Hello! It’s me again with my weekly article about my stay in the USA! I hope you all are doing well! Let’s start right from the beginning of the week.

So Monday started interesting. I didn’t mention one thing that happened while we were on Sunday at the Cuyahoga county fair. While I was doing some funny things with the girls, my glasses bent. So in the morning, Shary took me to the optician to see if they could fix my glasses. And thankfully they could, so I was relieved. After that, I read a book for a while because I needed to finish reading it before Wednesday’s Book study. After lunch, we went to visit Pat in the nursery home. On our way back we stopped to get my hair cut a little bit because it was getting kinda messy. This Monday was also a church council Monday so in the evening I went to a church council meeting. It was way longer than last time. But also there was a lot of points to discuss.

On Tuesday we went as always to Duck Rabbit for a cup of good coffee and to talk about the lessons for the upcoming Sunday. This week’s gospel was about the Canaanite woman and her daughter that Jesus healed. My day at the office finished earlier because Peggy pick me up at about 1 PM and we went kayaking together. It was really fun! But I will give you one piece of advice… Never take your phone with you on the kayak. I was just scared all the time that I will fall in with my phone. I am not scared about falling into water but I was scared about my phone. And the photo that I took wasn’t even worth it because the sun was in my eyes. 😀 But apart from that I really enjoyed that! The rest of the day I spent finishing the book for our Book study!

On Wednesday I was mostly thinking about the Book discussion that I was leading in the evening. We did also visit Janey in the nursery home after some time. It is always nice to visit her and see her smile. That day we also started going door to door delivering flyers for next Sunday’s carnival. So we would walk and stick the flyers on people’s doors or hand the flyers to them if they were outside. In the evening I led a Book study on John Ortberg’s book “God is closer than you think”. There were 8 of us. I will tell you more about it at the end.

On Thursday we went to get a brunch because we were supposed to eat dinner at about 4 PM. So we went to IHOP and got a good, big breakfast. Then we hit the road and deliver some flyers to different apartment buildings and to other things that needed to be done while we were on the road. When we got back to church pastor Eric got a call from Linda that her husband Greg was scratched and bit by a cat and is heading for surgery because his hand is infected. So we hit the road again and went to Metro Hospital where we talked with Linda and then saw Greg after the surgery ended. It was a lot going on for them at the same time so I was glad we could see them and talk to them. Then at 4 PM we were supposed to go to dinner with two sisters from our congregation but they canceled last minute because there was a big storm coming and they didn’t want to be outside in a storm. It was understandable and we rescheduled the dinner to Monday.

Friday was a day that I got pretty tired. Most of the day we were delivering flyers and we walked about 10km (6.2 miles) but it needs to be done as soon as possible so I am happy that we were able to do so much on Friday. In the evening pastor and I went to a High School football (American football) game. Andersons invited us to that because their oldest son Brandon is playing in his high school marching band which was performing during the game. It was really fun and I really enjoyed it! I understand the rules of football better now and our team won! After that long day, I was pretty tired a slept well that night. 😀

Saturday was more of a resting day. I went to a band practice and this was all for that day. The rest of the day I just rested and watched a bunch of soccer games that were on. But I needed to get a little bit of rest so it was a nice day. And I always enjoy watching some soccer (I just use the term soccer in that blog for my American friends – this is the real football!)!

Sunday started with a church service as always. I did a song before the beginning of the service and also I did the liturgy, read the lessons, did the prayers, and help with the communion. After church, there was a WELCA picnic taking place. So we had lunch together and talked, and then played bingo! I sat with a few older people from the church and it was really nice talking to them and getting to know them more. But I needed to leave the picnic earlier because I got tickets to a Guardians game (baseball)! I went with Vlad and we had a really nice time talking and watching the game! He is a really nice guy! He also wanted to get me a gift so we went to a team shop and he got me a Guardians jersey which I really, really appreciated because it will be something for me to remember Cleveland, and also everybody knows that I love sports! So I got a white jersey with the number 11 José Ramírez at the back. He is one of the stars of the team and during my stay here I got to like him the most out of Cleveland’s team. And I want to tell you I am really surprised how much I got into baseball from the time that I arrived here! I gotta say that the whole city lives by it! The sad part was that we lost the game 4-1 and didn’t play very well. But I still enjoyed it so much! And after a game Vlad and I ended up at Grlicky’s house and because they have a pool I took my swimming suit and were in the pool with them for the rest of the afternoon! It was the most perfect day for being in the water! And it was only my second time that summer that I could enjoy that! We had a great time!

So to end my today’s post. In the book that we read the thing that I resonated the most with was “How do we find God in ordinary things?”. It’s not something new, it’s not some phenomenal thought, but it’s a good reminder. A reminder that a lot of times God is in the most ordinary everyday things. Often we just don’t look for Him there. He is using ordinary things and people for His works! I love the story of Naaman (you can read the story in the 2 Kings 5 chapter). God was using the most low-ranked people to talk to Naaman. He didn’t use the kings! He used slaves, he used people no one would expect and especially not Naaman. So I just wanna encourage you! Look for God in whatever you are doing. Even in the most simple things! And that was the whole point of Ortberg’s book that he tried to deliver in different ways. God is closer than you think!

Have a blessed week! You will hear from me next week as I enter my last month in Ohio!