked through all the stands there. Some of them had really interesting art pieces. I spent the rest of the day writing a sermon.

Sunday morning started as always with church service. This week I did a song before the service (as always), I was a reader, did prayers, and also helped with communion. After church, I went on a boat with another 20 people from the church! The boat went on Lake Erie and also the Cuyahoga River. It was really amazing to see Cleveland from the water. I really did enjoy it! In the evening we held an event called Blessing of the Beasts and the Backpacks. People could bring their dogs or whatever other animal they want and have it blessed. Also, children could bring their backpacks and we would bless them. Pastor Eric was blessing dogs and I was blessing kids with backpacks. We also bought dog tags that said “Blessed at DML” and zipper pulls that said “I am a child of God”. It was a great time! We had blessed 18 dogs and 6 children came with their backpacks to be blessed. In the end, I sang a few songs with the kids! It was great!

The message that I want to share with you today is from the story about Jesus feeding the crowds. Disciples had just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish…why they even bothered to tell that to Jesus? In comparison to the thousands that they were supposed to feed that was nothing. They took a step of faith and brought to Jesus what they had. Because they knew that He is powerful. And in the end, Jesus really fed thousands of people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish! Sometimes in our lives, we need to take these steps of faith and trust Jesus. Let Him lead us. He can do extraordinary things with ordinary things or people!

Friends, have a blessed week! I hope all of you are doing well! Now you need to wait a whole week for another part of my adventure.