Hi, I am here with another article. This was already my 11th week in the US. I am having a great time, but now I am really looking forward to returning home.

Monday was a really slow day. I was really tired after the carnival. Thankfully I got the morning off and pastor Eric picked me up at noon to get lunch. In the morning I got everything packed up again. I was leaving Randy and Peggy’s house. For the rest of my time here I am staying with Glen. Glen is an older man from church and his daughters take care of him so there is always someone in the house. Monday afternoon we didn’t do much. Just taking care of things after the carnival.

On Tuesday we went as always to get coffee and discuss lessons for Sunday. I was preaching this week on the events that happened after Peter confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. In Duck Rabbit this time they had the most delicious chocolate rolls! In the afternoon we visited Ruth. The last time we visited her was probably more than a month ago so it was nice talking with her.

I started Wednesday morning by preparing a collage of photos from the carnival that we could present in the narthex. After that, I started working on my sermon for Sunday because I needed to have it done by Friday since I was leaving for a weekend. At the carnival, there was also a paper where people could write their prayer requests. There were plenty of things written down! So pastor and I spent some time in prayer.

On Thursday morning we visited Ruth again. This time in the hospital. She wasn’t feeling well so the ambulance came for her. After that, she will probably go to the nursing home. I don’t remember too much about what else we did on Thursday but there were definitely some other things that we did. Also, I spent some time writing the sermon.

On Friday pastor didn’t pick me up in the morning but Donna (the secretary) did. Pastor was off on Friday due to his aunt’s funeral in Pennsylvania. So I had a lot of time to finish my sermon and that’s what I did. In the afternoon Kenny picked me up and I headed with him to his house since I was spending the weekend with him and his wife Kim. In the evening we went to get a very good pizza for dinner and especially those breadsticks were amazing. We also went to see a sunset over the lake. What I can say…it was just beautiful. I love sunsets and sunrises!

Saturday was the big day! Right in the morning we hit the road and made our way to Cedar Point! Cedar Point is ranked 6th best amusement park in the world. We were also joined by Kim’s niece and nephew, Megan and Garrett who are just a few years older than me. We had a lot of fun. Walked 15km (around 9,5 miles), rode some of the biggest rollercoasters, and ate good food. We got a great day because there weren’t as many people as usual so we didn’t wait for too long to get on the rides! I was very tired when we came back home around 11 PM.

It was very hard getting up early in the morning to go to church since I was tired from the previous day. Thankfully we got there on time. I was preaching this time and also as usual did a song, liturgy, and this time a confession of the sins. I will talk about the sermon later. After church, pastor’s daughter Leah and her boyfriend Jack took me to a bar to watch a soccer game Arsenal vs Manchester United. I am a big Arsenal fan and Jack is a big Manchester United fan so we had a lot of fun watching the game and talking about soccer. And the game was just awesome with an amazing end for me because Arsenal won 3-1 after two late goals. I really enjoyed that time! After I got home, I immediately left again. Grlickys after the church invited me again to the pool so I couldn’t miss on that opportunity because it was just gorgeous outside. We had really fun. There was Dave and Sue, Cindy and Vlad and also Sue’s sister. Afterward, in the evening, Vlad gave me a ride back home.

At the end let me put here a little bit from my Sunday’s sermon (you can read Matthew 16:21-28 to understand the context):

Another thing that I want to mention today is change. Things will change in our lives. It is different for each one of us. But a lot of time it is hard to accept change. As I said in the beginning – Peter was feeling great and didn’t want to change anything. Yet the change was meant to happen. And yes, it was different after Jesus´s death. Peter needed to step up. He was one of the leaders of the early church. It was a big change. Peter didn’t want to accept it. He tried to forbid it. But it was meant to be. This is something we need to learn. What is meant to be is meant to be. Changes in our life are normal and we need to work with them. Try to embrace what we have now and not try to hold on to what we had.

Have a blessed week! I am starting my last 2 weeks here in Cleveland before I leave. God bless y’all!